| Submit your comments on this article | |||
| -Land of the Free | |||
| I took the first-of-its-kind ‘Pistols and Pilates' class ‐ and it left me sweating bullets | |||
| 2026-05-26 | |||
| [NYPost] This fitness class had me sweating bullets. Nothing quite prepared me for going from pelvic tilts to learning how to grip a pistol — and then testing my aim at a firing range — all in the course of a Friday night. But that’s just what I did during a first-of-its-kind, women-only “Pistols and Pilates” class in the Chicago suburb of Oak Forest, Ill. Word of the core-building-meets-ballistics mashup has gone viral in the Pilates world since Eagle Sports Range recently started advertising its special classes. Manager Aseel Halloub,
“In the gun world, you do have a lot of women who just want to protect themselves,’’ she said. It was also built around challenging stereotypes, according to Vivian Tadros, owner of Olive Pilates Studio and co-host of the event. “Pilates has been known just to be for women, but men do it now – and guns are known for being men-only, but it shouldn’t be just one gender for each,” Tadros said, hinting at how the unlikely pairing taps into two broader cultural shifts happening across the US.
Pilates – a domain long considered to include predominantly young, liberal, white women – has meanwhile exploded across demographics, with nationwide participation growing 40% since 2019 — as everyone from pro athletes to retirees and suburbanites join studios in nearly every corner of the country. Curious about how the seemingly counter-intuitive collision of Pilates and gun training would actually play out, I joined 24 other ladies ranging in their 20s to middle-aged for the planks and plinking on Friday. Many of the women did not neatly fit the stereotypes of individuals often associated with either community. Things kicked off with what I thought would be innocent enough: an hourlong mat Pilates class. It was the kind of workout class where the instructor cheerfully chirps, “Small movements!” and, “Just a few more reps!” while every muscle in your body feels personally attacked. We were encouraged to maintain the breathing and body control we’d just practiced while transitioning into a two-hour gun-safety course from tough-as-nails range trainer Nora Elkhatib.
About half the class raised their hands when Elkhatib asked who already held Illinois concealed-carry permits, but only a couple of the women said they owned their own firearms. A few had never shot a gun before. Though my outdoorsman father had taken me shooting back home in northern Idaho a handful of times growing up, I felt terrifyingly underqualified when Elkhatib soon instructed us to retrieve unloaded .22-caliber pistols from the front table. | |||
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #3 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2026-05-26 15:01 |
| #2 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2026-05-26 14:50 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2026-05-26 11:05 |