Pilates And Yoga - Similarities And Differences

Today we'll be going through the differences between Pilates and Yoga because the two of them often get grouped together but they're actually pretty different in terms of practice.

So hopefully by the end of this video you are more clear on which one might work better for you and which one you might want to try out.

Let's start by looking at the similarities between the two.

So Pilates and Yoga are both mind-body practices that involve you really feeling into your body.

So rather than just doing the movements for what they are,

You're actually asking yourself,

How do I feel while practicing the movement and the flow and the practice?

So there's that integration between mind and body.

Both of them involve the mat to some capacity,

More so in yoga,

But they both involve the mat.

And here is when the differences start to come in.

So even though they both involve the mat,

Pilates has a whole world of different equipments that also come along with a practice.

So you might be familiar with some of these.

There's the Pilates chair,

There's the Cadillac,

There's the Barrels,

The Reformer,

And all of these they add something to a Pilates practice.

The Spine Corrector and the High Barrel,

You might have seen these before,

They have an arc which helps the spine gain mobility.

On the other hand,

You have the reformer,

The cadillac and the chair that give spring resistance and so the body is working against the forces of the springs to build endurance and strength.

The goal of Pilates is to act as a low impact form of exercise to build strength and endurance and it's also to nourish the joints and give your body more mobility and flexibility.

Yoga on the other hand is rooted in spirituality and ancient traditions.

It has a long lineage and there are many different forms of yoga.

You might have heard of Ashtanga,

Alignment,

Hatha,

Vinyasa.

There are so many different types of yoga.

I feel like I have to do a different video for all the different lineages.

At the basic level,

The physical practice of yoga is only one limb or one part of yoga.

There are so many other parts to yoga because it's a holistic mind-body lifestyle practice.

So in addition to the yoga physical practice on the mat,

There is meditation,

There is pranayama,

Which is breath work,

And there's also philosophy and traditions and teachings that can help you live a better,

More meaningful life.

There's also so many teachers and teachings that people can follow and learn from.

So there are so many aspects to yoga,

Like within yoga itself,

That you can test out and try out to see what works for you.

For many people,

It's the physical practice of yoga that works for them.

For some people,

It's breathwork and meditation.

It's up to you to experiment and test and to see which one works best for you in terms of the combination.

Personally,

For me,

I like to do both and I have a Pilates and yoga practice.

I hope this video showed you the differences between the two and hopefully cleared off any doubts.