Pilates is Sooo Hard! And Boring According to SNL!

Pilates in 2025 is the most popular exercise that still manages to confuse people. Unlike me, most of today’s fans haven’t been doing it for 60 years, so they don’t know the real story: for most of those years, people despised it. Before “wellness” became a billion-dollar branding machine, Pilates was that weird thing nobody wanted to do. In fact, back in the ’90s, when I tried to revive it via my very early (and tragically underappreciated) version of an Insta reboot, the health club crowd basically laughed in my face and told me it wasn’t real exercise. And, to be fair, Pilates had basically died when Joe Pilates died in 1967. Of course, one could argue it was never really alive—between 1926, when he brought it to the U.S., and his death, the number of people practicing it could have fit inside your pocket with room to spare.

Some of that was due to the lack of a fitness industry. People weren’t into working out. Women avoided sweating like it was contagious. But even when the exercise boom hit, Pilates wasn’t the first thing people turned to. They were far more interested in torturing their calories into submission. Now, of course, people either love it or dramatically sigh about how it is “soooo hard” while still not fully understanding it. That’s why I’m launching a series of talks to finally clear things up once and for all.

At its core (pun intended), Pilates embodies the concept of tensegrity—a word hardly anyone knows, and this includes most Pilates teachers. For beginners, this is mainly oppositional movement from the four limbs, which begins in our center. So that’s why everyone references the core.

The other issue is proprioception, which The New York Times wrote about this very week! Of course, I and other Pilates pros talk about this concept all the time. I guess that the Times wellness staff—wellness bitches, one and all—are desperate for materials, so this is why they decided to cover such a complicated thought. We know about our five senses, but no one discusses how to feel where we are in space. Dancers and other athletes know this naturally. Most real people are clueless. Let’s be honest: the average exerciser doesn’t always connect their mind and body, no matter how much they love talking about “mindful movement.”

Practically, it means that when supine on the Reformer, a person may not be centered on the carriage and yet is totally unaware. Since Pilates studios don’t have mirrors on the ceilings, a person has to feel where they are. So teaching this is a long way off.

Another point is that Pilates is about balancing the body—not just the core. The whole “powerhouse” idea has put too much focus on the front of the body. Of course, now we teach that movement originates from the center, but not just the belly button area: it’s the front and back of the body. Now, after decades of crunching themselves into oblivion, people are finally realizing they need to work their backs, too. That’s evolution and why we now have Tye4X—a wearable Reformer that helps develop proprioception by enabling tensegrity—let’s call it oppositional movement.

So Tye4X—the wearable Reformer—weighs eight ounces, while most actual machines are almost 200 pounds and occupy half a room! Unfortunately, so many “workouts” led to so much damage and extra pounds. Essentially, too many bodies have been subjected to workouts that were basically controlled demolition. Pilates isn’t just back—it’s the survival guide we didn’t know we needed.

Watch a non-athlete use TYE4 to improve flexibility here.

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