Pilates and celebrities go hand in hand. The reason is simple: Pilates creates a lean, healthy, strong body.
Celebrities (athletes, supermodels, actors) undergo rigorous fitness regimens to help sculpt their bodies. Like most of us, they are not looking to ‘bulk up’, seeking rather to create long, lean muscles that provide added health benefits in addition to an attractive appearance. This is one of the core reasons you’re seeing more and more athletes, actors, and models turn to pilates for a healthy, attractive appearance.
Pilates has become especially popular among professional football players looking for an edge. The Washington Redskins and the Pittsburgh Steelers have both incorporated Pilates into their training regimens. Pilates emphasizes elongating muscles and creating space between joints, while building stability through isometric holds and controlled eccentric and concentric movements. The following NFL receivers are using Pilates to their advantage, some as a complement to their weight training, and some as their primary method of strength training.
Calvin Johnson
Tom Shaw introduced, 6-foot-5, 240-pound receiver Calvin Johnson to pilates hoping to supplement all of the hard work they'd been doing on the field with something that might relieve muscle tension and tightness. He primarily focused on core strength, muscle efficiency, balance, and hip and hamstring flexibility.
Nate Burleson
When Nate Burleson was with the Detroit Lions, he got hooked on Pilates as a way to counteract tightness from his weight lifting routine. From his very first session, he felt a "tremendous" difference in the way his body was feeling.
"Lifting just makes you tight," Burleson told CBS Detroit. He also said that Pilates had not only made his muscles more flexible, it also benefited his ligaments and tendons with more "give."
"What most guys are doing now, they're using it as a preventative measure, so it's almost like 'prehab' in a sense," Burleson continued. "Most guys, especially if you've been in the league for a while, your off day is a subtle work day. You're doing some type of work to keep your body as loose and limber as possible."
