Pilates has been around for a long time - about 100 years – and it’s gotten a lot of talk the last couple of decades. Pretty much everyone has heard that Pilates is good for your core, and it’s true. Pilates is great for strengthening your core muscles, but it’s amazing for so much more than that.
Here’s a quick rundown of 20 surprising things Pilates is good for (in no particular order):
1. Posture
Rounded shoulders? Forward head? Slouchy in your lower back? Pilates can take care of all of that! You learn how to stand up straighter without forcing your chest up, get out of your knees and calves, and pull your pelvis back over your feet. That means no more lower back pressure, stress on your knees, and upper back discomfort!
2. Coordination
When I first started Pilates, I had zero coordination. Like, trip over your feet, run into the edge of the wall, not good at any kind of sport, zero coordination. It was a miraculous transformation from total klutz to mostly not uncoordinated (I mean, I still have my moments, but not nearly as often!). Pilates makes your muscles work together, so you naturally become more coordinated.
3. Strength
You might not think “strength training” when you think of Pilates, but it absolutely strengthens your muscles. It just balances the tightening of the muscles with stretching them out, so you’re not bulky or tight, but you are strong!
4. Flexibility
Since every Pilates exercise balances strengthening with lengthening, your flexibility improves greatly! You’ll notice that you can reach further, bend lower, and move with more fluidity.
5. Mobility
Working all the small muscles to support the larger muscles means that everything moves better. There’s no part of you that doesn’t work in Pilates class, so everything keeps moving, gets stronger, more flexible, and more mobile.
6. Pelvic Floor health
Your pelvic floor muscles are part of your core! Strengthening your glutes, inner thighs, hips, and abs are an integral part of keeping your pelvic floor healthy and strong. Breathing well also helps the pelvic floor connect and release. Add in small equipment like the mini ball or magic circle, and there’s nothing you can’t do for your pelvic floor!
7. Connection
Ever feel disconnected from your body? Like you don’t know whose meat suit this is anymore? It tends to happen after childbirth, or perimenopause, or big periods of stress and upheaval. Things change massively and you’re left wondering what happened to who you were! Pilates changes that. It forces you to listen to your body, feel into it, and connect with it. Your muscles get more connected, your mind gets more connected, and you start feeling like you’re not a stranger to yourself anymore.
8. Stress Relief
All exercise is great for stress relief, but Pilates is amazing because you’re literally spending every moment of your workout IN your body – thinking of where it is in space, what it’s doing next, and where it needs to be – and suddenly, your workout’s over. You’ve spent that entire time thinking of you and only you, and not your to do list. It’s pretty amazing how much of a relief it is to just BE in the moment and appreciate your body and what it’s doing.
9. Lower back pain
A lot of lower back pain not associated with disc issues or injuries is because of a lack of ab and glute strength. Pilates is great for both your glutes and your abs, so your lower back pain magically lessens or disappears completely!
10. Neck pain
Our lives today create a lot of tension in our necks and shoulders – always on the computer or your phone, slouched in the couch, head forward. Strengthening your upper back and improving your posture takes away that discomfort in your neck and makes it easier to do all the things you’d rather be doing than trying to take the pain away.
11. Confidence
When you move better, you feel better. When you feel better, you hold yourself differently. Add in better posture, stronger muscles, and a deeper connectedness to your entire body, and your confidence changes completely!
12. Improving balance
Balance is important for everyone, but especially the older you get. Falls are one of the most devastating things for older people. Even though a lot of Pilates isn’t done standing, the work you do strengthens the muscles responsible for balance when you’re upright! If your balance is tenuous, working from the mat and THEN moving to standing work is a lot easier than working standing from the start.
13. Keeping youthful
Joseph Pilates said, “If your spine is stiff at 30, you are old. If it is flexible at 60, you are young.” Moving your body (not punishing it) and balancing that strengthening with flexibility means that Pilates will keep you feeling younger at any age. Bend so you don’t break! But also, having strong supporting muscles makes everything move more fluidly.
14. Improved sleep
Not only does Pilates help you be more comfortable getting into (and out of!) bed, but it also helps you sleep better. Using your body helps you feel more prepared for sleep, more comfortable during sleep, and much less likely to dread getting out of bed.
15. Mental health
“Motion is lotion”, not just for your body, but for your mind. Spending time thinking about your body and how it’s moving, really paying attention to it, puts your head in a much better place. Pilates focuses on how you’re moving and taking that time to be IN your body means you’re spending less time in your head. Exercise is recommended as a first step in any mental health program; Pilates makes it more personal.
16. Correcting imbalances
Ever notice how one side of you is weaker than the other? Less coordinated? We all have imbalances because no one does anything perfectly evenly on both sides. Pilates helps you focus on bringing those imbalances into better balance by strengthening your smaller muscles to become more supportive.
17. Learning about yourself
It can be hard to really look at yourself in the mirror, admit your shortcomings, or even know what it is you truly want. Your Pilates practice shows you how you are changing every day, and lets you use each workout to find out more about yourself, how you move, how you talk to yourself, and how you are when things don’t necessarily go your way. It helps you let go of judgment, accept the fluidity of life, and release expectations to just acknowledge where you are in the moment. It makes you learn so much about yourself (in a good way).
18. Celebrating
In Pilates, we celebrate our wins, however small. Sometimes it’s a tiny difference – a slightly deeper connection that changes how an exercise feels, a release of some negativity towards your practice – or sometimes it’s bigger – an exercise that becomes possible after a lot of work and focus, saving yourself from a fall because your body responded to catch you. Some clients celebrate getting out of pain, some being able to play with their kids or grandkids, some being mobile after surgery or as they’re aging.
19. Finding positivity
We’re always finding wins and celebrating them in our Pilates practice, and in our lives. The more you focus on gratitude, progress, and releasing expectations, the more positive you are in all aspects of your life. Plus, your Pilates practice always makes you feel great when you’re done!
20. Community
Pilates brings people together! Not only does knowing what “that Pilates feeling” feels like give us a common bond, it’s the knowledge that we’re all working on being just a little bit better every workout and every day. You can find supportive community in group class, with an instructor, with others online and in person.
Which of those 20 things Pilates does was most surprising to you? Do you have anything to add to the list? Do you agree with them all? If you’ve never tried Pilates, are you ready to get started? It’s worth it!
Xo, Kimberly
p.s. The best start is one that makes you accountable and gives you a great basis to continue your Pilates practice, no matter how you choose that looks like. Try it out - get 3 virtual private Pilates sessions with exercises selected specifically for you and what your body needs right now!
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