He prefered to call it Controlology, a physical training system he borrowed from classical Greek and eastern theories. Eighty years on his followers - who include svelte beauties such as Uma Thurman, Darcey Bussell and Sophie Dahl - know it better by the name of its founder, Joseph Pilates.
Just how radical the ideas of the German-born fitness guru were will become apparent next month when a series of photographs taken in the world's first Pilates studio go on show.
The pictures were all taken in 1961 by IC 'Chuck' Rapoport, who is better known for his portraits of Hollywood film icons and world leaders in Paris-Match, Life and Time.
A boxer and acrobat, Pilates gave physical training to Scotland Yard detectives before he was interned as an enemy alien during the First World War. Nowadays his theories are credited with taking Dahl down to a size 12 and putting ballerina Bussell back on stage after having two children.
Pilates was born near Düsseldorf in 1880 and was a sickly child. In his teens he vowed to turn himself into the epitome of health and fitness and took up body-building.
He tried out a wide range of exercise regimes, as well as martial arts disciplines, yoga and Zen meditation, meticulously noting the impact each training programme had on his body.
Arriving in Britain in 1912 at 32, he became a professional boxer, an expert skier and a diver. During his wartime internment he worked as a nurse and experimented by attaching springs to hospital beds so that his patients could tone their muscles as they recovered in bed. Such prototype contraptions later developed into the Pilates machines still used in health clubs up and down Britain today.
After the war Pilates went back to Germany, where he worked with Rudolph Laban, the pioneer of dance and movement technique. He moved to the US in 1923, opening his first studio in New York.
Controlology was an instant hit with dancers such as Martha Graham because it helped them to recover from injuries and protected the damaged area by building up strength.
Explaining the guiding principles of the system, Pilates liked to quote Schiller's line, 'it is the mind itself which builds the body'.
· Rapoport will give a talk at Pilates Central, 10-12 Gaskin St, Islington, London, on 5 June, the day the exhibition 'The Story of Joseph Pilates, Exercise Pioneer' opens.
