How Pilates helped transform Adele’s body – The Australian

A slimmed-down Adele, centre, with the Spice Girls.
A slimmed-down Adele, centre, with the Spice Girls.

If Adele’s dramatic weight loss is startling, the way in which she achieved it may come as more of a surprise. While her split from her husband, Simon Konecki, will probably have contributed to the stone (6.3kg) she has reportedly lost — there’s nothing like a breakup to accelerate fat burning — the singer has credited reformer Pilates, a fitness hangover from the 1990s, as being the main reason for her transformation.

Performed with methodical repetition on unfashionably chunky equipment, reformer Pilates is as far removed from the present crop of trendy, full-throttle workouts in sleek minimalist studios as you can imagine. Yet it never really went away. There is a dedicated tribe of sharply sculpted women who swear by its effects.

In Los Angeles reformer Pilates is accepted as the fitness principle that underpins the pursuit of an A-list body.

Adele in 2017. Picture: AFP
Adele in 2017. Picture: AFP

Miranda Kerr and Kate Hudson post images of their routines on a reformer, while Shanina Shaik, a Victoria’s Secret model, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Bosworth and Michelle Obama are among those who have claimed it helps to keep their bodies lean and taut.

In London, cafes in affluent, leafy enclaves such as Barnes and Hampstead are packed with glossy 30-somethings sipping almond lattes after their reformer classes. Studios that offer the original or a souped-up version of the equipment are very popular.

On the conveyor belt of cliched classes churned out by the fitness industry, it is a no-nonsense workout, which, with TRX, barre training and yoga, has stood the test of time for one reason: it works.

A Pilates reformer workout in progress.
A Pilates reformer workout in progress.

While the gleaming, candle-scented studios in which it is performed may have moved on since Joseph Pilates developed his method in the 1930s, its principles have not.

His system of exercises, which he called “contrology”, used bedsprings to create the rehabilitation and conditioning equipment that have become today’s reformer, a machine with springs, pulleys and levers that remains the centre of proper Pilates.

It can be alarming to look at and precision training takes some getting used to in today’s mad-dash workout world, but the appeal is obvious once you try it.

I was first strapped into a reformer a decade ago, when Madonna credited it for her phen­omenal physique at 50. I’ve flirted with every fitness class that has come along since, but this and running have proved my winning combination. I never get injured and feel stronger and less lopsided. It is a way of getting strength, flexibility and prehab in one hit.

What you need to know about the reformer is that it is undeniably and unexpectedly tough. One of the reasons so many physiotherapists love the machine is because it gradually adds resistance to your body weight, enabling you to strengthen your core and limbs. Your muscles will shake and your abs will quiver after even a half hour on one of the machines.

Joseph Pilates’ original studio in New York was a mecca for ballet dancers and gymnasts looking to improve strength and muscle control, and to create lean and lengthy limbs — and the reasons for doing it haven’t changed.

Regulars claim that you get this and more — better balance and flexibility, a reduction in lower-back pain, the tightest glutes and an impressively muscular core. It’s when I don’t do it that I notice the difference. I feel hunched and tire more easily, my running suffers and I ache all over afterwards.

Louise Parker, whose client list includes the Duchess of Cambridge and Emma Thompson, says the reformer is underestimated by people who have yet to try it.

“It is fantastic for injury prevention and rehab, dealing with chronic-pain issues and also, quite simply, for producing delicate yet lean and strong bodies with the support of the bed and the springs as resistance,” Parker says. “It requires real concentration of effort and is absolutely not a doddle.”

Gaby Noble, the founder of Exhale Pilates in Chalk Farm, north London — where Kate Moss, Harry Styles, Sadie Frost and Jools Oliver are regulars — increasingly works with footballers and professional athletes, who use it for long-term injury prevention.

“When you look at someone like Adele, who has obviously done a lot of reformer work, her weight loss is largely down to the fact that she is able to control her body from a very strong foundation,” Noble says.

“A problem with today’s fitness market is that it produces workouts that target isolated muscles. But the reformer stretches and strengthens even the smallest muscles so that you are better equipped to add in other forms of exercise that help you lose weight, such as aerobic activity. Pilates enables you to train harder all round.”

Chris Watson, a founder of Zero Gravity Pilates, which opens its fifth studio in Britain this year, says the thing most people who try it notice first is that their posture improves.

They feel — and look — taller.

“During the early weeks people tell us that they feel better on the inside and that they have less aches and pains,” he says.

“Often the physical sculpting and the changes in their appearance are the last thing they notice.”

But by that time they are most likely hooked. “Joseph Pilates said that in 10 sessions you will feel better, in 20 you will look better and after 30 sessions you will have a completely new body,” Noble says.

“It is the truth and I have seen people change beyond ­recognition,” she says.

The Times

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