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Last Updated on May 16, 2025 by Pilates Power

Here’s what classical Pilates does to your muscles

‘Pilates is not just exercise it’s a lifestyle that changes the world’

Brent Anderson, founder of Polestar Pilates

Pilates builds the strength that helps you move safer and more effectively.

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.

For our purposes, let’s approach the Pilates method with the same mindset as its founder Joseph Pilates which means it is rooted in precision and control, with exercises that can be done on a mat or on a piece of equipment.

In Pilates, exercises are usually performed slowly and with a smaller number of repetitions to focus on quality over quantity.
Because Pilates exercises are done in a slower, low-repetition manner, they typically work what are known as type 1, or slow-twitch, muscles.
Those types of methods generally target the smaller muscle fibers that are responsible for muscular endurance. Muscular endurance, in Pilates specifically, is your ability to hold positions for longer. Basically, you’re improving your body’s stamina.
There could be instances, however, in which you work the type 2 or fast-twitch muscles in a Pilates class. For example you’re performing the classic abdominal series exercise known as criss-cross and your Pilates instructor tells you to double your pace. That short, quick burst of effort is enough to target those fast-twitch fibers. The quicker movements in Pilates on the mat, or on the machines like the reformer encourage this.
So as we progress with our Pilates, the foundation we have built with muscle stamina and endurance leads us to the more challenging strength and movement work in Pilates. In other words we increase our muscle mass by doing Pilates regularly.

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