Can You Do Pilates Every Day?
How often should we be doing Pilates each week to see results and then get the benefits that everyone raves about? We’re going to talk about that today.
I’m Lesley Logan. I’ve been teaching Pilates since 2008 but I’ve been doing Pilates since 2005 and as someone who had to figure out how much time I should be doing Pilates to get the best results without over-taxing the body. One question I often get is, “How many days a week should I do Pilates?” I am really excited to get into this with you today, because, above all else, no matter what we say here today, whenever I want you to take away one thing, which is consistency. The truth about the benefits of Pilates, and this is actually the secret to anything, is being consistent. Consistent doesn’t mean that you have to do an hour all the time. We’ll talk about that as we get into this, but picking a cadence that works for you is going to be the best thing to get the best results. But let’s talk about what all those different ways you could be doing Pilates in your practice are.
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Determine How Often You Should Do Pilates
Pilates Routine for Fitness Level
Alright, so let’s first determine a few things you need to consider when it comes to how often you should be doing Pilates. So first of all, your fitness level. If you have been spending many months and years not having a consistent fitness regimen, then if I were to tell you, you got to do six days a week, that would be overwhelming and inconsiderate and not correct, actually. And so what I would say is get into a cadence that actually really works for you, so you can build up the muscular, strength, stamina, energy, and also get your life schedule around what you’re actually adding into it, right? Versus, if you’re someone who already has a fitness regimen, then we would want to be discussing, like, where can we actually add Pilates in? Because I never want it to be Pilates versus, it’s always Pilates and. So we want to actually put it inside of your week that’s going to make the most sense. So for example, if you have a long run coming up, I’m going to actually want the Pilates to be right before that versus after it. Or if you’re doing speed work, I’m going to want the Pilates after that instead of before. Ideally, these are all ideals, right? I want you to be able to add Pilates and consistently without it being overwhelming, but also so it’s benefiting everything that you’re doing. And so that’s going to mean that it might be hard for us to get you up to three or four times a week, because you got other things to do. So you might have to just go with two times a week and make sure that those bouts are very efficient.
Ideal Pilates Schedule for You
If you are someone who has the time in your calendar to dedicate to a Pilates practice, then here’s the ultimate goal. Three to four times a week is what I’m going to tell you. Three to four times a week is the most ideal. If you’re doing five and six, that’s great. I’m never going to say seven. You always want to have a day where it’s off. I’m about to travel, and guess what my off day is? The day on the plane, like I’m just giving myself that permission, because your body does need rest. Now, intentional movement is great. I’m still gonna go for a walk, but we’ve gotta let our bodies rest. So three to four times is actually going to be the best for everyone, but again, giving yourself permission based on your lifestyle. My newbies to movement, you might feel like two times is plenty, because it becomes a little overwhelming on the recovery. It should never be that way. So I’d want to talk about that in the comments below, if you’re feeling that way. But also just add it into your life. We don’t want things to be overwhelming. We can’t create good habits that way.
Pilates Goals for Life Balance
Alright. So then the next thing I want to know are, what are your goals? And I think it’s really important, the word goals when it comes to fitness can be like fitness-related goals. I don’t need you to have a weight loss goal. I don’t need you to have a push up goal. I don’t actually need that. I’m talking like in life, not movement-related, necessarily. What are your goals? What do you want? Now, if you are someone who’s like, I’m a runner, and I want to have faster times and that, I need to know that, right? But it might be injury prevention for those who are more active. It might be, if you’re over 40, I’m over 40, right? We get to the other part of our life, and injury prevention is a real thing. I always love to say I want to help people fall better. Why? Because when you get to a certain age, falls can be a death sentence or at least a big life change, right? So if you’re wanting injury prevention, I’m going to want to see you at that three times a week, four if we can manage it. But three times a week is going to be really ideal. And the reason for that is, is that we’re actually getting our body to learn how to move from its center first. And so it needs multiple attempts at doing that, especially if you have a life before where you were not as connected to your body. So injury prevention is going to be really key to have about that three time a week, four if you can have it.
Align Pilates with Life Goals
If your goals are to chase after your children or go on trips where there’s cobblestones, maybe you want to be on a survivor. I don’t know. These are things that are really important. We need to know what your life goals are outside. And I think that’s really cool, if you’ve never thought about your goals in life and how they can relate to the fitness things that you choose. That’s where Pilates can be really key. Because if you are someone who’s like, “I am going to be older, I’m going to be living on my own. I want to be able to open up my own jars. I want to reach the top shelf.” I’m going to say I want to see you three times a week. And if you can’t come to me three times a week, then I want to want to see you as much as I can. And you’re gonna have homework at home.
Is It Safe to Do Pilates Everyday?
Alright, so let’s talk about time availability. I understand busy. I get it. You do not have to argue how busy you are to me, I fully understand it. I’ve been a busy person since the day I was born. I promise you, if you meet my mom, she will tell you about in the second grade, when they said that they wanted me to do speech therapy, I told the speech therapist, “I do not have time for you. I’ve got this on this day, and this on this day, and this on this day”. So I get it, and that’s why I think it’s really awesome how accessible Pilates can be for a busy person, because it’s actually- listen how I’ve not yet said minutes of Pilates. I’ve just been saying times of Pilates, and that is because your body is not like oh, Lesley only did 42 minutes today. That’s not enough. She’s gonna have to do 15 minutes extra. No. Pilates is actually all about consistency, and the amount of minutes is less important than the quality time you give it. So if you can give me five days a week of 15 minutes on your Mat, that is gonna be better than one time a week doing any class you could go to, right? And there’s so many reasons for that. You’re actually giving your body multiple times to be curious, to connect to itself, to have a mind body connection, for you to actually be bringing these exercises into your body, right? If you’re doing one time a week for an hour, versus five times a week that equal an hour, you see how the quality of movement is not there. You’re just actually going, “I’m doing quantity of minutes. That’s what I’m going for”. And so I want you to spend more opportunities with your time than versus the length of time.
And so for my busy people, going to a studio might not be an option more than once a week, which is why onlinepilatesclasses.com, and other on-demand platforms like that could be your best match to getting more opportunities of Pilates in your body, right? I have clients that I just don’t even have the time to see them three times a week, even if they want to. So they come to me once, and then they do OPC four other days a week. So I want you to know that it’s really okay if 5, 10, 15 minutes at a shot is all you can do, you are going to get the benefits if you are bringing the quality of movement to it, you’re bringing that curiosity, and you’re consistent with what you choose.
Pilates Consistency for Hormonal Health
And I really want to talk about Pilates consistency and cadence to ladies who are watching because of our hormone health. I think this is really important. So let’s get into it. First of all, a lot of workout regimens are based on men’s bodies, and they have a 24 hour cycle. Ladies, we cannot work out like them, and it’s not because I don’t believe you’re not strong enough. You absolutely are. But if you actually work out based on your cycle, you will have better games, better connections, better consistency. Here’s what’s cool about Pilates. Pilates can be done any part of your cycle. Versus HIIT training, HIIT classes, cardio, those are going to have to be on the first half of your cycle. The last half of your cycle is when your progesterone is coming in, and it doesn’t like stress. It doesn’t like cortisol. So it doesn’t want those high-intensity workouts that are going to increase that cortisol level, increase that stress. It’s going to affect your progesterone production, which is going to affect your hormone cycle. We don’t want that. So when it comes to if you currently have a cycle, I want you to think about the first couple of weeks where you have testosterone to be this time where you can, like, hit it hard. You could do multiple workouts a day, if your body wants you to, listen to your body, but like, quantity of minutes, intensity is there, Pilates can be your four, five day a week thing. It can be combined with another exercise, workout, no problem. Then we get to the second half of your cycle, when progesterone is coming in, it’s pouring in. Your sleep is better. This is when you want to think low-impact things that are really nice to my body. So that’s where Pilates still can be there. And you can actually still do it multiple times a week, but I don’t want you doing those like hard intense athletic classes, because it could increase that cortisol level.
Workouts for Perimenopause and Hormones
Now, I interviewed Jan Schroeder on the Be It Till You See It podcast. She is an incredible woman, and you can listen to her talk about how you want to be thinking about length of time with your workouts based on where you are. But this for my perimenopause, ladies, here’s a deal. Perimenopause, and then after you’ve like, you’re like, because it’s one day, menopause is one day, then you’re there, right? So if you’re there, if you’re in that part, you really want to be thinking about when you work out, cortisol at night is going to affect your sleep. So you want your workouts to be in the morning. And also over 40, most of us should be considering if we should be doing 60-minute workouts. 30-minute, 45-minute workouts are actually going to be better for our bodies. I know that’s hard if you’re going to a studio, but it’s one of the reasons why at OPC, we do 30-minute classes and 45-minute classes because I know that most of the people who are coming to us are over 40. While many of them have their cycle still a lot are going to be going to perimenopause and then in menopause, and we want those women to have workouts that they can show up and do as often as they want without spiking their cortisol and affecting their hormone health. So it’s really important that we’re not just listening to our bodies as we workout, we’re listening to our bodies in the cycle that we’re in and doing workouts at the time of day and consistency that actually allows our bodies to have the energy that we want it to have without actually causing more stress on that body than it needs. Also, if you want to dive in deeper, on YouTube we have a wonderful video about the benefits of Pilates for women’s health. So check that out.
Pilates Tips for Success
Alright, some tips for success. Please do not go all out on day, on week one and like you’re like, I heard her, I’m listening. She said I can have multiple workouts, my first week of my cycle I’m going hard. Like, if you were just getting started with Pilates, the quality of movement is better than the quantity of minutes. Please, please, please. So especially when you’re trying to build habits that stick, which consistency is habit. I want you to start small, get some wins, celebrate what you did, and then build upon that as you can, as you’re ready, always listening to your body. That’s what Pilates is. At OPC, onlinepilatesclasses.com, we actually believe it’s brave and courageous to replace what you can’t do yet with what you can. So if you’re going to a class and there’s an exercise that doesn’t feel right, you do not feel ready, it feels ugh, I want you to know it’s brave and courageous to replace that exercise with something you can do too. Speak up for yourself and advocate for yourself. At OPC, we actually love it when our clients just repeat an exercise that they felt like was a challenge for them.
Please note that I haven’t actually said it’s Pilates only, it’s Pilates and. And so please enjoy putting this in front of something you love after something you love on a day off of something you love, and test that out. If you’re also wanting to know about the best benefits of Pilates, check out our video here, because it’s going to explain all those different things you should be feeling after you have a consistent practice.
Getting Started with Pilates Success
I hope this was helpful. I hope this could get you some ideas of how to get started. I know you might be thinking, “I only can do it one time a week LL, what does that mean?” I’m going to tell you, it’s going to take so much longer for you to get those benefits. It really is. You’re going to feel really good after and I want that for you. So don’t just not start like, some Pilates is better than no Pilates. But please try to get yourself up to two or three. And if you have questions about that, if you have concerns, if you’re wondering how to do that, drop it in the comments below. I’d love to support you. We go live on Sundays at 9 am Pacific time answering your questions. But if you want some help, if you’re an OPC member, we can actually give you proper feedback that’s specific to you. So go to OPC YouTube. Thank you so much, and have an amazing day.