- What are the benefits of yoga?
- What are the benefits of Pilates?
- Main differences between yoga and pilates
- 1-Pilates is more for physical pain and yoga for psychological benefits
- 2-Pilates helps you lose more weight
- 3-Yoga helps more relaxation
- 4-Yoga is spiritual
- 5-Different origin
- 6-The objective of yoga is to work the mind, that of Pilates to work the body
- 7-Different use of breath
- 8-Yoga helps flexibility
- 9-Pilates improves muscle tone
- 10-With yoga you have better mental benefits
- 11-Different materials
- Conclusions
The main differences between yoga and Pilates are that Pilates focuses on strength, muscle toning, body control, and flexibility, with an emphasis on strength. On the other hand, yoga focuses on flexibility and large muscle groups. It offers balance, endurance, strength, spirituality, and physical movement.
On many occasions we are looking for an activity that relaxes us and helps us with an injury from which we cannot recover. Therefore, they recommend doing activities such as yoga or Pilates. Although both disciplines have a lot in common, they also have differences that make them unique.
What are the benefits of yoga?
If, even seeing the main differences, you still have doubts about which would be the most suitable discipline for you. Here we explain the benefits of yoga:
Yoga's holistic approach to health improves balance, strength, and flexibility in the body, mind, and spirit. The postures used in yoga (asanas) improve flexibility, balance and coordination, while cleansing and detoxifying the organs.
Breathing exercises (Pranayama) and meditation improve focus while reducing tension and stress. Lifestyle and spiritual disciplines help increase awareness of one's daily actions.
Used together, these practices increase general health and well-being. Other benefits of yoga practice include:
- Regulated blood pressure.
- Improves digestion and metabolism.
- A strengthened immune system.
- Greater productivity in daily life.
What are the benefits of Pilates?
The first benefit of Pilates is that many practitioners have seen stronger abdominal muscles and a flatter stomach. Additionally, core strengthening exercises help stabilize your spine, improving posture, balance, and confidence.
Weight training with resistance machines builds strong, long, and lean muscles. The full strength and flexibility gained through Pilates also helps prevent and heal wounds.
Unlike yoga for the unification of the mind, body and spirit, Pilates focuses on the physical aspects of health. Its methodical and orderly manner is often attractive to those who want physical benefits without philosophy.
Main differences between yoga and pilates
1-Pilates is more for physical pain and yoga for psychological benefits
Professionals often recommend Pilates when there is physical pain that prevents us from leading a normal life, such as an injury. In turn, although yoga also has many benefits on a physical level, it is often used more to rehabilitate our mind and our emotions.
Therefore, depending on the origin of our problem and what we want to improve or achieve in our mind and body, we must opt for one or another discipline in order to increase its benefits.
2-Pilates helps you lose more weight
We all know that both yoga and Pilates offer many benefits, including strengthening and toning the muscles of our body. However, if what you are looking for is only the first thing, Pilates will be the most recommended exercise for you since in addition to toning the muscles you can lose weight with the help of the machines that are used as well as the positions.
On the other hand, in yoga, activities are not so "strong" with which you can lose the same or more weight than with the Pilates method, since they do not use the same machines or the same exercises. However, they can bring you benefits such as increased flexibility, among others.
3-Yoga helps more relaxation
Yoga is known for the great benefits it offers mentally to the people who do it. With this discipline you can calm your nervous system and thanks to this your stress level will be reduced, as well as your hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which will also control your hormone levels.
On some occasions, the injuries or discomfort that we suffer in our body have a mental origin and are translated in this way. Therefore, these injuries will have a psychosomatic origin and yoga helps us to alleviate them with the knowledge of ourselves and our interior.
4-Yoga is spiritual
Unlike Pilates, yoga involves the exploration of spirituality meaning meditation is a large part of exercise. On the other hand, if Pilates and yoga have something in common, it is that both perform an alienation between the body and the mind. However, Pilates does not add spirituality.
So if philosophy has never interested you and you only want to exercise without meditation being the protagonist of the activity, Pilates will be the most recommended discipline for you.
5-Different origin
Another difference between the two is their origin. For many people it is very important to know where the activities they do come from. Next, we explain it briefly:
The yoga is believed to have emerged 5,000 years ago in India. Although its origin is uncertain, there are several theories to explain it, but none have been really proven. It is part of a great philosophy and a way of life. This type of practice was invented to promote a better understanding of oneself and the alignment of mind, body and spirit.
The Pilates was invented as a method of rehabilitation and strengthening of the body in the early twentieth century by Joseph Pilates. It could be understood as a method of physical and mental conditioning that focuses on strengthening the entire body. It was a great tool for rehabilitating WWI soldiers as well as dancers.
6-The objective of yoga is to work the mind, that of Pilates to work the body
If you are still not clear about what we can use each discipline for, do not worry, it is normal that doubts continue to arise since yoga and Pilates are similar in many aspects. Both include movements and poses to increase strength, flexibility, and the mind-body connection.
However, the main objective of yoga is to work the mind and emotions, so everything related to strength and flexibility takes a back seat. While Pilates, if it focuses on toning the body and improving the posture and movement of the person.
7-Different use of breath
In both disciplines, breathing is essential to achieve the objectives that are proposed, which, as we can already imagine, will be totally different from each other.
Thanks to the use of breathing in Pilates, we can give the muscles the energy they need for their proper functioning. Therefore, it is very important that we focus on our breathing in order to manage the oxygen that enters our body and travels to the muscles in order to relax them properly.
On the other hand, in yoga the breathing exercises that are carried out have as the main objective that the person relax.
During the practice of this discipline, it is important, as in the Pilates method, that we monitor our way of breathing in order to guide the air to the areas that due to stress do not work properly and relax them.
8-Yoga helps flexibility
As we already know, thanks to yoga we can also increase our flexibility and also improve our joints. Therefore, stretching and maintaining static poses is the central theme of yoga, ideal for people who find it difficult to properly manage some of their joints.
With the performance of Pilates we are not increasing or directly working flexibility since it is more dynamic. What we can do is improve in a general and indirect way. As we have mentioned previously, Pilates is more aimed at strengthening your muscles and as a side effect you will see that you lose weight easily.
9-Pilates improves muscle tone
If you want to improve the strength of your muscles, Pilates is the most recommended discipline for this purpose, since it focuses first on trying to relax those muscles that are in tension and later strengthen them.
Unlike yoga, Pilates does incorporate the option of using machines to work resistance as well as other types of exercises in which you have to use mats. This makes the development of activities resemble those of any gym training.
10-With yoga you have better mental benefits
Yoga has always been known for the benefits it brings to our mind since this method is more focused on it. Exercise has been shown to be helpful for people suffering from depression and anxiety.
On the other hand, it is also highly recommended for being effective in fighting more intense diseases such as cancer, since it focuses on the mind and spirit, as well as the body. Also, silent reflection and meditation are a big part of yoga practice. Many people start practicing it to reduce stress mainly.
11-Different materials
Yoga is used as activity support materials such as blankets, blocks or straps to facilitate postures and exercises. To perform Pilates you do not need any accessories.
Currently, for some exercises that have been created recently in the Pilates method, it is necessary to use more complex machines than those used in yoga. These have a main objective to work the resistance of the body.
Conclusions
All activities that help us to move, and therefore, to avoid that we are sedentary people can bring us many benefits both mentally and physically.
As we have seen, Pilates and yoga are two disciplines that, although they are similar at the base, differ in their style, dynamics and benefits. Our recommendation is that depending on what you really need and are looking for, choose one or the other and if necessary, consult a professional to help you.
On the other hand, you can always try both and stay with the one that makes you feel the best and helps you both physically and mentally.