Why Pilates is so Beneficial for Men
Hey guys, did you know that Pilates for men was invented by a guy for men? And we’re going to talk about how he created it, why it’s for you and how it’s going to boost your flexibility and strength with your existing workouts.
Hi, I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of OnlinePilatesClasses.com™. I’ve been doing Pilates since 2005, teaching since 2008, and taught many men including NFL players and other football players and sportsmen how Pilates can benefit their routine. And honestly, you don’t have to be a professional athlete for it to benefit yours, so let’s get into it.
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Understanding Pilates & Benefits of Pilates for Men
Alright, so first, let’s talk about what Pilates is so we’re on the same page. Pilates is a strength-based workout that’s designed to balance your imbalances. It uses the whole body in every single exercise. Obviously, when you’re new, you’re not going to feel your whole body in every single exercise but the goal, the more advanced you are, the more you bring your entire body to every single piece of the practice. And that allows you to activate all your muscles, including the ones that were going to stretch, which increases your flexibility because it’s an active static stretch. There’s more information on how Pilates workout for men can work for you. But primarily it is worked on the Mat and other pieces of Pilates equipment like the Reformer, Tower, Cadillac, Wunda chair, and many more things. But what I love is that you can take the Mat practice with you wherever you’re going, because that’s what Joseph Pilates created first.
And Joseph Pilates is a very interesting man, he has a wide history of what he did before he created Pilates, which he called Contrology. We actually have an entire video on the history of Joseph Pilates and how Pilates came to be. So if you really want to nerd out, I highly recommend that you watch that. But you should know that he was a strong man, that he was a professional boxer, and that he was so excited about boxing, there’s actually a lot of exercises in Pilates, especially in the Cadillac that were really there to design to help boxers with their practice. And many athletes would come to him including dancers, who were there to be fixed. And what he would do is work all the parts of their body that wasn’t injured, that wasn’t broken, and really helped to balances those imbalance so they’re less likely to injuries, which is why I believe everyone should be doing Pilates, especially men who are going to the gym, who have different hobbies and physical fitness regimens that they love to do. Check out the benefits of Pilates for male athletes.
The truth is that so many of those are in this frontal plane, running, cycling, hiking all of those in the frontal plane. So there’s really pulling on your hip flexors, which can pull on your lower back. And if you’re just doing abs to support your core, it’s not exactly the whole part of it. It’s all the parts that you need. The whole center includes all the muscles around the front sides and back around your hips and your shoulder girdle. And so when Pilates challenges you to connect all the muscles of your center, it really is going to help benefit for every other thing that you like to do. Also, it’s going to prevent that injury because we’re going to balance those imbalances.
Pilates for Men: Strength and Flexibility Redefined
And let’s just talk about the biggest myth of all, which is that Pilates is only for women. I think it’s really important that you know that when Joseph Pilates created this practice Controllogy is what he called it, women weren’t allowed to work out, they weren’t even considered that they should work out, there was so much fear around women working out. So Pilates was designed for men, by a man. And what happened is that when people started to work out in the 70s and 80s, it’s all about bigger muscles. And so that is why men dropped doing Pilates. And women were being marketed to doing smaller muscles, leaner things. And so Pilates became this thing that women did, but you need to know that you can still have big muscles, have all that muscularity and definition that you’re looking for, if you’re looking for that, with Pilates, but more importantly you’re going to have a balanced flexibility and strength which is going to uplevel your performance. In fact, you’re going to see your form get better at the gym, you’re going to have less aches and pains, you’re going to be able to have more stamina, endurance, because Pilates does not have breaks, like other fitness regimen do.
So Pilates is not just for women, it was created for men specifically. And eventually, because of the types of workouts it kind of diversified towards more women. But now, as you have seen, every athlete has promoted that they do Pilates as part of their training. They’ve been doing it for decades. They’re just now talking about it. So I’m excited for you to do it too.
Pilates Exercises for Men
Here are the beginner-friendly Pilates exercises tailored for men.
Hundred on the Mat
Alright, so let’s get into some exercises that you can incorporate into your workout right now. So on the Mat, and that’s really the easiest place to start your Pilates practice because you don’t need any special equipment or a special studio, I would highly recommend you do the Hundred. It’s a great time for you to get in touch with your body, for you to get in touch with the breath and you’ll get a full body challenge. It works for your lat, it works for core, works your inner thighs and your outer hips. Really amazing one-minute exercise you’ll want to do.
Roll Up on the Mat
Next, it would be the Roll Up. Now this is going to be challenging if you do a lot of weight training. If your back is tight, you’re going to struggle with the with the Roll Up and so you might have to do the Half Roll Back for a little bit. Look, if it feels remedial it’s not. I often tell people if you’re truly advanced, the easy exercises are hard. So we’ve got to open that back up and really get into your actual core muscles and not using your hip flexors to do your ab work for you.
Single Leg Circles on the Mat
The next thing I want you to do is Single Leg Circles. This Mat exercise is really key. If you have tight hamstrings, you’re going to use a Theraband for this, but it’s really going to help open up those hips, work your inner thighs and glutes and hamstrings, while opening up the hip back of those hamstrings as well.
Double Leg Stretch on the Mat
And then I also want you to do the Double Leg Stretch. I love this exercise, if you only have time to do one Pilates exercise, the double leg stretch is where it’s at. Every exercise comes from that one.
Single Leg Kicks on the Mat
Single Leg Kicks is going to be next. It’s got extension in it, which is so key to reverse the curve from being in front of a computer but also, when you are lifting weights, running, cycling everything that’s pulling you forward. So Single Leg Kick is gonna really help pull you back, it’s going to stretch the front of your legs, and it’s going to work the back really. It should feel like a hamstring curl.
Double Leg Kick on the Mat
Double Leg Kick is going to be a big challenge for you, especially if you have tight shoulders, but it’s going to be key. So use a towel, if you need it, you can check out how I do it in this video. And if you can’t lay your hands behind your back, you’ll hold a towel or a Theraband to help you get there. And eventually you’ll get to where you don’t need that anymore. But it’s going to stretch those shoulders again, I promise you reduction in injuries. Shoulders is one of the main ones people get because especially men who lift a lot, workout a lot, they just don’t have the flexibility in your shoulders.
Side Leg Kicks on the Mat
And then I want you to do Side Leg Kicks. I know, I know it looks a little bit like “I don’t need to be doing Side Leg Kicks”. It is not a Jane Fonda Workout. Remember, Joseph Pilates created this for you. It is incredible for strengthening your outer hips, for challenging your side body. It really is one of the most amazing exercises you can do, it’s going to reduce hip and knee pain for those of you who run and cycle, have other endurance training. So I highly recommend that you do your Side Leg Kicks. Start with those, I have more that I can give you. There’s a bunch on the Reformer that you’re truly going to love and also on the Cadillac. But I know that not all of us have the ability to go into a studio. And so this is something you can do on your own wherever you are.
15-Minute Pilates Workshop
In fact, if you are interested in starting a Pilates practice, I’ve put together a really incredible series for you. It’s a workshop that explains how to do each of these exercises, and more. There are several others I really want you to do. It’s a free program. That’s only 15 minutes. It’s about 20 Mat exercises. And because of the workshop, I really go into detail on how to do it, and how to modify it should you need to. And then you’ll have a 15-minute workout you can do as many times as you want, compare yourself to yourself and enjoy that at fullbodyinfifteen.com. If you’re already doing Pilates, that’s amazing. If you would like to have accountability, community, and feedback on your form, check out onlinepilatesclasses.com/youtube, where we release a new 30-minute class every single week that you can do as many times as you want and a 50-minute class every single month.
Integrating Pilates into a Busy Fitness Routine
Alright, so let’s talk about how to incorporate Pilates into your already busy schedule and your current fitness routine. My professional athletes would incorporate Pilates multiple times a week when they were on their off-seasons. And then they would actually continue to keep a consistent practice during their seasons with just shorter periods of time. Now, you probably don’t have seasons to your schedule of your workout. But what you can take from that is that you don’t need hours of Pilates multiple times a week to get the benefits of it. In fact, especially when you’re new to Pilates, it is absolutely okay to hit that 15-minute workout I was talking about earlier, multiple times a week versus just one one-hour session once a week or every other week.
So what I highly recommend you do is learn some Mat exercises, or find a Mat workout that you like that we have, or your OPC class and do the amount of minutes that you can ideally before the workout that you’re about to do if it’s in the weight room or if it’s a running or cycling, this is going to help connect you to your core, open up a lot of your joints, stretch your muscles and really get you ready for the workout you’re about to do. Now, if before isn’t ideal for you, you can absolutely do at the end of especially a weight training routine, because it is going to help stretch you out and I know, I know you’re not stretching after a weightlifting routine. I’ve seen you at the gym, I see you all come in, work out really hard and just walk on out. So I promise you if you stay a few extra minutes longer, hit play on your Pilates workout, you are going to get the stretch you need while still working and focusing on the strength of the body and really balancing your imbalances out.
Boost Your Endurance with Pilates!
So if you are doing long endurance trainings, on the longest days, you’re gonna want to do Pilates before because at the end of an endurance training day when I’m talking like 10 plus miles of running or a lot more for cycling, you’re gonna want- you’re gonna be a little exhausted at the end and probably not wanting to do it. So ideally doing it before is going to help strengthen the muscles you need to help you perform the best that you can.
And speaking of fitness goals, if you are not sure how to workout when you’re not feeling motivated, I’ve got a great video for you that’s really going to help you understand that motivation isn’t the thing you’re looking for. So check that out. And if you don’t yet have any fitness goals, that’s okay, we actually have a video for you on how to set and reach those fitness goals. So check out the video that’s right for you. And if you’re interested in creating a Pilates home studio for yourself, because it’ll be easier for you to be consistent with this practice at your home, I don’t blame you. That’s how mine is. Go to opc.me/homestudio for a free guide. Based on the size of the space you have we have suggestions on what pieces of equipment and props you should be using. That’s opc.me/homestudio.
Thank you so much for reading this, I really appreciate it. If you have any questions, put them in the comments below. Also, I go live every single Sunday at 9 am Pacific time to answer those questions, so I’d love to see you there. And please remember it is never Pilates versus, so whatever it is you’re already enjoying, it’s always Pilates and that thing that you love already. So I can’t wait to see how you use Pilates to support what you already love to do.