Yoga vs Pilates
What are the main differences between Yoga and Pilates?
Yoga and Pilates have often been mistaken as the same thing. I often get asked to explain the differences between the two, and what are the benefits of each one? Essentially how do you know if you should be doing Pilates or yoga?
The goal of yoga is to unite the body, mind and spirit. It uses techniques that help heal the body and find mental harmony among practitioners. Yoga is a therapeutic and meditative practice that promotes relaxation even in the most stressful times in our lives. It helps us reduce stress and clear our minds from anxiety and problems. While it could be argued that all exercise has a de-stressing ability. Yoga has an entire philosophy which underpins it.
Hence why it’s often referred to as a way of life. Having said that no many approach their yoga mat thinking they’re going to take on a new way of living, so ultimately it’s entirely up to the student. If you wish to practice purely for the physical that’s fine. If you want more then there is A LOT more to yoga. A couple of thousand years more really.
As for Pilates, it’s a little newer on the scene, Joseph Pilates started it in the 1920’s and it tends to focus more on how to strengthen the core, improve posture and develop balance and overall strength. Pilates is almost entirely focused on the physical and has less to do with the spirit and psychological aspects which you see in yoga.
It would be fair to say that in Pilates the primarily focus is on precision and control to make sure that the core of the body is strengthening. There is also extensive amounts of equipment used in Pilates that can help in developing the strength of the body such as pulley, spine corrector, small barrel, etc.
Overall, yoga and Pilates may look very similar to each other. They both have different ultimate goals. It’s helpful to take a look at that for a moment. Yoga is more focused with healing the imbalances of body, and mind and once that balance is achieved the focus shifts to helping the individual achieve and realise their higher potential. The belief is held that we all have a purpose and that through yoga we can light up our path and live that purpose.
Pilates is more inclined with strengthening the body and rehabilitating the body from injuries. When you look to the father of Pilates he was very much concerned with treating the body of soldiers, dancers and many others so that they were pain free. Hence the love of Pilates today amongst Physiotherapist and other in re-habilitation settings.
Top Benefits of Yoga
There are many benefits when doing yoga whether you are along or with a group. The great thing about yoga is that you can do it anytime and anywhere and achieve the goals you have set. Here are the top benefits of yoga:
BENEFIT #1: Yoga improves your strength, flexibility and balance.
Doing yoga can help strengthen your core and build muscles. It gives you a stronger endurance and makes your body more flexible to do other activities. In a study, doing yoga for twice a week for 8 weeks has improved the participants’ cardio-respiratory, muscle strength, endurance and flexibility.
BENEFIT #2: Better posture
Yoga’s techniques focuses on performing poses repetitively to help develop core strength. Every pose done needs to be done precisely to help avoid slouching or slumping. This gives your spine the stretch and correct alignment it needs.
BENEFIT # 3: Yoga promotes mental clarity
With yoga, the main focus is to help you clear your mind and reduce stress by doing yoga exercises. It encourages you to free your mind from problems or anything that makes you anxious. We do not only gain physical strength when doing yoga but as well as care for our mental health.
BENEFIT #4: Yoga promotes better sleep quality
Incorporating yoga into your daily routine can help improve your sleep quality. Sleeping with a clear mind from yoga lessens sleep disturbances and keeps the duration of the sleep longer. With yoga’s goal of reducing stress and anxiety, it eliminates the common contributors to sleep problems.
BENEFIT #5: Improves your relationship with yourself!
Overall, doing yoga has many benefits but one of the most reported among long term practitioners is the improvement in quality of life and sense of joy. Having a deeper confidence and understanding of self and the strength that comes from that spills out into the rest of your life.
Top Benefits of Pilates
Here are some benefits of doing Pilates:
BENEFIT #1: Pilates exercises the whole body
There are so many sports out there that tend to concentrate on certain parts of the body. Pilates, however, focuses on the body as an integrated whole. It is hard to find a sport with this integrative level of fitness that pays attention to core support and full body fitness. This is why Pilates is popular in rehabilitation sessions.
BENEFIT #2: Pilates adapts to all fitness levels and needs
Whether you have never done any form of sports in your entire life before, a professional, elite athlete, or anywhere in between, the basics of Pilates movements apply to everyone. With specific exercise modifications, Pilates workouts can be tailored to individual needs. This can maximize ones classes to achieve optimum results.
BENEFIT #3: Pilates increases flexibility
Pilates focuses on stretching and lengthening the muscle not just engaging and building strength. The dynamic exercises allow the muscles to be longer and leaner. People generally feel taller.
BENEFIT #4: Pilates supports mental health
While there may not be a strong focus on meditation or mindfulness the research on the benefits of exercise generally on mental health are well noted and in Pilates when you’re working hard there isn’t much room for worry or anxious thoughts lol.
BENEFIT #5: Pilates improves posture
Every Pilates exercise, even when stretching there is a focus on engaging the core muscles, which ultimately results in a well balanced body posture and a general feeling of more conscious control of ones core muscles on a day to day basis. This therefore challenges the body with balance and stability as well as improves your ability to sit and stand tall with ease.
WHICH ONE IS THE BEST? YOGA OR PILATES?
Now, you have know the differences and similarities of yoga and Pilates. The next question is, “which one is the best?” This isn’t easy to answer... So instead I’ll ask you some questions you can reflect on:
Do you want to have a clearer mind, or to worry less? Do you want to feel less stress in your shoulders and neck? Do you want to focus on rehabilitating your injuries strengthening your body? Do you want to feel more tone in your muscles?
Choosing the ideal practice for you all depends on the goals that you have set and what you want to achieve. Both are helpful in different ways, both have the potential to improve the quality of your life. You just have to figure out what your purpose is.
So whatever you choose, make sure that you are choosing the one that is aligned with your goals to keep your body nice and safe. The other thing I want to point out here is, you can do both! Now all the purist yoga teachers and Pilates teachers are not going to like this…but a combination of the two can actually be really nice. I’ve found a beautiful balance in my body and mind using both of these modes of practice.
How to get started with Pilates online?
Now you can take Pilates reformer classes online in which case you will need a reformer set up at home and these can get costly. I would suggest you start with mat classes first and work your way up if you really get into it.
So what do you need for Pilates mat classes:
Floor mat.
Resistance bands in different strengths are ideal.
Two 1-kg weights and
Two 2-kg weights.
Pilates ball and a
Pilates ring
Most of these you can pick up at department stores such as Target, K-Mart and Big W.
When starting Pilates, it is necessary to take care of your alignment and form to make sure that you are doing things correctly. Try to attend live online classes as interaction with a live teacher is really helpful in achieving the correct posture and form. If you can find a series of classes where the poses are broken down for you and each movement is explained in detail start off with that!
I run Pilates mat classes every Wednesday morning live online and then the recordings go up. We now have multiple pre-recorded classes for you to practice including breakdowns of key Pilates postures. In fact, we have yoga and Pilates fusion focusing on different body parts as well.
How to get started with Yoga online?
If you’re new to yoga, you are encouraged to start with the beginners one and two course on the platform. This will guide you to get a great foundation as each of the main yoga posture is broken down and explained in short 5-minute videos.
Moving at your own pace is easy as these courses are pre-recorded and then from there you can start attending the beginners live sessions or do the recordings from these each week. We also run a live beginners class every Thursday evening at 6pm. These are so useful as they allow you to get immediate feedback and support from your teacher. You may also ask questions and get modifications for your body which is extremely important in order to keep your body nice and safe.
We offer a 7-day free trial!
No obligations and you can cancel anytime!
All you need now is a yoga math and yoga blocks to start.!