Powerhouse Post (No4)

Pilates news round-up from the last week

Author

Kaleen Canevari
May 02, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Hey there!

Welcome to the Powerhouse Post, my weekly round-up of all things Pilates industry related. Read on for the latest headlines and some of my commentary.

Cheers, Kaleen

 📸 On Socials

I thoroughly enjoyed this reel which pokes fun at the cost of Pilates.  Creative use of a chair (nothing new there) and also appreciated the husband’s decent form.  

Y’all don’t understand how happy it makes me to torture my students in class.  This reel made me happy.

📰 In the News

The Cincinnati Reds have a Pilates instructor who travels with them and trains anyone in the clubhouse (including the GM!)  Check out this article featuring instructor Robyn Cohen.

💰️ Pilates Biz

Y’all know I love data, so this report made my week!  Highlights from BFS State of the Industry Report on Boutique Fitness include:

  • The percentage of profitable studios nearly doubled from 9.2% in 2023 to 17.4% in 2024.

  • Profitable studios bring in

    • 10-25 or 50+ new leads per month

    • The sign up at least 30% of new leads

    • The retain their members well with a monthly churn rate under 5%

  • Most studios earn under $500k annually, eve the profitable ones

  • 44% of studios say that referrals are the most effective source of new leads

  • Studios seeing the most weekly visits are more likely to hit the 20% profit mark

    • Conversion rates (30%+) are pretty even no matter how many new leads come in

I loved the data - it’s so important for goal setting and benchmarking.  So often this kind of data is gatekept and not shared or compiled, so this kind of research is so useful.  You can read the full article here.

🔥 Do your classes meet expectations?

Find out how your class design stacks up by using my FREE Class Design Report (CDR)

✍️ From Kaleen’s Blog

Lean Pilates (it’s not what you think)  What do startups and Pilates have in common?  Read about how adopting the Lean Methodology in Pilates could produce dramatically different teacher training programs and ultimately graduates who are better equipped to lead group classes.

🔎 Research and Tech

This study compared three fitness modalities for older adults and found that Pilates didn’t significantly increase their performance in a variety of established functional tests.  Sensorimotor training had the biggest positive effect, and Aquarobics had some positive effect.  Why do I include this in my round up if it’s not awesome for Pilates?  To hammer home two points

  1. Pilates isn’t always the best thing for everyone’s goals.

  2. We don’t actually know what was taught to the Pilates cohort.  There is a very common (and reasonable) criticism that Pilates can be too much laying on your back and only doing forward flexion - not enough progressive load or full body coordination.  What was actually taught to the Pilates group? We don’t know.  Pilates is so poorly defined among literature that it’s impossible to tell.

The full study hasn’t been published yet, but I’ll keep an eye out. 

Pilates is great for pregnant people!  Woot!  Some benefits this literature review examined: 

  • Improvement in perceived QoL 

  • Improvement in sleep quality 

  • Improvement in physical mobility 

  • Lumbopelvic pain (LBPP) was reduced in the group of pregnant women in eight of these studies (with values of P < .001 and P < .05), and 1 study reported no significant differences among these variables. 

  • Two studies reported a decrease in anxiety and 1 study indicated lower depression levels.

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