Calling all midlife men. It’s time to try pilates
With Jeremy Clarkson and David Beckham big fans, Georgina Roberts finds out why the exercise is great for balance and fitness — and definitely not just for girls.
Think of Jeremy Clarkson and you’ll probably picture him behind the wheel of a sports car or a tractor rather than dressed in fitness gear, working up a sweat in the gym. But now, aged 64, Clarkson has become a poster boy for Pilates, the latest workout to become a hit with the male A-list.
On Sunday, Clarkson revealed that after several failed attempts to get fit, he has decided to take up Pilates. As a grandparent, he said he has realised, “I must do everything in my power to not die.”
“A friend bought me something called a Reformer [a Pilates machine], which is a sort of sex orgy dungeon table.” His verdict? “Whisper this, I’m not unenjoying it … I’m always surprised when I wake the morning after a session to find my legs are stiff, because it doesn’t really feel like I’ve done very much at all.”
Clarkson joins male pin-ups such as Harry Styles, David Beckham and LeBron James, who are fully paid-up fans of Pilates. Beckham, 49, said it has given him the best body of his life. Macho A-listers posting pictures on Instagram of themselves doing Pilates has helped to drive the trend among British men and stopped Pilates being seen as a “girly” exercise.
“Pilates had this image that it was really only for women. If there was a man in the class, he would feel on his own, because it would be mostly women. Now, I’ve got a pretty much 50-50 split in men and women,” says Max Lobatto (@maxpilates5), a Pilates trainer at PI Studios and KX, a private members’ club in Chelsea, southwest London, where Hugh Grant, 64, is rumoured to be a member. “A lot of NFL players do Pilates now, as well as a lot of footballers in the Premiership,” Lobatto says.
Gaby Noble, the founder of Exhale Pilates London, taught Pilates to the Manchester United footballer Christian Eriksen as well as Harry Styles during his One Direction tours. “Harry Styles had a gruelling workload when he was on tour. Pilates kept him mobile and recovering quicker, the same as an athlete. He was performing all the time, and it would put him back together afterwards,” Noble says.
It’s not just youngsters like Styles or top footballers who can benefit — Lobatto has a 76-year-old male client. Pilates builds balance, which can help to prevent falls in later life, he says. “As we grow older, we start to lose our balance. There’s a lot of balance work in Pilates. Even when it doesn’t seem like a balance exercise, you are working on stability. It’s important to start sooner rather than later. For older people, pushing through tension is really important for osteoporosis or other degenerative diseases.”
Noble agrees. “Balance and co-ordination are great things that Pilates provides. We have a lot of older clients working on their balance and co-ordination because as you get older, those are the things that go. When someone isn’t stable in their body, they’re more likely to fall. When you fall, if you have a strong centre, you are more likely to support a fall, with ankle strength and glute strength,” she says. “That’s why they say before an operation, it’s great to do this type of work, because it gives you a quicker recovery and response time.”
A lot of Lobatto’s male clients come to him after hurting their back lifting weights that are too heavy for them in the gym. Pilates can help to prevent injury — and with recovery from injury, he says. “If a guy goes to the gym all the time, if he’s wanting to bulk up, things tend to really tighten up. The tighter you get, the more likely you’re going to suffer an injury.”
“What we’re trying to do in Pilates is lengthen the muscles, strengthen the joints,” he says. “That’s why a physio or sometimes doctors say, ‘Go and do Pilates in a rehabilitative way, or a restorative way.’”
Lobatto spent five seasons working for Brighton and Hove Albion football team, doing Pilates with them. “When I was working for the football club, they were in the gym a lot, then they had to go crazy on the field. That’s when you pull a muscle or get a knee injury. Pilates really helps with injury prevention and longevity of playing.” Lobatto knows this from personal experience. “When I was heavily into CrossFit, I found that Pilates helped me to stay somewhat injury-free,” Lobatto says.
That said, injuries in Pilates classes that use Reformer machines are becoming more common. “You can still hurt yourself doing Pilates if it’s not taught properly,” he says. “The thing that is important is that they are taught by someone who’s actually qualified properly. This is the trouble nowadays — people can go and do a weekend course with little or no experience and suddenly they’re trained to teach Reformer classes.”
So be careful with that sex orgy dungeon table, Mr Clarkson.
The Times
