Walk into any fitness studio today and you are likely to find Pilates on the timetable. It might be mat Pilates, reformer Pilates, Pilates fusion, Pilates HIIT, hot Pilates, or something else entirely. The word has become so broadly applied that it now covers an enormous range of practices — some of which bear little resemblance to what Joseph Pilates actually created.

This is not a minor distinction. What you practice, how you practice it, and what system it is built upon will determine what you get from it. So if you are choosing a Pilates practice — or reconsidering the one you already have — it is worth understanding what classical Pilates is, what contemporary Pilates is, and why the difference matters more than the wellness industry tends to admit.