Should You Start Doing Pilates to Get in Shape? (Pros & Cons)

Pilates is a wonderful workout to elevate your fitness level. Like any workout, the benefits and risks need to be compared before jumping into the exercise.

The movement seems to work fine for the core, upper body, and to a certain extent lower body.

Indeed, it appears as one of the finest full-body workouts.

Some studies do affirm that Pilates can help lose weight and even it does tone the body. So, is Pilates worth your time? Or it is just like any other workout program that seldom makes any difference.

This blog delves into the pilates benefits and risks to come up with a solid opinion. We will begin with a short introduction.

What Is Pilates?

Pilates is a workout for body conditioning developed at the beginning of the 20^th century by Joseph Pilates.

The aim behind developing it was to provide quick recovery from injury for dancers.

The workout frees the body from stiffness and exhaustion due to long grueling sessions of dancing.

With time, the benefits of Pilates became clear. Anyone could perform the workouts to balance muscles and improve their fitness level.

However, the approach of the workout may be different from the ordinary training program.

How Does Pilates Work?

The key principle is to focus on each move and utilize the abdomen, core, and lower back muscles.

On top of that, the movements follow these patterns keeping the body steady and breathing in control.

One can perform Pilates without a workout or even use specially designed apparatuses. This involves a reformer (a bed-like structure), mat, or blanket.

Pilates aims to tone muscle rather than build muscle mass. Mainly the focus lies on the abdominal area.

Of course, a strong core does improve the complete workout experience. Moreover, the benefits of Pilates for a woman are beyond said. It entirely depends on how it approaches the physique.

The Benefits of Pilates

Pilates is a highly beneficial workout, but the benefits entirely depend on your consistency, efforts, and form. It can aid weight loss, muscle toning, and athletic performance. There is much more to Pilates.

Pilates workout advantages are:

#1. Strengthens Core and Abs

Pilates directly targets your core muscle, abdomen, lower back, hip, and pelvic muscles. It strengthens the core as well as works on different muscles.

It even makes the abdominal area flatter and developed. Evidently, a stronger core improves the endurance level and helps lift heavier.

#2. Works on the Entire Body

In general, pilates works to strengthen the core, but it works from head to toe.

This makes it emerge as one of the best full-body workouts. Thus, many workout programs are included for this specific reason. It checks that no particular muscle group is overdeveloped.

#3. Relieves Back Pain

One of the benefits of regular pilates is less back pain. However, it doesn’t always work, nor does it instantly resolve the pain magically. Still, performing the workout regularly can cure back pain.

#4. Fine-tunes Posture

Bad lifestyle habits like slouching on the desk and chair can lead to poor posture. It can trigger neck aches, back pain, headache, and more.

Nonetheless, performing pilates yoga benefits by improving symmetrical muscle development to improve body posture.

#5. Boosts Focus and Concentration

Pilates even benefits mental health while improving physical well-being. It strengthens the body and mind connection. It leads to greater focus and concentration levels.

Certainly, the workout focuses on particular moves as well as breathing which work in this aspect and can improve the secretion of happy hormones.

#6. Improves Flexibility

Flexibility is achieved only when all muscles are developed uniformly. Pilates works as a full body to enhance underdeveloped muscle while subsiding overdeveloped muscle tissue.

In other words, it brings uniformity to improve flexibility. Even a study showed that only 20 pilates sessions lead to a 20% increase in flexibility.

#7. Increases Blood Circulation

The workout gets the entire body in motion while increasing flexibility. It naturally stimulates blood circulation to let the body move more freely.

Indeed, the elevated blood flow benefits of performing pilates once a week even improve cardiac health and skin texture.

#8. Improves Spinal Health & Strength

Pilates workout elevates spinal alignment while conditioning the muscles around the back and core. It even improves better spinal health. On top of that, the workout reinforces deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles to support the back.

#9. Strength Without Muscle Accumulation

In general, strength workouts do add huge muscle mass. However, Pilates benefits strength levels without adding bulky muscles.

The workout elongates and stretches muscles which effectively tones the body without causing the muscle tear leading to added muscle mass.

#10. Releases Muscle Strain

Whether dancing, sport, or low physical activity, it can lead to muscle strain and muscle cramps. However, Pilates stretches out every muscle tissue. Moreover, it expands as well as conditions muscles to release the muscle.

This helps fight muscle strain and boost muscle recovery. This is the 10^th benefit of pilates, but there is more.

#11: Reduces Stress Level

A hectic lifestyle can lead to normal to moderate and even high levels of stress hormones in the body. Nonetheless, pilates requires slow, composed movement which stretches the muscle tissue.

It helps metabolize stress hormone build-up. This can help relax your body and mind while lessening stress levels.

#12. Improves Your Breathing Irregularity

Pilates emphasizes inhaling and exhaling during workouts. This does improve blood circulation while particularly benefiting from breathing irregularity.

Even many celebs use pilates to develop control of their breathing which is a must during stage tours.

These are just some of the advantages of a muscle-toning workout. It is highly beneficial irrespective of your fitness goal. However, the pilates benefits may make an impression, but the risks are too evident.

Can Pilates Be Harmful? (Here Are The Risks Involved)

In general, Pilates is safe to perform until one sticks to the right approach.

Oftentimes, people want to try new workouts for fast results or just for fun. They don’t perform the workout appropriately.

Usually, low-impact exercises rarely lead to injuries grabbing attention. However, in terms of Pilates, form, and posture are of utmost importance.

It requires one to focus on particular moves and even requires one to go slow and steady.

A slight mishap and rushing the workout can lead to injury. Reformer Pilates benefits are awesome, but the involvement of equipment can also lead to risk. This is the only risk of Pilates.

On comparing, the Pilates benefits and risks, it seems a fair deal.

Unless and until there is some wrongdoing on your part, it is less likely to cause any problems. However, there are other drawbacks.

Drawbacks of Pilates

Pilates advantages have taken over the internet, but the disadvantages and drawbacks may change your mind.

Though it is beneficial in various aspects, it isn’t like any other workout program. Here are the must-know drawbacks of Pilates.

#1. It isn’t Cardio

Pilates won’t in any way qualify as an anaerobic workout making it ineffective for weight loss programs. Though it adds muscle and strengthens the body, it isn’t a cardio workout intended to lose. Instead, other cardio exercises would work better for slimming.

#2. Not Equal to Strength Training

Pilates benefits are incomparable to the strength gained through weight lifting, bodybuilding, or any other strength-training program. It is a normal strength workout aimed at higher mobility, flexibility, and toning.

#3. Expensive Classes

The exercise compared to other training programs is expensive due to its exclusiveness. Indeed, it is feasible for people of all ages and physical conditions, but it requires special supervision and training to perform.

#4. You Need Time to Recover

Pilates takes a long to recover compared to other workouts. Post-workout one can experience normal muscle soreness like in any other training program. For beginners, the recovery period is two days, whereas, for pros, it limits to a day.

#5. Takes Time to Show Results

The workout takes a long to show any initial difference, which can be frustrating. As it improves muscle strength, toning, and shaping, it would take longer than other workouts. So, be patient and wait to see the difference.

The comparison of pilates’s advantages and disadvantages is a good way to decide if it is worth it or not.

It does have real-time benefits with minimum risks in terms of health.

In fact, as per the reports of a study, pilates does have effective support in improving flexibility, muscular activity, and abdominal and lumbo-pelvic stability.

However, the drawbacks entirely depend on what goal you expect to achieve with the workout.

Usually, people consider the training program with weight loss in aim. Nonetheless, can it help in this respect?

Does Pilates Help You Lose Weight?

Pilates involves slow steady movement which aims to shape the body by toning. Also, the entire focus is on alignment and enhancing body posture. It seems to work inside out to improve your appearance making you look slimmer and taller.

It doesn’t work as a standalone weight loss program.

Though pilates does help define the body shape and even tone muscle tissue, it doesn’t benefit weight loss programs. It does benefit the core and abdominal area, but for overall slimming, it won’t be good.

If your goal is to get leaner, trying a workout that elevates fat loss and targets fat deposits is more effective.

Weight loss requires a calorie-deficient diet, excessive fat-burning, less stress, improved sleep quality, and healthy lifestyle choices. Pilates may be beneficial in the last three resorts.

So, adding it to your complete weight loss program can aid your efforts by building the mind-body connection. It improves body awareness, decimates stress, induces sleep, and increases focus.

Particularly, it prepares the body for hard-core weight loss cardio workouts with enhanced flex and mobility. What about Pilates and its muscle toning benefit?

Pilates Does Help Tone the Body and Abs

Performing pilates regularly leads to physical as well as mental benefits. Particularly, it strengthens muscle tissue and provides a leaner look by enhancing muscle tone.

This leads to a highly attractive defined and sculpted physique. This is one of the health benefits which is shared by yoga and pilates.

While considering the accurate moves, there are also certain factors that one should consider to lose weight and tone the overall body. 

Certainly, workout plays a significant role, factors like diet, proper sleep, hydration, and enough supplementation are also important. Here is a closer aspect of these factors to know how they help to tone the body naturally. 

• Diet

Make sure your plate is full of enough protein, and healthy fats as well as enough carbs to keep a balance of healthy nutrients. Both Macros and micros are essentially important for toning up the body. 

• Sleep

Disturbed sleep may sometimes swell up the body and make you more tired than normal. Proper sleep ensures that you are free from fatigue and other factors to tone your overall body. 

• Hydration

Keeping your body hydrated is also important to maintain a proper shape. Ensure having 3.7 liters (15 to 16 cups) of water per day for males and 2.7 liters (11 to 12 cups) for females for adequate hydration.

• Supplementation

To keep your body ready to torch fat and maintain a proper shape, it’s vital to include supplements too.

PhenQ is one of the popular supplements that is mostly considered by people for weight management. Recently the brand launched its nighttime formula as well. PhenQ nighttime formula, PhenQ PM is also the best approach to shed fat while snoozing. It’s a natural supplement that improves the sleep cycle along with balancing nighttime cravings as well. A lot of users also analyze PhenQ vs PhenQ PM Comparison for their benefits, but considering both could be a better approach for burning fat throughout the day. 

After analyzing these above-mentioned factors, it’s crucial to know for how long you need to do Pilates to witness visible changes.

How Long Does Pilates Take to Show Results?

Usually, a fitness trainer recommends performing Pilates 3-5 times a week. The aim is mainly to notice muscle definition and improve bodily shape.

Of course, the results depend entirely on the starting line. Moreover, current weight, efforts, dedication, and consistency afterward come as a key outplay.

Still, generally, it takes a month to see a visible difference in the body. At the same time, it can take 3 months and even more to observe a visible change in the physique.

Again, the duration is likely to vary from person to person. The above figurative data is just for indication.

The entire comparison of Pilates benefits and risks clears out many doubts.

The Final Words

Pilates is more beneficial than the risk associated. Only if one approaches it wrongly, it leads to risks. In contrast, it can take your fitness level to a whole new level, by elevating flexibility, mobility, strength level, and posture.

However, as a standalone weight loss program, it is set to fail.

The slow and steady movement in no way provides intense weight loss like cardio and anaerobic weight loss workouts.

Still, Pilates along with slimming workouts may advance entire efforts.

Though Pilates is trendy, it is expensive. In terms of strength development, it is incomparable to the strength program.

If one wants to develop a moderate strength level, it is good to go with it.

Now that you have gone through Pilates benefits and risks, do let us know if are you going to enroll yourself in the Pilates classes.