Why men aren’t getting a warm welcome at the Pilates studio | Canada Voices

Reformer Pilates classes tend to have a few things in common: bed-shaped machines operated by springs and straps, legging-clad bodies performing in-sync movements – and mostly women. For “Pilates girlies,” as many refer to themselves on social media, the reformer studio is a temple where men aren’t just uncommon, but unwelcome.

This might seem ironic given its history as a form of exercise developed in prisoner-of war-camps, but inventor Joseph Pilates established his first studio in New York on the same block the city’s ballet companies rehearsed. Soon, ballerinas became Pilates’s main clients and dance icons George Balanchine and Martha Graham sent them to classes as a way to rehabilitate and prevent injury. Since then, Pilates has developed into a female-dominant workout style, with emphasis on ballerina-like traits: flexibility, stability, core strength and good posture.

But lately, men are hopping on the trend. Notable dudes Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and LeBron James have touted the benefits of Pilates and been photographed lying on a reformer’s carriage. For some women who call their reformer Pilates studio a second home, it’s an intrusion.

Sarah Ferland, a trauma-based therapist in Toronto who has been attending Pilates classes for two years, says as far as she’s concerned, Pilates is a women’s space where you’re not expecting to see men.

While she’s all for men taking up Pilates for the benefits, they can be unaware of how their presence can make women feel. “The reformers are really close to each other, the positions can be vulnerable,” she says.

Ferland isn’t the only one who finds sharing the Pilates studio with men uncomfortable. On TikTok, videos of women venting about men in their Pilates classes proliferate.

And it’s not entirely surprising that women, who are used to the male gaze and being undermined in traditional fitness spaces, would gravitate toward female-dominant spaces – and want to keep them that way. A small study from the U.K., for example, found that more than 46.6 per cent of gym-going women received unsolicited comments on their appearance at the gym, mostly from men.

“There’s a bleakness in the fact that these places are needed, and it’s sad that you can have a business model about providing safety for women in recreational spaces,” says Taylor McKee, an assistant professor of sport management at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., and the managing editor of the Journal of Emerging Sports Studies.

McKee, who researches masculinity and sports, adds that gendered exercise expectations might explain why men aren’t as interested in Pilates. Men are conditioned to desire muscle mass and favour exercises that make them look bigger and stronger. Women, meanwhile, are told by society that they mustn’t get too big and tend to strive to look more toned – which Pilates promotes. However, there are lots of other benefits to Pilates, beyond trying to build an ideally “feminine” body: It improves balance, promotes proprioception and has been recommended as a tool for rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Raza Awan, a sports medicine physician, says that though he’d recommended Pilates to his injured clients for years, he didn’t try it himself until he got a meniscus tear – partly because he knew how female-dominant it was. “I was the only male in the class for almost every class I went to for months,” he says, adding that while the instructors were friendly and welcoming, other students largely ignored him.

Awan loved his initial Pilates experience so much that he now teaches at Coco Reformer Pilates in Toronto’s east end. Most of his students are women with “some men sprinkled in,” he says. “Pilates is seen as something that’s choreographed to music or you have to be very flexible to do it, and a lot of men don’t want that vibe of a workout,” he says.

Despite some Pilates-goers’ protests, studios are trying to bring in men. Awan says that Coco is introducing more mobility-focused classes to appeal to men who play sports.

Ariel Swan, the cofounder of Jaybird Studio, a Pilates and yoga studio with locations in Toronto and Vancouver, says that their candlelit, mirrorless rooms are designed for minimal judgment, which might draw in more first-timers – men among them. “I know men will say, ‘I’m not stretchy, I can’t do it,’ or they don’t want to feel weak when using muscle groups, they’re not used to,” Swan says. “They might not feel as strong as the woman next to them, and that can hurt their egos.”

While there is a contingent of outspoken women who want men banned from Pilates, most agree that men aren’t the problem, but their behaviour can be. Ferland says that paying attention to how they navigate a class would go a long way: Don’t breathe heavily all over your classmates or get uncomfortably close, she says.

Others, such as Priya Gill, a Pilates devotee in Vancouver, welcomes men. “All bodies deserve to feel safe in whatever fitness studio they want to go to.”