I Tried At-Home Pilates For A Month And Here Is What I Found

I Tried At-Home Pilates For A Month And Here Is What I Found

Pilates is all the hype right now on social media. Are you wondering if it is worth the hype, or will you see results if you start Pilates? Then this blog post is for you!

A little background about me and my fitness journey

Hi! My name is Maddie Hull, and I am an online fitness trainer! I have been working out for about eight years! My workouts include lifting weights, walking, and sometimes hiking, running, or peleton(I usually rotate my cardio because I get bored easily). Besides working out and coaching people to get into the best shape of their lives, I am also a waitress, and that requires me to stay in pretty decent shape. I know you are probably thinking serving can't be that hard. Well, in order to be the best server I can be and get you the food you order in time and not disappear for hours(let's be honest, we have all had that one encounter lol), I need to work out. I need to be able to lift, carry, and stay light on my feet to keep up in a fast-paced environment.

Why did I choose to try Pilates?

I know I sound like I am already an active person, so why would I need to incorporate pilates?

Anyone who has worked out a good chunk of their life knows that the key to longevity is switching it up from time to time. We as humans are not robots, and we do get bored, so switching up your workout routine(not a different workout every time because we still want to see progress and to achieve that progress you need to do the same thing over and over again) can be the key to keeping your workout lifestyle alive.

BUT THE MAIN REASON was that I hurt my back. Like I said above, waiting tables is exhausting on your body, and my erector spinae(muscle that runs along your spine) decided that it needed a time out. It took over multiple doctor, physical therapist, and chiropractor appointments to release my back, and finally, after a year, I am back to almost new.

With my back pain, it felt constant, and often I found it would relock up if my posture was misaligned, even in the slightest form. Seriously, even a chair that was uneven would. So I looked online and started to research if there was a form of exercise that could help build up my posture and keep my back from locking up. At first, that led me to do yoga, but that was too much stretching for the muscles, and I felt like my posture wouldn't stay for the rest of the day because I didn't know how to engage those muscles naturally.

Then I came across Pilates and fell in love with it immediately! I felt my core really connect, and finally, I knew how to engage it in a new way that I've never felt before, almost unconsciously throughout the day, even.

The history of Pilates

The beginning of Pilates started with its inventor, Joseph Pilates. The main purpose of it was to rehabilitate World War I soldiers in a prisoner-of-war camp. He tried his techniques on his fellow inmates and found success with them. The purpose was the connection of the mind to the body. Pilates did, in fact, get many of his movements from yoga and how animals even move!

The main thing that caught my eye was when I read the following: "They found the Pilates method the best way both to recover from injuries and to prevent their recurrence"(Pilates Central). I felt like my prayers were finally answered. I found something that will help heal me from not only my injury, but also help to prevent it from happening again.

What I found with doing Pilates for a month

So for this challenge, I still lifted weights twice a week and incorporated full-body pilates workouts from YouTube twice a week(check out Lilly Sabri, love her!). The reason I did at-home pilates was that it saves me money, and I could try something new in the safety of my own home without feeling out of place.

What I found was that I felt more energetic after my workouts rather than exhausted. Pilates is tough, but the classes I did were low impact on my joints, which I believe helped a lot with healing. Pilates is about controlling the movements, so even without weight, they are super challenging.

I also discovered that by strengthening my postural muscles through exercise, my posture improved, allowing me to go about my day with better posture and reduced back pain, which was the main goal of starting Pilates.

The only thing that was different from pilates and weight training was that I tend to burn more calories during my weight lifting sessions than a 30-minute pilates video. However, this was not the point of my experiment. I am just stating this because usually the people you see doing Pilates are tiny in structure, so I thought I would possibly look like them in just doing Pilates for a month. But as we all know, if you are trying to lose weight, it comes down to a calorie deficit, not pilates or weight training. Sure, these forms of movement can help with keeping muscle, but they won't make you look like your favorite health influencer. A huge disclaimer that I think more people need to be aware of: if you did the same workouts and same diet as your favorite influencer... YOU STILL WON'T LOOK LIKE THEM!!!! Everybody is different, and your genes play a factor and how you are naturally built with bone structure.

Conclusion

So, should you do pilates? Yes, if you want to get better at having control over your whole body and improve your posture.

Will it make you look like your favorite influencer who is doing pilates? Yes and no. It depends on your body structure and how willing you are to work to reach those goals! I suggest focusing on yourself and finding a workout program that you enjoy doing, whether that be pilates, yoga, or strength training. If you need help, I do have coaching and workout programs available.

Are at-home workouts as effective as a reformer class? Yes absolutely! When I first started my fitness journey, all I did was at-home classes, and I think it is safe to say that it has worked!

I hope you found this post helpful, and you start moving! If there are any other challenges you want me to try, comment them down below!