Back in 2013, Peloton launched its revolutionary, connected bike on Kickstarter, forever changing the landscape of at-home spinning. Seven years later, the brand has become an industry titan, creating a community that’s moved well beyond the bike into running, yoga, strength training, bootcamp, meditation, and—as of today—Pilates. (We told you in our Trends report that restorative modalities were going to go big as 2021 crept nearer.)
Pilates has long been one of the brand’s most-requested modalities, says Peloton Pilates instructor Aditi Shah, but its introduction comes at a time when people are looking to step away from high-intensity workouts toward easy-does-it movements. “Pilates can be really restorative in many ways, because it’s so focused on stability, breath work, and functional movement, but it can also be leveled up to be very challenging,” says Shah. “We’re going through such a challenging moment, and I think it’s really important for us to find different ways to create the balance of feeling strong but also feeling stable and restored.”
Aside from the fact that this latest addition will undoubtedly have Pilates lovers flocking to the app, it will also give the rest of the Peloton community an opportunity to use Pilates to supplement—and improve— their other favorite workouts. The small, controlled movements in Pilates are known for building mobility, stability, and body awareness, because they require you to tune into your muscles in a different way than you would during, say, a running or spinning workout. This, says Shah, will help make you a better athlete in any sort of fitness that you’re doing.
“Pilates requires you to tune into areas you might not otherwise be tuning in to, and that focus can translate into making you a better athlete because you can start to notice your patterns,” she explains. “It’s really creating healthy movement patterns that you can take off of the Pilates mat and into other kinds of workouts where you can consciously focus on engaging your muscles and keeping them stable.” This kind of attention to detail can carry over into other routines that are quicker (like HIIT), allowing you to better perform movements the right way.
Starting today, Peloton will be offering live and on-demand mat Pilates classes taught by fan-fave instructors like Shah, Hannah Corbin, and Emma Lovewell. Sessions range from 10 to 45 minutes and are totally equipment-free, which means you can get a Peloton Pilates workout wherever, whenever. “With these Pilates classes, you literally don’t need anything besides a mat,” says Shah. “And what’s great is Pilates is highly modifiable, so you can scale it up or down. I love how versatile and how accessible it is.”
With the launch of Pilates, Peloton has made one thing abundantly clear: It’s taking over the (fitness) world, one modality at a time.
Want to try prop-based Pilates? Follow along with the video below.
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