Maggie Schlegel
Last updated July 15, 2024

The Top 8 Health Benefits of Pilates… and Why They Matter for You

The last one may surprise you!

What if there was an exercise system that gave you lots of health benefits, a social community, and you didn’t have to break a sweat every day to start seeing results…

Oh wait, there is… The health benefits of Pilates seem unmatched when it comes to exercise that often doesn’t even feel hard.

At Sultivate, we offer a wide range of different Pilates styles and workouts that help you prioritize something that affects your everyday life – your health.

Today we’re sharing about some of the most important benefits of Pilates. Plus, how they affect your life on a day-to-day basis.

First, let’s talk a bit about what Pilates is…

What is Pilates?

Pilates is a system of movement that focuses on building a connection between your mind and your body while building strength, balance, and flexibility.

The movements are slow and flow from one to the next seamlessly (after a bit of practice), so you have lots of time to think about how your body is moving and how your muscles are engaging.

Unlike Yoga, where you hold static poses before moving on, Pilates is about the journey you make with your movements throughout the exercises.

When you take a Pilates class, it’s easy to forget about the nitty-gritty details of life you’ve been stressing over. Instead, all that matters is your body, your breath, and your movement.

Depending on the Pilates Class you’re taking, you may feel like you’re exerting a lot of energy or you may feel like you’re relaxing and melting into the mat or the Pilates Reformer.

Either way, it can be hard to imagine the effects Pilates can have on your overall well-being until you’ve tried it.

Let’s dig in and talk about some of the physical health benefits of Pilates and how they can enrich your life.

What does Pilates do for your body?

1. Increasing Flexibility.

It can be easy to dismiss flexibility when you think about your health.

However, flexibility can have a huge impact on your daily activities.

Things like:

Extending your years of mobility¹ – for more years of unassisted movement and a more active lifestyle for longer.
Avoiding injuries from shortened muscles – giving you a better quality of life with less time at the doctor’s office.
Improving the blood flow to your muscles and joints – promoting less injuries and faster healing.
Releasing tension, tightness, and soreness – which in turn helps your posture improve.
Increasing production of synovial fluid around your joints – for less joint pain throughout your day.

Maintaining or even increasing your flexibility pays off hugely in the long run.

Now let’s talk about something we maybe think about a little more concretely in our day-to-day.

2. Building strength.

The great thing about strength training with Pilates – it’s easy to customize your exercises to fit your specific needs. Whether that’s non weight bearing, low impact, or low intensity. You can customize your workout to all your physical needs.

Why should strength training be on your radar when you’re thinking about your health?

Here are a few reasons:

Makes you stronger – carry more groceries, pick up your (grand)kids, and move furniture for cleaning. All by yourself.
Supports or increases your metabolism² – muscle burns calories more effectively than fat. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, building muscle is a great way to do it.
Improves your heart health – lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Increased blood circulation, and easier blood sugar level management. For an overall longer and healthier life.
Stronger bones – for fewer fractures and a lower risk of osteoporosis.

The number of ways strength training can improve your quality of life is endless. In fact, it directly impacts our next health benefit of Pilates…

3. Improving your posture.

Improving posture is a natural health benefit of Pilates that you don’t even consider when you’re on the mat or Reformer.

It’s a natural side effect of increasing your flexibility while building strength.

Your posture naturally improves as you strengthen and elongate your muscles. Leading to improved posture so you can move easily through your day to day activities.

Better posture will automatically have you:

standing up straighter
slouching less in your seat
dropping your shoulders more

Improved posture affects how you walk through the world physically. Better posture leads to less aches and pains, better circulation, fewer headaches, better breathing, and better digestion.³

As an aside, it can also have an impact on your mental health. Improved posture has a cumulative effect. As you walk taller through life, people will treat you differently. Building more and more self-confidence. We’ll talk more about mental health later.

Posture also goes hand in hand with balance.

5 Physical Health Benefits of Pilates by MWC

4. Maintaining your balance.

By strengthening and lengthening your muscles and improving your posture, you’re creating the building blocks to better balance.

In fact, several studies provide evidence that Pilates has a positive effect on your balance.⁴ Which.is.huge. for your daily life!

Better balance → move through rooms easier → less falls → less injuries and fractures → more independence throughout your life → better quality of life overall.

Balance can also allow you to lead a more active lifestyle in general.

Without facing the difficulties presented by walking on uneven ground, basic bathroom routines like showering and toileting, and navigating your way through a cluttered or crowded room.

Does anyone else struggle walking through the field of toys your child leaves out and about?

Balance can affect every aspect of your life. Feeling confident in your ability to move through life opens up so many more opportunities for your lifestyle.

Another physical health benefit of Pilates is…

5. Increasing your cardiovascular fitness.

We’re talking cardio! Something that affects your lifestyle abilities daily.

Depending on what Pilates class you take, Pilates increases your heart rate and builds your fitness levels.

This allows you to:

More comfortably and easily go for long walks or hikes.
Keep up with the kids and grandkids playing in the backyard.
Improve your digestion for less bloating and constipation issues.
Leaves you with more energy at the end of the day so you’re not exhausted.
Easy breathing for an easier day overall. Breathing isn’t something you can avoid!

There’s a reason why everyone talks about cardio as a health benefit. It’s because it can affect every aspect of your day-to-day.

While there are many other physical health benefits of Pilates, let’s move on to the mental benefits.

Are There Mental Health Benefits of Pilates?

6. Increasing Cognitive Function.

This may seem like a tough claim to make, but there have been studies that prove Pilates reduces anxiety and stress.⁵ All while increasing:

Motivation
Attention span
Cognitive function⁶

Things like memory, spatial orientation, simple mathematics, attention to detail, and verbal fluency, among others, all fall under the umbrella of cognitive function.

What does this look like in your everyday life?

Recalling details, tasks, and that one item that didn’t make it onto the shopping list.
Confidently walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Accurately calculate the time you have left before you have to hit your next appointment or pick up your kid from school.
Noticing the oven and oven light didn’t get turned off when tonight’s casserole was pulled out.
Being able to accurately and effectively communicate your thoughts and needs with those around you.

It should be no surprise that when stress and anxiety decrease, mental ability increases. The next health benefit of Pilates also stems from this same source of relaxation.

7. Improving your sleep.

Who doesn’t love to get a good night’s sleep every night?? Sleep is so important in your everyday life.

It allows you to complete your daily activities effectively and coherently. Without the fog of exhaustion clouding your mind.

Sleep affects:

Focus
Reflexes
Clear thinking
Problem-solving
Attention to detail
Higher levels of reasoning

Sleep also affects almost every system in our body – from our hormones to our cardiovascular health. So there is a physical component to our need for a good night’s sleep as well.

Enhancing our ability to sleep is a huge health benefit of Pilates. No more melatonin that takes an hour to kick in. No more lying in bed with our minds racing till the small hours of the night.

Having the mental relaxation to fall asleep speaks to how powerful Pilates is for relaxing your mind.

Getting a good night’s sleep is the cornerstone of mental and physical well-being. It also affects our immunity… which we’ll talk about next.

3 Mental Health Benefits of Pilates by MWC

8. Boosting your immune system.

If this surprised you, you’re not alone. This is a big claim to make. But Pilates has been proven through multiple studies to boost our immune systems.^7,8,9

This is a HUGE health benefit of Pilates and begs the question… why aren’t we all doing it?!

Less sickness and illness in your life – well – it’s kind of a no-brainer… how can this not equate to a better quality of life?

Pilates boosts your immune system by increasing the cells in your body that fight illness. This is huge for your body’s ability to fight off infections.

The best part – you don’t have to be in perfect health to start feeling better.

Pilates is low-impact and can be done at your pace and ability level. It’s also very easy to find a Pilates program to do in the comfort of your home. So, even if you’re ill or not feeling the best, it can be a good way to keep movement in your life.

With actual chemical changes happening in our bodies, it’s easy to feel on top of the world after a really good Pilates class.

Is Pilates good for your life?

Healthy living is something we can all strive for to better our lives. But with a busy and full life, knowing how to prioritize your health effectively may have felt impossible.

Until you heard about Pilates – the proven method that prioritizes your health, and makes you feel great in the process.

If you’re on a mission to make healthy lifestyle changes, our Pilates Studio can help. All our classes are suitable for beginner to advanced students.

Ready to get these 8 health benefits in your life? Book a class with us to start your journey!