Why Pilates isn’t just for women

One of the biggest misconceptions about Pilates is that it’s for women. At Welcome Pilates we have a wide range of members and whilst there are still more women than men, we are so pleased to see more and more men discovering the benefits of Pilates.

Joseph Pilates performing his exercises, from Return to Life Through Contrology, published 1945

If you’re new to Pilates you might be surprised to learn that it was actually created and invented by a man. His name was Joseph Pilates and when he developed his exercises he called them Crontology. It was only after he died that it was renamed to Pilates, in his honour.

Pilates was a sickly child, suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever, which he tried to overcome using physical exercise. He was a gymnast, body builder and boxer in his early life. During WW1 he taught wrestling and self defence, studied yoga and the movement of animals. All of which helped him to develop his comprehensive system of exercise which he taught to rehabilitate seriously injured veterans. He went onto open a studio in New York with his wife Clara, where they had a devoted community of followers in the performing arts, including dancers and ballerinas.

Pilates taught his clients to control their movement with their mind, encouraging body awareness, alignment, breathing and engaging the postural muscles to support the spine and develop the intrinsic core muscles. All the things we still focus on at Welcome Pilates.

One of the best things about Pilates is that you can start from any age, with any level of fitness so it really is for everyone and if you’re committed the progress can be seen and felt surprisingly quickly.

My Dad, working on his balance

Enter my dad: he won’t mind me saying that he’s in his sixties and has spent a large portion of his adult life being more sedentary than he would have liked. He has a demanding job and spends most of the day sitting. He started doing Pilates with me in June 2018, more so to support me and my career and because it would get my Mum to stop nagging him!

In the early days he used to tell me that his spine “didn’t move that way” when I would try to get him to do the cat. Fast forward a couple of months and it became one of his favourite exercises.

During the first lockdown he was working from home so upped his weekly 1:1s to twice a week online. Gradually he got stronger and stronger, I could tell because I had to keep making the classes more challenging for him. However, it was when he commented on how his tummy had more tone, his legs felt more muscular and other people had noticed and told him that I felt really proud.

I know full well of the benefits of Pilates but it was really astonishing to see how far he’d come and in such a short space of time. When the pubs and restaurants reopened he was even known to get friends to punch his stomach to show them how hard his abs are!

My Dad continues to do two classes per week and when I got to do my first in person class with him it was even more apparent of how much progress he has made. Now I just have to make sure I keep finding ways of challenging him!

If you’re a man reading this, thinking Pilates isn’t for you, I encourage you to book a welcome call and we can discuss where you’re at and how Pilates can help you. Men, women, old, young: you’re welcome here and we can’t wait to meet you!