Move With Nicole Review

One of the most popular free Pilates channels on YouTube, from the Australian instructor Nicole McPherson, a former competitive dancer and gymnast · calm, well-coached mat Pilates flows blended with yoga, from short sessions of about 5 minutes to 50-minute classes, with full spoken cueing and breathwork · low-impact and joint-friendly, organised into free monthly challenges · free on YouTube, with an optional paid app she co-founded · A mat is all you need.

Is Move With Nicole right for you?

What Move With Nicole Actually Is

Move With Nicole is a hugely popular free Pilates channel from the Australian instructor Nicole McPherson, a former competitive dancer and gymnast whose calm, flowing style found a large audience during the lockdown years. The library runs to more than two hundred free classes, mostly mat Pilates blended with yoga, spanning full-body flows, core and abs, glutes and thighs, posture and spine work, gentle cardio-Pilates, stretch and mobility, and barre, from short sessions of about 5 minutes to 50-minute classes, all clearly labelled by level. She teaches with full spoken cueing and breathwork rather than music alone, which is a big part of why it feels close to an in-studio class, and she organises the free content into monthly challenges and weekly plans that give it structure.

For this audience it helps to be precise about what it is and is not. It is a beautiful, accessible, genuinely well-taught Pilates resource that is low-impact, calming and free, and for mobility, core, posture and stress it is a real asset. What it is not is a menopause platform or a strength-and-bone builder. The style blends Pilates and yoga rather than following classical Pilates, there is no perimenopause or menopause content and no dedicated pelvic-floor programme, and because it is low-load bodyweight movement it does little to build significant muscle or bone. Read Move With Nicole as a superb free Pilates and mind-body resource a midlife woman can genuinely enjoy, best paired with progressive strength work.

Who Is Nicole McPherson? Credibility

Nicole McPherson is the instructor behind Move With Nicole, an Australian teacher with a background in competitive Latin ballroom dance and gymnastics who moved into yoga and Pilates and built one of the largest free Pilates followings online, with millions of subscribers. She is a certified Pilates and yoga instructor, and that shows in the quality of the teaching: her cueing is calm and precise, she paces classes well, and she offers modifications, which is exactly what makes her content feel trustworthy and easy to follow.

Her credibility should be read accurately for a midlife audience. She is a skilled movement instructor, not a clinician. By her own account she is a Certified Pilates Instructor and a Certified Yoga Instructor with a 500-hour yoga teaching qualification and years of in-studio experience, and there is no evidence of any physiotherapy, medical, registered-dietitian or menopause qualification. That is entirely appropriate for what the channel is, high-quality general Pilates, but it means hormone, bone-health and clinical questions sit outside its scope and belong with a professional. Read the credibility as genuine movement expertise, not menopause or clinical expertise.

Content and Features

What Equipment Do You Need for Move With Nicole?

Almost nothing. A mat is all you need for most classes, which is a big part of the appeal, and some sessions optionally use light dumbbells of around a kilogram, a small Pilates ball or light ankle weights. You can do it in a small space at home with no barrier to starting.

Because the classes are low-load, a midlife woman who wants to build and protect muscle and bone will get more by adding progressive resistance alongside them. A set of adjustable dumbbells is the single most useful addition, since the heavier, controlled loading they allow is what bone and muscle respond to and what Pilates alone does not provide.

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How We Scored Move With Nicole: the 6.1 / 10 Breakdown

Research-based scores on our 9 weighted criteria. Because this is a Data Profile rather than a hands-on test, each score carries a confidence level. Women Over 40 is our most heavily weighted menopause criterion, and its full 12-capability breakdown follows in the next section.

Is Move With Nicole Good for Women Over 40?

For calm, joint-friendly movement, it is excellent. Move With Nicole gives a woman over 40 a large, free library of well-coached, low-impact Pilates that supports mobility, core strength, posture, balance and stress relief, all things that genuinely matter at midlife. The teaching is clear and welcoming, the monthly challenges make it easy to follow a plan, and the low-impact style is kind to sensitive joints, so as a way to move well and de-stress it is one of the best free options available.

Who it suits, and what is missing. It suits a woman who wants a gentle, calming, joint-friendly habit, a mobility and core practice, or a supportive layer alongside heavier training. The gaps for this audience are real. It is general Pilates, not menopause programming, so there is no perimenopause or menopause content and no dedicated pelvic-floor training, although the deep core and breath work does engage the pelvic floor to a degree. And because it is low-load, it is limited for building the muscle and bone that protect a midlife body, which need heavier, progressive loading. It is a lovely part of a plan, not the whole plan.

What the wider picture shows. Her classes are hugely popular and widely praised for exactly these qualities, calm, high-quality, accessible Pilates, and many women describe feeling stronger in their core and more mobile. What is absent, for this audience, is any menopause-specific design or the loaded strength that builds muscle and bone. Read Move With Nicole as a superb free Pilates and mind-body resource a woman over 40 can enjoy for mobility, core and calm, best combined with progressive strength work and, where needed, menopause-specific support.

How Move With Nicole Fits Perimenopause, Menopause and Beyond

Our capability breakdown of how well Move With Nicole suits women across perimenopause, menopause and post-menopause. Women Over 40 is our most important criterion for this site, and this is the full breakdown behind the Women Over 40 row above.

Move With Nicole is strongest for low-impact movement, mind-body support and a beginner-friendly on-ramp, and weakest for bone loading and every menopause-specific capability, in our menopause and midlife capability assessment.

This is the perimenopause and menopause assessment, and it is separate from the overall score. Twelve things a programme either does for a midlife body or does not, each scored out of 10 with my reasoning next to it. Together they produce a single menopause fit score, and that becomes one of the nine categories in the overall scoring below.

These are evidence-informed suitability ratings, not clinical measurements. They combine exercise science with published-content analysis and multi-source verification, and are approximate. Individual response varies. A starting point, not medical advice. How we score menopause fit.

Muscle, Bone and Pelvic Floor: a Straight Answer

Because Pilates raises these questions often, here is the evidence-based answer for a midlife body.

Will it build muscle? A little, in the right places. Mat Pilates genuinely builds core and stabiliser strength, control and endurance, and a deconditioned woman will feel stronger and more capable. But it is low-load, largely bodyweight movement, so it has a low ceiling for building significant muscle mass, which needs progressive, heavier resistance.

Will it improve bone density? Not meaningfully on its own. Bone responds to heavier loading and to impact, and Pilates is deliberately low-load and low-impact, so it offers little bone-building stimulus. It is valuable movement, but it is not a bone-density programme, and a woman focused on bone will want loaded strength work as well.

Is it good for the pelvic floor? Partly, but it is not pelvic-floor training. Pilates emphasises the deep core and coordinated breathing, which does engage and build awareness of the pelvic floor more than many formats, so it can be supportive. But Move With Nicole has no dedicated pelvic-floor programme, so for targeted pelvic-floor rehabilitation or strengthening, a purpose-built option or a pelvic-health physiotherapist is the right route.

What the Research Says: Move With Nicole’s Approach Checked

The gentle, well-coached movement here is well matched to several real midlife needs, with clear limits. Pilates and low-impact movement support core strength, balance, mobility and stress, and being easy on the joints, they are easy to keep up, which matters because consistency is where most plans succeed or fail. For a woman easing into exercise or protecting sensitive joints, that accessibility has genuine value.

The limits are where a midlife body needs more. Across the menopause transition, body composition shifts, with the rate of fat gain roughly doubling and lean muscle declining, so protecting muscle and bone becomes a priority.^[1] Building and keeping muscle needs progressive resistance,^[2] and bone specifically needs meaningful load: a network meta-analysis found at least moderate-intensity resistance training was needed to improve bone density, and heavier loading in trials such as LIFTMOR did more than light work.^[3][4] Low-load Pilates does not provide that stimulus. The sensible way to use Move With Nicole is as a joint-friendly foundation for mobility, core and calm, layered with progressively heavier strength work for the muscle and bone protection that matters most after 40.

What Users Report: Verified Sentiment

Rating snapshot, reported by source rather than blended. The free channel is the standout, with millions of subscribers and a strong following across platforms, which is a reach signal for the free content rather than a measure of any paid product. Mainstream press has repeatedly featured her as one of the best free online Pilates instructors, and the classes draw a large, loyal and engaged audience.

What users praise and criticise. The praise is consistent: the classes are free and accessible, the coaching is calm, clear and breath-led in a way that feels close to an in-studio session, the variety of lengths and levels is huge, the monthly challenges remove decision fatigue, and people report genuinely feeling and seeing results in their core and posture. The fair criticisms are that it blends Pilates with yoga rather than following classical Pilates, which purists may not love, that a self-guided YouTube format makes it easy to lose form or skip reps without a live instructor, that some cardio-Pilates classes are a little higher-impact, and that there is no personalised feedback. Her optional paid app, Bace, is newer and we found no substantial independent rating for it. We found no controversies.

Access and the Paid App

The free classes live on YouTube, so they run on any phone, tablet, computer or smart TV and cast easily to a television, with offline viewing available only through YouTube Premium. This is how most people use Move With Nicole, and it is a genuinely good experience, with the usual trade-off that navigation and any progress tracking are do-it-yourself across playlists and challenges.

The optional paid tier is Bace, an app Nicole co-founded, which adds mat Pilates alongside kettlebell strength programmes from a second coach, with progressions, modifications and a technique library, delivered as structured, coached sessions. It has a 7-day free trial, and its subscription price is shown after you sign up rather than listed publicly, so confirm the current figure before subscribing. For a woman who wants more structure and, usefully, some loaded kettlebell work to complement the Pilates, Bace is a reasonable step up, though the free channel remains the main event.

Move With Nicole specifications

Move With Nicole Price 2026: What You Actually Pay

Will You Actually Stick With It?

Move With Nicole Pros and Cons

How Move With Nicole Compares to Similar Platforms

If you are choosing between a free Pilates channel and more complete midlife options, this is how Move With Nicole sits against the alternatives. Scores come from our independent reviews and update automatically as each is scored; Pvolve is included as the menopause-built contrast.

Competitor prices are approximate; verify on each platform’s website. Scores reflect our independent reviews. See each full review for methodology.

Move With Nicole vs Pvolve: Which Is Better for Women Over 40?

This pairing is useful because both are low-impact and joint-friendly, but they aim at different needs. Pvolve is built for our audience: gentle on the joints, but with genuine progressive functional strength, a dedicated menopause programme, pelvic-floor work and coaching throughout, and a strong women’s-health focus. It costs more and uses some equipment, but it is designed around a midlife woman’s muscle, bone, hormones and pelvic floor.

Move With Nicole is the calmer, free, Pilates-led option: wonderful for mobility, core, posture and stress, and beautifully coached, but low-load and so limited for muscle and bone, with no menopause or dedicated pelvic-floor content. For a woman who wants one option that actually meets her midlife needs, Pvolve is the stronger choice. For a woman who wants a calming, joint-friendly free practice, or a supportive mind-body layer alongside heavier training, Move With Nicole is a lovely and generous free resource. Many women would do well to use both, Move With Nicole for calm and mobility, and a progressive-strength option for muscle and bone.

If Move With Nicole Is Not Enough for You: Best Alternatives

Move With Nicole’s gaps for our audience are the light loading, the absence of menopause content, and no dedicated pelvic-floor training. If you want more strength or menopause-specific support, these published options go further, and for menopause-specific programming a specialist platform such as Menovation or Flipping 50 is also worth a look.

Move With Nicole FAQ

Final Verdict

Research Score: 6.1 / 10 · Hands-on Score: pending

Move With Nicole is one of the loveliest free Pilates resources online: a large, beautifully produced library of calm, low-impact mat Pilates and Pilates-yoga, with spoken cueing and breathwork that feels close to an in-studio class, and monthly challenges that make it easy to follow. For mobility, core strength, posture, balance and stress relief, and for a woman who wants a gentle, joint-friendly habit, it is a real pleasure and outstanding value.

Move With Nicole is for women who want calm, joint-friendly, well-coached Pilates for free, or a supportive mind-body layer. It is not for women who want one option to build real muscle and bone or to address menopause, because it is low-load, has no menopause content, and offers no dedicated pelvic-floor training. For that, a menopause-built option such as Pvolve, or a progressive-strength app such as EvolveYou, goes further, and a menopause specialist such as Menovation or Flipping 50 goes further still. The best use of it is exactly what it is: a beautiful, calming, joint-friendly foundation to build on.

Testing Status

Sources and Further Reading

1. Greendale, G.A. et al. (2019). Changes in body composition and weight during the menopause transition. JCI Insight (Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation). Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. The rate of fat-mass gain roughly doubled while lean mass declined across the menopause transition.
2. Liu, C.J. & Latham, N.K. (2009). Progressive resistance strength training for improving physical function in older adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Progressive resistance training improved strength and physical function in older adults.
3. Wang, Z. et al. (2023). Comparative efficacy of different resistance training protocols on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Frontiers in Physiology. Available at: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. At least moderate-intensity resistance training was needed to improve bone density; low-intensity loading was not superior to control.
4. Watson, S.L. et al. (2018). High-intensity resistance and impact training improves bone mineral density and physical function in postmenopausal women: the LIFTMOR randomized controlled trial. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. Available at: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Heavier, high-intensity loading improved bone density and function; light exercise did not.

This is a research-based Data Profile, not a hands-on review. Pricing and features were verified in 2026 and may have changed. Some affiliate links may be present. This site does not accept payment from platforms reviewed. Education, not medical advice; speak to your clinician, especially about hormones, bone health or existing conditions.

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