All men should do Pilates

My boyfriend is obsessed with Pilates. Maybe even more so than me, and I own a Pilates studio.

For context, he is a former professional rower. He’s 6 foot 3. He loves cycling, running and weight-lifting. He’s not exactly what you think of when you think ‘Pilates’. And yet, three to four times a week, he asks me if there is space for him in my 7am class. Every class he shows up focussed, not in the slightest bit embarrassment at being the only guy in a room full of women, and gives it 100%. Maybe initially he came to see what I gave up a career in the law for, but now he comes for himself. He comes because it makes him feel great:

“I like it so much because it sets my day up. It’s a really positive place to be in the studio and I feel like I’ve won the day already if I can get a session in before work. Because it doesn’t spike my heart rate really high I don’t feel too fatigued afterwards and can still do a full day of everything else I want to. It feels like my whole system is ready for whatever else I want to do - whether that’s 8 hours at a desk or 8 reps in the gym.

It helps a lot with my core stability and all the little areas I wouldn’t think (or be bothered) to train in the gym. It reminds me of the exercises I’ve done during physio rehab, but this time I actually do them and it’s preventative. I’ve been surprised how much it helps with muscle maintenance. I’ve come to think of it as training smarter than I do in the gym.”

Of course, my boyfriend isn’t the only guy that comes to the studio. I have many regular clients who are male, and yet the boys are still far outnumbered by the girls. When I ask them how they found Pilates, they usually reference being sent by a clued up sports coach or dragged along by a girlfriend. Pilates doesn’t seem to be a go-to sport for men, which makes no sense at all, given pilates was invented by a man. 

So why do men tend to gravitate towards weight lifting when they want to gain strength?

Perhaps it is a lack of exposure. I suspect Pilates isn’t taught in physical education in school, despite it being recommended by the NHS. Or perhaps it is considered by men to be ‘girly’, a clear fallacy. Pilates, like every other sport, is neither feminine nor masculine.

Perhaps men don’t believe Pilates will give them the physique they want. After all, Plates will give you a chiselled core but it is unlikely to give you the muscle mass in your quads that 100kg squats would.

However, I think it is unfair and reductive to consider the primary fitness goal of men to be bulking. In my experience, adult males are just as (if not more) motivated to exercise for functional health, mental resilience, stress relief, weight management, socialising and enjoyment.

I could come up with several more hypotheses, but my ink is better spent highlighting why all men should (and I suspect would) be as obsessed with Pilates as my boyfriend. Put simply, Pilates strengthens the deep core muscles that stabilise the pelvis and spine, leading to improved posture and spinal health, fewer imbalances in the body and therefore fewer injuries (pre-hab, not rehab). Pilates also incorporates deep stretching, such as the roll-up-roll-over, which creates space in the vertebrae (allowing for nutrients to enter the spine) and improves spinal mobility in all planes. It also opens up tight hamstrings and calves, which are often the cause of deferred back, neck and head pain.

Furthermore, Pilates is a full-body, functional exercise in and of itself, however the deep core strength formed also keeps the spine safe during other activities such as cycling and weight lifting. Inevitably, a stronger core during such exercise will lead to improved performance. There’s a reason Lebron James, Tiger Woods and Christian Ronaldo all incorporate Pilates into their training regime.

When I was growing up in New Zealand, there was a famous campaign called “Bring a kid to footy”, encouraging people to take their kids to rugby games. So here I am, reinventing the campaign as “Bring a guy to Pilates.” Because, put simply, all men should do PIlates.