Why do so few men do pilates? Options

[dbyrd]

I want to know why so few men do Pilates? I do it regularly and find it helps with my strength training and in general makes me feel great, but sometimes I feel out of place in a studio dominated by women. What's goin on?

[daisy sola]

This is a question that has boggled the minds of many an instructor. The image of the discipline is so female centric because woman can learn it quicker

despite the fact that it was created by a man for men, predominantly for soldiers during WWI as rehabilitation so they could quickly get back to the front lines.

These are my speculations...

Pilates has a learning curve and many men do not wish to apply that much attention to an exercise regiment despite the obvious and quickly felt benefit?

The process doesn't look butch enough even though it wears you out quickly?

In many ways its too good at what it does... most men want to beat themselves up when they start working out just to prove something and certainly they don't want to do this in front of a lot of women.

I have many male clients all of whom finally came to Pilates because they injured themselves working out without any understanding of what they were doing and tore something, popped something or broke something and everything else they used to fix their problem didn't work.

Here are some facts...

80% of most pain issues are back related due to poor abdominal control. Pilates is now considered the primary form of exercise for back pain and who complains more about back pain - MEN!

Most people with sports injuries, once they attend physical therapy are encouraged to do Pilates because the discipline allows you to continue to workout around the injury (in fact Pilates workouts are a part of many a pro athletes training regimen) - encouraging the body to heal faster and even using Pilates exercises to directly recover the injured area.

Although most stats for sports injuries are split pretty equally between men and women, Men ignore their injuries more thereby becoming sedentary and rigid leading to pain.

The thing that gets me is, for a guy at any age, really, it gives em' great abs.

Men when they lose weight and work out a little start looking great right away, that's just how you guys are built.

I have a 51 year old male mostly fit, normal weight, who now, consistently doing Pilates, got the six pack he thought he could never have. So now he's walking around showing it off and he came to me it was because he had shoulder injuries and his back was hurting him. Having addressed that now he wants to keep his six pack.

So men just don't know and because we as teachers know that this discipline is so good we're not gonna scream it out because that won't win you over.

You have to find Pilates for yourself because you really want to take care of your body for the rest of your life and people realize that when they are ready, be that at 18, 30, 50, 75, or 100 and even at 100 you can start the discipline. That's how good it is.

`Daisy

[Lou]

Hi,

I gotta aagree with everything you said.

First of all about a 3 and a half months ago I injured my back because I do heavy manual labor and becuse I remembered what you said I asked for a pysical therapy place that also did pilates. My insiurance paid for the therapy and the therapist recomended some piltates sessions at the same place and my insurance covered 4 sessions.

Over all I havde to say I'm feeling much better and I still try to do some of the simpler excercises I learned then at home.

As far as six pack abs go I'm always gona be more of a keg belly kind of guy but I can say I do feel much more confident when I do heavy lifting and there's only a fraction of the pain I used to have. besides there's a six pack under there somewhere anyway

At the place i went to there were a few men who were advanced students but yeah the ratio was about 1 male to 5 females. Actually I kind of like those odds come to think of it

Lou

[daisy sola]

Hey Lou,

I'm glad you add your thoughts to the forum. Yes the studios are dominated by women, but they are very gracious about the men who go and take session because attempting something difficult in the company of theses women gives a fella clout.

Really there is a tremendous amount of respect given these men. The women recognize that these men must be very serious about their health.

Funny how in a gym people are oblivious to the efforts of others, but with this discipline men and women are encouraging and enthusiastic for each others accomplishment.

I see this everyday at my studio.