10/24/2025
Did Joseph Pilates intend Pilates (Contrology) to be a form of strength training? In short, yes.
In the early 1900s, when Joseph Pilates was creating his method, people didn’t say ‘strength training’ — they said ‘body conditioning’ or ‘physical culture.’ Pilates called his system Contrology, and described it as ‘the complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit’ that develops the body uniformly.
In today’s terms, that means functional strength training — focused on balanced, controlled resistance rather than brute force
💬 From Your Health (1934):
“Your exercises should be performed to derive all the benefits of physical development… control, strength, and endurance.”
In that era, people said things like “muscle control,” “body development,” “physical culture,” or “body conditioning” — all meaning what we’d call strength and resistance training today.
