How does Pilates fit into the primary components of fitness?

In the next few issues I will look at various components of fitness and see how Pilates addresses these areas, which areas Pilates excels at and areas where other activities need to be added to compliment your Pilates training.  In this issue we will look at the primary components of fitness.  These are cardiorespiratory capacity, muscular capacity, flexibility and body composition.

Primary Components of Fitness

Cardiorespiratory capacity or aerobic capacity

Cardiorespiratory capacity or aerobic capacity is the ability for the body to take in oxygen, deliver it to the cells and use it to create energy for physical work. Aerobic capacity includes how long (aerobic endurance), how hard (aerobic strength) and how fast (aerobic power). The benefits of improved aerobic capacity are decreased resting heart rate, decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, improved endurance, increased stroke volume and cardiac output.

While Pilates isn’t traditional aerobic exercise, as you become more familiar with the exercises in Pilates, a basic routine and repertoire of exercises, the exercises will flow nicely from one to the other, increasing the aerobic component of a Pilates based workout.  Pilates does work on muscular endurance.  To get the most of your Pilates training, complimenting it with some sort of cardiovascular exercise such as brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming, skating, cross country skiing etc. would add to your overall fitness level.

Muscular capacity

Muscular capacity is the spectrum of muscular capability. This includes muscular endurance and muscular strength and muscular power. Some of the benefits of improved muscular capacity are increased strength, improved muscular endurance, increased basal metabolic rate, improved joint strength and improved overall posture.

Pilates training is great for this.  As mentioned above Pilates is great for conditioning muscular endurance. The fundamental principles behind Pilates all lead to improved posture, both dynamic and static. Pilates focuses on stability and working on deeper, smaller muscles all contributing to improved joint strength.  Pilates is low impact while allowing, for example, to work the muscles around the knee joint, thus leading to increased strength in the knee joint.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the range of movement or amount of motion that a joint is capable of performing. Each joint has a different amount of flexibility. Some of the benefits of improved flexibility are decreased risk of injury, improved range of motion, improved bodily movements and improved posture.

As mentioned above the fundamental principles behind Pilates all work towards improved posture and ease of movement.  This includes flexibility.  Many of the exercises in Pilates work on increasing flexibility in a controlled and supported manner so as to reduce the risk of injury or pulling something.

Body composition

Body Composition is the proportion of fat free mass – muscle, bone, blood, organs and fluids- to fat mass. Some of the benefits of improved body composition are decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, improved basal metabolic rate, improved bodily function and improved BMI.

Any form of movement will help burn calories reducing fat free mass.  It’s very common to hear from people who have invested time to Pilates to say that it “helped shape their body”, “changed their body shape”.  The toning of deeper and smaller muscles helps create a more toned and ‘leaner’ look and in actuality the proportion of fat free mass to fat mass has been decreased.

These primary components of fitness are a great base for maintaining health and wellness. In the next posts we’ll consider secondary components of health and how Pilates fits into other areas of health and wellness.