It's January, and you'd think I'd get the ball rolling with strong yoga talk, but no - I'm heading to the Dark Side - Pilates.

Haha. Seriously, though, which camp do you reside in? Yoga? Or Pilates?

My bum has been firmly parked in the yoga camp for the past decade or so, but more recently, I've found myself venturing into the house of the Other. I’ve leant into and out of Pilates over the past years, invariably returning to my safe yoga home base. But this year, I’ve decided - I’m going to give Pilates a proper go.

The Other House

A large part of the reason I’ve stayed away from Pilates is because it's always felt slightly torturous (an understatement). Some may feel that way about yoga, of course!

Pilates has a delightful way of making my abdominal muscles feel as though they’ve never ever been used, and the balance between frustration and satisfaction always tipped slightly the wrong way for me to return to it regularly. I also like to blame my personal anatomy; I assert that I have a weirdly long, straight back, which makes curling down to the floor in some of the Pilates roll-ups and downs frankly impossible!

However, despite this seeming reluctance to Pilates and thus only intermittent exposure, I’m certain I've been sneakily influenced by it. Why I haven’t taken to it earlier should be the only surprise since I love precision alignment, slow movement and building strength - some of the cardinal features of Pilates. One of my teachers is both a Pilates and a yoga instructor, and his teaching benefits hugely from his embodiment of these two great practices.

“Excuses, excuses”, he would say to the lamentation about my long spine!

He recognises well the gifts both bring, highlighting to us loyal yoga folk the limitations of just doing yoga (darn it). One might suggest that Pilates is perhaps functionally more useful for everyday life, especially compared to some of the more extreme contortions and shapes that yogis aspire to (what for, exactly?) - he has a point.

Common Ground

What’s the difference between yoga and Pilates? And which is better? I get asked this a fair amount. You can Google this question to get several decent answers. Instead of focusing more on the differences though, I’d like to emphasise some commonalities.

Both:

- Are whole body, mind-body practices (Pilates isn’t just about abs, yoga isn’t just about stretching)

- Require mental focus and can improve mental well-being and stress.

- Build strength, flexibility, good balance and posture.

- Train muscles, including small, deep muscles that might be difficult to access through other exercises.

- Are low-impact and safe.

- Purpose props to inform the body and help alignment (rather than make the practice easier).

- Use the control of the breath.

- Evolved to suit modern needs (Pilates was developed around 100 years ago by Joseph Pilates; yoga has an older, spiritual history, but modern postural yoga as we know it is less than 100 years old).

- Use similar poses like boat, planks, bridges, cobra/swan.

- Are suitable for all, including those who need recovery from injury, want to prevent injury, and want greater challenge.

- Have emerging and established evidence in helping to manage diverse conditions from back pain to anxiety and depression.

And you can enjoy both, separately or together! Yogalates, anyone?

Do It with Me?

As if I needed another sign to lean into more Pilates this year, I had the recent fortune to meet with a wonderful teacher, Louise Buttler. She, like me, has a personal story which started her journey and passion.

Check out her story, offerings and mission on her website, LIVEBRAVE - it’s awesome.

At the end of the day, as you might learn from Louise's story and already know from mine, Pilates and yoga give us so much more than simply moving the body - these practices profoundly transform us with the gifts of well-being, confidence and empowerment when we commit to regular practice - the ultimate tools to indeed, Live Brave.

Louise and her team have generously offered this community a FREE MONTH of Pilates on her online platform with this discount code, ‘LIVEBRAVE1’

The code permits access for one month free and is valid for the monthly rolling and 6-month subscriptions. Sign up here: https://livebrave.life/sign-up/#sign-up

So how about it - do it with me? Then we can complain together about how much it hurts (in the best possible way!)

Your yoga body will thank you for it.

And I looking forward to seeing you back in our familiar home, yoga, on the 13th Jan.

Let’s practise.