Take a stroll along the streets of any metro area in the country and you’ll see a number of glamorous-looking women making their way to the boutique fitness studios of their choosing. Green juices and trendy seltzer waters in hand, for many of these women fitness is about more than just burning a few extra calories – it’s a way to mingle with other society ladies in a way that makes studios feel more like mini social clubs rather than just places to break a sweat.
It doesn’t matter if these women just finished a butt-kicking boot camp session or Barre class on their lunch break; They all make these clubs really seem like the place to be. And from what I’ve gathered, none more so than those offering Pilates.
What is Pilates?
Famous for its ability to perfect posture and teach practitioners to move with the grace of a gazelle, Pilates is a mind-body workout that uses (body weight or added) resistance to condition both large and small muscle groups, stretch tendons, and support the spine. It was once a niche workout done exclusively by professional dancers and their ilk, but Pilates and its studio “culture,” have opened up to others who’re interested in having abs as refined as other areas of their lives.
With famous practitioners like Sophia Vergara, Naomi Campbell, and Megan Fox, A-list celebs and rich coastal moms have known about the power of Pilates for a while now; Jennifer Aniston even continues to publicly praise the practice to various media outlets. However, it’s its recent rise in popularity on Tiktok and Gen Z IT girls like Lori Harvey that’ve got many younger women wondering what it’s really all about.
It’s all thanks to one man: Joseph Pilates.
Joseph Pilates: The Man Behind The Method
A once sickly child and former prisoner of war turned fitness pioneer, Joseph Pilates is the man who created the self-titled method during his stay at two British internment camps throughout World War I. Despite the troubling circumstances, his lifelong dedication to improving his own strength through various forms of gymnastics, weightlifting, and martial arts eventually led him to create the Pilates method (then called Contrology) that we all know and love.
Even after the end of WWI and his eventual marriage and move to New York City in 1925, Mr. Pilates continued to push back against what he saw as the ultimate cause of poor health: modern-day life. In the same vein as the present-day health nuts who spout that “sitting is the new smoking,” Joseph regarded contemporary life and habits as physically destructive and he saw exercise as something crucial for vitality and maintaining healthy functioning.
Who is Pilates Really For? (Hint: Everybody and Every Body!)
The beauty of Pilates is that each workout can be as gentle or difficult as the practitioner wants it to be. This makes it ideal for those looking to rehab injuries, build strength slowly over time, or just as an add-on to other forms of fitness.
A record 8 million people reported practicing pilates in the U.S. in 2021. Mostly from studios, gyms, and apps that serve everyone from local retirees to the professionally beautiful.
Luckily for us, access to Pilates is now no longer limited to the women of midtown Manhattan. It’s a favorite of IT girls worldwide. Its core-carving abilities combined with all the cute fitness sets have resulted in an industry with millions of devotees purely based on its IT factor alone.
I think Joseph would’ve been proud to see his life’s work become a sort of lifestyle statement. According to him, “a (wo) man is only as young as his (her) spinal column,” something many bangin’ bodied IT girls could really get behind, both then and now.
