Joseph Pilates was born in Mönchengladbach, a small town near Dusseldorf, Germany, in 1880. He was a small and sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. His name had been spelled "Pilatu" and was of Greek derivation but was changed to Pilates. This caused him much grief because, as a child, older boys taunted him calling him "Pontius Pilate, killer of Christ". He was so skinny that he couldn't fight back and it was these conditions that caused him to begin the journey to fitness and health.

His father was a prizewinning gymnast and his mother a naturopath. A family physician gave him a discarded anatomy book and as he put it "I learned every page, every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young." he said. He studied both Eastern and Western forms of exercise including yoga, Zen, and ancient Greek and Roman regimens. By the time he was 14 he had worked so hard he had developed his body to the point that he was modeling for anatomy charts.

Joe felt his work was "50 years ahead of (his) time". Joe's definition of physical fitness was: "the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneously zest and pleasure". Joe believed in "natural movements" with the emphasis on doing and being. He has stated, " Everything should be smooth, like a cat. The exercises are done lying, sitting, kneeling, etc., to avoid excess strain on the heart and lungs." Romana Kryzanowska, the heir to Joe's work and Amy and Rachel's teacher is quoted as saying " The key to working with the apparatus is they make you do the work yourself. The fewer springs, the harder the exercise. The springs provide or create endurance, not excess strength. The method is based on the movement of animals, everything about the method is based on moving naturally." Carola Trier, a longtime student of Joe's and teacher of his work said " The method emphasizes restoring the body to true balance, ease and economy of movement and a channeled flow of energy."

"Intelligent Exercise, Profound Results" The STOTT program consists of more than 500 systematic mat and equipment based exercises with 3 different levels of workout. Each exercise has development sequences and modifications to fit your body type. The STOTT approach builds on the principles of the late Joseph H. Pilates' work by adding modern knowledge about the body.