How Pro Athletes and Regular Guys Alike Learned to Love Pilates

“I should have been doing Pilates much earlier,” the 38-year-old adds.

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 been sore before”, 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 heavy iron, he actually feels stronger, and says the gains he’s made in his core and hips have been especially useful for his golf game. He can now swing pain-free and has even increased his swing speed and driving distance.

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He’s hardly alone. According to Equinox, there’s been a threefold increase in the number of men attending Pilates classes since the pandemic. That figure is up 40 per cent year on 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 have 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 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 named Joseph Pilates. Originally, it wasn’t even a workout, per se, but rather a system of movement designed to improve 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 “feminise” 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.

“All these images of male celebrities are so helpful in getting guys into the studio,” says Amanda Freeman, the owner and founder of Strengthen Lengthen Tone (or SLT), a chain of fitness studios. Indeed, there’s growing awareness of the workout among male athletes: videos of ripped men grunting and quivering while holding a two-pound weight frequently make the rounds on social media (see: footage of the Kansas City Chiefs expertly performing the moves as they drip with sweat), as do articles exploring why professional athletes are flocking to the fitness programme. For her part, Freeman says she has seen a substantial increase in men’s attendance—more than double since she first started around 13 years ago—including professional athletes such as Eli Manning and Roger Federer. And while she once offered a men-only class, she found that men actually prefer taking classes with women.

Freeman believes that men previously avoided Pilates because of its reputation as a recovery-based practice, and because 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 greater focus in the fitness world, many doctors and physical therapists have been recommending it to clients of all genders. “Men used to think you needed 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 on social media—Pilates is about strengthening functional movement, so the body can move effectively in everyday situations. “It’s really results-oriented,” she says, noting that many men are surprised by how challenging it is, despite the absence 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 many other workouts ignore.”

“The 2010s were really about the HIIT-class wave,” says personal trainer Joe Holder, who uses Pilates 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 realising they need to take care of themselves.” Holder says men often follow women’s lead when it comes to fitness, and women have seen such positive results with Pilates—from how they look to how they feel—that men are simply catching up. “It’s an interesting middle ground between rehabilitation and something that’s still challenging,” he says. “Plus, it’s mentally challenging.”

I ask Phillips, of Equinox, what a man should do if he’s interested but nervous about trying a class. “I don’t think there’s an easy way in—I think you just have to do it,” she says with a laugh. She does, however, suggest starting with a one-on-one session, where there’s more attention and help navigating the admittedly tricky equipment and movements, before progressing to group classes.

“At the end of the day, it gives you resistance training, core strengthening, balance, flexibility, and mobility,” she adds. “It’s helpful for everything we, as humans, do.”