The inside story of Lane Kiffin’s hot Pilates class in Lexington
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss staff held a private hot Pilates session before UK game
- Sterling Hot Yoga Lexington hosted about 13 Ole Miss staff early on game morning
- Friendly $5 football wager between Federspiel and Mannings continues postgame
In the run up to Kentucky’s football matchup with then-No. 20 Mississippi Saturday, the social media platform now known as “X” was captivated by the news that Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin had taken a pregame hot yoga class in Lexington.
As it turns out, that was not entirely accurate.
Cassie Hamilton, the chief operating officer at Sterling Hot Yoga Lexington, said Kiffin and a large number of his traveling staff actually took an early-morning hot Pilates class prior to what turned out to be a 30-23 Mississippi win over Kentucky.
Before traveling to the commonwealth, one of Kiffin’s administrative aides reached out to Sterling Hot Yoga Lexington about getting access to the studio early on game day, Hamilton said Wednesday.
“We ended up doing a hot Pilates class for them at 6:15 that morning,” Hamilton said. “It’s outside of our regular schedule. So they booked an hour class with us, and the coaching staff came out. They had, like, 13 of them or so out there, and they did their class before they went over to their game.”
Pilates, which is named for its creator, Joseph Pilates, is a form of exercise that highlights precise movements, controlled breathing and muscle engagement. Hot Pilates is a full-body, high-intensity, low impact class using Pilates principles that involves training in elevated heat.
Hamilton believes that Saturday was the first time a visiting college sports head coach in town to play UK has ever rented out the Sterling Hot Yoga Lexington studio for a pregame workout.
“We’ve never had a visiting team contact us, or had any football (team),” Hamilton said. “We have had individual football players sometimes come to classes on the regular schedule, but they’ve never booked a private class.”
Hamilton said the Ole Miss party led her to believe that Kiffin and his staff incorporate some form of exercise into their game-day regimen regardless of where the Rebels play.
“They have a home studio in Oxford, and when they travel, they try to find a studio wherever they’re traveling, whatever city it is,” Hamilton said. “And so it was really cool that they decided they wanted to support a local business and come in and take a class on their game day, which seems to be at least part of their routine.”
By the way, Kiffin and his coaches were not the only ones participating in Saturday’s contest who have taken classes at Sterling Hot Yoga Lexington.
In March, Hamilton said Kentucky Wildcats quarterbacks Zach Calzada and Cutter Boley came in and took a hot yoga class together. Boley then came back on his own “a couple of times” in May to take classes, she said.
Ex-UK football great loses bets to Archie, Eli Manning
For nine football seasons, 1972-80, Joe Federspiel and Archie Manning were teammates on the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.
But their connection goes back even longer.
On September 27, 1969, in what was Federspiel’s second varsity football game as a Kentucky linebacker, the Wildcats upset No. 8 Mississippi — quarterbacked by Manning — 10-9 at Stoll Field.
“I still have the newspaper clipping (from the upset), and I send it to (Manning) every year,” Federspiel said Wednesday. “I took a picture (of the newspaper clipping), and they’ve got a picture of Archie. Looks like he’s diving for a first down, and you can just barely see my number coming in and going low (for a tackle attempt), and he’s jumping.”
In the time Federspiel spent playing middle linebacker for the Saints while Manning was the New Orleans quarterback, it became a custom between the two to stake a friendly wager anytime UK played Ole Miss in football.
That ritual has continued in retirement for Manning, 76, and Federspiel, 75.
If you envisioned the bet as Federspiel putting up a bottle of premium Kentucky bourbon and the New Orleans-based Manning betting a year’s supply of beignets from the Cafe Du Monde, you are grossly overestimating the stakes of the wager.
“It started out as a beer,” Federspiel says of his UK-Ole Miss bet with Manning. “Then, you know, it became money. We went from a beer to $2, then $5. It’s just a friendly wager.”
This year, the bet expanded to include Eli Manning, Archie’s youngest son and another former Mississippi Rebels star quarterback.
“When I bet Archie, I said, ‘Tell Eli if he wants part of this action, let me know’,” Federspiel said. “And (Eli) said, ‘Yeah, count me in, man.’ So I got double-teamed, and I didn’t take any points either. I thought (Kentucky) could (win the game) straight up.”
Which explains why, after Saturday’s game ended Mississippi 30, Kentucky 23, Joe Federspiel had to mail $5 checks to both Archie and Eli Manning.
After the UK loss, Federspiel said he waited a day for Archie Manning to contact him about collecting on this year’s bet.
“He gave me a day,” Federspiel says. “I waited to see if he would say something. Then, of course, I said, ‘I better respond.’ I sent him something. I said, ‘I hope this ($5) makes Christmas for you.’ And Archie just said ‘Send it on down.’”
This story was originally published September 10, 2025 at 5:08 PM.
