If you follow Rams outside linebacker Byron Young on social media, one of his most frequent offseason updates has been visits to a pilates studio – usually Stefania Okolie's Solely Pilates Studio.
Count Young – one of Okolie's longtime clients – among the growing number of NFL athletes taking up the practice and believing in its benefits.
"For me, (what inspired doing it) is just doing my research and learning about it, looking at other vets, guys from other teams doing it," Young told theRams.com. "Talking to some vets at Tennessee, they told me about it and how it's good for your body – for longevity, to prevent injuries. I just wanted to give myself the best opportunity to be my best."
The Athletic's Charlotte Carroll wrote about the trend in an August 2024 article. Players like Packers defensive tackle Kenny Clark, Dolphins linebacker Jaelan Phillips and current Rams offensive lineman Coleman Shelton (he was with the Bears at the time) have adopted it. Several other players have at least tried it, according to Carroll's reporting.
In that article, Phillips said pilates has helped with injury prevention. Clark, meanwhile, had been doing it for three years and only missed one game from 2021-2023. Other benefits include recovery, mobility and core strength. The requisite concentration and control of pilates also helps develop athletes' mental focus.
Those benefits can only stand to help Young, a two-year starter at outside linebacker who has played in every possible regular season and playoff game since the Rams drafted him in the third round out of Tennessee in 2023. He has started in 32 of 34 regular season games played and each of Los Angeles' three playoff games during that span, and also recorded at least 7.5 sacks in each of his first two seasons.
"They (the instructor, Okolie) base it off what you need for that specific person," Young explained. "So for me, I'm a bigger body, I told them I was having some lower back, knee pain a little bit in the past and a little bit now. So we did more stuff with stability, more back stretching. So they kind of tailor it based off who you are. They don't treat everybody the same, because they know that body types are different. There's a huge difference in size with different people, so that's kind of how they did it with me."
According to Young, those sessions are typically about an hour long, with mostly core work - "you're going to be using your 'powerhouse,' they like to call it" – as well as breath, stability and stretch work.
"Everything you do, you gotta breathe and you gotta breathe a certain way," Young said. "You gotta always have your back down, you gotta always use your core, you gotta always sink in your stomach, have your heels flat on the surface. That's a typical day – doing a lot of core work, doing hundreds (10 sets of 10 repetitions of coordinated breath and movement), doing stability work, doing back stretches, but that's it for the most part."
[Video of one of Young's sessions can be viewed on Instagram here.]
There are multiple ways this can translate to the field beyond the aforementioned benefits. Young said his instructor showed him he was running wrong and helped him fix his form, emphasizing the importance of using his core. Young said running with "lazy" form is how some people have back pain.
"With my stance, the stuff we do in there, we do a lot of stability," Young explained. "We basically get into my form, my stance on the field, and we'll be there for like, a good 10 seconds, and then another 10 seconds we keep doing it. It becomes hard. But like today, we just got on the field, we just did my form, it was pretty good. It felt good. It felt natural. I'd like for stuff like that to translate to the field."
As a competitor, Young also likes how challenging pilates is. He sees that work paying off in the short- and long-term.
"Just growth that has me being the best player I could be," Young said. "I'm just seeing this part of my life that I definitely needed for years, and I just didn't notice it. I'm glad I found it. But I'm looking at being a lot stronger, faster, fit, being able to do plays longer, last longer than than o-lineman (or) whoever I'm going against. So I see that kind of improving everything all around. That's what I'm hoping for."
