‘Wellness is on the ballot’: Why did so many pilates studios tell me to vote in the midterms?

Owners of pilates and yoga studios in the US got political and encouraged their followers to vote on social media

Your local pilates instructors only want you to do two things: breathe through your side-planks and vote.

In the days leading up to the US midterm elections, a wave of posts from fitness and wellness accounts blanketed Instagram, eschewing their typical messaging around the importance of strengthening your core in favor of the importance of exercising your civic duty. Owners of pilates and yoga studios and instructors across the US posted reels and pictures on platforms like Instagram encouraging their followers and clients to vote. Engagement varied depending on their following: posts reaped anywhere from 70 to more than 10,000 likes.