Powerhouse Post (No9)

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

Technogym continues promoting their new reformer “Reform” on socials, with a class preview here and an overview of the machine, here.

📰 In the News

I want everyone to feel welcome in a Pilates class, and I love to see Dove stepping up to the plate with this campaign.  I talk to so many students who share how nervous they were to join a class for the first time because “no one looked like them.”  Let’s invite more folks to the Pilates party!  This inclusivity was one of the leading drivers for designing a new reformer at Flexia, rather than building on an existing one.

Raven Ross, of Love is Blind fame, talks about her journey to becoming a certified Pilates instructor during the pandemic (and after filming LIB) plus the large expenses of training.

💰️ Pilates Biz

By now we’ve all heard that Pilates was the #1 booked class format on Class Pass in both 2023 and 2024, but this interview with Class Pass VP of Marketing, Ivy Wu, reveals more details behind Pilates’ sticking power.  Here are some of the reasons she says Pilates topped their list (and also saw the highest repeat bookings of any modality):

• 61% of survey participants said their primary motivation for working out is to live a healthier, longer life (via Mindbody’s 2024 Wellness Index)

• A combined focus on mind and body make it attractive for folks looking for a holistic fitness experience

• Pilates is beginner-friendly, low-impact and accessible to all levels (compared to other, more intense modalities)

• Social Media trends like “Pilates Princess” and “Men in Pilates” drove even more awareness

• It’s harder to do at home, so in-studio bookings are a must to get the Pilates workout in

iFIT adds online Pilates classes from XPonential Fitness (Club Pilates’ parent company) to their online platform.  This meshes with iFIT’s broader play into Pilates, coming on the heels of their announcement of the acquisition of equipment maker ReformRX.

🔥 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

🔎 Research and Tech

A new paper highlights the importance of adding more data to a Human Pose Estimation model to cover Pilates and Yoga poses in a gym setting.  What does that mean?  If we want to use computer vision to recognize real humans in real (non-lab) settings with minimal equipment, we need more diverse data from high-quality camera setups to help train the lower quality, 2D systems a consumer might use with an app at home.  The paper gets pretty technical, but the main takeaway I want to highlight is that analyzing normal human bodies in normal workout environments is not easy, and work continues to be done to build a data set that will work well for real-world applications.

Pilates tops the list of most effective aerobic (okay, okay, don’t start with me) exercise methods to reduce knee pain from arthritis, as shown in a literature review.

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