Most of us don’t do Pilates to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Pumping iron is more commonly associated with bulging biceps. But whether Pilates can improve your muscle strength or even lengthen muscles has been a matter of some debate.
The Independent recently ran a feature headed, “Think Pilates gains are incompatible? Think again.” It pointed out that all the viral videos of gym bros struggling on Reformers showed how much strength is required for Pilates.
Neuromuscular Adaption
Physiotherapist Helen O’Leary explained to the Independent: “When you start resistance training, you often experience really quick improvements in your strength. However, these improvements are as a result of what we call neuromuscular adaptation. This means that the part of your brain responsible for movement control gets better at sending messages to the muscles to tell them to contract at an appropriate intensity. Through many repetitions, this neural pathway gets more effective and we get better at ‘firing’ up the muscle.”
In general to really improve muscles users need to do Pilates several times a week and when it starts to feel easy challenge themselves with greater resistance and “progressive overload” by doing more reps with either mat or Reformer Pilates.
Bodybuilding Competition
If you want to enter a bodybuilding competition then Pilates probably won’t get you there, but there will certainly be gains for new users in terms of muscle endurance. The Independent listed five Pilates exercises for improving muscles. They were knee hovers for strengthening the shoulders, arms, and abdominals; dead bugs for strengthening the abdominals; bridges for building strength in the gluteus maximus; side lifts for working the lateral abdominal and back muscles, and static shoulder strength; and leg pulls for strengthening shoulders, arms, abdominal and back muscles.
Lengthen Muscles
But there are limits to what Pilates can do. A Guardian feature recently asked if Pilates could lengthen muscles, as some influencers claim. “Definitely not,” was the verdict of Dr Christopher Morse, reader in exercise physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport. Morse said it was more a case of muscles appearing longer as flexibility increases after stretches and resistance work: “The body has simply got better at dealing with the discomfort of being in a stretch position,” said Dr Morse. “From one day to the next, if I attempt to touch my toes and get progressively closer to the floor, the hamstring will elongate further, but not because it has grown longer. You’re going to be able to stretch further because the muscle can tolerate the stretch better, rather than because it has increased in length.”
Conclusion
But, generally speaking, Pilates will indeed improve your muscles. Both mat and Reformer Pilates use resistance to enhance strength. Pilates can improve muscles and body tone, but as with all exercises, respect your limits, start slowly, then increase your repetitions, perhaps bring in resistance with weights and bands and allow adequate recovery time. Remember Pilates is strong stuff.
If you would like our newsletter you can subscribe on the Home page. Follow us on social media:
Facebook | Instagram | X | Linkedin.
The Pilates Central Team
