Pilates--longer, leaner muscles?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Pilates--longer, leaner muscles?
32
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 12:29pm
I have heard this so many times that Pilates will help make your muscles longer and leaner.





iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 3:54pm

i don't feel as strongly about it, because pilates is actually an exercise program (whereas yoga is much more) and also because it seems to me that there isn't as great a risk of injury from doing pilates wrong as there is from doing yoga wrong.


i don't have much experience with gym pilates, but i do think that it is likely to be much less effective than real pilates --

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 4:05pm
Yeah, I guess if I had something to compare it to, it would be better.





iVillage Member
Registered: 05-07-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 4:09pm

Hi,

I would say that hatha yoga does better for muscle lengthening as it stretches the muscles in a more balanced manner. The standing poses, sun salutes, and backbends are excellent for strengthening. In the mat-based Pilates classes i've tried, the emphasis was on crunches with the neck in a (to me) stressful position, and then some ball work which made me nervous. I went fleeing straight back to yoga!

fuchsia

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-11-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 4:17pm
i don't know about building muscle size, but you will
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 4:25pm

I don't get how this works--I always thought that you built strength by increasing muscle size.






iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 4:26pm
Yoga is definitely great for improving your posture and awareness of your body.





iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:34pm

Well does does a longer, leaner muscle look like anyway?

Avatar for soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:34pm

This is exactly what I was thinking. I never did Pilates, but in the the later phases of study & as a pro (in dance) I was taught yoga, not to keep the muscles long & lean, but to maintain balance & symmetry in the body & develop a greater mindfulness in an effort to combat the damage dance was doing to us and improve the quality of movement.

You have to have the right body to excel in any physical endeavour. I was told very early in my pro training that although I had to take ballet I would never be a ballet dancer - that i wasn't built for it, but might have a chance w/ modern dance. In dance & gymnastics you have to have a specific build to achieve the right lines. There are always exceptions to every rule though.

Although strength training should be done thru full ROM its not intended to increase ROM (although it does to a minor degree). Pilates isn't really meant to be a flexibility program, its more like a a yoga-based exercise program (:-p which is why I was teaching almost identical exercises I thought I'd developed for almost a decade before I found out about Pilates ;-> ).

Soleilune
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-15-2004
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 5:35pm
70 bucks an hour?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Wed, 02-02-2005 - 6:15pm

its more like a a yoga-based exercise program


That's my perception of pilates.