Pilates and Yoga - What's the Difference?

[alisoncooks]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Yoga = sometimes boring.

Pilates = always boring.

Ha! Or maybe:
Yoga = always stretchy, sometimes tone-y
Pilates = always tone-y, sometimes stretchy

[antbuko]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Yoga = sometimes boring.

Pilates = always boring.

Lol! True that! Which I believe explains the advent of fusion workouts. Boring with some zing so that it's not so boring anymore.

[Yelly]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Yoga = sometimes boring.

Pilates = always boring.

Lol!

[txhsmom]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Yoga = sometimes boring.

Pilates = always boring.

I used to say that doing Pilates was as boring as watching paint dry. Now that I'm old{er}, I've gotten boring, because I find that I enjoy Pilates...

Carol

[Gancho Girl]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Yoga = sometimes boring.

Pilates = always boring.

Ha! Then you need to come to my Pilates sessions. Never boring, quite often a lot of back-chat from my clients!

[loverly7]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

Yoga = sometimes boring.

Pilates = always boring.

I completely agree that pilates is always boring for me. That being said, I don't do any workout I find boring, so the yoga I do is never boring!

[PennyK]

I actually like low key workouts and often feel that I get a better workout because of the slower pace. They really allow me to focus on form and putting my all into the moves. I also think they seem meditative.

[Eibhinn]

My cousin trained as a Pilates instructor when she was 18 years old. She had no prior experience with formal exercise instruction. She started taking yoga classes after a couple years teaching Pilates and (at least temporarily) became a bit disillusioned with Pilates upon discovering the many similarities. She said to me "He [Joseph Pilates] just gave a bunch of yoga stuff different names!!" She came to appreciate the unique things Pilates did do that yoga didn't, but was quite put out that she'd been taught that Pilates was completely unique only to discover many common moves with Yoga.

[Yelly]

Originally Posted by Eibhinn

My cousin trained as a Pilates instructor when she was 18 years old. She had no prior experience with formal exercise instruction. She started taking yoga classes after a couple years teaching Pilates and (at least temporarily) became a bit disillusioned with Pilates upon discovering the many similarities. She said to me "He [Joseph Pilates] just gave a bunch of yoga stuff different names!!" She came to appreciate the unique things Pilates did do that yoga didn't, but was quite put out that she'd been taught that Pilates was completely unique only to discover many common moves with Yoga.

That's interesting...
I realize that simply standing upright and lying on the ground are technically yoga poses, so anything can "look" like yoga, but I guess I just assumed (like your cousin) that Pilates was its own thing. Several years ago I had a friend who was a Pilates instructor who told me the same thing - that Pilates had nothing to do with yoga. I wasn't into either of them at the time, so I never gave it any thought. When I saw those Pilates moves in that book I was reading, and they were basically just yoga poses, it made me wonder what the differences really were. I guess I need to research it more (since I'm a geek like that, ha ha!), and take a few more Pilates classes before I get it.

[Gancho Girl]

Originally Posted by Yelly

That's interesting...
I realize that simply standing upright and lying on the ground are technically yoga poses, so anything can "look" like yoga, but I guess I just assumed (like your cousin) that Pilates was its own thing. Several years ago I had a friend who was a Pilates instructor who told me the same thing - that Pilates had nothing to do with yoga. I wasn't into either of them at the time, so I never gave it any thought. When I saw those Pilates moves in that book I was reading, and they were basically just yoga poses, it made me wonder what the differences really were. I guess I need to research it more (since I'm a geek like that, ha ha!), and take a few more Pilates classes before I get it.

For me, I think a lot of it is the intention behind the movement. And in writing that, I realise that it seems we talk about yoga "poses", but Pilates "exercises" or "movements".

I'm not a yoga instructor, but I've done yoga to various degrees over the years. If I were to take something like bridge as an example - usually when I do this as a yoga move, I come up higher (more towards my shoulders) and am looking for a stretch/release. When I do it in Pilates, I don't come up as high (closer to bra-strap level) and am working on strength or to create space in my spine (depending on how I'm doing it - I've easily got a dozen variations on bridge when I'm teaching Pilates!).