Yoga is a widely accepted practice that involves both physical and mental exercises and alleviates physio-psychological illness and attains spiritual goals. Nowadays, yoga is practiced worldwide by certified trainers as a complete and regular exercise program to reduce stress and manage good health.
Pilates, on the other hand is entirely a fitness program developed in the 20th century that has been accepted widely in recent years. The founder of this exercise program called it ‘contrology’, meaning ‘controlled movements by the body done with utmost mental concentration to attain flexibility of body ‘.
Unlike yoga, Pilates involves a set of exercises that cannot be performed by everyone and uses a range of apparatus. Certain Pilate’s workouts involve vigorous exercises posing to be a problem for many people. Pilates is based on six principles: concentration, control, centering, breath, precision and flow. Pilates has the added benefit of attaining a healthy heart, a stronger and more flexible body and loss of weight over yoga.
Pilates has some limitations and a client should decide carefully sitting with his doctor and (trainer/instructor about which is better for him. Expectant mothers, children, older adults and patients of certain diseases better avoid Pilates. Heart patients may or may not be benefitted from it because the performer’s heart rate rarely goes too high; rather it is comparable to a walker’s rate. Athletes trying to gain muscles may not be benefitted as well. Nor is Pilates extremely useful for burning high calories and losing weight fast.
Some more differences are listed below:
– While Pilates offers a physical workout and tones the body, yoga is more of a spiritual relaxation. Both requires concentration, but at different levels. While Pilates concentrates more on balancing and focusing, Yoga does it on focusing alone.
– Yoga dates back to more than 5000 years while Pilates to some 100 years.
– In yoga, both inhalation and exhalation is done through the nose; Pilates incorporates inhalation through nose and exhalation though mouth.
– Pilates is better for Athletes and trainers of physicals exercises, while Yoga is better for spiritual purposes.
– Yoga, unlike Pilates requires no tools or practitioner for its performance.
Deciding to choose which
If a person wants tranquility of mind by uniting his body and mind, yoga is preferred for him. If a person’s focus is on toning of his body more than tuning his mind, Pilates is perhaps the better option. However, both can be practiced at the same time if someone wishes. One will not contradict the other. In fact, Pilates is more like a recent and advanced adaptation to work on both body and mind.
It is best to perform both first and then decide which is working better for an individual. Care should be taken with patients and certain health conditions. Both does a similar job, in a different way. Hence performance varies. With reference to aerobics, Pilates is a bit more challenging. One must talk to respective experts before deciding on one.
What ever your choice maybe, don’t forget to ramp up your moves with fashionable yet comfortable and all that good stuff. That’s more reason to love this life and start living a yoga lifestyle! Namaste.
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