Welcome to the July edition of Pilates Central News.

In this edition:

• Feels so good
• Back in the USA
• Pilates makes sense
• Fighting fit with Pilates

Feels so good

Karen Gillan is not cancelling her Pilates. The Scottish actor recently impressed as tough TV presenter Madeleine in the Steven Moffat-written ITV drama Douglas is Cancelled. During the publicity for Douglas the Times reported: “She doesn’t have the muscles from her Marvel superhero training any more, but she keeps fit with a Pilates session every morning on a Reformer machine in a small home gym. While working out she watches reality TV to sate her Love Island addiction.”

Gillan, who now lives in California, previously played companion Amy Pond in Doctor Who and then starred in the Marvel and Jumanji franchises, playing Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy and Ruby Roundhouse in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, action roles for which she needed to be in peak condition. She told Women’s Health: “When I’m not working, I enjoy playing tennis, swimming, cycling, Pilates, and looking for new treasures to sell in my antiques cabinet.”

It seems Gillan’s conversion to Pilates came back in August 2022, when she succinctly tweeted: “Late to the party but I started taking regular Pilates classes. Game changer! I feel so damn good!! That’s all.”

Back in the USA

Jason Priestley, the star of Beverley Hills 90210 and Call Me Fitz, and his wife Naomi Lowde-Priestley, have set up a Pilates studio in Nashville. The couple revealed how they’ve found Pilates beneficial for both their backs and mental health. Jason, 54 suffered an accident that broke his back in 2002, after which he had two titanium rods fitted. The Canadian actor/director Priestley told USA Today: “My doctor told me that I should look into taking Pilates classes to strengthen my core and support my spine. So I added the modality of doing Pilates way back then. I’ve been doing it ever since and it pays huge dividends for me.”

Make-up artist and beauty influencer Naomi, 48, has back problems too. She has a slipped vertebrae, but Pilates has helped her get, “more range of motion” and she has since qualified as a Pilates teacher. She told US Weekly: “It wasn’t until I found Pilates and did the Pilates training that I really understood what it was to have core strength… and through that learning where to hold posture correctly in alignment and correct muscle imbalances that I had that was causing me to have this on-going injury. I saw the light at the end of the tunnel because I was no longer in pain.”

It’s good to see the pair really putting their backs into their new Studio Pilates International. Sounds like another hit for Nashville.

Pilates makes sense

Many claims have been made for Pilates over the years and one of the most recent is that it is good for your proprioception. If you are wondering what proprioception is then the Guardian tells us it is, “the sixth sense that tells our bodies where they are and is essential to our quality of life as we age.” It is what helps us touch our nose with our eyes closed and also, “what helps high-level athletes take a penalty without looking at the ball, or orient themselves in the air while doing a twisting somersault.”

In a double-page feature the Guardian’s Joel Snape writes that if you want to improve your proprioception, “a good idea are forms of exercise that use slow, purposeful movements that build a sense of where your body is in space – recent studies suggest that Pilates and tai chi can both be effective for building proprioception in the regions they focus on (trunk and core for the former, legs for the latter).”

The article concludes that proprioception will reduce the chance of falls and injuries in daily activities, “and the improved coordination helps us to enjoy movement – which makes us more likely to keep moving on a regular basis.”

So if your sixth sense is telling you to visit Pilates Central, then do just go along with it.

Fighting fit with Pilates

You know Pilates has made the mainstream when Aldi is selling cheap Pilates equipment in its middle aisle so customers can be, “bougie on a budget”. Or offer in the UK in June were Pilates balls, cushions, rotation discs, mats, Pilates rings and more. But some customers in Australia went a little over the top when Aldi had a similar offer in March, including a Reformer for $299. The Perth News reports that a scuffle broke out at the Karrinyup store as customers squabbled over the equipment as the doors opened at 8.30am.

A witness, presumably shaken to the core, told the paper: “It was intense, they were yelling at each other saying they got there first — they wouldn’t let go of the box, all four of them. The store manager had to try to intervene to calm them down, he told them they weren’t going to be able to purchase it and that they would be escorted out by security for their poor behaviour.”

We’re not sure these were the sort of lunges Joseph Pilates had in mind. A deadpan Aldi spokesman commented: “While we are encouraged by enthusiasm for our Special Buys, fundamentally any behaviour that puts our employees or other customers at risk is unacceptable.” Presumably the Pilates pugilists have now been sent for a stretch of etiquette training at reformer school.

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The Pilates Central Team