Looking for the best Pilates studios in NYC? The mind-body exercise has been booming lately. In 2023, exercise class booking platform ClassPass reported that Pilates was the most popular workout of the year, and Google Trends found that searches for the term hit a five-year high. The surge in Pilates is not surprising. A low-impact workout that employs repetitive movements on a mat or reformer machine to tone muscles, Pilates can have transformative results. For many, it was also a welcome respite from the pre-pandemic fitness boom of grueling HIIT classes in dark rooms with ear-splitting music.
Whether you’re a dedicated Pilates enthusiast or a beginner looking to give Pilates a try, here are some of the best Pilates classes in New York City. Pilates is for everyone and every part of the body.
Forma Pilates was founded by Liana Levy in Los Angeles in the spring of 2020. She ran invitation-only classes in her mother’s pool house and quickly caught the attention of the likes of Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner. A year and a half later, and plenty of paparazzi photos later, Forma Pilates has become a full-fledged phenomenon on both coasts.
At its New York studio, the company has traded a pool house for a SoHo walkup, but the exclusivity remains. To book a class, someone must be introduced to Forma. “Most of our classes are regulars. We know them, we know their weaknesses, we know their strengths, and we know what they want to work on,” Levi previously said. trend“It’s an experience.”
If you manage to secure one of the 10 reformers, prepare for a muscle-shaking workout that will leave you sore for days afterwards.
More than 20 years of teaching have given Erica Bloom X-ray-like vision: an intuitive eye for the most subtle imbalances (one hamstring is longer than the other, say) and a finely tuned system for correcting them. Her sunny TriBeCa studio is quietly buzzing with private sessions. Her team’s certifications often go beyond expectations: posture assessments, osteoporosis protocols, injury prevention, prenatal and postnatal care. (Bloom happens to be a trained doula.) The hands-on work doesn’t stop at the muscular level. “We talk about fascia, the nervous system, stress response, diet and inflammation,” Bloom says of her holistic approach. While the city’s Pilates community seems eager to blend in other fitness methods, she’s keen to keep the focus on the lesser-known intrinsic muscles around the joints (including the muscles around the pelvis that “stabilize everything and make your butt look incredible”). For Bloom, who jokes that his “hippie California family” got him meditating from the age of 2, physical practice is another way to foster the mind-body connection.
Kimmy Kellam’s arrival on the Williamsburg Pilates scene a few years ago was an informal but upbeat start. On a rooftop overlooking the East River, she hosted early morning classes for friends twice a week. Soon she started renting spaces for her growing following, and in 2016 she set up shop on South First Street, hosting reformer and mat classes in a bright, cozy space. Two locations in Brooklyn opened soon after. At the center of her elegant studio is a wall-mounted springboard, which allows for a greater range of motion (and therefore “a core stability challenge,” she says) than the reformer, which has a dolly that slides over a track. Her modern take on Pilates has evolved to meet the wish lists of her patrons. Heart-rate-raising classes start with HIIT exercises like burpees and squats and end with classic mat Pilates, a current favorite. Pre- and post-natal classes also reflect the changes in clients’ lives. As an added perk, East River has three Australian-trained physiotherapists on staff who, Kellam says, are “very good Pilates instructors,” adding to their expertise in biomechanics and rehabilitation.
