Originally designed as the first piece of Pilates home exercise equipment and a living room chair for small New York apartments, the Wunda Chair is certainly one of the most challenging and effective pieces of Pilates equipment.  Because Mr. Pilates wanted his program to be accessible to everyone, he created this simple yet functional way to bring his technique into the household.  However, today, the Chair is most frequently used in studios and for group classes and it is an important and valuable part of my teaching.  When I teach the Chair program, I am always asked why he designed the Chair and when it was invented.  I think the best answer comes from Mr. Pilates himself.  He stated:

                My present invention relates to improvements in chairs.  More particularly,  it is an object of my invention to devise a chair which will better support the body, promote better posture and insure a more thorough rest and relaxation to the sitter.  A further object is to provide a chair which is  convertible into an exercising device as well as to provide an improved  exercising device.

These words are the beginning of patent #1,969,901 filed by Joseph Pilates on August 29, 1931 for his Pilates Wunda Chair ™.  The lengthy patent is accompanied by 17 drawings and was granted by the United States Patent Office on August 14, 1934.

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REFERENCES

Gallagher, S. P. and Kryzanowska, R. (2000). The Joseph H. Pilates Collection. Philadelphia, PA: BainBridge Books.

http://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/search-patents.  Patent # 1969901

kcKathy Corey is a Master Teacher who began her career with the Pilates Technique in 1979.   She has been the leading expert in the Pilates community for over 30 years.  She is the Director of Kathy Corey Pilates. The Kathy Corey Pilates Certification Program is taught at locations across the United States and her continuing education programs are taught in twenty countries. In 2004, she designed the innovative CORE BandTM, which is used in studios around the world.  The Core BandTM Mat Class is recognized as an enhancement to the traditional mat exercises.
Since 2007, Corey has been the Chairperson of the IDEA Pilates Task Force.  She is on the Contributing Editor Board for IDEA Pilates Today and is an IDEA Expert.
She is an Advisory Board Member for Pilates Style Magazine and a member of the Board of Advisors for the American Fitness Professional Association (AFPA).
Corey was appointed to the faculty of the University of Alcalá, Spain, the first University to incorporate Pilates into a Master of Science degree program.
Kathy Corey is a “Distinguished Instructor” for PilatesAnytime.  PilatesAnytime is a global Pilates Studio, created for people all over the world to explore Pilates with highly skilled, well-trained instructors.
Corey is PMA Pilates Gold Certified and she has been selected by IDEA as one of ten people in the world “Who Inspire the World to Fitness,” the fitness industry’s highest form of recognition.
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