Coming to a fitness club, a modern person is often faced with a large selection of different directions for improving the body and increasing its attractiveness: yoga, Pilates, shaping. At first, it can be difficult to navigate and understand how all directions differ from each other and how to find a suitable one for yourself.
Pilates and yoga: what’s the difference
Pilates and yoga are different directions. They are often compared, in part because both of them are quite calm (compared, for example, with aerobics), are distinguished by smooth movements.
Both yoga and Pilates help a person:
- achieve body flexibility
- develop plastic
- heal the body
- promote correct posture
- engage deep muscles
Pilates combines elements borrowed from different practices, including yoga, which is why in these two directions you can find the same postures and movements.
In yoga and Pilates, unlike other types of fitness, to achieve good results, it is not the number of approaches and repetitions that is important, but above all the quality of exercises and asanas and especially respect for the spine. During practice, it is important to concentrate on the movement and its purpose and to monitor the correct breathing.
Warming up and warming up the body before exercise is not required, since there is no intense load on the muscles. Cooling down is also unnecessary, as exercise alone will stretch well.
Yoga is a practice of healing the body and spirit, which came from antiquity.
By itself, it includes several areas:
- hatha yoga
- kundalini yoga
- Iyengar yoga, etc.
In general, in yoga, initially, the emphasis is on strengthening the spirit and calming the mind through the impact on the body.
Pilates, on the other hand, was created specifically to heal the body. It appeared a little over a century ago thanks to Joseph Pilates, a German doctor, athlete, and professional instructor. His soreness and frail physique prompted him to look for ways to cope with his ailments and become healthy and strong. So, he came up with health-improving gymnastics, which really helped him to achieve good physical shape, and then completely high results in sports.
It is hardly possible to say that some direction is better, and some worse. It all depends on your goals. If you do not have any physical training, there is no desire to master difficult poses, but you want to improve your health and cope with the consequences of physical inactivity, tone your muscles and stretch them at the same time, you can do Pilates.
In general, Pilates is easier to perform, easier to start mastering at home from video
If you want to go further and master more difficult poses, you can do yoga and sweat. Of course, you can immediately go to yoga, but at the initial stage it is still somewhat more difficult. There are a number of contraindications for yoga, which it is better to ask a specialist about in advance. There are few contraindications for Pilates, it is not in vain that it is used as rehabilitation gymnastics.
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