
We asked Dr Stuart Robbins (Osteopath) Director at Gateway Osteopathy & Pilates how frequent should individuals do Pilates?
Should I do Pilates x 1 per week or 3-5 x per week?
His response was, “Just like Pilates itself, the answer isn’t one size fits all”.
That’s a great question, I’ve been asked this a lot by patients over the years.
To effectively address questions of this nature, it often necessitates a thorough inquiry to various related areas. This is precisely why most individuals opt for a Private Initial Assessment with one of our dedicated teachers, here at Gateway. In my opinion you can benefit from doing Pilates once a week, for many years now I have seen so many people doing just that. You may be an office worker who has a stiff body in need attention and a bit of a postural reset. By doing just one session a week you may feel and function better, which will be enough in conjunction with other healthy lifestyle choices to assist you through the week. You may be an athlete who wants to do Pilates to supplement a training session, or to enhance your sense of core control and stability, and once again just one session a week can often make a difference. In the case of clinical Pilates a good instructor will look at you, assess you, and get you doing what they believe you need to do to move and feel better. Pilates is about using movement to heal, move and feel better.
There is definitely an argument that people to gain great results from doing Pilates more frequently. If Pilates is the only activity you are doing for exercise, perhaps you have got the bug and you just seem to love it, then I do believe it can be a great way to change or transform your body. You may be choosing to do Pilates 3-5 sessions per week. However, I do caution doing Pilates this frequently may be a bit of a double-edged sword! What I mean by this is, you can sometimes have too much of a good thing. To qualify my comment, for many years now I have seen patients who attend a lot of reformer classes, these are choreographed classes where everyone doing essentially the same movements on a Pilates reformer.
If you’re participating in a variety of classes led by different instructors, and they may not have knowledge of your previous week’s activities, there’s a significant risk that your “Pilates” program, and I use the term loosely, may become somewhat unbalanced. This could amplify the likelihood of overworking one area of your body compared to another. It is not uncommon for me to see patients who have sustained for example a neck injury from overworking their neck flexors, in an endeavour to feel the burn in their abdominals with little regard for neck alignment and the Pilates Principle of “axial elongation”.
Discussing hip flexors, trunk flexors and neck flexors is almost another topic so I won’t segway too much, and I’ll try and stay on topic;-
.. and so my answer is if you haven’t been exercising much at all and you decided to do “Reformer Classes” 3-5 x per week all of a sudden it may not end in the perfect body you are hoping for.
Your Pilates frequency.. if it is to increase from 1 to 3 or even 5 sessions a week, should be a decision based around your current physical status, existing injuries, occupation, other activities you perform, essentially your entire lifestyle and other aspects of your life. It should consider your current physical and mental state and possibly your budget.
At our studio we have many people who only attend once per week and experience the benefits of Pilates. Often people are too fixated on the physical benefits alone, when participating in just one class may also be significant in the scope of social and emotional support for so many people.
I would argue one good individualised Pilates class per week may be a lot more beneficial for some people rather than 3-5 impersonal classes where you getting pushed really hard to the beat of loud music.
Pilates can be about feeling better and getting back to doing the things your love, it should compliment and enhance your lifestyle and not necessarily about “transforming” your body. By embracing this approach you may still have enough time and energy to do things like go to work, stay on top of the washing and get the kids to all their sport.
– Don’t put yourself under too much pressure all at once, good Luck with your Pilates Journey – however often you choose to do Pilates.
By Dr Stuart Robbins (Osteopath) / Polestar Pilates Trained
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