Last Updated on February 22, 2025 by Pilates Power
Benefits of Pilates
‘Pilates is not just exercise it’s a lifestyle that changes the world’
Brent Anderson, founder of Polestar Pilates
At Pilates Power we are dedicated to supporting you as you begin your Pilates journey with us to move better and feel better. Our passion is to help you build strength and balance within your body, boost your energy, reduce pain, and increase flexibility and mobility. Pilates is suitable for all from teenage through to our older population. It is the adaptable and diverse method of exercise focusing on just you. We tailor an individual programme that’s suits your individual needs, our typical day sees us working with chronic pain, rehabilitation to working with world class athletes.
What are the benefits of Pilates?
Since its creation in the 1920s, Pilates has been used around the world to increase muscle strength and tone, improve flexibility, and posture and lose weight. However more research is suggesting that Pilates also has a wide range of mental health benefits. Let’s look at some of the ways that Pilates has the potential to help improve mental health and physical health.
Pilates improves balance
If you’ve ever tried Pilates then you’ll know that certain movements really challenge your balance. Balance, coordination, and stability are skills everyone can benefit from having, from sports professionals to desk workers. For athletes like tennis players, for example, developing better balance through Pilates can help them keep upright after having hit a ball when twisting and on one leg.
Developing these skills can be especially beneficial for older people including those with osteoporosis or at a high risk of falls. Studies have consistently shown that Pilates is an effective form of exercise to improve balance in older adults. Furthermore, Pilates has been shown to have a positive effect on balance and function for those with neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease.
Stress management and relaxation
Pilates is also used widely to reduce and cope with stress. As wellness coach, Elizabeth Scott writes, “Exercise can decrease ‘stress hormones’ like cortisol, and increase endorphins, your body’s ‘feel-good’ chemicals, giving your mood a natural boost” (Scott, 2018). As a form of exercise, Pilates may also improve your ability to respond to and cope with stress, enhancing your stress resilience.
Pilates works the whole body
Unlike many forms of exercise, Pilates moves the body in all directions and orientations. This means that in contrast to lifting weights at the gym, which usually works your body in one direction and one plane, Pilates strengthens and mobilises all muscles of the body. This makes the body universally stronger and can protect it from injury when you happen to suddenly twist or turn in an unusual way. It can also create more balanced and uniform muscles. This makes Pilates a great way to complement and enhance a gym-based workout with weights.
Pilates aligns the body
Pilates brings awareness to your alignment and through that can help you feel if and how you are misaligned. For those who need it, Pilates can then help you find a natural “neutral” alignment (when all three curves of the spine are intact). Primarily, changes are achieved through performing the right exercises to meet your needs such as improving muscle imbalances or improving the way your joints and spine move. Equipment-based Pilates can also be beneficial when it comes to finding the right alignment for your body. This is because the equipment provides you with feedback, allowing you to feel for yourself when you’re out of alignment and self-correct. This then helps to reinforce good habits and makes changes to your alignment long-lasting. Improving your alignment and developing good posture has numerous benefits.
Improving memory and brain training
When performing automated forms of exercise such as running on a treadmill, the body may be working but the brain is not actively engaged. This may lead to increased risk of injury and reduced exercise benefits. Pilates requires you to recruit both your body and mind simultaneously. When we learn a new exercise or modification, it challenges the brain to learn a new skill, keeping the mind always engaged.
Pilates is good for spine health
Spinal fluid lubricates the discs and vertebrae of the spinal column. This is what keeps the spine healthy. When these discs dry out (due to old age, illness, or injury), an achy and stiff back and restricted movement can be the consequence. Twisting movements can help combat this dryness. Twisting lubricates the spine and therefore keeps discs plump and healthy. Pilates is famous for the way it twists and turns the spine in all directions. “Spine twist”, a movement that is performed on the mat, is just one example of the many rotating, twisting and spine-turning exercises you’ll find performed in a Pilates class.
Using the breath and mindfulness in movement
Breath is one of the most powerful tools in calming the mind and is utilised in a wide range of mental health practises from yoga to mindfulness to the Alexander technique. Similarly, breathing is one of Joseph Pilates’ 8 Principles of Pilates and an essential component in all Pilates classes. Every Pilates exercise involves a particular breathing pattern which improves the effectiveness of the exercise, helps to supply oxygen to the muscles, removes waste products and prevents you from holding your breath. In focusing on your breath, the brain is not able to compile that “to do” list or focus on the afternoon schedule of picking up the kids, getting to swimming practise or what to have for dinner! Instead, Pilates directs your focus inward for the duration of the class, focussing on the present, feeling the muscles work, and reconnecting with your body.
