Welcome to the February edition of Pilates Central News.

In this edition:

• Mean Pilates
• Core Values
• Martha blaster
• Trading up

Mean Pilates

The remake of the film Mean Girls is proving a big hit, while one of the stars of the original 2004 film, Lindsey Lohan, has wowed the media with her post-baby look. Lohan attended the premiere of Mean Girls alongside star Tina Fey, and the Daily Mail enthused: “Lindsay Lohan, 37, displays tiny waistline at Mean Girls premiere six months after welcoming son as she has been ‘eating greens and doing Pilates.’

Lohan had well-publicised problems with addiction, court cases and parental fall-outs after the success of the original movie, but is now happily married to financier Bader Shammas. A few months after giving birth to their son Luai she shared an instagram mirror selfie of herself standing by a Pilates Reformer, prompting the Mail to write, “Lindsey Lohan looks incredible in leggings and a tee for a Pilates session.”

Lindsey recently reunited with the original cast of Mean Girls for a well-received Black Friday ad for Walmart. Referencing Mean Girls, Lohan said soon after Luai’s birth: “Because I’m not a regular mom, I’m a postpartum mom.” And it seems she’s also now a Pilates mom too.

Core values

“I wanted to build core strength so tried a Pilates challenge – and it’s totally changed the way I feel about exercise,” exclaims Dionne Brighton in Marie Claire. Suffering from poor posture and back pain at her deskbound job, an initially sceptical Brighton took up a 24-day mat Pilates challenge and now says, “I’m a Pilates girly for life.”

She writes that after four days she realises, “Pilates does make you feel incredible. I left the mat feeling invigorated and ready to take on my to-do list for the rest of the day.” By the end of week one, “my body feels noticeably stronger and taller somehow, and as a result, I’m more confident.

By week two she is constantly talking about Pilates: “Everything seems to come back to it – while my friends complain of a bad back or neck pain, instead of joining in, I now rave about Pilates and how it eased all of my aches and pains.”

Come the end of the challenge, Dionne concludes: “I’m quite sad it’s over. Why? Well, because it’s helped me to fall in love with exercise in a way I never thought I would. Will I keep it up? Absolutely. When I’m told the benefits of a workout or exercise, I don’t expect to feel them all – but this time, I did. I have core strength that I didn’t even imagine impossible, which in turn has improved my general posture muscle, and I’m the most connected to my body I’ve ever been.”

Martha blaster

“Martha Stewart, 82, sends fans wild as she shows off her impressive Pilates moves,” reads the headline in the Daily Mail. The American entrepreneur, who last year became the oldest woman ever to make the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, used Instagram to post pictures of herself on a Reformer at the Bedford Pilates and Fitness studio in New York. She wrote that the workout is “harder and more effective than it looks.”

Stewart was laying back working her abs and arm muscles alongside her friend Dr Rekha Kumar, an endocrinologist and obesity specialist.  In something of a Pilates love-in Stewart described Kumar as “my inspiration”, while Dr Kumar replied: “Humbled to inspire someone who so many aspire to be because of your grace, grit, and strength.”

Kumar revealed that: “We are quite in sync for 7 am! I’m sore.” As if early morning Pilates wasn’t enough Martha Stewart has also recently posted a “sexy nightgown selfie”. which gained much publicity. Last year Martha said she looks so youthful at 82 thanks to, “Eating very well. Pilates three times a week. Horseback ride once a week. No smoking. Little drinking. Green juice daily.” Hmm. We’ll have what she’s having.

Trading up

Down Under a ‘Tradies try Pilates’ video has gone viral on Tiktok, getting more than 5.5 million views. ‘Tradies’ is Aussie-speak for tradesmen. It all began when former professional dancer Ally Maiuto challenged the workmen who had built her NRG Pilates studio in Canberra, Australia to do a Reformer Pilates session. Being gym junkies they thought it would be easy. But the result is a very funny video, where Ally can’t stop laughing as the tattooed Aussie blokes end the session with a collective groan of something like, “hurry up… phwooor….. aaargh!”

The TikTok success resulted in an appearance on Australia’s Sunrise breakfast TV show billed “Tools Down, Mats Out”. Ally told the show that the video had inspired a surge of male interest in Pilates: “We’ve had messages from men all around the world… it’s so good for tradies that work all day and have sore backs.”

The presenters concluded that Pilates was no longer “a chick thing”. While tradie Anthony, who had said during the session that he thought his hips were going to pop out during the clam movement, added: “It’s definitely a different kind of burn, I wasn’t ready for it. If you go to the gym you’re working the show muscles. To come and do Pilates and be working on your core, abs and mobility, it would be very beneficial for trades people.”

While we enjoyed Ally’s instagram comment: “Our video does show what people are really feeling in class and is very relatable. It also shows the sheer relief when a side lying glute exercise has finished and that every Pilates instructor has the longest count of eight… ever!”

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The Pilates Central Team