Pilates vs Yoga? 6 Benefits Of Adding Pilates To Your Fitness Routine

“The goal of Pilates is to develop the muscles uniformly and create a sense of postural awareness through activation and stabilisation.” Dana Brown, CPT, operations director at Privé-Swiss Fitness

Pilates and Yoga both include low-impact exercises, but they are two different kinds of workouts.

Yoga includes flowing from one position (asana) to another, holding poses and focusing on the breath all while building a deep connection with the mind, body and spirit. Yoga supports body awareness, strength, balance, flexibility, and mobility.

Pilates strengthens your core body, and engages all muscle groups that can support you with improved flexibility and muscle endurance. It’s an accessible workout that can be done by many, and anyone can reap the benefits.

There are six principles of Pilates which focus on concentration, control, centering, precision, breath, and flow. There are various types of classes and each will vary in intensity, so it’s important for any newbies to try a beginners’ class where specialised Pilates machinery can be utilised or by doing a virtual class where no equipment is needed.

Pilates can contribute to positive mental wellbeing, through refined and slow movements. If you are thinking about giving Pilates a try, here are some of the benefits.

1. Building Body Awareness 

By incorporating pilates into your fitness routine, you’ll slowly begin to improve your body awareness. When engaging with pilates, it requires you to perform each movement with your full attention. Once you begin to develop your body awareness, you slowly become aware of what your body needs on a day-to-day basis.

2. Awareness of Breath

When feeling stressed, deep breathing can bring about a sense of relaxation and rest. Pilates emphasises deep breathing, as breathing deeply supports you to move through the exercises.

3. Stronger Body 

Health is wealth and through Pilates you can build a stronger body. It can strengthen muscle groups such as your quads, hamstrings, glutes, back and chest. Pilates can also improve your balance, which is essential to moving or changing positions. Lastly, your balance is informed by your core strength, which can also be strengthened and improve your overall functioning.

4. Enhance Physical Performance

Our bodies constantly move throughout the day, so it’s important to ensure that your body can perform at its best. Pilates is a form of exercise that can gently challenge your body and promote better spinal health by conditioning your muscles around your core and back.

5. Mood Booster

Pilates stimulates the production of endorphins, the body’s natural ‘pain killers’, which creates a general feeling of wellbeing. Engaging in this type of workout can also raise your energy level by improving your blood circulation.If you struggle with stress and anxiety, engaging in Pilates can support you to reduce your stress and boost your mood.

6. Overall Health

Additional benefits of engaging in Pilates include better sleep, a healthier immune system, lowered blood pressure, a boost in stamina, a lean body, improvement to your memory, improvement to your sex life, and a boost to your stamina.

So, if you are looking for another way to tone your body without lifting weights, it’s the way to go!

Is Pilates something you will try if you haven’t done it before? If you have done it before, what benefits did you notice? 

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