Why Pilates is more than a New Year's resolution for some of the NFL's best

A crouched Will Anderson Jr. dug his heels into the turf at NRG Stadium, waiting on Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen to drop back on a "Thursday Night Football" matchup in Week 12.

It was third-and-6 early in the third quarter, and the Houston Texans' Pro Bowl defensive end was ready to make his mark -- again.

Once the ball was snapped, Anderson exploded off the line of scrimmage, immediately slapping right tackle Spencer Brown's hands down as he bent around Brown. Brown lunged in desperation, nearly dragging Anderson to the turf. But the 2023 No. 3 draft pick twisted and contorted his body, shaking free before jumping at Allen.

Anderson didn't bring Allen down on that attempt -- he escaped and scrambled away. Seconds later, though, Anderson recorded his second sack of the night as Houston won 23-19.

Anderson said his flexibility to bend around Brown en route to the hit on Allen was credited to one thing: Pilates.

Yes, Pilates -- the one that everyday people use as a mind-body exercise. The one that stretches the core of folks in all kinds of directions.

So as millions across the globe brought in 2026 with New Year's resolutions on their minds, studies show that health and fitness are among the highest desired goals.

Pilates anyone?

Anderson has been doing the roughly 60-minute exercise since 2024, and it's helped his flexibility as he "embraces the tackle trying to push me around the corner."

"That play shows the core strength," Anderson told ESPN of the sack on Allen. "I was able to turn the corner and to be able to just pop back up and not stay on the ground. Pilates has been really good, opening up these muscles, being able to turn the corner."

PILATES IS A low-impact training method designed to build core strength, enhance posture, improve flexibility and reinforce controlled, efficient movement through reformers using spring resistance instead of weights. Reformers are bed-like machines with a sliding carriage, springs, straps and a foot bar.

It emphasizes core stability through the abdominals, lower back, hips and glutes -- muscle groups that are constantly engaged on a football field for balance and power.

Stars across the NFL use Pilates: from All-Pros such as Denver Broncos edge rusher Nik Bonitto to San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner, and even New England Patriots wideout Stefon Diggs has been seen using it. Diggs went viral during the 2024 summer -- when he was a Texan -- for a humorous clip where he fell off a Pilates reformer machine during a workout with Leonard Fournette.

STEFON DIGGS JUST FELL OFF THE PILATES MACHINE😭💀💀 pic.twitter.com/G0WrCrmabH

More and more players have leaned on the core-strengthening discipline because it enhances balance and overall body control. Many of the exercises place the body in deliberately uncomfortable holding positions, forcing stabilizing muscles to fire continuously -- often causing the body to shake or tremble under the strain.

Ashley Bartlett has been a Pilates instructor for the past eight years after doing yoga for 13. Bartlett is based in southern Ohio and has seen her fair share of Cincinnati Bengals players, starting with former safety Vonn Bell in 2020. Years later, she's racked up 23 clients from the Bengals -- most notably cornerback DJ Turner II, who is second in the NFL in pass breakups (18) this season.

Bartlett leads various exercises, but the one she does the most is "skaters" to help strengthen groins and stretch abductors. It is a single leg squat on the reformer, then moves the bed out with one leg to stabilize them and bring the bed back to "the bumper" using control of their inner thighs and legs and glutes in a slow motion.

Bartlett believes Pilates is most effective for defensive lineman because they are holding their "lower body position with control."

"If I can make a defensive lineman do something very low in their body, it will start to become really natural and more stable for them," Bartlett said. "It helps with your flexibility and your mobility, your core strength. It definitely increases a lot of speed. I know people who do it will come here and then go and notice that they're moving better and faster on the field -- which is huge for every position."

Arizona Cardinals defensive back Garrett Williams noted that Pilates helps him with "change of direction" as well.

"I felt a lot more twitchy," Williams said. "I felt more reactive, and I felt like I was able to just get in different positions in the air to get the ball."

Players get nudges from all kinds of sources to do Pilates. Just look at Chicago Bears safety Elijah Hicks. His wife, like teammate Jonathan Owens' Olympic gold medal-winning wife Simone Biles, got him into it. Hicks now uses Pilates weekly for recovery, and it's something he's even gotten teammates involved with.

"She was an athlete, and she had ACLs and stuff, and she was like, '[it] helps with recovery, helps you get stronger, all that stuff,'" Hicks said. "So I gave her the chance, and I fell in love with it."

ANDERSON ISN'T THE only Texans defender who uses Pilates, and it's been a key regimen in the offseason and during the season for a defensive front that's racked up 46 sacks (fifth most) while holding the No. 1 rank in points allowed (16.8) and yards (274.4).

The only Texan truly against it is defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins. In 2019, he tore an Achilles on the same day he did Pilates. Even though Rankins believes there's no correlation, it's a superstitious thing for him.

Linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who was named to his first Pro Bowl does it, and defensive end Danielle Hunter started doing Pilates in 2018 when he was with the Minnesota Vikings.

For Hunter, it started in the offseason and carried into the season. The training helped him net 14.5 sacks that season, earning his first Pro Bowl and notching a second-team All-Pro nod.

"[Pilates] puts your body in unnatural positions in the game," Hunter said. "If you're in an unnatural position, you already got the strength from when you've trained through Pilates."

Los Angeles Rams outside linebacker Byron Young, who made his first Pro Bowl this season with 11 sacks, agrees. Young, a Pilates disciple, said he started doing it three to four days per week in February.

Young calls it a "new hobby" that's helped him add tone to his body because it has loosened his hips and knees while improving his overall conditioning.

"I definitely feel it a lot, just breathing and everything," Young said. "I'm feeling a lot leaner. On the field, I don't get as gassed -- in my form, in my technique, every time I'm in position, I can be in it for a longer period of time. Stability with my knees, when I'm in my stance, it's a lot easier and a lot smoother. Especially bending around the corners."

The difficult twisting motions during Pilates is something that Young remembers from his first session. Young felt almost ashamed that an NFL star edge rusher was having trouble with something that looks simple.

But Young remembered a proverb from his dad that helped him embrace the challenge.

"I remember I was like, '[My instructor's] trying to kill me,'" Young said. "I was shaking really badly, and I was kind of embarrassed at first because I'm a competitor and struggling at something. Being a professional athlete, I'm not used to that. My dad told me, 'If it's something that you are nervous about or struggling with, and you know you need it, I feel like you should attack it. Don't do everything you're good at.'"

If you ask Rams two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Jared Verse what allowed Young to break out in Year 3, Verse credits Pilates.

"I'm being dead serious. He's been so intentional with it," Verse said. "He's talking about how good it makes him feel after the fact and how good his trainer is and everything like that. He feels more flexible. He feels more fluid. He feels more confident in his body. I feel like that's what I attribute to it."

But when Verse was asked if he would join Young in the core strengthening exercise, the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year replied, "Hell no."

"I do hot yoga," Verse said. "I'm not doing Pilates."

But regardless of Verse's disdain for the exercise, Hunter, who has notched 88 sacks since 2018 (third most), believes defensive players should incorporate Pilates into their regimen.

"I would recommend it for all defensive players because we're always in awkward positions, and the biggest thing is beating the guy in front of us and getting to the ball," Hunter told ESPN. "It's not going to be perfect. We're humans. So we just got to figure out a way out of it, beat the awkward position and make it to the ball to make the tackle."

NFL Nation reporters Ben Baby, Sarah Barshop, Courtney Cronin and Josh Weinfuss contributed to this report.