Breaking Stereotypes: How Pilates can Redefine Health and Wellness for Men

If I had a dirham for each time I heard “Pilates is for women”, I’d be a very rich gal! Let’s start at the beginning… it was a man who invented Pilates! His name was Joseph Pilates and I urge you to google him to see and believe that he was as manly as they came back then. Joe  (as he is lovingly called by the Pilates community) started teaching his new form of movement that he invented to soldiers injured during World War 1. And that’s how it all started—by a man, for men.

It became popular for women because Joe’s first studio catered to contemporary dancers who were injured, most of whom were extremely graceful women. But let’s break some of those stereotypes today, shall we?

Most men today who enjoy working out go to the gym, do cross-fit, or play some kind of sport. Each of these forms of workouts focuses on specific body parts and relies on the “big” muscle groups to work in order to be successful at them. This is where the problem comes in. Let’s take, for instance, a man who likes to play cricket or tennis. In both sports, they repeatedly use the muscles on one side of their body and twist the opposite side, maybe hundreds of times in each game. What happens over time? The dominant side gets stronger, but the opposite side gets weaker. And that opens up doors for injury. 

This is similar to what happened to Indian cricketer Hardik Pandya a few years ago; he herniated a disc in his spine and had to go in for surgery. At that point, there is one form of exercise that always comes to the rescue: Pilates. Hardik practised Pilates with Yasmin Karachiwala (our franchise owner) before his surgery to prep for it and after the surgery to recover. He consciously worked the weaker side more, the smaller muscle groups that get ignored with most other forms of training, and he came back stronger than ever. 

At The PAD, we see lots of athletes coming in with similar problems as Hardik, and the solution is simple: we have to realign their mind and body to work in a slightly different way, to try and undo as much of the damage that the games do. I have personally trained Indian professional tennis player Sania Mirza, who swears by Pilates to help make the smaller muscle groups come alive.