A 4 Week Pilates Challenge for the Guys Starts this Week
Since the Pilates movement hit our shores some 10 years ago it's seen a massive uptake of, mostly women, getting on board and enjoying the many physical and mental rewards.
However, did you know that Pilates was in fact created by a man, for men?
Joseph Pilates was the mastermind behind the functional movement method, based on his belief that poor health was a result of poor lifestyles and posture, inefficient breathing and inadequate strength. In 1927, he opened his first gym on Eighth Avenue in New York, where it remained for over 40 years.
To help shift the perception of Pilates being a female-driven exercise the Hunter St Pilates studio, Fluidform introducing during the month of November a men’s only class to help break down the Pilates barrier.
Speaking with Fluidform studio owner Louisa Cutler, Louisa chatted us through the initiative and the bigger plan,
“The concept of the Pilates For Men classes is to breakdown the barrier of males coming into the studio”.
“What we’ve found is that the men who are doing classes are coming in consistently, once they try it they fall in love it as they start to see the benefits pretty quickly.”
So is Pilates for all men?
"Yes! The number of males who make up our membership is only about 1% but they are all quite different in their physical ability and age."
“There are some super fit guys who competitively compete in Ironman races. We also have some dads who have found themselves at the other end of kid life and want to get back into exercise, but their bodies won’t tolerate high impact forms of exercise like they used to. Pilates has been a good way for them to strength their core and get fit again.”
"We also have some younger guys coming in who like doing Pilates in their off season, again to keep their core strength, and work on those stabiliser muscles which is great for injury prevention.”
"We have built in two classes per week for men only, with the idea being that it will help to make it less intimidating for guys who want to give it a go. We do also plan to continue the men's only classes after November."