You can’t compare Pilates to Lifting

I just wish we would stop comparing these two disciplines. All these Instagram fights, the copious amount of energy spent trying to prove which one is better… seriously? But better for what? Talking in absolutes (good or bad) and zero context will drive our society further apart, as if we need more of that anyway.

People are often offended when hearing that Pilates is not the best exercise when it comes to strength training. No, please do not twist my words, I didn’t say that it is a ‘bad’ exercise. What I’m referring to is ‘absolute’ strength, not the colloquial loosely bashed around diluted meaning of the word ‘strength’ often substituted for (my least favourite word) ‘fitness’.  

So, what’s the definition of strength?

“The maximum force a muscle can produce in a single effort irrespective of time.”

However, we should not discard body weight exercises and name them ‘bad’ or ‘less than’ because for many people, this is where the lifting journey begins.

The are many ways to classify exercises - for example based on performance vs aesthetics vs health improving metrics. We could also look at the different energy system expenditure, different muscle fibre usage; well, basically you can slice the cake in many ways.

But for the purpose of this article, let’s look at the “Strength Pyramid”, if I may put it this way.

The Strength Pyramid 

§  stabilisation endurance

§  strength endurance

§  hypertrophy

§  maximal strength

§  power

First we have stabilisation endurance. Just because it is at the bottom, it doesn’t mean it’s ‘not good’. This is the foundation of all movement. If you cannot perform a simple split squat without losing your balance (I promise you, it’s not that simple for many people) – how on earth are you going to do it with a loaded barbel?

Under stabilisation endurance you have body weight exercises, and I’d put special emphasis on those that build body awareness. Pilates fits into this category. Before I teach anyone to lift heavy sh*t, I borrow a lot of exercises from the practice of yoga (asana) that focus on proprioception, feet placement and so on.

If you cannot stand up from a small box without your feet peeling off the floor swaying uncontrollably and you also are ‘feeling your back’ but not your legs working, why on earth would I give you an object to move on top of it (like in a dumbbell snatch for example).

Body awareness, recruitment of the appropriate muscles with the correct technique should be the foundation of all sport.

In fact, some people might have to stay within that space for a considerable amount of time, and some people won’t want to do anything else, which is fine by me as I’m not the one to dictate what people should or should not do. I have absolutely no preference what type of movement you do, I’m happy to program anything you want as long as you tell me what your goals are. If a Pilates class ticks that box because it’s more of a social occasion, who am I (as a coach) to judge that?

What about strength endurance? As the name suggests, it’s the ability to sustain continuous contractions without fatiguing. Here we’re talking longer workouts with many repetitions under smaller load (or body weight), at low to moderate intensity.

Now these types of workouts are often confused and labelled as ‘hard’. But ‘hard’ is subjective and because it feels ‘hard’:

a) it doesn’t mean that it’s ‘better’ or that you are getting ‘stronger’ per the above definition and

b) ‘harder’ doesn’t necessarily correlate to intensity.

I often get nasty looks and I almost lost a friend when I told someone that the 45 min workout she’s just done was long and ‘slow’. And I’m sure that it was ‘hard’ but you cannot sustain high intensity for 45 min! And therefore, a long workout cannot be a fast workout. We can only sustain high intensity for short periods of time (let’s say 10-20 sec intervals) because during a longer workout you must pace yourself and therefore your intensity during such long workout is ‘slow-er’.

I’d probably die in a Pilates class… ha-ha

And I do not doubt that it was ‘hard’ – bah, I’d probably die during a workout like that as I simply don’t train muscle endurance at all. In fact, I’d probably die in a Pilates class… ha-ha

These types of workouts might not be ‘fast’ or qualify under the term of ‘strength’ training but nevertheless they have loads of benefits such as improving mitochondrial health for starters.

Hypertrophy, as the name suggests: hyper-trophy (as opposed to a-trophy) focuses on increasing the muscle fibre in diameter. I guess you could say that that’s what body builders do, but that would be a reductive definition.

Hypertrophy ranges in terms of the number of sets, and reps are smaller than muscle endurance but higher in load.

Still way more reps than absolute strength and power. Programming for each is also different. Now, how different will depend on individual and specific goals.

If you stick to hypertrophy ranges, it doesn’t mean that you are going to automatically ‘bulk up’ and if you do absolute strength, you won’t. There are a lot of other variabilities to consider, nutrition is one to keep in mind for example.

Again, a lot of people will stay within the hypertrophy ranges, one reason is that it takes a lot of mental power to have the guts to work towards your PB (personal best) plus NOT EVERYONE has to. (it depends on your goals and not everyone has the same goals, and that’s okay, let’s chill everybody!)

If it comes to absolute strength, the number of sets and reps differ from hypertrophy. I’ll tell you a secret, those who train for strength often fondly call hypertrophy ranges ‘cardio’. It’s not really, but you get the gist.

Saying that, programming for this type of training doesn’t mean that during every single workout you do your 1 rep max. Not at all.

 And finally, power! That’s a combination of strength, speed, co-ordination and agility.

Some examples would be Olympic Weightlifting, shot put, rugby. 

Both absolute strength and power encompasses not just the muscular system per se but the neuromuscular system.

That’s probably why they are also more mentally fatiguing and so you might experience less of a “mechanical” muscle burn (the muscle soreness). Therefore, if you judge exercise intensity by how ‘thrashed’ you are post-exercise, you might think it’s not ‘hard’ enough. Sigh.

The fatigue that’s related to your neuromuscular system is the reason why the protocol with regards to rest time is different. Here I’m talking of rest time between sets and also how much time you need between training sessions.

When you lift heavy, you will stick to smaller reps within a set, but you will rest longer between the sets (that’s why you may see us sitting around for 2-5 min between sets – it’s not because we are lazy!).

Equally, you need more time between sessions if you do strength or power.

For example, I could probably do 5 sessions of hypertrophy per week, but I can only do 3 of Olympic Weightlifting – it takes that long for me (age is also a consideration btw, I’m 47) to get my neuromuscular system reset.

I hope you are still here reading this and I haven’t lost you on the way.

What I’m just trying to say is that we shouldn’t be speaking in absolutes using colloquial jargon. We should make our decision with regards to training based on the specific goals each type can give us. And if we don’t have the time to learn all this, we should seek advice from a qualified coach.

Arguing on social media we should not.