Yoga And Pilates

(July 3, 2010)

What is better for you yoga or Pilates?

Yoga is an ancient practice that has been performed for thousands of years. It originated in ancient India and has developed over the years into a collection of physical exercises that can help improve and maintain the health of a practicing individual. Modern yoga is a result of a series of changes and modifications that have occurred through the years to make yoga as effective as it is today. Yoga is gaining popularity in the modern world because of its rich heritage and the simplicity with which it can be explained and performed.

Pilates is a completely modern form of exercise. It was developed during the world war to help in the recovery process for many injured soldiers who used to return home in poor physical condition. Pilates is the exercise technique based on Joseph Pilate’s understanding of the human body and is now fairly popular across the world as a method of exercise.

When judging between two forms of exercise, it is difficult to make a value judgment and answer the question is Pilates better than yoga for the body. What can be understood is the common idea that flows between yoga and Pilates. Pilates is focused on some core principles. These include concentration, control, alignment and precision. When one studies the various poses of yoga, one can understand that these principles hold true for yoga as well. When performing the various yoga asanas, the aim is to achieve balance and harmony in the body. This balance and harmony can only be achieved if there is a synergy between concentration, control, alignment and precision. One major difference that is found between these two forms of exercise is the focus of Pilates more on physical exercise whereas Yoga has a spiritual aspect to it which deals with the peace of mind of the individual and has been essential during the entire history of Yoga. For this reason, Yoga can be performed very slowly and seemingly ponderously but still be successful in achieving the spiritual peace that the subject is aiming for. Yoga also has several different branches that have different ideas about the use of props as well as the pace and effort associated with Yoga. This makes it far more complicated and open to interpretation. Pilates, at least in its original form, is very structured and rigid and has not yet had any time to evolve as it has only existed in the past century.

Submitted by A on July 3, 2010 at 10:38

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