Why Fluidform Pilates instructor Kirsten King is a global sensation
More than 65,000 people from 90 countries have watched Sydney-based Pilates instructor Kirsten King through her online platform Fluidform At Home – but exercise is only one part of its appeal
The true impact of her work struck Kirsten King in the moments after one of her Pilates classes in Melbourne last year.
The founder of Fluidform had just finished teaching a group of 110 women as part of a retreat at Jackalope hotel on the Mornington Peninsula when they all started talking about how her online workouts got them through the pandemic and the city’s harsh restrictions.
“There were tears and there were hugs, it was this very emotional moment when they were telling me about how they spent lockdown with me, and they were forever grateful,” she recalls. “We then went to London at the end of last year and exactly the same thing happened. All these people were coming up and saying, ‘You got me through lockdown’. It was the same emotional heartfelt journey. It was after those classes, in those moments, I understood the real impact of Fluidform at Home.”
King has been a Pilates instructor for more than 20 years – she discovered it after injuring her own knee and being recommended the exercise as part of her rehab – and opened her first studio in Sydney’s Waterloo in 2012, and then another in Clovelly.
After being asked by clients to come up with a Pilates program for them to do while travelling overseas, King launched Fluidform at Home in 2019.
Fast forward four years and a global pandemic later and there have been more than 65,000 users of Fluidform at Home in more than 90 countries around the world. King has expanded her online offerings to include personalised Pilates programs, healthy meal plans with recipe libraries, 21-day challenges, and is about to launch a Fluidform app.
Out in the real world, King has also opened up more studios on a franchise basis; there are now six in NSW including in Bondi and Newcastle, as well as one in Melbourne. She gets emails every week from Fluidform at Home users around the world urging her to set up more, whether they be in the western suburbs of Sydney, Paris or Los Angeles. King has even established a training program for Pilates instructors so she can ensure all of her staff are educated in her specific Fluidform way.
“I think the one silver lining of the pandemic was that there is a group of people that now feel comfortable moving and have had the opportunity to do this through these online programs,” she tells WISH at her Surry Hills studio. “So the lady who may have found the studio intimidating now works out at home. The mother whose young daughter in her 30s goes to the studio, but she doesn’t really want to, she now works out at home. So there is this whole new market for us.”
Unlike a lot of gyms and other Pilates studios who rushed online after lockdown closed everything, King was already there and had spent 18 months developing her instruction videos and home equipment packs prior to launching in 2019. This is also apparent in the fact that her online business has continued to grow well beyond pandemic restrictions and the numbers, as King says, are extraordinary, with more than 15 million videos viewed in more than 77 countries in 2022 alone when lockdowns were a thing of the past.
There are other reasons why people use Fluidform at Home; there is the convenience, especially for women after having babies or with small children, the ability to do shorter workouts at any time and now, given the economic climate, increasing cost pressures on many.
“It’s interesting because we are seeing the younger generation come on to our platform quite significantly now, whereas most of our clients were in that early thirties, mid-forties bracket and now we have moved right down to the twenties,” King says. “And that is because they can’t afford to do Pilates, but they can do an equivalent workout with Fluidform at Home. We recently received an email from a girl saying, ‘Thank goodness for Fluidform as we cannot afford to go to the gym anymore’.”
So what makes Fluidform Pilates different from the multitude of studios out there? King describes her practice as being based on functional movement. It is about realigning your body, moving your body, making you feel better – not necessarily giving you a six-pack (although it can do that, too) – and her workouts are accessible to everyone, starting with beginners at just 20 minutes a day.
“Fluidform has always been about trying to give everyone an opportunity to make their life better,” she says. “I believe movement heals, and I have had proof of that time and time again, from the feedback we get, from the emails we get from around the world.
“I genuinely come from a place of wanting to help people. It fills my cup. I love what I do. I get joy from helping people, the puzzle of the body, working it out and making people feel better; whether it is making you run faster or getting rid of back pain. So I think that authenticity comes through because I love what I do and I have had years and years of practice.”
This is evident in her programs through King’s relaxed, friendly and intuitive way of teaching. Her cues are easy to understand and what seems like a tiny movement – achievable by most – turns into quite a workout (this writer speaks from experience). The result is you feel strong in your body without having to lift heavy weights at the gym or do a high-intensity workout in front of crop-topped others.
King’s approach has also won fans in the celebrity world; from Pip Edwards to Lara Worthington and Rita Ora. But for the Pilates instructor, it is making a difference to every one of her clients – no matter what they do – that is what it is all about.
“I had someone come into the studio the other day and say it has made her feel taller,” King says. “It gives you that confidence.”
In terms of the future, London and LA are firmly in King’s sights for studios, as is being able to translate her Fluidform at Home workouts into other languages. “The list of countries is quite astounding,” she says. “Sometimes we get people sign up and we are like, ‘Where is that?’. And we have to pull up a world map and then Google it, and then we realise we actually have 80 customers in that city.
“But that is the power of the online platform and it shows the consideration we put into everything we do for it. So we continue to film content, we continue to push it out and we continue to evolve it. From Fluidform at Home and its growth, we will then tap into some key markets with our studio openings. My growth plan is to give as many people as possible access to Fluidform in person.”
OTHER PILATES STUDIOS TO CHECK OUT
BODY BY BERNER, SYDNEY
This Pilates studio in North Bondi takes a holistic approach, seen in both the beautiful art-filled space and the classes run by founder Bernadette Fahey. Each session begins with aromatherapy breath work with organic peppermint oil and yoga-inspired stretches before the Pilates itself, and it ends with meditation. “This studio combines movement, art, design and spirituality,” Fahey says.
HEARTBEAT HIGH PILATES, PERTH
This studio has multiple locations – in Perth’s CBD, Cottesloe and Shenton Park – and its name says it all: it is about making Pilates feel good and fun with a bit of neon lighting thrown in for good measure. Instructors Phoebe Woodhead and Olivia Stell founded the studio after finding traditional Pilates spaces sterile, lacklustre and rather boring.
LOVE ATHLETICA, MELBOURNE
Melbourne Pilates studio Love Athletica is the creation of business strategist and entrepreneur Mat Knipe and his wife Caroline, who is an
interior designer. Caroline is behind the Palm Springs-inspired interiors at the five studios in the city’s eastern suburbs and new outpost in
Canberra. The Pilates reformer classes are energetic, fast paced and with elements of strength, cardio and yoga.
https://www.loveathletica.com.au/
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