What Should I Wear to Pilates?
Let's start with what everyone is really wondering.
No...
You don't need the matching workout set.
You don't need the trendy socks.
And absolutely nobody is judging your outfit.
We promise.
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I remember being a senior at Michigan State University when a friend asked if I wanted to join an eight-week fitness challenge. I hadn't worked out consistently since playing high school basketball, so I figured it was probably a good idea. The challenge was simple: two workouts a week for eight weeks.
On the first day there were about 30 people in class, and before we even got started the coach looked around the room and said, "By week eight, fewer than ten of you will still be here."
My friend and I laughed. Yeah, okay. We were convinced we'd be two of the people who finished. So every Tuesday and Thursday we rolled out of bed before sunrise and walked to this little studio just off campus for the 6:00 a.m. class. Eight weeks later, the coach was right. There were six of us left.
So what made working out in college such a challenge for those other 24 people?
You Don’t Have to Earn Rest to Get Results
Growing up Hollywood taught us that rest is a reward. We had to completely destroy our bodies (and our brains) in order to earn rest. That if you skipped a workout, you have to "make up for it." That if you took two days off, you should double your workouts. Or worse..that you needed to “earn” food.
The truth?
Your body doesn't only get stronger during the workout. It also gets stronger when it recovers from it. Training creates the stimulus. Recovery is where the adaptation happens.
If you're constantly pushing without giving your body time to rebuild, you may be limiting your progress.
Do I Have to Lift Heavy to Build Lean Muscle?
The internet is screaming about Pilates vs Strength Training and lifting heavy vs the pilates body. And while I get that people have experienced transformation doing different modalities, we also have to understand that one of the most persistent myths in fitness is that muscle growth only happens with heavy weights and low reps.
Scientific consensus has largely debunked that idea. To get technical for a minute..multiple randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses—including landmark research led by Stuart Phillips at McMaster University—show that hypertrophy (muscle growth) can occur across a wide range of loads, as long as the working sets are taken close to muscular failure.
In other words, muscle growth is driven less by how heavy the load is and more by how close you get to the point where the muscle can no longer perform the task.
That is the definition of hypertrophy stimulus: sufficient mechanical tension and fatigue. Heavy loads are simply one way to reach that threshold. They are not the only way.