How Often Should I do Pilates?

There’s a frequently repeated phrase of Joseph Pilates:

“In 10 sessions you’ll feel the difference, in 20 sessions you’ll see the difference, and in 30 sessions you’ll have a whole new body”.

— J. H. Pilates

Perhaps you’ve heard it before now?

And I’ll add to that: you’ll never progress if you don’t come to class! And you’ll never progress if you don’t do class at home!

It’s easy to dismiss as a piece of marketing trotted out for the sake of marketing – after all, we hear so much don’t we?

But what Joe said IS perfectly true. BUT let’s look at this a little bit deeper and bear in mind the kind of expectations that Joe had …

Firstly, Joe recommended that people come to the studio a minimum of three times a week. That’s right, three times a week.

He also gave people homework to do in the days between. That was the Matwork. The Matwork takes just 20 minutes to do, if you get your move on. The Matwork is the complement to the Reformer work.

So, if you’re coming to the studio three times a week, those 10 days he mentioned for you to feel better take just over three weeks.

Added to that the home practice and that makes 10 days of work on the apparatus and about 11 days of Matwork.

BUT you’d also do the matwork in the studio so Joe or Clara Pilates could correct you and give you new exercises or variations. So, you’d actually be doing 21 days of Matwork!

Each Week:

3x Apparatus Lessons with Mat plus,

4x Mat Sessions at home

To see what the claim of “get a whole new body” (30 sessions) implies, let’s multiply that by three: 63 days of Matwork!

You might say that if you went to the gym everyday for 63 days you would also have a whole new body.

But Pilates is different. It’s such an integrative exercise method that targets every part of the body. Starting right from the spine, you both stretch and strengthen simultaneously every part of your body that no other exercise system comes close to.

Oh, and did I mention that the Matwork takes just 20 minutes to do? I’ll wager that there is no other exercise method that is as time efficient.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

See you soon,

Miguel