32. Pilates is Great, But....

Pilates is everywhere right now and for good reason. It can make you feel stronger, more aligned and more connected to your body in a way that’s hard to replicate. But if Pilates is your only workout, are you actually covering what your body needs for long-term health, strength and longevity, especially as a woman?

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This podcast is intended for general educational purposes only. The content discussed does not replace professional medical, nutritional, or fitness advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual needs and responses vary, especially with exercise and nutrition. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making significant lifestyle changes.

Transcript

Welcome And The Wellness Lens

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up? Welcome back to Vito with Alita. This is a podcast about evidence-based wellness for real life. I'm Alita and I'm here to talk about fitness, health, mindset, and building a strong and sustainable life. But doing so without extremes, guilt, or perfectionism. If you care about your health, but you also want a life that you can actually live, you're definitely in the right place. Now before we jump in, I just want to say thank you for being here. It genuinely means a lot that you choose to spend your time listening, and I don't take that lightly. If you've been enjoying the show, following the podcast really helps it grow and lets me know that you're enjoying what you're listening to. And it will actually help more people find these conversations, which means I can keep bringing you new episodes every single week. Alright, let's get into today's episode. I'm your host Alita, and today we're going to talk about a form of exercise that has become incredibly popular over the past few years, and this is Pilates. Pilates has absolutely exploded. It felt a little bit like wrong to not ever talk about Pilates, so I figured let's dedicate an episode to it. Pilates is often praised for its ability to improve posture, strengthen the core, and even build long, lean muscles, and so many people swear by it as their primary form of exercise. But as always, today I want to take a balanced look at the science and I want to see is Pilates really all it's made out to be? So we're going to explore the benefits of Pilates, some potential drawbacks, and ways that we can ensure we are getting a very well-rounded fitness routine. Especially for women. I think Pilates has, you know, this whole concept of Pilates princesses, like that's fine. And if we'll get into it. Before we dive in, let's start with our word of the week. And the word this week is Dicta. And Dicta refers to a noteworthy statement or observation. So it's insights that stand out and make us think a little differently about a topic. So throughout today's episode, I'll share a few dicta about exercise and women's health that I think are particularly important and relate to Pilates and this whole explosion of Pilates that we're currently seeing. So here's the first one. Just putting that out there. Different forms of exercise support different aspects of health. So there's never a single exercise method that will provide every single thing that your body needs. And that's true from the different types of exercises for different muscle groups to just different categories of exercises like Pilates, strength training, cardio, whatever the category is. And this idea is really gonna guide today's conversation. So let's dive, let's dive right in. So what is Pilates? And Alita, have you ever tried Pilates? Well, actually, I'm not gonna sit here and say I've been to one of those fancy Pilates studios lately. But part of my undergrad kesiology degree was doing these things called practicums where you kind of had to complete specific movements or like sports. Like you just you had to choose from a list and kind of it's like gym class at the university level, I guess you can say. And one of them that I did was Pilates. So a little bit, I dabbled a little bit into it. But honestly, other than that, I have never actually done Pilates, and I think it's something that I am very open to doing. And today's conversation is based off that very short experience. It was a whole semester, a few months of Pilates, as well as just some of what the literature has to kind of say about the practice. Alright, so Pilates was developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates. And the method was actually originally called contrology. Contrology. So controlling sort of is kind of in there. The goal of Pilates is to strengthen the body through controlled movements, and it has a strong emphasis on core stability, posture, breathing, and even just overall body awareness. And many Pilates exercises target the deep core muscles. So that's that's good. We all we had a whole episode talking about like the importance of like the stabilization. And Pilates can be performed either on a mat or using specialized equipment such as a reformer. So it is pretty accessible, especially if you're doing Pilates at home on a mat. It's it's nice that it is accessible. Okay, so now I would kind of like to talk about the benefits of Pilates because there are some, right? So let's see what Pilates actually does really, really well. So one, this is core strength. Pilates is excellent for strengthening the core muscles. And research shows that regular Pilates training can actually improve your core endurance and your trunk stability. And this can actually help support the spine and even sometimes reduce certain types of back pain. So that's huge, you know. A lot of people do experience back pain, and Pilates might be a way to really engage that core. Another big benefit is improved posture. Many Pilates movements emphasize spinal alignment and body awareness. And because of this, Pilates can actually help individuals become more conscious of their posture during everyday activities like sitting, walking, or if you're working at a desk all day. An improved posture is actually great. I very actively try to make sure I'm not shrugging my shoulders or crouching over my laptop and all these things. So Pilates can really help to improve that and to bring awareness to it. Another thing, so the third kind of benefit I'm going to touch upon is about flexibility and mobility. So Pilates incorporates controlled stretching and movement patterns that can help improve flexibility and joint mobility. And this can be particularly beneficial for people who spend long hours sitting or if you experience any sort of stiffness. So we can see here how Pilates is good at making sure your body is staying. I guess the word I'm going to use is elastic. You want your body to kind of not be stiff sitting all the time. So we can see how Pilates is beneficial there. And sort of the last benefit I'll touch upon today is the mind-body connection. And Pilates requires concentration, it requires controlled breathing, it requires slow and deliberate movement. And because of this, you can you will promote a strong mind-body connection. And this will help people become more aware of how their bodies are moving. So if you've ever tried yoga, for instance, you'll know how in the practice it's very focused on the breath. And in this case, you can really Pilates is really allowing an individual to focus on their body, how it's moving. And overall, I just think it's a good practice for body awareness. Now, with all of these benefits in mind, which are actually great, like I don't wanna this is not an episode to just completely poo-poo on Pilates. It is not at all. It is just to be aware of the the claims that Pilates seems to be kind of having, or the claims that are sort of circulating online about how Pilates is building long, lean muscles and all those things. That's a little bit of a stretch. Pilates is really good at body awareness, it's good at controlled movement, it's good at if you have if it's accessible and if it's helping you get up and get out of your chair and somehow move your body, that's amazing. But there are some potential drawbacks of Pilates if it is the only form of exercising that you are sort of partaking in. So while Pilates does have many benefits, it's important to remember another side, sort of. So as we mentioned earlier in the episode, different forms of exercise provide different physiological adaptations. And this is where Pilates can actually have some limitations. So the first one I'd like to talk about is the limited muscle hypertrophy. Most Pilates exercises rely on body weight resistance. And while this can build endurance and stability, it may not provide enough progressive overload to significantly increase muscle mass. And muscle growth typically requires progressively heavier resistance over time. So you have to constantly give the muscle more in order to really see it grow and to build muscle and to stimulate it. With Pilates, you are not sort of you're not reaching that threshold of stimulus needed for muscle growth. And we know the importance of strength training, especially for women, and having Pilates as the main form, you're kind of you're preventing yourself from ever reaching that growth, or you're not doing yourself a favor by only doing Pilates. And this kind of leads me to the next sort of drawback, and this is limited bone loading. And this one's particularly important for women. And one thing about bone health is that bones become stronger when they're exposed to mechanical stress. So resistance training and impact exercises can create forces that stimulate bone remodeling. So Pilates, especially if you have like a mat-based Pilates, often does not really produce the same level of mechanical loading that you would see in like strength training or something like running or even biking. Like these things are allowing your bones to become stronger and are allowing the muscles to develop, and you're really helping with that bone loading. And now the last thing about actually, before I get into the last thing, I think it's important to why, like why particularly important for women. The thing is with women, as we age, you know, you we have throughout our life, we always have a fluctuation of hormones. Like we have cycles, we have things happening. If you end up having children, you have a whole fluctuation of hormones there. And whatever. We go through we throughout our entire lives, we have this fluctuation taking place. Now, when it comes to bone health, the main kind of hormone that acts as like a protective or that has this protective effect is estrogen. And estrogen sort of let's say protects that bone density, bone health. Once we reach a point where we have where we have menopause and we're no longer producing the same amount of estrogen, we actually see an increased risk of osteoporosis and and fractures in women because you're losing the protective effects of estrogen. And I bring this up, although many of us may be younger and like menopause might be something that is seems to be in the distant future, you're sort of building the base and the foundation today. Over the next few decades, you are building that foundation to really have a strong, strong base, strong bone health, so that when you do get to a point where naturally there's nothing we can really do about it, where estrogen drops, you are protecting yourself from increasing your risk of fractures and of osteoporosis. So by only engaging in Pilates and even just cardio, like I want to emphasize here that women have always been targeted for be as small as possible, cardio, Pilates, lean, lengthening the muscle, whatever it is. These things are not providing the true health benefits that we could we should be aiming for, especially if we want to live a long life that is full of quality. It's about quality of life here too, not just number of years. So with that being said, Pilates is not providing that bone loading necessary or that muscle mass, that muscle hypertrophy necessary for ourselves to set ourselves up for a very for a stronger stronger future, I guess I'll say. And now the last or number three kind of drawback is the limited cardiovascular challenge of Pilates. Pilates is generally a low-intensity activity, and that's not a bad thing. So is walking, right? And it's kind of the same idea. If walking was the only form of exercise, you're getting some of the benefits of walking, but not others. So while it can raise the heart rate slightly, it usually does not provide the same cardiovascular stimulus as running, cycling, swimming. Even I'll put here brisk walking, if you you're, let's say, not able to actually run, but really getting that heart rate up. And cardio exercise is important for heart health, for endurance, for metabolic health. We had a whole episode about VO2 and the importance of your body's oxygen using capacity and how this sometimes determines how like the independent years of living, right? Like all of this contributes to longevity and overall health, especially as we age. We we may not see it now when we're when we're younger and our body is very resilient and able to bounce back. All of these things will show later in life, when we're aging, when we're going through different changes, through different phases of life. This is where sort of all of these benefits will truly show. So you kind of have to do yourself a favor for your future self at this point. But now I talked about a little bit the drawbacks, the benefits, and I really emphasize strength training. So I think I want to now shift into the most important part of today's episode. And this is why strength training is especially important for women. I did touch upon it a little bit, but I think I'll I'll give a little more detail right now. So as I mentioned, women face a higher lifetime risk of developing osteoporosis. And this is a condition where your bones become weak and fragile. And as your bone density declines, the risk of fractures increase. And fractures, think of any bone in your body, even your hips, okay, hip fractures. And if you have a hip fracture, this can significantly affect mobility and independence later in life. It has even been shown to impact mortality because you have a hip fracture, you can't do certain things, and then one thing after the other, it actually can almost increase your risk of mortality. And strength training plays a major role in preventing this. When muscles pull on bones during resistance exercises, so let's think of the major ones like squats, deadlift, lunges, resistance training with weights, they create stress that signals the body to strengthen the bone tissue. And over time, this can help maintain or even improve your bone density. And for women, especially as they age, this can be incredibly important for long-term health and mobility. Now notice here how in the exercises I gave, they're all compound movements. I'm not saying you have to go and be a bodybuilder and exercise like the one shoulder muscle. Like there are obviously different levels to it. I just want women to at least partake in the major compound movements for overall body strengths. Other ones I didn't mention here, like chess press, okay, that's like a very big upper body one. And I know you don't want to be bulky in your upper body. I promise you won't. It takes years. But these are things that are important that you should be partaking in. You don't have to go and be a bodybuilder and have like a bro split and do all of those things. Have three uh full body, full body resistance training days a week. And another thing I'd like to mention here is don't completely abandon Pilates. Like, that's not what I'm saying. But Pilates is a practice, just like yoga is a little bit. Like Pilates is the practice that's going to help you become aware of your body. It's going to be the one that maybe gets you excited to move. It's going to be the practice that helps with your breathing, with your body awareness. But the true health benefits, although there are some with Pilates, an overall healthy life is going to include multiple forms of movement and exercise, and strength training should be up there. Another thing I'd like to mention at this point is you can start strength training at any age safely. Please make sure you're sort of talking to your doctor, to a personal trainer, to somebody who knows, who can like assess you and your individual circumstances and where you kind of are. But you can start strength training at any age and you will see the benefits of it. You may not have as much of like let's say we're saying here strength training increases your bone density. In a younger individual, let's let's just I'm just throwing numbers out here just to kind of give you like a framework of what I'm trying to say. Let's say in a younger individual, it increases your bone density can increase 10%. In an older individual, you might still have an increase, but it might be maybe 5%. But you know what? An increase is an increase. So don't be discouraged if you feel like, oh, it's too late, it's never too late. Strength training, moving your body, it's never too late, and you will still get some of the benefits. Now, with that being said, we cannot forget the importance of cardio. And cardiovascular exercise is another component of a healthy fitness routine. Remember, we're looking at this as components. It's never just one type of movement for everything. And regular aerobic exercise will help improve your heart health, your lung capacity, just overall circulation in your body, even your metabolic health. So we, you know, I you've probably heard of the guidelines. At least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week. This should be the minimum. Like if you do anything, reach for this minimum. Like, and anything more, honestly, is great. So again, jogging, cycling, swimming, brisk walking, try to incorporate it into your routine. Don't think of cardio like I dread cardio on a treadmill. I'm there with you. So the way I kind of go about it is I try to incorporate it into my routine. I walk to the train, which adds to my commute a little bit, but in the grand scheme of things, I was sitting in traffic anyway. I park a little bit further. I get off one stop earlier from this from the trains or from the subway for me, let's say, so that I can walk a little bit. All of these things will add up. You should still kind of push yourself and schedule times where you're including exercises that are going to challenge you, because that's how you actually improve your cardiovascular health. But start slow. Start by adding a little more movement, a little more cardio-based exercises, and then as you get better and you feel better, you can start really challenging yourself and improving and adding a little bit more however it fits your life. So, lastly, this kind of brings us to a balanced fitness routine. Let's go back to Pilates. Where does Pilates fit into all this? Pilates can be an excellent complement to other forms of exercise. As we mentioned, it can help improve core strength, posture, flexibility, body awareness. But the key dictum of today's episode is the most effective fitness routines are balanced ones. A well-rounded routine will often include strength training for muscle and bone health, cardio for heart health and endurance, mobility and flexibility work, and practices like Pilates for core stability and movement quality. And that might seem overwhelming, like Alita, I could barely even find the time to exercise. Now you want me to do all these different things. This is kind of where the the mindset she Shift, mindset shift that I advocate for comes in. When you shift your mindset to an overall healthy and active lifestyle, and you try to remove these like rigid structures around movement, and I say rigid structures in the sense you should still have a plan and goals you are achieving and that you are aiming for because that's how you improve and that's how you can progressively overload in all aspects of your training. But when I say rigid, I mean you don't have to work out at a specific time or like for a specific number of minutes. If that if there's a day that you're busy and all you can do is get a walk-in, that's fine. Be kind to yourself the next day. Make sure you're scheduling it in. Make sure you are doing everything that you can. So whatever's in your control, you are doing to make sure that you are prioritizing movement. And I actually think it's great that we have such there are so many options of movement. You know, and I think if you have looser guidelines, for example, aiming for three sessions at the gym, aiming for two to three Pilates sessions, aiming for including a little bit of walking or cardio every single day, all these things will help to make sure you are sort of hitting all of these goals. And be smart about it. In the sense that if let's say you're able to walk to your gym, walk there, do 45 minutes strength training, walk back, that's sort of your cardio and your strength in one session. It's really cold outside, it's raining, you don't live close to the gym. Strength train and then go do some form of cardio. Movement is the best thing that you can do for your body, and you should try as much as possible to incorporate it into your daily life. Start small. I'm not saying you have to start next week having all three components and everything figured out. Start small. Where can you start today? Is it adding a few more steps? Is it actually getting a gym membership and going? Is it even Pilates? If Pilates is a thing that's going to make you more active and it's going to kind of open up those doors, I'm all for it. But as you are improving and building and becoming more mindful, try to incorporate as much as possible all of these elements. I know it's hard and everyone's busy. I know. That's why not every week will be perfect, not every day will be perfect, but every day is a fresh start. It doesn't matter what happened yesterday, you get up today and do what you can. And I think that's sort of the best approach to movement, to an overall healthy life. And it's the one that's going to make you stick to it and make it sustainable for you. And as you try all these different forms of exercise, you will also see what you like and what you don't like. And I say this with some caution because we sometimes associate challenging ourselves or putting our bodies through like an uncomfortable situation with I don't like it. This is, you know, it's a gray area a little bit because you may not like like do you think I like sprinting? Not really, not in the moment, but after I feel amazing. I really I like how I feel. I like that I'm seeing improvements in my cardiovascular health. And currently I'm able to sprint. It's the form of exercise I choose to do. No one's forcing me to do it. So just be a little bit conscious when you are making this kind of plan for yourself. There still have to be elements where you do push yourself, but not too much to a point where you burn out and you never want to go back. I've limited my sprinting to once a week because for me that's sustainable. I used to do it two, three times and I just hated it. I dreaded it and I couldn't do it anymore. So now I've found a balance. By doing it once a week, I actually stick to the once a week, and I'm still engaging in a form of exercise that's improving my cardiovascular health. Anyway, that was a little bit of a long-winded way to say. I know there are probably all these expectations, like make sure you do cardio, strength training, Pilates, whatever, start small. This episode was just to bring awareness to what Pilates is, the benefits, the drawbacks, and how I don't think it should be the main form of exercise at all for benefits of long-term health, for overall sort of health. Listen, if you don't care and at the end of the day you just want to do Pilates because it's fun and that's all you care about, that's fine too. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm just here to to maybe nudge you in the place of okay, we're thinking here longevity and overall health. So if there's one dictum I hope you take away from today's episode, it's no single exercise method does everything. Pilates can be a powerful tool for improving postures, core strength, and even movement awareness. But combining it with strength training and cardiovascular exercise can help support long-term health, especially for women. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. And if you enjoy this episode, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit from it. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I really appreciate you being here. If something in the episode clicked for you, send it to a friend, or you can reach out to me directly using the link in the description. I genuinely love hearing from you. And if you want more evidence-based wellness, you can connect with me via my Instagram. Again, that link will be in the description below. Take care of yourself this week, and I'll talk to you soon. See you on the next one. Bye bye.