The number of participants in pilates and yoga have exceeded their pre-pandemic levels, after peaking during the pandemic, according to data from Sport England’s Active Lives survey.
While many forms of at-home exercise reached their highest participation during 2019/20, many have since dropped off, such as running or circuit training.
Running in particular reached a low of just over seven and a half million people in 2022/23, compared to its peak of nine and a half million in 2019/20 and just below nine million in 2015/16.
This is 19% lower in 2022/23 than in 2019/20, and 13% lower than in 2015/16.
This can be contrasted with pilates and yoga – yoga decreased by 15% between 2019/20 and 2022/23, but grew by more than a third between 2015/16 and 2022/23.
Pilates had the lowest decrease between 2019/20 and 2022/23, only a 9% dip, and increased by 16% between 2015/16 and 2022/23.
East Twickenham-based Authentic Pilates teacher Victoria Hinds explained why she felt pilates had continued to be so popular, including why there was so much uptake during lockdown.
She said: “You don’t have to be outside – in fact, we don’t really do pilates outdoors so much.
“It’s often a form of exercise that you don’t necessarily have to watch, you can listen. There’s a lot of auditory elements, especially as you become more experienced.
“It’s really an all-encompassing exercise, in the sense that it concentrates your mind, so I think there’s a lot of mindfulness in it.
“When you’re exercising, you can’t think about work or housework or whatever else is going on in your life.
“That can be deemed as a relaxation element of it.”
Hinds believes that people are drawn to pilates due to the hands-on, accessible, and social nature of the sport.
She said: “Anyone can do it. The equipment like the reformer, the cadillac, they are structured in a way that everything is linear, so if somebody can’t stand up, or if somebody has an issue where their balance is not very good, they can do a lot of stuff lying down which is not necessarily mat-work.
“Once the pandemic was over, people were desperate to come back.
“Not just because they wanted the hands-on from me, I think they wanted the socialisation that comes with doing a group class.”
Pilates instructor and content creator Cami Sophia also believes the social aspect of the sport is an appealing factor.
She said: “A lot of people are more focused on wellness and health, it’s a really nice way to socialise, be part of a community, get dressed up still, and also work your body, and show your body some love.”
Cami has a large following on social media, with 446k followers on Instagram (@camisophiaaaaa) and 589k on TikTok (@camisophiaaaa).
During lockdown, TikTok saw a huge increase in users, and was the world’s most-downloaded app in 2020.
This opened up a new platform for wellness content creators to post and share videos.
Cami believes pilates, especially with its increasing prevalence on social media, has provided a way for people, especially women, to connect and embrace their femininity, and believes this is why participation has continued to rise.
She has also used her platform to redefine what ‘healthy’ means.
She said: “It’s just allowed women to wear pink unapologetically.
“For me, I’ve definitely used my platform to have a narrative of: ‘do pilates, you’ll feel good in yourself, your confidence is going to go up because you’re doing things actively to make yourself feel good, and help your wellbeing, and look after your body.’
“Obviously it takes time, but I think I definitely use my platform to show that a healthy body is not one-size-fits-all.
“Maybe five years ago, social media was probably a little bit more of a scary place, with strict calories and having to look a certain way to be deemed as healthy, but it’s just not the case, and I want to use my page to show that you can be any size and still be healthy.”
Jordan Wynn Ofwono, HFEH Mind mental health assistant, discussed the mental and wellbeing benefits of exercise.
He said: “It doesn’t matter whether you’re an Olympic athlete, or whether you’re going to the gym for the first time in your life, or doing the first push-ups of your life.
“When you do something that’s challenging, and you push yourself to do it, it builds up the mental resilience, in terms of you get more comfortable being uncomfortable.
“As well as the brain chemicals that are released, such as dopamine and serotonin, and these are just chemicals that are released that make you feel better.
“So naturally when you work out, the chemicals that are released are going to make you feel more at peace, more calm, and even happier.”
Men’s Mind project coordinator for HFEH Mind Jason Ho said: “It’s also about preventing things.
“You’re stuck at home, if you can do exercise, it prevents a lot of anxiety, depression, when you start doing these things.”
HFEH Mind head of marketing and communications Nicholas Smith believes there has been a change in the online health and wellbeing environment, and while there is still work to be done, the overall shift has been positive.
He said: “There’s definitely been a positive shift.
“We can see that from the major brands in the way that they’re approaching a lot of new fashion trends and integrating diversity – both ethnic variety right through to the shapes and sizes of people, and bridging that gap.
“I think there’s still a lot of work to be done in that space, and there aren’t that many big fashion brands that are tackling that space, but it’s a great start that some of them are.”
“It’s of paramount importance that we do have companies and brands working positively in that space, and then championing that ‘healthy’ for each individual is a completely different aspect.”
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