My mom does pilates, and would ride my hind end because I'd tease her about it. I finally tried it with her one night, and it was at most a warm up. I think if you're power lifting, you're most likely past the point of pilates being useful as an accessory. I'm sure there are more difficult pilates routines than what my mom does (hers is like an intermediate program I think), but what I did with her in no way would be helpful for me.

My mom does pilates, and would ride my hind end because I'd tease her about it. I finally tried it with her one night, and it was at most a warm up. I think if you're power lifting, you're most likely past the point of pilates being useful as an accessory. I'm sure there are more difficult pilates routines than what my mom does (hers is like an intermediate program I think), but what I did with her in no way would be helpful for me.

Well the article did point out that some people find it easy because they are not doing it properly. That could potentially explain your ease with it.

Do you do anything outside of powerlifting, such as yoga? Flexibility and range of motion are also beneficial.

I run alongside lifting, but that's it. I think I was doing it correctly, although it was a DVD so no instructor to correct form. Again, a more advanced DVD would probably be challenging for me.

I do think it would be useful for flexibility and range of motion, and I have considered adding something like that to my routine for those reasons. I'm not flexible at all - it has actually been a cause for injuries over the years, my joints and stuff just don't like to stretch as far as they should. But for a means of strength, or to work stabilizer muscles, pilates wouldn't be my first choice.

And another interesting article:

http://breakingmuscle.com/mind-body/science-says-bikram-yoga-helps-your-deadlift

Try blogilates on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIJwWYOfsCfz6PjxbONYXSg

Her stuff is tough!

I have done yoga and body balance classes (yoga/pilates/tai chi mix). I am a very immobile person naturally so I make sure I do something like this to maintain my current mobility levels.

I don't really think that the isometric stuff done in a typical class is all that beneficial for me and my powerlifting as I don't really find them overly challenging strength wise just mobility wise.

I had some Pilates training in college about 25 years ago, when the only people who did were dancers and injured football players. I fall back on it now whenever I'm recovering from a back strain, and I do use it occasionally for core work. Yes, it engages stab muscles... You can't balance and twist in a V-up position without making pretty serious use of the stabs. You will feel it.

The nice thing about Pilates is that it's highly scalable. A beginner (or someone accommodating an injury) can "modify" exercises ad infinitum. Feet on the mat, legs in a tabletop position, V-up, and so on. Using a beginner video, one would never know that the exercise being taught is modified. Another nice thing is that although lots of fancy equipment exists, you don't need it... The mat sequence can be done with no equipment.

It's not so hot as a form of recovery stretching, though. If done properly, it is active body weight conditioning. Very different from what's shown in the "yoga for big *kitten*" article. I've just recently incorporated piriformis stretches and yoga into my workouts after a nasty bout of sciatica brought on by too much lifting/bag work and not enough (read, not any) stretching.

ETA: That whole thing about "lengthening muscles" is overblown on all sides. It just means you're stretching during the sequence. No different from Mark Rippetoe saying "the goodmorning improves hamstring length." Which, yes, he does say on p.263 of Starting Strength, 3rd Ed.