What is the actual deal with Pilates?
"Pilates Culture" is… messed up. Pilates itself is not (always)!
With the possible exception of CrossFit, Pilates might be the exercise modality with the most preconceived notions — and misconceptions. It’s honestly confusing! What is Pilates actually for? And whom is it for?
I’d like to tell you a bit about my own connection to Pilates and what drew me toward teacher training. Then we’ll discuss the confusing land of “Pilates Culture” — and go over a few things about the real deal on Pilates and how to actually make it supportive for you and your body, if you’re interested in it. This is a longer one, so skip to the Qs and As at the end if you just want the meat and potatoes.
Back in my 20s, I lived across the street from a Crunch gym that had a mat Pilates class every Saturday morning. My husband and I would drag ourselves over there and power through the class pretty much every week, and as much as I kind of despised doing it sometimes (especially after a late Friday night), I loved how I felt afterwards. A little stronger, a little more upright (not in a “long and lean” way, okay, you guys, just in a less-hunched, easier-to-breathe, unrounded way!). Just generally more connected and supported in my body. At the time, I had a pretty thorough workout routine — a couple of, yes, CrossFit classes per week, plus one yoga class, and a Sunday evening Netflix-and-cardio session. Pilates felt like a way to start my weekend on the right foot and support me through all the other stuff I was doing. I also loved the friendly vibes and diversity in the class: While the majority of participants were women, the group was large and included many races, ages, and body types. I’d done a reformer class here and there (amazing but so expensive), but this Crunch mat class was my main — and very beloved — experience with Pilates.
About 10 years later, during the pandemic, it was time to sign up for a continuing education course (I have to do this every two years to maintain my personal training certification), and I opted to go for mat Pilates. I really missed that Crunch class, I was interested to learn even more about the deep core, and I thought it’d be great to add some no-equipment movements to my mental exercise library.
Someday I might try to write a whole post about the strangeness that is training to become a Pilates teacher. It’s intense and weirdly elitist. (Many teacher trainers are really into reciting their “lineage,” AKA their connection, through prior teachers and teachers-of-teachers, back to the OGs like Romana Kryzanowska and Joseph Pilates.) Some of the trainers take a “tear you down to build you up” approach — I couldn’t sleep for about three weeks of my intermediate training because I was so sure I was failing and so scared of how my teacher would humiliate me at our next session; then, after our final exam, she told me how impressed she was with my work and how, despite my plans to take a break and gain some more experience before getting my advanced cert, I was clearly ready to move to the next level (like, WHAT?!). And obviously, everyone is thin.
But I did learn a ton, and through lots of practice actually got pretty confident and excited about teaching. When I went freelance in 2021 and began training clients, I loved being able to offer mat Pilates as an option to them. (Many of my clients like to switch back and forth between a strength session one week and a Pilates session the next week.) In summer 2022, I created a monthly Zoom class called Pilates for Abortion Funds and have since raised more than $27,000 for the National Network of Abortion Funds. (Check out that link if you want to join us in the future!!)
I also teach once a week in person — at Esquina, the lovely studio you might have seen in my Workout of the Week videos — and it’s very fun to work with a range of people, some with lots of Pilates experience, some trying it for the first time. I like to think my style is a great introduction to the method: My class is hard but doable, with lots of options, rest encouraged, and (hopefully!) a few laughs along the way.
But! Over the past couple of years I’ve become aware of a growing weird thing: Pilates Culture. I frankly don’t know much about it, but I’ve gleaned that among a certain segment of matching-spandex-set–wearing, Erewhon-smoothie–drinking, get-ready-with-me–posting, expensive-haircut–having girlies, Pilates has become a central part of their routine, to the point where they’re sinking hundreds of dollars on classes each week and doing more Pilates than any other physical activity; possibly only Pilates. In my day, these folks might have been doing barre classes, or, if funds were truly unlimited, Tracy Anderson. But now, it’s Pilates.
The brilliant
wrote a thorough takedown of Pilates Culture earlier this week on her excellent Substack, . As a gentle warning, Mikala’s newsletter is not a space fully free of discussions around weight loss and body composition changes — she frames these topics in a nonjudgmental and fairly neutral way, not necessarily promoting them as the ultimate goal everyone should share, and not assuming you’re here for that, but also not shying away from exploring them as a goal that many exercisers do have (including ways to work toward them). A long way to say, if you need to steer clear of that kind of content, take care. Here’s the link to the whole shebang:
As Mikala notes, Google searches for “Pilates” nearly tripled from January 2022 to January 2024, and:
many women are choosing to do Pilates over other exercise modalities for reasons that are more regressive than we’d like to admit: We don’t want to look “fat” or “bulky” and are led to believe, by Pilates culture, that Pilates is the exclusive means to achieving the type of body that’s currently upheld as the gold standard for women — slender, yet “toned.”
Oy. I’m afraid this is true, too. Mikala points out that this is doubly-fucked up because, if a certain aesthetic is your goal, Pilates probably isn’t actually the best way to achieve it — depending on your genetics and other factors, you could do Pilates many times per week and never see much in the way of visible results. (For one thing, “lengthening” your muscles isn’t a thing, at least not in the way the Fancy Skinny People Fitness Industrial Complex would have you believe.)
And like…even as a Pilates instructor, I do not see much value in doing Pilates many times per week. Maybe if you’re doing Pilates rehabilitation and working on recovering from an injury. Maybe if you’re a professional dancer (as many Pilates teachers and students are! more on that below) or athlete and you do a bit of Pilates as a daily warmup before rehearsal or practice. And, as always, a huge caveat that if Pilates is your passion, what you truly love to do, and doing it and only it several times a week feels like the best and most sustainable way for you to be active — great!
But for most folks, especially those hoping to use movement to improve their overall wellbeing, I see Pilates as one ingredient in a well-rounded movement routine — not the whole meal. So…after that very long throat-clearing, let’s talk about it.
What is Pilates? It’s a type of exercise (usually categorized as a mind-body exercise), created by a German boxer and gymnast named Joseph Pilates, about a century ago. There are many “types” of Pilates — some using a handful of traditional torture-device-looking apparatuses such as a Cadillac (aka a “reformer”) and a Wunda chair, some using a more modern apparatus like a megaformer, some using a simple mat and maybe some smaller gear like resistance bands or balls.
Pilates people have a lot of opinions about what “counts” as Pilates, as you might imagine! I personally love mat Pilates because it can be done anywhere and doesn’t require any special equipment, but reformer classes are amazing — they’re often private or semi-private sessions; the instructors have undergone rigorous training and are laser-focused on your form and making sure you get the most out of each exercise. Megaformer classes are great for those who crave an uber-challenging workout that will leave your muscles absolutely quaking; you may have seen videos of pro athletes cursing while taking Pilates on megaformers.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
What does Pilates do for you? The Pilates method helps you build core strength, especially in the deep core muscles that support and stabilize your spine, abdominal organs, and pelvis. There’s a lot of focus on flexibility and mobility, particularly hip mobility, as well as inner and outer thigh and hip strength. Many of the exercises involve a prescribed and specific pattern of breathing, syncing the breath with particular phases of the movement, and Joe Pilates placed a ton of emphasis on the power and importance of breath (frankly, sometimes to a pseudoscientific extreme, but I digress). The method is a great way to support your posture, by improving upper back strength and scapular stability, and build a stronger mind-body connection. Some evidence suggests it may help with balance. When I do Pilates, I feel like my body gets a little tune-up: My back feels better, my hips feel better, I sit up a little taller and breathe a little easier.
It really can be an excellent complement to other types of exercise, from running to weight training to dancing to playing sports. I always think of it as a foundation that you can build a strong and supportive routine on top of.
What doesn’t Pilates do? Pilates isn’t a cardiovascular workout. It doesn’t involve the progressive overload (aka lifting heavier and heavier weights over time) that is required to build or maintain muscle mass or bone density. It doesn’t do much for many of the other markers of fitness, like agility, speed, or power. For those considering body composition, it’s unlikely to have any effect. Don’t get me wrong — Pilates is amazing, and truly something that anyone can enjoy and benefit from — but like I said, it ain’t the whole meal.
A great roundup of the research on what Pilates can and can’t do for you, here.
Why do people think Pilates builds a certain type of body? This one’s up for debate, but let’s call it self-selection bias? The history of the method is highly intertwined with the dance world: some of the earliest devotees were dance celebrities like Martha Graham and George Balanchine; Kathy Stanford Grant, an apprentice of Joe’s who was widely credited with “bringing Pilates to the masses” (by opening one of the very first Pilates studios, and by developing the version of Pilates that inspired the way most modern teachers approach it — there’s a great history of her here) was a professional dancer as well. The dance connection makes sense! The method is an excellent way to prevent injuries and to rehabilitate the body after an injury (which is what brought Kathy Grant to it in the first place), and the core strength, mobility, and overall control it affords is very helpful for dancers.
Presumably because of all this, teaching Pilates seems to be a popular day job or retirement job for dancers, who do tend toward a “thin-but-toned” body type (an interesting but possibly triggering — there’s discussion of pressure to lose weight, and eating disorders, so take care with it — article about whether this may be changing, here). As Mikala points out in a comment on her Pilates article, this is kind of a thing across exercise modalities — folks with certain body types are drawn to do and teach certain types of exercise, so people get the idea that in order to achieve that kind of body type, you should do that particular kind of exercise:
[T]his goes for other types of exercise, too — a lot of CrossFit people I know are former/current military or were D1 college athletes or whatever; they have a tremendous strength background so they excel at/look yoked from CrossFit [but] not *just* because of CrossFit…It's not only the exercise BRAND itself that's got some kind of magic in it.
Personally, while I admittedly don’t exercise for aesthetic reasons, I have never really noticed any aesthetic changes because of Pilates. And I do not have the kind of midsection I think folks associate with the method. I have a thin body genetically, with a soft and pillowy little belly. And again, I’m not really trying to do anything about that belly, but if that was my goal, a shit-ton of Pilates would probably not be the way. And also again, this is not to say Pilates isn’t great! Let’s just be realistic about what it can and cannot do.
(As a side note, I’ll quote the wonderful perinatal fitness coach and kinesiologist Jessie Mundell here and say, “Your core and pelvic floor can function beautifully without you changing the shape of your belly. Your belly can be round, fat, poochy, lumpy, rolly, stretch mark-y, PLUS, you can have diastasis recti, a hernia, or pelvic organ prolapse and still have a core and pelvic floor that works how you want it to.” I will definitely be cajoling Jessie to agree to an interview here before very long.)
Can I do Pilates if I’m in a larger body? Yes! Definitely. Pilates can be great for everyone. But: You may have to shop around for the right teacher. As with many exercise modalities, Pilates is rife with antifatness. Not only can studios be spaces dripping with bias, but our training is often based on the assumption that everyone we encounter will be straight-sized — maybe straight-sized with back or knee pain, which we are taught to adjust for, but we aren’t given much if any preparation for adjustments beyond that. This is very frustrating for me as an instructor who would like to be able to teach people in all bodies, because I know that there are certain movements that don’t feel good or simply won’t work for certain sizes or shapes. (To be super clear, this is not to say that people in larger bodies can’t be deeply, incredibly skilled at doing Pilates! It’s just that some folks may find certain exercises uncomfortable. Which is true regardless of body size and shape, but instructors are less likely to have size-and-shape–related variations readily available.)
This is why I’m very grateful to have found some resources for my own Pilates continuing education. I love a book called Pilates for Everyone by Micki Havard, which offers several variations of 50 Pilates exercises, with great photos of a handful of people of different sizes, ages, and physical abilities. I highly recommend it both for teachers and for people who want to do Pilates but might need more options than a typical teacher might provide.
And I love the wonderful Ivy Baron of Requisite Pilates. She lives and teaches in Austin, but also offers private sessions and classes, as well as seminars for instructors, virtually. I recently took a seminar she taught called “Pilates Mat Work Variations for the 3Bs: Boobs, Butts and Bellies” and learned so much. Also, Ivy’s Instagram is amazing.
On that note: I am SO PSYCHED to share that I’ll be interviewing Ivy soon for the newsletter! Check her stuff out and let me know what you’d like to see us discuss when it comes to making Pilates work for you, and how instructors and studios can continue to make their spaces accessible, inclusive, and welcoming for all bodies. Pilates questions in the comments, please!
Okay, phew. Are you still with me? You’re a champ. I think the tl;dr here is: No, Pilates is not the only type of exercise on the planet, or the best. It doesn’t give you every possible fitness benefit (though few types of exercise do). But that doesn’t mean it is bad! When Mikala’s post went live earlier this week, I saw some chatter on Substack about it that included sentiments like, Finally, someone says it! Pilates is a complete scam and an enormous waste of money — I don’t think that’s true at all! (Nor do I think it’s what Mikala actually said.)
Pilates can be helpful for you, and with the right teacher and approach, it could even be great.
More soon. Thanks for reading!
xo
Anna
About me and How to Move:
How to Move is an anti-diet newsletter about exercise. Each Sunday paid subscribers receive Workout of the Week, a customizable workout (in both video and written/gif format) that you can make 15, 20, or 25 minutes. Other posts come about once a week and are free to all subscribers.
I am an award-winning journalist, former magazine editor, and certified personal trainer and Pilates instructor. I train clients, write articles for publications like The New York Times, and work as a content strategist for clients such as Hinge Health.
If you’d like to support my work, please consider a paid subscription to How to Move, and/or sharing this post with a friend.
If you’d like to work with me as a trainer, journalist, or content strategist, you can find more information here.
Thank you. This feels like a much more reasonable take. I was shocked by some of the comments in Mikala’s post - saying that Pilates is soooo easy, like doing nothing, mostly for 70+ women.
That has definitely NOT been my experience.
I have taken two private reformer classes for exactly a year. Here’s my experience:
They are hard AF. I am sweating and shaking throughout. It is a hard workout for me (I’m a middle aged woman who has done X-fit in the past).
I have not gained an ounce of muscle (measured via dexa scan).
My body seems way more toned. Eg, less wobbly. I don’t know about the “leaner” meme but I do know that I’m a lot less jiggly.
I can measure progress because exercises that were really hard in the beginning are doable now.
My balance has improved dramatically, as has my bodily control. Eg, I’m no longer flopping about.
I feel strong!
I do need to add muscle and have realized it’s not gonna happen with Pilates, yoga and walking. Gonna add twice weekly weights sessions.
Just wanted to share my experience in the event that any of the benefits are appealing. I wouldn’t want anyone to opt out of Pilates bc of the perception that it doesn’t do anything for you. 🧘♀️
I interviewed a Pilates instructor a few years ago when I (unrelatedly) was dealing with lower back/SI issues from a lifting injury. She told me Pilates could work as a sort of physical therapy to help build core and hip stability and speed up my return to the barbell. I never took her up on her offer, but it made sense to me. Especially as someone who routinely skips core training because I find it so boring. I'm sure a Pilates session would kick my butt.