Choosing between Pilates and Yoga depends on your individual goals and preferences. Both offer excellent benefits, but they approach fitness in different ways. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide — and if you need your questions answered, we are here to help you decide which might be an excellent choice for your unique health and fitness goals.
What Is Pilates?
Both Pilates and yoga are low-impact exercises, but there is one important difference. When practicing yoga, you typically adopt a position and hold it, or flow into a different position. In Pilates, you adopt a position and then challenge your core by moving your arms or legs. Both approaches increase strength and flexibility.
The story of Pilates begins with a sickly child named Joseph Pilates who was born in Germany in 1883. He wanted to improve his health by studying yoga, martial arts, and other disciplines involving the mind and body. He became more interested in body movement during the first World War when he worked with injured soldiers. After the war, he brought his style of exercise to New York City, where dancers, actors, and athletes embraced it.
Pilates moves require stabilizing your core before going through a series of range-of-motion exercises. Although some Pilates studios use specially designed machines, you can also do Pilates on a mat without special equipment.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is an ancient spiritual practice rooted in India. As a fitness strategy, it blends physical poses (asanas) with breathing techniques(pranayama). Because it has some elements of mindfulness, yoga is sometimes called meditative movement. It is popular in the United States. A 2017 survey showed that one in seven adults had practiced it during the preceding year. About 94% of those who do yoga say they do it to improve their overall wellness.
Benefits of Pilates
It can:
- Increase core strength to improve stability
- Improve posture
- Increase flexibility
- Ease lower back pain
Also, some studies have shown that Pilates may help with weight control.
Benefits of Yoga
It can:
- Ease low-back pain and neck pain
- Improve balance
- Enhance sleep
- Eases stress and stress-related illnesses, such as tension headaches
- Ease the pain of knee osteoarthritis
- Help with weight loss
- Ease some symptoms of menopause
Almost everyone can do yoga, but consult your doctor first if you have certain health conditions, including:
- Problems with spinal disks
- Osteoporosis
- Risk of blood clots
- Eye problems, including glaucoma
- Balance problems
- High blood pressure
If you have one of these conditions, some yoga poses may not be suitable for you, but you can benefit from others. Women can practice yoga during pregnancy with the approval of their doctor, but you may need to modify the poses.
If you decide to start practicing yoga, learn from a certified instructor to ensure your health and safety.
Which Should You Do?
It is difficult to say whether Pilates or yoga is better suited for you. If you want to increase your strength and flexibility, Pilates might be the better choice. If you want to improve your overall wellness, you might choose yoga. Still, much depends upon the particular classes available to you and the skills and qualifications of the instructors.
Yoga is appropriate for men, but some men feel that they are not flexible enough for it. Certain poses have different effects on men and women, but both men and women can benefit from practicing yoga.
Pilates may have a similar problem attracting males, but it’s helpful to remember that a man invented Pilates and that Joseph Pilates developed many of its principles while working with male soldiers.
Ultimately, the best way to decide can be to try both! ABC Fit Studio offers introductory classes for both Pilates and Yoga. This allows you to experience each practice firsthand and see which one resonates more with you. Call us today at (949) 305-3310 and visit our Instagram @abc_fitstudio for inspiration and community.
Reference: [https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/difference-between-pilates-and-yoga]