MIAMI (WSVN) – Many male athletes, including current and former pros, are now using Pilates to reform their core, and a new Pilates studio in Miami is helping them meet their goals.
Pilates has quickly become one of the most in-demand cross-training tools for both pro and everyday athletes.
For Cressida Thompson, who recently opened Posh Life Pilates along the Miami River, the mission was simple: Make Pilates for everyone.
“Just the lack of inclusivity, like a lot of times you go to the places, everyone looks the same,” she said.
Thompson’s instructors have also felt that shift.
“Pilates has become a huge trend,” said Posh Life instructor Kelsey Vargas.
Built around the reformer, Plates targets core strength, mobility, flexibility and injury prevention by activating muscles that athletes don’t always train.
“With Pilates, you’re engaging the muscle differently, you’re more so focusing on, like, the small fibers of the muscles instead of the big parts of the muscle, and that’s generally what athletes train,” said Thompson.
Which explains why many of the clients here are men — and big men.
Just ask former NFL players Carlos Dunlap and Jonathan Cyprien, who said Pilates is now non-negotiable.
“These machines allow me to get in ranges that I can’t naturally get into,” said Dunlap.
“Not being able to play football right now, there’s no need for me to be doing the lifting and the heavy weights and the running sprints. This is a lot better for my lifestyle,” said Cyprien.
Pilates has officially shed the soccer mom label and is now a mainstream, elite, gender-neutral fitness powerhouse.
“I had those same reservations, but for me, the gains outweigh the uncomfortable looks or whatever,” said Dunlap.
“Pilates is growing, it’s just men in general, they’re considered first-timers, so people forget that,” said Thompson. “They think of first-timer, they don’t often think of men, so they go into these spaces and often feel intimidated.”
Today, Pilates is heavily used by pro athletes and men chasing mobility, injury prevention and mental focus.
“You gotta be super focused, Like, even for me, to be speaking and having this interview right now and doing this is kind of making me focus on a few different things, so it’s a real good mental exercise,” said Cyprien.
Core strength is everything in sports. Pilates just proved it.
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