Pilates vs Gym: What’s the Best Workout for You?

If you’re beginning your fitness journey, one of the first workout choices you’ll consider is whether you want to do pilates or gym training. The great thing is that both are beneficial, popular options and they’re full of empowering exercises that can boost your physical and mental wellbeing.  

Remember, you can always try or do both! Both training types deliver physical benefits, and after experiencing them you may find one community or environment better fits your preferences and goals. If you ever need specialist advice for a training plan, we encourage you to find an FS8 studio and talk to one of our supportive trainers. If you’re wondering “is pilates better than the gym?”, we’ll be exploring both pilates vs gym training to help you find the workout that best suits you. 

The difference between pilates and gym   

Each training type has unique movements, environments, and benefits. Ahead, we’ll be highlighting their differences to help you choose between pilates or gym training. Let’s begin by defining both workout types.   

What is pilates?  

Pilates is low to moderate intensity exercise that focuses on muscle toning, flexibility and stability using controlled movements and breathing. Resistance bands, mats, weights, foam rollers, and a reformer machine are common pieces of equipment used for pilates. In modern workout studios, pilates is usually performed in group settings but can also be performed solo.  

What is gym training?  

Gym workouts or weight training is usually moderate to high-intensity exercise that is used to build strength or muscle mass. Some cardio may be included in gym training such as running or cycling. Typically, free weights and various machines are used for gym training. Usually gym workouts are performed individually, with occasional help from another person for particularly heavy free weight exercises such as bench presses or squats – this is known as “spotting”.

Why choose pilates for fitness? 

Pilates promotes full body lean muscle, flexibility and balance. Even though pilates exercises can be calm and controlled in the way they’re performed, expect your muscles to be burning or shaking during a session. The ability to modify pilates exercises to meet different fitness levels is why we incorporate so many mat and reformer exercises into each FS8 workout. Pilates challenges you to control your body, resulting in high energy yet low-impact workouts with a range of benefits. Let’s explore them below. 

1. Strengthens core muscles  

One key difference between a gym body vs pilates body can be the strength of your core. Many FS8 classes begin by engaging the core, then carrying out and repeating various movements to expose your core muscles to a range of challenges. This improves the strength of your abs and upper spine posture.¹

2. Increased flexibility and posture 

Pilates focuses on full–body control and breathing techniques, encouraging you to hold yourself in a variety of outstretched positions. Low–intensity exercises can improve flexibility, muscular endurance and posture.²

3. Supports pain relief  

Many low impact pilates or gym workouts can help with injury prevention and stimulate muscle recovery. However, pilates is unique, in that it can help to relieve shoulder-neck discomfort and lower back pain.³

Why choose gym training?  

Weight training is commonly associated with strength building, which is a common goal for gym goers. However, there are plenty more benefits to enjoy around high-intensity gym exercise. To help you choose between pilates and weight training, discover the benefits of gym workouts below. 

1. Faster way to burn calories

Both pilates or weight training can be effective for weight loss, but high-intensity gym workouts burn more calories on average. If your goal is calorie burning, intensity is the key. This can be achieved with short bursts of high weight exercises or high repetitions of low weight exercises. 

2. Muscle gain  

Weight training is commonly used to stimulate and promote muscle gain.4 When comparing pilates vs gym workouts, weight training is better for developing muscle mass and strength. This is because gyms workouts allow you to easily adjust weight to challenge your muscles. Pilates, on the other hand, places more focus on toning muscles and building lean muscle with body weight exercises.  

Strength training for stress relief should engage of all your major muscle groups. Completing a full body workout can help you relax and can improve your strength, flexibility and posture. If you want to leave stress behind and increase your lean muscle mass in an uplifting environment, we recommend trying our FS8 Blast class.  

3. Better endurance levels  

Muscle endurance is the body’s ability to efficiently deliver oxygen to your muscles which influences how long you can work out at a high intensity. As your body adapts to regular strength and cardio training, your muscle endurance improves, allowing you to maintain a high performance for longer.5

Pilates vs gym: Can you do both? 

Pilates and weight training can be incorporated into your workout routine and can boost the results of each workout type. Low-impact pilates sessions can stimulate recovery after an intense gym workout. Improving your flexibility can also help you perform a full range of motion when lifting weights. The team at FS8 already mix pilates, light weight exercises and yoga movements to optimise fitness and strength. Let’s explore how you can implement both gym and pilates training in your workout plan.    

How to combine pilates and gym into your routine: 

When including both pilates or gym training in your workout routine, it’s best to focus on total body exercises. By completing full-body gym workouts followed by low-impact pilates, this will allow for efficient physical development and recovery. Although you can adapt to suit your commitments, this is what a sustainable workout routine could look like: 

• Monday: Rest day. 

• Tuesday: Start the routine off strong with FS8 Blast. This workout combines strength, reformer pilates and body weight exercises to improve muscle endurance. 

• Wednesday: Rest day. 

• Thursday: Full-body gym workout. 

• Friday: Continue to build your fitness and strength with FS8 Original. This low-impact workout features mat and reformer pilates to energise your body for your next workout. 

• Saturday: Full-body gym workout.  

• Sunday: Active recovery session with FS8 Restore. This focuses on realigning and restoring the body for the next week with mindful low-impact exercises. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning about pilates and weight training for your fitness. To begin your FS8 journey, here’s what to know before your first pilates class. 

^{1  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666467/}

^{2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20145572/}

^{3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9956295/}

^{4 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950543/}

^{5 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5983157/}