Pilates or Yoga? Which Is Best For You?

With our new term of Clinical Pilates and a variety of Yoga courses starting up soon, the most common question I am getting from people is “should I do Pilates or Yoga”?

The easy answer – you should probably do both!

Pilates and yoga are going to be beneficial for most people, but if you have to pick one or the other, it would depend on a few key factors.

Do you:

• Sit at a desk all day?
• Participate in regular vigorous exercise?
• Lead a relatively sedentary lifestyle?
• Have a hypermobile body-type? Or are you stiff all over?
• Find yourself struggling with basic everyday activities such as picking up your kids, carrying the groceries or walking up the stairs?

Yoga is great for those that:

• Sit at a desk all day
• Engage in moderate or high intensity exercise
• Participate in activities with repetitive motion such as running or cycling
• Need some stress relief or suffer from stress and anxiety – it can really help to balance you out by increasing the body’s relaxation response
• Yoga helps to improve length throughout your body, allowing for greater movement variability, increasing your movement options, especially if you maintain prolonged positions throughout the day.

Pilates is great for those that:

• Live a sedentary lifestyle
• Find exercise difficult or tiring
• Are hypermobile or “floppy” – meaning either you have looser joints/ligaments or lower muscle tone – improved activation of your deep core stabilizers will gives your joints the extra support it needs
• Improving the efficiently and effectiveness of your core activation will make you more able and stronger for daily activities, sport and exercise.

So hopefully that answered your question…and if not… you might be one of those who benefit from doing both. With any exercise program there should be movement variability – a variety of movements and activities that will minimise repetitive strain and load and help prevent injury.

Check our full timetable at www.redohealth.com.au/timetable to find the course for you!

#pilates #yoga #clinicalpilates #rehab #stressmanagment