Pilates and Yoga Connections

Greetings, friends. I'm Shelley Williams coming to you with yoga anytime here in Beautiful, Ohio, California. And a discussion that's come up recently that I love to talk about is the similarities between Pilates and yoga as a former professional modern dancer, I was introduced to the practice of Pilates and yoga through my colleagues, and it continues to be both of them, both of these modalities continue to be something that I utilize for my own health, wellness, and balance, and with my private clients as well. I became certified as a pilates teacher in 1999 and a couple years after that as a yoga teacher. And I've continued to study both modalities and now offer teacher trainings in both as well.

So when we look at the 6 principles of Pilates and the 8 limbs of yoga, There's a lot of crossover and a lot of similarities. For example, control is one of the first principles of Pilates, and that refers to not only control of the body, but control of the mind and really where we choose to focus our thoughts and our relationship with self and with the world. And that's the same thing as to me as the yamas and the yamas of yoga, our code of ethics, our focus, our personal observances, and how we interact with the world. The next one is precision in Pilates precision and how we interact with the exercises, with our form, with how we utilize our body, with agility and function through the exercises. And the 3rd limb in with the 8 limbs is Asana.

How we use our body in the poses as a tool and as a lab for our own reactions with experiences. The next one, of course, is breath And we look at pranayama, the eight limbs of yoga, our breath control, and how we utilize our breath as our life force. And it's the connection between our mind and our body is the breath. We use that in Pilates as well to inform the exercises and the practice. Then we get into centering and Pilates that idea of centering is bringing your awareness to the center of your body.

And in yoga, this idea or term of Pratyahar, which is turning our attention inward to the center of our body, turning our senses inward away from external distraction is quite similar. The last tool, that we use in, with the 8 limbs is Darana, which is the same as concentration, which is used in Pilates. Concentrating on a single task for a sustained period of time creates this harmony and flow state, which is the final principle, in Pilates, just similar to Diana and Samadhi in the 8lands of yoga, that flow state when everything merges and you feel this sense of complete wholeness. So these 2 beautiful practices actually are quite similar, even in a lot of the exercise that we see with Pilates, tend to be kind of repetitive movement patterns of postures that will hold within yoga. And so one of the things that's also interesting to look at is the culture of yoga and the culture of Pilates.

And the culture of yoga definitely tends to circulate around mindfulness and awareness. Yoga is a technology of the mind. And when we practice yoga, The primary benefit that we receive is in the quality of our mind. Even though we get stronger muscles, we become more flexible. Our joints move in a more fluid way.

The primary benefit that we experience from focused mindful movement is in the mind. And with Pilates, the culture of Pilates focuses on posture, on core stabilization, on moving with proper agility and function, but the benefit and the experience that we receive also when we practice Pilates is in the mind. We feel calmer. We feel more balanced. We feel ready to take on the day. And so when we look at, like, really how we feel after we've interacted with these practices, the benefits are quite similar.

Something that's interesting as an advance practitioner because I mix modalities a lot. I I continue to train and learn in many different modalities, not just yoga and pilates, but Functional fitness, nutrition, Brazilian Jujitsu agility trainings, zen time massage, all these different things that interest me about the healing arts and body and mind. And we when I work with these different modalities, it's it's kind of like when you show up to what you wanna eat each day. We don't eat the same thing every day. We have different needs.

We have different seasons. Different feel in our body. Maybe we're recovering from injury. Maybe we're preparing for, a marathon. And so we work with these different modalities to serve what we need, and that's different every day.

And so to me, the sign of an advanced practitioner is one who knows what they need on any given day and can pull from a toolbox that maybe includes a little yoga practice, includes some Pilates exercises, includes a specific type of nutrition or daily practice that lifts us up and lifts our vibration up. Some of the exercises that we see, a crossover, for example, with Pilates and yoga, is boat pose. Nabasana is the same thing as teaser. Plow pose. Halasana is the same thing as the rollover from the Pilates Matt law. COBRA, Bhujangasana, is the same thing as dynamic Swan, which can be done on the mat and the reformer. Chaturanga is a classic push up Vashi Stassana, sidearm balance is the same as side bend from the Pilates mat rep.

Breath of fire is very similar to the hundreds, just a little bit of a different counting technique. Bundas that we learn about in yoga involving pelvic floor, mula bandha, and uddiana bandha, drawing the navel to the spine, It's the same as this, Pilates concepts of engaging the subtle energies of the corps. So it's really cool to see how they compliment one another, where there's similarities, where there's differences. And I encourage you to start to look for those similarities in your own practice. If you consider yourself a purist of Pilates or a purist of yoga, go explore and see where those similarities are for you.

Happy practicing.