Why Pilates Is Finally Having Its Moment With Men

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Pilates carried a reputation as something reserved for dancers, rehab patients, or people looking for a low intensity workout. That perception is changing quickly.

Today, more athletes, coaches, and everyday lifters are turning to Pilates not as a replacement for strength training, but as a way to make their existing training more effective.

According to Wayne Seeto, Director of Education Programming at Merrithew and a STOTT Pilates Master Instructor Trainer, the biggest shift is that people are beginning to understand that fitness is about more than simply lifting heavier weights.

"Strength matters, of course, but so do control, mobility, alignment, breath, coordination, and body awareness," Seeto says. "Those are the qualities that help people move efficiently, reduce unnecessary strain, and stay active for the long term."

That message is resonating with men who have spent years focused on strength and performance.

While traditional resistance training excels at building force, power, and muscle, Pilates challenges the body differently. Reformer based Pilates combines resistance with stability, control, balance, and coordination through a full range of motion. Athletes are forced to manage posture, breathing, alignment, and movement quality all at once.

The result is a type of strength that doesn't always show up on a barbell but often shows up where it matters most: movement.

"Sport rarely happens in a perfectly stable position," Seeto explains. "Athletes are rotating, decelerating, reaching, cutting, reacting, and transferring force through the entire kinetic chain."

For many men, Pilates also fills another gap: recovery.

Instead of treating mobility as passive stretching, Pilates trains usable mobility through strength and control. Sessions can improve range of motion, breathing mechanics, joint stability, and body awareness without adding another high intensity workout to an already packed training schedule.

Seeto believes that's one reason Pilates is experiencing such a surge in popularity.

"Pilates is not a replacement for strength training," he says. "It is a force multiplier. It can help you lift better, move better, recover better, and stay in the game longer."

The appeal isn't that Pilates is new. It's that more people are finally recognizing how relevant it is to modern performance.

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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 1:17 PM.