The age-old question! Does Pilates tone your body? This is a frequently asked question and often treated with such enthusiasm and definitiveness by instructors. Yes! they will say.'You will get toned and look great!
Herein lies the problem. Pilates can most certainly tone your body. However, toning your body doesn't mean what you might think it means. By definition, Tone means to give greater strength or firmness to (the body or a muscle). So, simple answer to the question is yes, Pilates can tone your body. However, if you are looking for fine lines and a slimmer waist line, we will need to redefine your question.
What question should you be asking?
When listing your Pilates goals, tone will always be achieved. It's like any other form of exercise. The more you do it, the greater the results. If your goal is to have arms like your favourite instructor *cough* Emily *cough*, you are looking for Definition.
Definition, by definition (see what I did there?), means the degree of distinctness in outline of an object, image, or sound. Obviously, we aren't working with sound here but the outlines you see in photographs or people who you deem to be toned are really just defined.
WTF!
How do they get so defined, you might ask? They are probably quite active, yes, but they are probably quite conscious of their diet. Muscle definition is the result of low amounts of body fat. Rarely would you see a person with high body fat having the arms of a supermodel (side note you can't spot loss body fat. Where you lose and store your fat will be predisposed to you genetically).
So, what do I do?
Now you're probably thinking to yourself Chris, this is a really negative post. Why not give us some words of wisdom! Well here they come! The good news out of all this; if you keep up your Pilates, your Barre, HIIT, Yoga, Stretch, and implement good dietary practices, muscle definition will come. If your goal is to tone your body, that will happen regardless of whether you lose weight or not!
How to tone your muscles:
Whether you're doing Mat Pilates or Reformer Pilates, toning of muscles comes with repetition. The more you work your muscles, the greater the toning will be. Stability wise, I find Mat Pilates to pay off greater dividends due to the reliance on your own body awareness. Whereas, the resistance provided by the Reformer can help you strengthen your muscles in a more traditional sense.
Where to go from here?
In summary, does Pilates tone your body? Yes! Will you get defined doing Pilates? Yes! If that is your goal and you work on a calorie deficit. Remember, do what works for you. The most important thing is how YOU feel. If getting a six pack is something you want, go for it! If you want to do some exercise but still chow down a tub of ice cream, you know I am all for that too!
Ok, love you, bye!
Chris
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