8 reasons why Pilates is good for your body and mind

Is pilates as good as everyone says it is?

By Shazrina Shamsudin - 17 Feb 2024

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Chances are, you probably know a friend who’s obsessed with Pilates or you might have at least heard about it. But what about Pilates that’s got everyone raving about?

For starters, pilates is a full-body low-impact workout that aims to strengthen muscles while improving postural alignment and flexibility. While it is specifically defined as an exercise for the core or abdominal muscles, pilates also involves engaging areas like your arms, glutes, and lower legs – so you’re not just focusing on one particular area.

What’s more, pilates can be done with or without equipment – but essentially you can expect the moves to involve slow, precise movements and breath control, and a full session typically lasts from 45 minutes to an hour.

And while yoga and pilates are low-impact exercises, welcoming for all fitness levels, and gentle on your joints, many still prefer to do the latter as it may be more beneficial for recovery, while yoga may help prevent sports injuries and ailments. For instance, pilates can help those who are prone to experiencing injury or chronic pain that impairs movement and performance, whereas yoga can help with the stretching of muscles, especially for those who play a lot of sports.

Types of pilates

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Like yoga, pilates comes in different forms and they are usually categorised into types that differ depending on your goal and the specific body parts you want to focus on. Some of the more popular forms of pilates include mat pilates and reformer pilates.

If you’re looking to focus on weight loss and develop lean muscles, most instructors would recommend doing reformer pilates. However, if your goal is to relieve stress and focus more on mindfulness, then you might want to stick to the usual mat pilates sessions. Unlike mat pilates, the reformer classes are usually performed on a pilates reformer, which is a sliding platform complete with a stationary foot bar, springs, and pulleys that provide resistance.

However, if you’re just starting out, you might want to try the mat pilates classes first as it helps to create a solid pilates foundation, and focuses on using your own body as resistance, so you’ll get to learn how to engage specific muscles to do exercises with proper form. Once you’re more comfortable and confident, you can then challenge yourself by taking on the reformer to add more resistance to your workout.

Physical benefits of pilates

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1. Increases core strength

Generally, pilates is commonly known as a disciplined practice that involves small movements focusing on various areas of the body. If you’re one who’s looking to improve your core strength, then pilates will definitely be worth trying as it helps you to tone your muscles, gain overall strength and body control, as well as improve your flexibility. It places a lot of emphasis on the core and also helps to decrease back and hip pain and decrease pelvic floor dysfunction. Of course, it’s also perfect especially if you prefer a more structured workout, sans the cardio.

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2. Improves posture

If you’re well aware that your posture has been really bad over the last few years, then getting into pilates might just be what you need. By doing pilates, you’re focusing on your body’s alignment, the ideal range of motion at the joints, and a balance of all opposing muscles. With consistent practice, you’ll also find that you’ll have an improved posture by bringing awareness to your alignment and strengthening neglected postural muscles.

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3. Prevents injuries

Muscles that are too loose and weak or too tight can make the body more susceptible to injury. But that’s where pilates comes in. By incorporating pilates into your lifestyle, your muscles will be more balanced, as pilates helps you to develop dynamic strength, so you’re better able to support and stabilize your joints while moving

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4. Decreases back pain

If you constantly experience back pain from standing for long hours or even while sitting at your desk the whole day, then pilates might just help to alleviate the pain. This is because pilates helps to target the deeper abdominal muscles and pelvic floor to contract and release, which in turn, helps to protect and stabilise the back.

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5. Improves flexibility and mobility

Most pilates exercises combine static and dynamic stretching that lengthens the muscle fibers. On top of that, it also helps to strengthen them to create a greater range of motion because the exercises involve smooth transitions between precise and slow, controlled movements.

Mental benefits of pilates

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6. Improve memory and other cognitive functions

Unlike exercises like running or lifting weights, pilates requires a mind-muscle connection to carry out the movements and coordinate your breathing with how your body moves. What this does is that it trains your brain in a new skill, and as a result, it helps to improve cognitive function and to slow age-related declines in brain performance.

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7. Decrease in fatigue

Since there’s a heavy emphasis on your breathing techniques in pilates, you’ll find that with continuous practice, the exercise will help you improve cardiorespiratory capacity, which in turn, helps to boost your endorphins, oxygen flow and blood circulation. What’s more, since it’s a low-impact exercise, you’ll rarely feel fatigued after a session and it gives you a boost of energy.

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8. Builds confidence

Any exercise routine, when done regularly, has the potential to boost self-confidence and related feelings like self-worth, purpose and self-esteem. But when it boils down to exercises like pilates, you’ll find that you will more awareness of your body and begin to notice you move more easily and are more graceful and confident.