Pilates Instructors Take Steps to Address Inclusivity Questions

From gender to race to body-image, Pilates studios are facing questions about the image they cultivate. In response, founders and instructors are taking steps to increase inclusivity 

After a life-altering spinal injury, Anna Sarol had to leave her competitive gymnastics career behind.

But as someone who loved movement and the challenge of pushing her body, Sarol needed something to fill that void gymnastics left behind. That’s when she discovered Pilates.

“You have wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, mono skiing, adaptive CrossFit, but none of it quite felt like a sport that translated the specific skills and the body awareness that I developed through gymnastics,” Sarol told Athletech News. “So when I discovered Pilates, it was one of those forms of movements that felt so familiar in my body.”

Her journey with Pilates landed her as an instructor at Bodybar Pilates. Recently, Sarol led the brand’s Kansas City location in its first class designed entirely for wheelchair users.

Sarol’s free class filled up rapidly, signaling an interest in wheelchair-accessible fitness. Her workouts are adapted to focus more on single-arm exercises, with one hand left free to support the core and perform the movements.

She described a room filled with diverse ability and skill levels, with some attendees having full core engagement, and others paralyzed from the chest and below with little to no core control. Physical and occupational therapists were available in the room to provide additional support for everyone to fully participate and feel comfortable.

Sarol has observed an absence of conversations around disabled people engaging in Pilates, which is why it meant so much for Bodybar to help her put on an event like this.

“All we need is for a studio and an instructor to be humble enough to say, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to do this, but we’re going to find a way to problem-solve and work your lived experience and expertise into this movement, and collaborate in such a way that we can honor your body and your gifts and talents,’” she said.

“That was really important to me … to see that they had a willingness to try and to let their ego down as instructors, as owners of a Pilates studio, and truly welcome me into their studio,” Sarol added.

Does Pilates Have an Accessibility Problem?

When it comes to accessibility in Pilates, Sarol argues the most important issues are ones that most people wouldn’t pick up on. While there are obvious physical components of studios — like closed reformers and narrow or blocked pathways — that aren’t welcoming for wheelchair users, she sees the inclusivity gap running deeper than that.

“The biggest gap is one that can’t be visible,” Sarol said.

Disabled people don’t often see wheelchair users, let alone instructors, in Pilates studios, which leads many to believe those spaces aren’t meant for them.

“My goal was to create an environment where disabled people weren’t just accommodated, but to genuinely consider them in the design of the experience,” she said. “Every detail, from equipment being arranged to bringing in PTs and OTs for support, was carefully thought of using my lived experience, but also listening to my community and what they have to say from what they want in a space like this.”

When Sarol saw that the event’s spots filled up within a week, she realized there was a demand among disabled people for Pilates classes — they just hadn’t had the opportunity before.

Seeing that immediate interest has inspired Sarol’s future ambitions for what inclusive fitness can look like. Now, her eyes are set on expanding such classes to other Bodybar studios and, ideally, a national tour one day, as well as building a training program for other instructors to create inclusive classes.

“My goal has always been to normalize disabled people into a space like this,” she said. “Success for me would be when disabled people can finally feel like spaces like this were built for them.”

The Pilates Inclusivity Debate

While Sarol looks to expand the definition of who Pilates is really meant for, other groups and identities are also questioning the modality’s historical inclusivity and the societal connotations it has adopted over time.

As The 19th reported, social media creators promoting Pilates have also cultivated distinct aesthetics and lifestyles seen as aspirational for other women. Absent from those posts are, typically, women of color, putting into question how accessible and welcoming the boutique modality is for diverse backgrounds.

“I think it’s an intimidating space for most of the population,” Pilates instructor Emily Philips told ATN. 

Philips is an outspoken advocate for body type inclusivity in Pilates, especially as Pilates is often marketed towards thin, upper-class white women (although brands like Bodybar and Club Pilates are aiming to shift that narrative).

“The Pilates world is marketed to people that are skinny,” she added. “There’s not a lot of education behind the marketing, which tends to confuse people. If people are overweight, they think Pilates isn’t for them.”

Philips also sees an issue from a financial standpoint, with costly classes and memberships that price out many potential clients — especially women of color.

That’s something Sonja Herbert, founder of Black Girl Pilates, thinks about a lot as an instructor.

“I think the question has been, for the Black community, how are we still able to feed our families, provide a space for our own community, but not make it so inexpensive that nothing can get paid?” Herbert told ATN. “Do I think that happens outside the Black community? No, I don’t.”

Herbert said she’s observed more Black-owned studios and Black instructors than ever before, which carves out a place in the market where people of color feel more welcomed into Pilates than they did previously.

“I would say that in our own spaces, we’re going to be more inclusive because we’re happy to see each other there in our own Blackness,” she explained.

“Right now the trend is surface-level inclusivity,” Herbert noted. She does appreciate that big franchises and gyms incorporating their own reformer Pilates classes are exposing the modality to a larger population, however, and Black-owned franchises will often feel more inclusive among Black clientele.

Herbert underscored Philips’ argument about body type inclusivity, explaining that many Black women she knows feel they have to “get in shape” before even attending a Pilates class. That discomfort extends to queer and transgender people as well, she pointed out, who may feel uncomfortable being themselves in those spaces.

Both Philips and Herbert are optimistic about where the Pilates industry is headed, though.

“I’m seeing a lot more demographic diversity than I had a year ago,” Philips said.

“There’s a lot of assumptions and a lot of gray area when it comes to this field,” she added. “My main priority and goal is to send the message that Pilates is truly for everybody. A lot of people don’t feel welcomed because they haven’t tried it.”

Philips believes that because the modality is trending so much, more people are willing to try it — it’s just up to instructors and brands to make that space feel inclusive for all backgrounds. She sees mat Pilates, which she teaches, as a more accessible, less intimidating format growing in popularity as more mat-focused studios open.

Herbert, for her part, thinks that the Black community is going through its own “renaissance” in Pilates.

“The Black community is doing things I never thought I would have seen twenty years ago,” she said.

Elsewhere, there’s a gender-focused debate roaring on social media, as the New York Times highlighted. On one hand, some argue the rise of Pilates is a rejection of the growing interest in weightlifting and strength training among women, specifically workouts that encourage building visible muscle mass, as opposed to losing weight or aspiring for thinner, toned bodies.

Some of the loudest voices favoring Pilates for women are men, who are taking to social media to argue Pilates girls are more likely to embrace traditional gender roles, perceiving the exercise as a more feminine workout in studios dominated by women

Regardless of the conflicting perceptions of what Pilates means for gender, race, class and ability, these debates are sparking conversation about accessibility in boutique fitness among a modality whose growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon.