How Pro Athletes and Regular Guys Alike Learned to Love Pilates
After years of back issues forced him to get surgery, New York-based entrepreneur Nat Turner was looking for solutions. A physical therapist recommended pilates as a way to strengthen his core and, subsequently, take unnecessary pressure off the afflicted area. He had tried yoga in the past, but mostly had done weightlifting and other “manly” exercises. “There is no glory in how heavy you can lift,” Turner tells Robb Report. “In fact I first injured my back during a deadlift set in the gym.”
“I should have been doing pilates much earlier,” the 38-year-old adds.
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And so he booked a one-on-one session to try it out. The day after he remembers “being sore in places I had never prior been sore,” including his abs, glutes, and arms. “Having done squats, et cetera, around the gym, I honestly thought I had strong glutes,” he says. “But, as it turns out, I did not.”
Today, Turner does pilates two days a week, in addition to swimming and bodyweight work. It’s a big shift from the days when he would lift weights three to four times a week. Despite mostly abandoning hard iron, he actually feels stronger, and says the gains he’s made in his core and hips have been especially useful in his golf game. He can now swing pain-free and has even increased his swing speed and driving distance.
He’s hardly alone. According to Equinox, there’s been a three-fold increase in the number of guys attending pilates classes since the pandemic. That figure is up 40 percent year over year. “There would be sprinkles of men here and there, but in the last, I’ll say, five years, it’s become more of the norm to have them in class,” says Taylor Phillips, who oversees pilates programming for the luxury wellness club. Phillips credits high-profile endorsements from athletes and celebrities—Tom Brady, Andy Roddick, Harry Styles, and Cristiano Ronaldo all come to mind—which has helped to shift the general perception of the style of training. “All those images help encourage men to be more comfortable coming into the studio.”
Today, however, pilates is being discovered by a new generation of men, often through social media, and being adopted in a variety of ways: as a standalone fitness regimen, a corrective technique, or a practice that supports other activities. Phillips works with celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who uses it to counteract his 35 years of hunching over as a chef (and to help with his golf technique). “He talks about how pilates has changed his life,” she says.
Pilates, it should be noted, is decidedly not a gendered practice. In fact, it was developed by a man, a German immigrant to the United States, Joseph Pilates. Originally, it wasn’t even a workout, per se, but rather a system of movement to help yield better posture, encourage more balanced and holistic movement, and strengthen the mind-breath-body connection. Pilates, himself, was interested in boxing, and developed his techniques with that sport in mind, but dancers caught wind and were early adopters, helping to “feminize” the cultural understanding of the practice. Moreover, it gained traction with female fitness enthusiasts in the ’90s and early aughts when women’s magazines including Vogue promoted it as an ideal way to tone your body.
Bodybuilders tried taking a pilates class and were fighting for their lives 😭 pic.twitter.com/AEM18aCyy5
— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) November 11, 2024
“All these images of male celebrities are so helpful to getting guys into the studio,” says Amanda Forman, the owner and founder of Strengthen Lengthen Tone (or, SLT), a chain of fitness studios. Indeed, there’s growing awareness of the workout amongst male athletes: videos of ripped dudes grunting and quivering while holding a two pound weight frequently make the rounds on social media, (see: videos of the Kansas City Chiefs expertly performing the moves as they drip with sweat), or articles on why professional athletes are flocking to the fitness program. For her part, Forman says that she’s seen a substantial increase in men’s attendance, more than double since when she first started, around 13 years ago—including pro athletes such as Eli Manning and Roger Federer. And while she used to have a men’s-only class, she found that men actually like to take classes with women.
Forman believes that men used to avoid pilates because its reputation was more of a recovery-based practice and that the machine—known as a reformer—with its straps and springs, can look intimidating. “So men didn’t think it was for them,” she says. But in recent years, as core strength has become a focus in the fitness world, many doctors and physical therapists have been recommending it to clients of all genders. “Men used to think you need to do high-impact workouts like running [or] really heavy, fast lifting. We’re a low-impact, high-intensity workout, and if you want to stay active and pain-free this type of workout supports that.”
While a lot of focus can be placed on movement that is meant for aesthetics—ie looking good for social media—pilates is about strengthening functional movement, so your body can move effectively in everyday situations. “It’s really results oriented,” she says, noting that many men are surprised at how challenging it is, despite the lack of heavy dumbbells or other weight room equipment. “Yes, you can get cut, and you can see and feel the differences. It also works these smaller, accessory muscles that a lot of the other workouts ignore.
“The 2010s were really about the HIIT class wave,” says personal trainer Joe Holder, who uses it for himself and his clients. “No one was thinking about recovery, longevity, or ‘pre-hab,’ which is taking care of your body before it gets hurt. But as millennials start to age, they’re realizing they need to take care of themselves.” Holder says that men often follow women’s lead, in terms of fitness, and women have been having such positive results with pilates—from how they look to how they feel—that men are merely catching up. “It’s an interesting middle ground between rehabilitation but is still challenging,” he says. “Plus it’s mentally challenging.”
I ask Phillips, of Equinox, what a guy should do if he’s interested but nervous to try a class. “I don’t think there’s an easy way in, I think you just have to do it,” she said with a laugh. She does, however, say that starting with a one-on-one session is probably best, as you’ll have attention and help navigating the admittedly tricky equipment and moves, before moving to group classes.
“At the end of the day it gives you resistance training, core strengthening, balance, flexibility, mobility,” she adds. “It’s helpful for everything we, as humans, do.”
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