Pilates: Can you over o it?

Simple answer:

Yes. Anything can be overdone when it comes to exercise. Contrary to the popular saying, ‘You can get too much of a good thing.’

But how?

Overdoing Pilates will depend a lot on your individual body.

Frequency:A full-time dancer for example, can benefit from adding Pilates into their routine three times a week. It will be a support to their rigorous routine and build them up for classes and performances. An individual who has not exercised much in recent years may find three times a week difficult and need to gradually build into it. This is where listening to your body is so important and understanding the difference between how general post exercise fatigue feels compared to feeling unwell.

Intensity:

In a similar vein, someone who has trained a long time may be able to do more reps in comparison to someone who hasn’t. With Pilates, it’s important to remember the way the muscles are worked are different. Therefore, even someone with years of experience in for example, only running, may initially find Pilates exhausting but someone with experience at the gym may not find it as hard depending on the types of workouts they have previously done.

Pilates can be exhausting however, it's meant to move through a series of positions and movements. I’ve come across studios where the instructors stick to three positions only and work the same muscles in those 3 positions in maybe only two ways for an entire hour. I’ve crawled away in pain and I have met others with complaints of the same thing happening to them in other studios. A safe rule is: If it hurts for more than 20 seconds, take a break. If it hurts as soon as you reengage it, it may be time to stretch of take a break. To bad if the teacher keeps telling you to hold it.

If you think you’ve overdone it in Pilates, it’s always good to think about stretching safely, keeping a hot/cold press going on the pain area and if you’re not better within a few days, potentially see a physio and reassess your frequency or intensity of training or possibly, the studio you are attending. There are many great Pilates teachers out there, you can always shop around.