Published May 27, 2026 at 10:39 AM
A few months ago, I moved to London, and my yoga practice had to move with me. As I explored new yoga studios, I couldn’t help but notice that most of them also offer Pilates classes. Honestly, I’ve been deliberately avoiding Pilates for years. I related it to some fitness classes I tried in the early 2000s from which I mainly remember a lot of huffing and puffing. Plus, between yoga and strength training, didn’t I have enough movement in my life?
However, I was walking so much in my new city that any class in which I could spend time lying on my back or side seemed infinitely better than any other way of moving.
Three months later, I started taking weekly Pilates classes. Even though it’s been long enough that I’ve stopped raising my hand when the teacher asks if anyone is new, I can never guess what move will be indicated next. Most of the time I’m not sure what movement I’m making while I do it.
Pilates has been overwhelming, but also refreshing. This experience has helped me bring a beginner’s mentality to my yoga practice—to be more open to possibilities and less bound by habits and expectations. And the way I move and breathe on the Pilates mat has enhanced my yoga practice in ways I didn’t know I needed.
5 ways Pilates changed my yoga practice
After just a few weeks of practicing Pilates, I experienced some transformative transformations that made yoga itself feel new again.
1. I feel like my heart is more engaged.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Pilates does what everyone says it will do and helps activate the body’s “powerhouse” – the heart. But now when I practice yoga, I can feel my stomach, lower back, and hips engaging in poses they used to simply hold. My stomach no longer drops toward the floor Wave or ChaturangaAnd my hip doesn’t swing forward Mountain pose or triangle. (Well, at least not as much as in the past.)
2. I worry less about the “rules” of breathing.
Years of yoga have accustomed me to exhaling anytime I move forward. In fact, I thought I “should” breathe this way and that Something unspecified bad will happen If I don’t. However, in Pilates, instructors ask us to inhale when I expect us to exhale, and vice versa.
Although the breathing cues in Pilates are different from those in yoga, no sky has fallen. They work well for me. In fact, the challenge was more mental than physical. Although it was difficult for my brain to get used to inhaling while flexing my spine, it was surprisingly not uncomfortable for my body.
This has helped me bring a more playful energy to my yoga “breathing rules.” Thanks to Pilates, I’m less attached to the idea of inhaling or exhaling at any given time during my yoga practice as long as I’m doing it consciously.
3. I practice movements that I was afraid of.
In yoga, I experienced discomfort in my sacrum and lower back from doing a lot of spinal rotation (flexion), and even rolling to stand. However, in Pilates, I have reintroduced myself to this type of movement – mostly due to the presence of… a lot From rolling up and down the spine in mat class. Not only did I feel completely good in my body, but I could feel it strengthening my entire spine in a way I never felt in yoga.
Now, I practice rounding my spine slightly in boat pose or “rolling” inward Plow position From a reclining position instead of getting into it Shoulder holder. My new experiences with spinal curvature show me what works for me and what doesn’t work for me no a job For me – it can change over time. It also allows me to overcome an old fear about a certain way of moving.
4. I mix up my physical practice.
After doing Pilates, with all its lifts, pulses, and circuits, my yoga practice became somewhat steady. So, in yoga poses, I now move parts of my body in different directions for a few breaths before I find stillness.
For example, I do Arms and legs “swimming” in Pilates In locust position. From cobra, I would lower my chest and raise my legs a few times, so I was rocking my whole body back and forth gently. I was moving my arms up and down in Warrior 2, maybe that’s not what I wanted 100 timesBut a lot. Pilates has also inspired me to direct my feet more, whether in Three-Legged Dog or Warrior 3, which makes me feel like I’m regaining awareness of my often overlooked feet and ankles.
It’s an invigorating feeling to mix things up in poses you’ve practiced thousands of times before. Additionally, these subtle movements help me feel places on my body that might need more attention, which I would have missed if I kept my body in its usual postural alignment.
5. I feel more inspired and creative.
Pilates names for the poses are not betterbut my understanding of forms is renewed when I call something familiar by a new name. When Cobra Pose becomes a swan, as in Pilates, I suddenly feel as if I’m floating on water. when Downward facing dog Becoming an elephant, I feel stronger and stronger in my limbs.
This made me wonder what new energy I might conjure if I came up with names of my own. What if the “plow” became the “snail”? if “Savasana“Settlement became Dusk”? If that chaotic, unnamed period at the end of training when everyone rolls up mats and puts away props becomes “The Big Exit”?
Pilates has opened up a new set of creative possibilities and gotten me out of some grooves I didn’t realize I was in. But it will never replace yoga. I love yoga’s full-body attention, its exhilarating backbends, long dips, languid stretches, and savasanas that send me floating through space.
Additionally, I hold the cherished quest of yoga to make us better people. So far, none of my Pilates teachers have invoked intentions or philosophical themes, and I miss that. But sometimes, when teachers count repetitions in a mantra-like way, there is a pause where I can remind myself of my intention, or just watch the misty light come in through the windows, and that also feels like yoga.
