Welcome to the April edition of Pilates Central News.

In this edition:

• Luxury Pilates
• Cycle of life
• Ed space
• Man at work

Luxury Pilates

Season three of HBO show The White Lotus has captivated the nation and several of its stars are lovers of Pilates. One star enjoying Pilates in Thailand, where White Lotus was filmed, was Parker Posey, who as Victoria Ratliff wowed everyone with her fantastic North Carolinian accent. She told the Daily Mail about discovering self-care in Thailand: “I wasn’t good at all that until now, but now I had all these massages, I got on board with all the supplements I needed, I did sound baths, reiki, Pilates. It felt needed. And the Thai culture is just so wise.”

While Aimee Lou Wood, who plays Mancunian optimist Chelsea, revealed to the Times that working hard on a new project she saw some friends having brunch at a gym: “I just wanted to burst into tears. I want to sit with my friends and have a chat and do a Pilates class. Oh my God, that must feel like the best thing in the world, to have the choice.”

Michelle Monaghan, who as Jaclyn and impressed viewers with her poolside body, is another fan. Her real-life Pilates instructor Jacqui Kingswell was quick to post pics of Monaghan doing Pilates on Instagram, commenting: “Absolutely love training the beautiful @michellemonaghan. Our sessions are all about sculpting and toning those all important assets (abs, booty and arms) so she feels strong confident and camera ready for her role. We keep it fun and dynamic with high energy workouts that get her sweating, sculpting and ready to glow!”

On TV the high-end White Lotus hotel offers a lot of biometric testing, meditation, massage and digital detox, but strangely no on-screen Pilates. Though that might be for the best considering the body count. Perhaps it’s safer to check in to Pilates Central.

Cycle of life

The Guardian recently featured, “Five activities you might love — and how you should be supplementing them.” One of these was cycling, described as a “superb cardiovascular exercise” helping to build leg strength and muscle mass by Exeter-based Pilates teacher and triathlete Georgia Vaines.

But cycling did risk getting some injuries, added Vaines: “Common injuries include shoulder dysfunction caused by all that time hunched over the bars, lower back and knee pain, weak back extensors, tight hip flexors… If you cycle without any form of cross-training, you are likely to get injured. It’s just too much of a repetitive movement pattern in a very limited plane of motion.”

So cyclists need to work on their stability, added Vaines and her solution was to keep pedalling with Pilates. She explained: “Pilates is a fantastic tool for cyclists because you are going to strengthen the core stabilisers of the pelvis and spine, mobilise your hips and your thoracic spine, and restore elasticity to muscles such as the hip flexors. This is also going to help you carry your groceries to the door without shoulder pain and swing your grandkids without herniating a disc.” Clearly cyclists need to plan a bit of Pilates while packing their panniers.

Ed space

“Ed Sheeran makes Pilates look easy as his Reformer workout goes viral,” reports the Daily Mirror. Ed is the latest celebrity to slide on to the Reformer Pilates lifestyle. Pilates studio ML Reformed shared a TikTok video of Ed on the Reformer, lifting weights, stretching his legs and showing off his tattoos while getting 400,000 plus views. The video text reads: “We are so proud to be working with Ed on his health, fitness and nutrition in 2025 and beyond. Whilst on his World Tour our founder Matt has introduced Ed to the transformative benefits of Dynamic Reformer Pilates as part of his workout routine.” are so proud to be working with Ed on his health, fitness and nutrition in 2025 and beyond.

Witty comments on the video include, “Didn’t have Ed Sheeran down as a Pilates Princess”,  “He looks like Ed Sheeran”, “Let’s go fit king. Making it look easier than it is”, “See how he doesn’t tremble, a real Pilates girly” and “We love a Pilates king.” All proof that real men and songwriters do Pilates and rather apt for a man who sings Shape of You and is now in the Pilates A Team.

Man at work

The Queen’s son, Tom Parker Bowles, is continuing his unlikely conversion to “squats, tricep and bicep curls, leg presses, lunges, planks and, yes, those damned side planks” in the Daily Mail’s You magazine. The former bon vivant has “joined the Reformer party” and is now a regular at a London Pilates studio. He makes some good points about Pilates being not just for women. Tom struggles to see the likes of James Bonds Sean Connery and Roger Moore doing Pilates, but actually finds his class very welcoming: “Far from being some West London version of Mean Girls, I’m neither ostracised nor ridiculed for my Y-chromosome. We’re all in this together, peace, love and Pilates.” 

Parker-Bowles doesn’t need designer gear either, writing that “while all my fellow reformer devotees are mainly lithe young women, clad in Lululemon, Bamford activewear and Alo Yoga, I shamble about in an old pair of sweat shorts and fraying Tabasco T-shirt.” All he recommends is a pair of grippy socks.

Tom says he has found muscles he didn’t know existed and admits, “Where once I sneered, I now bow down. In a slow, controlled way, of course.” Though in fact he rather loses control as he eulogises about Pilates, declaring: “Reformer Pilates is a revelation, a salve and salvation. I may be a hippopotamus in a world of gazelles, but I’m a long way from being the elephant in the room.”

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The Pilates Central Team