How Often Should I Do Pilates?
Instructors get asked this question a lot and here is what we think.
A few basic tenets and assumptions that instructors share:
- Consistency is everything with exercise.
- Pilates is strength training. In Pilates you are developing muscle strength using springs for resistance, or your own body weight. Pilates is other things too: lengthening of muscles (aka stretching), breathing techniques and all within the framework of laser-focused alignment. Pilates is a package deal.
- It’s well documented that the best results for strength-training suggest 2 to 3x per week and we agree.
- Remember that in Pilates you are working from the inside out. Someone working on support for numerous injuries is more focused on the deeper muscles that support the joints. Someone in an intermediate class is going to get more of the outer muscles of the body in addition to the deeper ones.
What happens when you do Pilates once per week?
You build muscle, although it’s slower-going than 2-3 times per week. If you are patient and consistent, then keep doing what you are doing. Some people get frustrated when they don’t see results quickly. Then they stop for a couple of weeks and start up again. It can be a set-back if you go too long without challenging your muscles.
Here are a few challenges and solutions with the less-often-than-you-want approach to Pilates:
Inevitably you (or your child or spouse) will get sick at some point, or you’ll go on vacation or a work trip, have visitors, and go to celebrations and holiday parties. Life happens. Before you know it, your once-per-week habit is much less than once per week.
Some solutions
- Build in a home practice where you get 10-15 minute a couple of times per week of exercises that most serve you. This will help you get the most out of your studio time. Any instructor will help you pick out the best exercises for you.
- Always have a Plan B – even if doesn’t always work out. Some of the time Plan B has a chance of working. If you have visitors or know you are going out of town, can you work from home one day and squeeze in a mid-day workout? You could take a flex-band on your trip and use online streaming videos to top-up your studio time.
- Many people do well with planning on taking 2 classes per week, so that when all those other things come up, you average more like 1½ Pilates workouts per week, and you keep moving towards your goals.
- Round out your Pilates workouts with other activities that build muscle. If you are a hiker or runner, go searching for your abs and glutes while you hike and really use those muscles too. Same with swimming, canoeing, skiing: put those abs and glutes to work.
What do instructors do?
While we have access to studio time more often than the average client, we experience life as messy business, too. Every instructor who teaches at Optimum ALSO maintains a home practice on the floor.