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
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