Issue #354 – Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Eugen Sandow and ‘Life is Movement’
by Jonathan Grubb
Life is Movement!
They could be words from a page of one of Joseph Pilates’ books. In fact these words are the title of a book by Eugen Sandow which was first published in 1919.
Who?
Born in Prussia in April 1867 as ‘Frederich Wilhelm Muller’, he later changed his name to Eugen Sandow and became a British citizen. He became a famous ‘Physical Culturist’ (health and fitness guru) and body builder and was known throughout the world, having visited USA, Australia and India. He even visited the Isle of Man to perform in 1901 and gave a very interesting interview to a local reporter, which has probably not been read by anyone in over 100 years! You can read it here along with some other interesting articles about Sandow and his methods.
Sandow had a monthly magazine, marketed his equipment, wrote books and established Physical Cultural Centres teaching the Sandow System, at least 2 of which opened up right here on the Isle of Man.
He was quite the superstar of his day and was friends with King George V and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (an English author who wrote the Sherlock Holmes novels). A local paper on the Isle of Man reported that he earned £120 per week in 1896; in today’s money that is a staggering £16,000 per week!
Sandow settled in London in 1906 and sadly died relatively young in 1925 from an aortic aneurysm. Sandow had become a British citizen many years before WWI took place and as a result of his British citizenship he was not interned during the War.
It is logical to assume that Joseph Pilates had full knowledge of Eugen Sandow, as Pilates himself moved to London prior to the outbreak of WW1 in 1914 and it would have been difficult for him to be unaware of someone of that stature in the world of physical culture.
As part of the research for biography “Hubertus Joseph Pilates, The Biography” by Pont and Romero (2013), August Benkert (a lifelong friend of Joseph Pilates) was interviewed and stated that his and Pilates’ friendship developed because of shared admiration for Sandow.
From my own observations and research, Sandow’s exercises and equipment are generally different to those created by Joseph Pilates, but it is interesting to note the various influences in Pilates’ life.
The equipment Sandow developed and marketed included dumbbells which had springs inside enabling the user to increase resistance and build further strength in the grip whilst using the dumbbells. The Sandow Developer (photos attached) was another popular piece of home gym equipment often listed in the “buy and sell” sections of Isle of Man newspapers in the early 1900s. One of the newspaper articles below reports on a visit to a School of Physical Culture and states that the school contained 20 Sandow Developers.
In this present climate I think it is fitting to close this post with some of Eugen Sandow’s own words. The introduction to his 1919 book “Life is Movement” reads as follows:
“I have written this book with pleasure, but not for pleasure. It is on the other hand, a serious attempt to grapple with one of the greatest problems that has ever confronted the civilised to meet a crisis beside which the terrible blood-bath from which the world has just emerged is but a bagatelle. For it deals with the serious menace of physical deterioration and prevention and eradication of disease, the most devastating enemy that humanity has ever had to face. Where war has killed millions, disease has killed and is killing its tens of millions.” Share:
Jonathan Grubb was born in England in 1962 and has lived on the Isle of Man since he was two years old. His great grandfather Jakob Grub was interned on the Isle of Man until 28 August 1919 in the same camp as Joseph Pilates.
In his younger days Jonathan was a keen amateur sportsman and particularly excelled at football (soccer), representing the Isle of Man in international games on numerous occasions. An anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained towards the end of his playing days led him to discover Pilates and he has been a passionate practitioner ever since. He has traveled to various countries to attend conferences and courses and been fortunate to be mentored by very experienced local teachers.
Having previously been an advanced instructor for several years in the Wu family style of tai chi chuan, Jonathan is currently studying to become a Pilates teacher with MKPilates and his teaching has been enthusiastically welcomed in classes throughout the island already. More on the story of Knockaloe Internment Camp can be found at knockaloe.imCheckout Jonathon’s Facebook page Joseph’s Legacy – Pilates 100 +!