yoga/pilates rant

P

pixie9

Cathlete
Hi all,
I'm not wanting to start a fight or anything here. I just wanted to share some thoughts I've been having concerning yoga and pilates. First off, I'm a pilates instructor but I'm not into yoga anymore. I've gone through many spurts with yoga though so I'm not unfamilar with it. My thoughts are this:

I think there are many great benefits to these forms of exercise but I feel that there are many misleading ideas about them. After going to many conferences and making some observations of my own, I really think that people are misled into believing that they can lose weight/get smaller/or get leaner muscles doing yoga and/or pilates. As a personal trainer, I've learned that losing weight has to do more with what you do or don't eat, and how much cardio you do. Of course weight training is also so important and after losing weight, probably should become the most important part of your workout but I digress. Also, the muscles in our body are as "long" as they are ever going to be. The idea of permantly stretching out a muscle is very misleading. You can bulk up of course and you can lean out through various means of diet and exercise, but you can never "stretch out" a muscle and make it permanently longer. It just isn't possible.

People come to my pilates classes hoping to lose weight or "lengthen" their body as a result, and are disappointed to learn that that isn't going to happen. They may get a stronger "core" or learn how to have better posture from it, but they aren't going to be able to see any changes if they have extra fat. So this is what I've learned: you can get more flexible from doing yoga and you can get a stronger core from doing pilates. HOWEVER, you can get more flexible in general if you just stretch after your workouts and incorporate stretching into you life and you can get a stronger core if you learn to use your core correctly during exercise and daily life.

Yes I know that if you use a reformer then you are working more than your core. But the more I practice on a reformer, the more I realize that I could be doing "more" with free weights/body weight or I could be doing a lot of the same stuff on my total gym/cable machine. Is it just me or is pilates and yoga turning into the ulitmate fad exercise program? For me, yoga is more about getting in tune with your body and learning to breath etc. Pilates is kinda similar with an emphasis on learning to use the core more efficiently.

Another observation I've noticed is pilates/yoga instructors themselves. I know more than a couple of pilates/yoga teachers who range from plump to overweight. I know them well enough to know that their ONLY form of exercise is pilates. The ones who look more fit have either have a naturally small frame (think supermodel who never exercises) or encorporate other forms of exercise into their lives.

Anyway, I don't want to start a fight, just a discussion.

Thought anyone?

carolyn
 
No fight!
I agree with everything you have just said. I think yoga and pilates are great but I only do them late afternoon or at night to relax or stretch my muscles. If I just do one of them, on a day with no cardio or strength training, I don't feel like I have worked out for the day.
Jen
 
I agree. I hate when you hear Winsor pilates commercials saying "20 min 3 times a week is all you need" to be thin and toned. I like yoga and pilates and do feel they have benefits, such as toning and stretching, but you can't use them as your only source of exercise. They have to be combined with a proper diet, cardio and weight lifting.
 
I think you probably have a good point. I just did pilates this morning and the reason I do it is because I feel so darn good afterward. I have had a herniated disc and this is one of the things I can do to not only strengthen my back, but give me some abdominal support and like I said for some reason I just feel so much better afterward. I will probably always add one or two pilates classes and an occasional yoga into my workouts per week. I think I have to make even MORE time for them since I think you're right they won't burn off any fat or keep me trim, necessarily.
Paula
 
Hi Carolyn.

I understand what you are saying...For instance, I know Windsor Pilates advertises products using the idea that one can lose weight *just* using that program alone which is a total falsehood. Once you get the program it clarifies that you are expected to do atleast 30 mins of cardio daily along with her program but in the infomercials they never state that! I used her series for a while and really liked it but I knew not to expect weight loss from it alone.
 
I can't tell you how many people have told me that I'd lose more if I would only do pilates. I think yoga and pilates are a good thing and beneficial to a lot of people but I just don't have time for it with all the cardio I need to do. I've always had a theory that most of the people who do only yoga or pilates are skinny people who want to feel like they're exercising.

http://www.GlitterMaker.com/created/42785490.gif

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good
 
I agree that they have become quite the fad. I only incorporate them in as add ons, never to act as a stand alone...unless of course it's a nice yoga stretch on my day off. I've never bought into the fat loss benefits of pilates. I strictly use it as core work not as cardiovascular work, as well as something to help me with my really bad posture. But even in that respect I think I've experienced the most benefits in regards to my posture from doing weight work.

However, I can say that when I did Yoga X from P90X that it would at times get fairly aerobic since it was really incorporating some leg work to hold some of those poses. And for me as soon as my leg muscles get involved it usually becomes fairly aerobic for me. So I do think a case could be made for some yoga practice, in that the "power yoga" phenomenon can have some cardiovascular components to it.

Deni
 
I'm glad you posted, Carolyn, because I'm one of those people who've never tried pilates but have heard all the hype. I am always wondering, "Is it pilates that will make a huge change?" But I never try a class because I really enjoy cardio and weight training and see good results from that.
 
I'm definitely not arguing with anyone here. I think the claims are ludicrous and I wish that the infomercials would stop making them. I will say, however that yoga and pilates can be "gateway" exercises. They make you feel so good that you want to do more, so you pick up lifting or you pick up cardio. I guess I would rather see people doing just pilates or just yoga if the alternative is just sitting on the couch.
 
You're 100% correct. And I'm a yoga teacher. I came in through the back door, however, I taught all the other group x for years & years and then got interested in yoga (mostly for the meditative/breathing/feel good aspect). I have never stopped doing my cardio and weights with Cathe and never will. The stuff about lengthening your muscles so that you look like a dancer is almost criminal, it's so untrue. That's genetics and hard work, gals, sorry. I love yoga but I am realistic for what it is and what it does. I never tell my classes that it will help them lose weight.
 
I agree with you Carolyn.

My workout life includes various forms of cardio, weights, AND pilates and yoga. I am a firm believer each form of exercise enhances the other.
 
Another one here who totally agrees with you, Carolyn, and thanks you for saying it.

"The Industry" is starting to acknowledge how oversold the benefits of Pilates and yoga are, and that, like any other mode of movement, Yogalates can cause injury when overdone or done incorrectly. And I've never, ever believed 98% of the benefits yoginis and Pilatesinas trumpted.

I gave a special Intro To Aqua class a few weeks ago, in which I was asked whether aqua would give the kind of muscle mass that I clearly have, and the low body fat that I clearly have. I answered honestly, "No. You need to weight train for musculature and strength, and do cardio for leanness and bodyfat reduction." I went on to discuss how most modes of exercise are overpromoted for their benefits, and several members of this class mentioned yoga and Pilates. I had to put my comments in the JMHO context, but they were right in line with yours.

I often tell people, "Never underestimate the Barnum and Bailey quality of the commercial fitness industry." Yogalates is the thing to sell right now, but it will be supplanted by something else.

A-Jock
 
Something to think about here. Recently, I've felt the muscle I was building was making me look thicker, actually like my head was too small for my body, if that makes sense. I'm not tall (5'2"), 121 lb. with short legs and arms.

I've been doing Slim Series for about 3 weeks now after doing regular Cathe workouts for about a year. Since going to lighter weights, more reps, my arms feel and I think look more defined and cut, (possibly that longer, lean look?). Could be that doing yoga/pilates instead of as much heavy lifting is doing the same thing, muscles just not as puffed up. So far, I'm not retaining as much water either, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Not sure I explained this right, but I'm liking the looks of my upper body again. The lower body I'm still working on.


Jeanette
 
I will chime back in and say that yoga and pilates have definitely helped me with core strength, stabilizer muscles, and have given me a control over my body (for lack of better word) that I've never felt before.

And yoga definitely serves the purpose of slowing my hyper-self down and centering me - as in getting relief from that frazzled feeling.

I don't believe any ONE exercise in and of itself is a do all. Everyone needs to find the right pieces to assemble their fitness puzzle. Mine includes cardio, weights, yoga and pilates now.

Just my 2 cents (why isn't there a "cents" symbol on this keyboard?).:)
 
I know very little about pilates (except that I think it's booooring) so I'll limit my comments to yoga.

Over the past 10 years or so, yoga has rapidly (d)evolved and mutated from it's Eastern beginnings to suit the needs of the western world's ways. I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing, nothing happens in a vacuum, change is good and the changes have made yoga accessible to the masses. That accessibilty means that there are huge amounts of money to be made from yoga and it's participants, so, in many ways it has become diametrically opposed to it's ascetic Eastern foundations.

There are 8 limbs to yoga, one of them being asanas (postures). That is all most people know of yoga and all that most want to know of it. Another limb is niyama, or personal discipline in things like cleanliness, contentedness and self discipline. In my opinion that is the window into which marketers can make vague claims, that aren't technically lies, that yoga can equal fat loss. It's naive to think that standing in warrior or triangle or any asana for 12 breaths will equal fat loss. Fortunately for the marketers, much of the population is naive about the multifaceted ways of yoga and the workings of fat loss.

The physiology of lengthening muscle tissue occurs with sustained tension on tendons married with full deep breathing. This was true long before yoga was introduced through Patanjali's yoga sutras thousands of years ago. We can't really make our muscle fibres longer but through yoga we can decrease the amount of tension that our muscles hold at rest which increases mobility and suppleness.

The long and short of it is that I share your frustration with wild claims of fat loss that prey upon the well intended. Yoga has added so much to my personal life and allowed me to cultivate much knowledge of my physical self. It's a shame that the sensational untruths will turn a lot of folks off of yoga and deny them the opportunity to explore it for what it truly is.

Take Care
Laurie:)
 
I am so disillusioned. I never believed that Pilates would be the magic cure, but I was so, so, so very bored with weight training that I have joined a Pilates club a month ago and have been doing a lot of it. I really, really enjoy it and hoped that it could replace weight training for me. Now, after reading this, I am feeling that I am wasting time (which is very precious to me). I am a cardo addict, so that will probably never leave my routine. But I really would love to leave that boring old weight training behind. I am 5'3 and although not overweight, I am slightly stocky (and hippy). I was really hoping pilates would give me more of that dancer look. Oh, I think I'm going to get a pint of Ben & Jerry's. I give up.
 
You are not wasting your time and are wise to vary how you challenge your body. You aren't abandoning cardio or looking to pilates to shed body fat so your expectations are realistic. You may want to rethink 'leaving that boring old weight training behind' though. Working with challenging resistance is critical for women, we need it to maintain bone density. Enjoy your pilates knowing full well what it's roll is in your overall physical well being. :)

Take Care
Laurie
 
I was kind of hoping that the use of my own body weight as resistance in pilates would be enough to maintain the bone density. Is that nieve of me?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top