Five years ago, when knee problems started getting the better of Brad Meiers, managing director of TD Securities Inc. in Toronto, he took his wife’s advice and signed up for private lessons at a Pilates studio in his neighbourhood. But it was something he avoided sharing with co-workers in the trading room. “At the beginning, I took a lot of abuse,” he says.

Long considered the preferred form of exercise for professional dancers, low-impact Pilates simply was not on the radar for guys who pride themselves on weight-lifting goals and aggressive sports.

“When I first started Pilates, there were no men doing it whatsoever,” Meiers says of his early experiences at a studio in downtown Toronto. “It was very male-unfriendly.” But today, he says, at least five colleagues also practise Pilates on a regular basis.

The reason? Pilates works, according to Meiers, 42. “It took only a few classes before I really started to notice,” he says. As with all cumulative injuries, his knee pain, provoked by years of soccer and other sports, had caused other problems, particularly with his lower back. Pilates’ series of controlled movements, done with precision and with the intent of building flexibility and core strength while balancing the muscles, addressed his pain in short order, he says. The program’s focus on muscle control has had other benefits, as well. “I took about seven or eight strokes off my golf game in no time at all.”

Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates, a German who began developing the program as an intern during the Second World War, when he worked as a physical therapist in a hospital in England. He would rig up patient beds so they could exercise their muscles even while injured. After the war, he moved to the U.S., where he met his wife, a nurse. Together they opened a studio that was popular with dancers and actors. He developed equipment that could help injured performers improve muscle tone and flexibility without exacerbating pain or injury.

According to Liam Day-Lavelle, president of the Pilates Association of Canada in Victoria, there are several Pilates methods, each stemming from the individual teachers who worked with Joseph Pilates at his studio. “The Pilates elders got together and discovered that he taught them different things,” he says.

The central ideas of the exercise methods are the same — core strength, spine alignment and breathing play a large role in the various styles of Pilates. As a rule of thumb, according to Day-Lavelle, the West Coast style tends to rely more on breathing and releasing, while the East Coast methods focus more on physical exertion, which is considered a more classic take on Pilates. Both styles are legitimate, he says.

“It’s a very specific exercise program,” says Laura Helsel, owner of Riverdale Pilates in Toronto. Helsel, a former dancer, says the method requires very precise movements, and the series of exercises, on mats and machines that are spring-operated, involve quality over quantity.

“People say that they can do 100 crunches but they would only be able to do 15 Pilates moves,” she says. “You get more out of it.”

Her youngest client is 16 and her oldest is 80, although members fall predominantly in the 35 to 60 age group. Because the moves require so much attention to detail — it takes time for beginners to get the proper form and breathing down — she recommends private classes for beginners. Group classes are kept to a maximum of five people. “It is better to invest in 10 private sessions than 50 group classes,” she says. “It has to be specified to your injury and posture.”

Helsel’s studio focuses on rehabilitation, with a physiotherapist and massage therapist on staff, but one of the benefits of Pilates, she says, is that anyone can do it. People with injuries or chronic diseases and conditions benefit from a program designed for their needs, while others might use the method on a weekly basis to prevent injury, keep stress at bay or simply improve their overall health and fitness.

Says Helsel: “I don’t know if there’s anyone we haven’t been able to work with.” IE