NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Talks About How Pilates Has Helped

You could say that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell really wanted to get to the core of things when he attended the “Forward and Up NYC 2025” conference on August 29. There, he got a Pilates session with Daria Pace, a grandmaster instructor trainer and Principal Officer for Romana’s Pilates International, which organized the event. He even got the Cadillac treatment—meaning that Pace guided him through various movements to strengthen his core muscles on a Pilates device called the Cadillac.
Goodell Has Been Doing Pilates For 18 Years
There, Goodell talked to me about his experience with Pilates, which began around 18 years ago, when, as he related, “My brother Michael had been an instructor for quite a while and got me into it." Goodell continued by saying, “It was completely different than any kind of exercise I was used to, which is what I think intrigued me and is right for me. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen the need for something different, something with stretching, strengthening and fitness."
He typically does Pilates twice a week, usually early in the morning to accommodate his busy schedule and many commitments as NFL Commissioner, a position he has held since September 1, 2006, after Paul Tagliabue’s retirement. Pilates has long been a core part—pun partially intended—of his regular physical activity regimen that includes hot yoga, rowing and biking as well. He values Pilates as, “My time, where I can focus on myself.” He also added that Pilates has helped him feel “great. When you feel better, when you are in shape is physically, mentally and emotionally, you can better handle any kind of challenge. So I think it has been very helpful."
Goodell Estimated That 10 Percent Of NFL Players Do Pilates
Now, as Pace indicated, one of the stereotypes of Pilates is that it’s only for women. But there is really no reason why this should be the case for Pilates—which consists of different low-impact movements to strengthen your core muscles, increase your flexibility, improve your posture and give you more awareness of your body in general. Last I checked men also have core muscles, postures and bodies in general. Goodell’s longtime practicing of Pilates certainly counters that stereotype. In addition, Goodell estimated that around 10% of NFL players regularly do Pilates for “conditioning, also recovery.”
Goodell continued with, “Our players are among the greatest athletes in the world, they know how to take care of themselves, not only exercise, but also recovery." He talked about how many players regularly do Pilates along with things like yoga, massage therapy and acupuncture. “I’ve listened to our players about what they do and I try to implement some myself,” said Goodell. He elaborated, “Some of the teams have the facilities for Pilates and some don’t. Some of the players do it with the teams, and some do it separately.”
One of the reasons men might not do Pilates is that it can be a stretch, so to speak, to get them to consider and even realize all the muscles that really matter to health and function. It can be easy to focus solely on the muscles that you regularly see in the mirror such as the biceps, pecs and quads. Goodell explained, “When I grew up, the focus was more on the larger muscles, but Pilates helped me get to know muscles that I never knew I had, stretching them, strengthening them, and I actually learned how to use them.” He also emphasized how “in everyday life, you pick something up, you move somewhere, Pilates teaches you how to use your core. The core is really where almost everything starts.”
How Did Pilates Originated And Grow
Where Pilates started was with Joseph Pilates, hence the name. While in his native Germany, Pilates had developed a set of exercises that he had originally called “Contrology.” Them while immigrating to the U.S. in the mid-1920s, he met his future wife Clara. Together, they started a studio in New York City, where they taught well into the 1960s what would eventually become Pilates. Over time, their teachings and practices garnered quite a following that stretched well beyond NYC and the U.S.
Among their students in the studio was Romana Kryzanowska, yes, the Romana after which Romana Pilates International was named because she founded RPI. In fact, the Pilates couple passed their original studio to Kryzanowska. Kryzanowska’s daughter Sari Mejia Santo spent her early years with the Pilates and then became a grandmaster herself. Santo subsequently had a daughter, and guess who that daughter is? Yes, Pace. “Joseph Pilates called my mom and her brother his Pilates babies,” said Pace. “So I'm a second generation Pilates baby,”
Santo was at “Forward and Up NYC 2025” as well, where they celebrated her 80th birthday. Santo described to me how Clara Pilates had taken Santo “under her wing” and how Pilates has helped her in her daily life “in everything. Nerves, mentally, physically because you create with an individual, you tailor to each individual.”
What Exactly Is Pilates
Over the years, I’ve written in Forbes about a number of different fitness approaches, movements and trends. Some are fairly easy to define. For example, a fart walk is when you walk and fart. Wearing a weighted vest is wearing a vest that had weights in it. Others encompass a greater range and variety of movements and exercises like Pilates. While strengthening the core may be at the core of Pilates, Pilates really encompasses a collection of many different controlled, low-impact exercises designed to improve flexibility, strength and muscle tone rather than build muscle bulk. Pilates for one person can be quite different from Pilates for another person.
Pace showed me how the first thing a Pilates trainer will do is assess your particular strengths and weaknesses. This is often done by having you try different movements on a Pilates machine called the Reformer, pictured here:
John Riccitiello and Elizabeth Osterman, the majority owners of Gratz Pilates, a longtime supplier of Pilates equipment that sponsored “Forward and Up NYC 2025,” pointed out and described to me other commonly used Pilates apparatuses. These included equipment with rather memorable names like the Electric Chair and, of course, the Cadillac seen here:
And if you are “wundaring” what’s pictured next, it’s called the Wunda Chair:
Of course, you don’t necessarily need all of this equipment to do Pilates. You can do a variety of Pilates movements on blankets or mats instead, as can be seen here:
There is significant variety even on a given surface or piece of equipment. Pace put several different people through the paces of different things on the Cadillac for example, ranging from some beginner movements to some rather acrobatic moves performed by a woman visiting from South Korea that looked a lot like gymnastics. “We can see all sorts of crazy things, and we really can do the crazy things but we make sure it’s for the body,” explained Pace. “We help an individual. We see the weaknesses, whatever they might be, and we see how to improve on that individual’s weaknesses, because everybody’s different.”
If you are thinking of starting Pilates, make sure that you do so with a reputable instructor who’s actually teaching real Pilates since there are people throwing the Pilates word around to describe lots of different stuff out there. Also, don’t expect to twisting around the Cadillac like a gymnast during your very first go at it. Goodell did say that “There is an adjustment period to learning Pilates." However, he emphasized, "If I can do Pilates, anyone can do it.” In other words, it probably wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to give it a try if you’d like.