Tired But Toned

257 | Let's Talk About Pilates and Why It's Amazing

• Season 1 • Episode 257

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After years of following rigid strength training protocols, I discovered that Pilates offers unique benefits that complement traditional workouts while being gentler on the body and particularly beneficial for those with chronic conditions.

• Low impact with high payoff, providing deep muscle engagement without exhausting your body
• Builds deeper core strength beyond surface-level ab exercises, improving stability and posture
• Works smaller stabilizer muscles often neglected in traditional strength training
• Enhances mind-body connection through slow, controlled movements
• Reduces inflammation and supports hormonal health by not spiking cortisol levels
• Provides sustainable, lifelong movement that can be modified through different life stages
• Particularly beneficial for women dealing with hormonal fluctuations, stress, or inflammation
• Pairs perfectly with strength training for a complete fitness approach

I encourage you to try a Pilates workout with an open mind and approach fitness information with curiosity, remembering that not all fitness advice applies to your unique situation and needs.


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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody, welcome to the Toned but Tired podcast. Today I want to chat about Pilates. I know Pilates is somewhat of a trend that's coming back around. If you were around back then, I feel old saying that, but in the early thousands and the 90s there was like a Pilates uproar for sure. And I think, as the thousands, trends are making their way back around some good, some not so good Pilates is back in the trend, but I hope it is here to stay as far as popularity, because I will say that I was one of those people who didn't know much about Pilates and I kind of thought it was pointless, because growing up not necessarily growing up, let me. Let me rephrase that In the beginning of my fitness training journey, a lot of what was trendy early on was very science based.

Speaker 1:

I would say, bro, science dudes, which isn't wrong. But you have these big muscular guys, so one, they're a male figure, they quote unquote, know what they're talking about, they have a PhD or some high level certification degree, whatever, and they're spewing off information. And you know me, I'm thinking, wow, this guy probably knows what he's talking about. And they you know, there's multiple people like this and they have that no bs attitude, and there were some females like this as well. But it's very trendy to be very sciencey but also very, uh, black and white as far as like only the basics worth work.

Speaker 1:

Strength training was praised. Um, you know, it's only squat, bench, deadlift, row, whatever. A great format to this, if you do want to get the basics of training, by the way, is Thinner, leaner, stronger by Mike Matthews. He's the one who owns Legion Athletics. They're a fantastic supplement company and I love how he breaks down strength training. But again, remember, everything's kind of on a spectrum. There's no just black and white, and I took that as gospel as, like you know, you can only see results if you squat, you bench, you deadlift, you row. You know, lift in the gym. Sets and reps, follow the same program for weeks and weeks at a time. Anything else is just fluff. That was the main thing in my brain, not saying that any of the other movement was bad, but it felt like you weren't truly progressing.

Speaker 1:

That was the message that was portrayed a lot of places, especially, like I said, when strength training was very trendy. It became very rigid and well, if you know anything about me, it makes sense as to why I pursued fitness the way I did, because I have always felt like I never fit into any of the boxes and I'm sure many of you feel that way as well. I mean, as somebody who has Hashimoto's and struggles with fatigue and stress and inflammation that go hard or go home. Mentality push, push, push in the gym, deadlift, squat, bench, like what? If I don't feel like barbell back squatting, you know? Or I have long legs and a short torso, so sometimes back squatting is uncomfortable for me because of my body structure. You know it was kind of like you know anything that's not a barbell back squat. You know you're just wasting your time, you're not gonna get results, this and that and there's just so many messages. And that again made me believe like pilates, banded stuff, because we use bands and pilates, pink, two pound dumbbells are you kidding me? Like you know it, it was laughable of like, oh, you're not going to get results.

Speaker 1:

And let me tell you, I think that obviously, strength training I think everybody needs strength training to some capacity. You do not need a barbell, um, if you don't want to Like anything that is weighted and has sets and reps like you do, a structured program, that's strength training, okay. So I think we all need to do that in some capacity, ideally at least two times a week. But the other stuff I think Pilates is fantastic. Once I got certified I got certified earlier this year I really studied it and ever since I've been teaching classes I have fallen in love with it. Let me tell you and I never thought I would, because I never thought it would be something that I liked but it is great.

Speaker 1:

So I want to share some of the things of why I feel it's beneficial and, particularly for women, I feel like it makes sense and a lot of this is more. Maybe, just like I could see how Pilates would work well with women's like emotional views and how our brain works and different things from that matter. And again, that's like more of a blanket statement. Everybody is totally different, but this is just me kind of saying some generalizations about it. So, first off, pilates is low impact but high payoff and I would argue that it complements what strength training doesn't do.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of like when you see those big buff bodybuilders right and they can like bench 300 pounds and they're like crazy jacked, but then, like you tell them to try to do like something functional and they can't do it because they're kind of like these big stocky guys and they don't have range of motion or like their stretching is terrible right. So it's like they're really strong in one thing. But I think Pilates helps complement. It's almost dance, like no dancing required, but I can see how, like a gymnast or a dancer, a lot of the moves are very graceful and kind of mimic those things. And if you're not graceful, don't get turned off, because I'm like the most awkward person ever. I always, I always just look really good with fitness because I've had so many years to practice the form. But I'm awkward and clumsy and I still enjoy Pilates and I also think Pilates has there's a lot of different types of Pilates.

Speaker 1:

So be aware, because I think there are some people that kind of put their own little twist. But obviously you want reputable people. But there's classic Pilates which was made by Joseph Pilates. That is like the base, the foundation. He made Pilates. But again, like I said, over the years people have kind of put a twist on it. You might see them categorized like modern Pilates. People will mix it with bar or yoga. Um, they'll add a little bit of strength in there, uh, and, and it's fun. I think you just gotta kind of find what preference you like. Like there's definitely some really more gentle ones, beginner ones, there's way more intense ones people throw hit in there and stuff. I like to be somewhere in the middle. I shift towards the classic Pilates, but I do have some fun playing around with weights and bands and things like that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, but it being low impact with a high payoff is great, Like the best way I can describe it is. You'll feel refreshed and energized at the end, like you didn't wipe yourself out, like you didn't just like run a marathon or something. But during the workout, if you're doing it right, you're getting a really nice deep burn in the muscles. You might be sweating and it feels like you know you're actually working your body but, like I said, it doesn't wipe you out. So it's like the perfect combination. You're kind of doing lighter weight, higher reps, very small and controlled movements and again working those muscles in ways that you don't work them.

Speaker 1:

Strength training and I would say that a lot of things have improved ever since I've done Pilates that have aided me in my strength training and just my overall training. I've seen some shifts in my body as well. I've definitely seen my inflammation come down. I'm not saying that like everybody who takes Pilates, your inflammation is going to come down, but for me, as a trainer who has Hashimoto's and has to teach classes and do their own workouts and is running around and all this stuff, it is great to have that type of exercise to do where I can feel like I'm working, but it's not going to make me inflamed and exhausted and all this stuff. And I will say it's also really easy on the joints too. If you have a lot of aches and pains, joints, a lot of women with chronic illness, arthritis, just different things. They tend to go towards Pilates and it's fantastic, I love it towards Pilates, and it's it's fantastic, I love it.

Speaker 1:

Another thing is it builds deep core strength. Yes, so you're not just doing like surface level ab moves, you are truly working the core. Um, the way I structure my Pilates and again, everybody's different, but the way I structured is I tend to break the class into segments. Um, so you might have a standing segment, an arm segment, a glute burnout segment, an ab segment, whatever, and I will incorporate traditional ab moves, but just the way that you hold certain things. If you're working arms, you might always be working core as well. I will tell you the one that I taught recently. We were doing some like side planks and I have never felt my obliques burn in the way that they did during this class and I was like, wow, I think this is the first time in like 10 years that I've felt my obliques burn this good. So just like little things like that, it really just does work your body and it does work that deeper core.

Speaker 1:

It's definitely going to help with lower back pain, stability, balance. You are working on your tiny stabilizer muscles. I know for me, my hip flexors are tight and weak and it really challenges them too and I think it helps pick up the slack and improve a lot of that for myself, okay. Another thing is it's going to improve posture and everyday movement. We kind of went over that. That it strengthens the tiny stabilizer muscles. You know weightlifting. You are hitting bigger muscles, which it's great because obviously you know you're going to hit a little bit of everything.

Speaker 1:

But what I found too is that people, if they go on their own strength training routine and they don't have a structured program or they don't know how to make a structured program, we tend to go towards moves we enjoy and that creates imbalances, right, like, maybe you really like to work your quads, so all you're doing is quad stuff, but then you neglect your hamstrings in the back and that can cause tightness, imbalances. It could lead to tears and injuries in the future. So you want to make sure that you're well balanced and you're hitting all of the muscle groups yes, the chest, yes, the places you don't want to work, um, because it'll come back to bite you in the butt later. Okay, um. And I also think, going back to how pilates is kind of like a dancer, like vibe I don't know how to describe it other than like you have to take a class yourself to understand it um, but I think it kind of helps with that posture because it's always teaching you to keep your shoulders down and back, chest up, core tight. There's no slouching. So I think, in all and all, it's going to help with posture in general.

Speaker 1:

Another thing is it enhances mind-body connection. It slows you down, right, we don't really necessarily speed through. I think it's a moderate pace for Pilates. A couple times it might go a little faster, but usually it's slow and controlled. It forces you to feel your body again and not just get through the reps right, like you're going with my count or at least trying to keep up with it. So I really like that and and if you're somebody who is really stressed out and you already have a stressful lifestyle, it could be great to kind of get that release from the burn. Um, but it's not, like I said, it's not going to wipe you out like if you did burpees or crossfit or running or whatever. So it's a nice combo.

Speaker 1:

I always feel refreshed after Pilates and, kind of going back to how I was saying, I feel like it works with women. I feel like women enjoy that creative side and we kind of like to keep ourselves busy, because you know we do. Our mind tends to wonder of like, where am I going to grocery shop? What am I making for dinner? Tonight I got to pick the kids up and do this and we got to go here and I think, being in the moment, you know, because you're following an instructor step by step, they're saying, hey, we're going to do 10, 9, 8. Like you're always going and focused from one thing to the next. I feel like particularly females. It it really aligns with how our brains work and I think that's why females are drawn to it, not saying men can't do it. I think it would be extremely beneficial for men and eye-opening for men. But in my opinion, just from like kind of trends of how I've observed that I think and women think that I've trained, I think it benefits. So that's kind of cool I've noticed more of like that vibe and that energy. It is more of a feminine energy. I guess it's kind of hard to explain, but I just I've definitely noticed that.

Speaker 1:

And then, of course, you have heard about the toning without bulking. Right, and I'm not going to lie, I haven't dug deep into the research of this. I will say that you tend to not get bulky unless, genetically, you build muscle. There are some people that build up muscle in certain areas faster, but a lot of times we get bulky because our eating is not right and we have a layer of fat and then we build muscle. So we build muscle under the fat and then we just look bigger because we built muscle on top of our fat. Um, but I will say that the I had to pause because my neighbor's car alarm was just going off um, but anyways, going back, I will say that the reps and the structure that you do things. I think it gives a calorie burn and definitely muscle toning, like I said, hitting the more like stabilizer muscles and things like that, which is, I think, why you tend to get that look.

Speaker 1:

And I think because it's so low impact and it seems like women are more prone to this inflammation due to hormones changing throughout their cycle. It is a known fact that women get way more autoimmune disorders than men and I think it's because of, like, emotional stress and things like that. I think we just hold on to a lot more stress so we're more prone to that puffiness, that inflammation. So I think when we do more low impact workouts, um, that helps bring that inflammation and wateriness down and that's why inflammation's tough. I know there's a lot of buzzwords right now going around on the internet of like once I balanced my hormones and this and that, and like whatever you want to call it, you know. Besides, people argue and get mad and whatever, just like how they say Pilates is garbage because you're not, you know, using a dumbbell, okay, whatever.

Speaker 1:

But from what I've observed, a lot of the times women feel fatter than what they are because they're holding on to water for one reason or another. It could be your period, it could be a hormonal imbalance, it could be because you didn't get sleep, it could be because you're stressed, it could be because you're eating a ton of salt or you're dehydrated. There's a ton of reasons, right? So you kind of get that watery, puffy look. That's a great way to tell if you're inflamed versus having excess fat is, like I said, if you feel like kind of puffy. Sometimes for me it would get so bad. Uh, ever since I got medicated with my thyroid, it's been a thousand times better, but I could actually feel like my eyes like puffy and and I almost looked Chinese, like Asian. People would actually ask me if I was Asian, which I'm not or Hawaiian, because my eyes would be so puffy. You can can even look up moon face. That's another similar thing for hormonal imbalances, inflammation, water weight and inflammation.

Speaker 1:

You know, again, the sciencey people will argue it. I just watched a pod or listened to a podcast about inflammation and inflammation is a response to stress right, a lot of time, and inflammation can be healthy. To stress, right, a lot of time, and inflammation can be healthy. But, like in somebody like me with an autoimmune condition my thyroid I always have antibodies attacking my thyroid. So I kind of always have this low level of inflammation and so my body's already kind of like maxed out right and I got to do things to keep that inflammation down. But let's say, something stressful happens, or I didn't get enough sleep, or I ate really greasy food or alcohol or whatever. Maybe the average person with a healthy immune system could filter that out. They might be puffy for a day. Me, that might spiral and you know I might get super puffy and feel fatigued and kind of run down for like a week or two. You know, I even got to the point where I felt a little feverish at one point. That's how I really know I'm like going through it with my thyroid is if I feel feverish, because that is an autoimmune response.

Speaker 1:

But I do think, aside from autoimmune conditions themselves, some things that I've just anecdotally observed in my clients based off what they told me, I think a lot more people in this day and age are maxed out on their stress. I don't think we can kind of refer to that baseline of, oh, just the healthy, relaxed individual these people I'm talking to are. They're holding on to an immense amount of stress, whether it's mental or physical, they're not getting great sleep, they're eating like crap and when you throw all those things onto the fire you're going to have a lot of inflammation and puffiness and it's kind of like the snowball effect and you will feel like run down, like that. Like I said, this isn't every single person, but if you are feeling that way and you don't necessarily have like a medical condition, it can be stress and inflammation. Okay, so we have that just just to kind of clarify. At least that's my observations and things that I've collected just from observing people with that. Okay.

Speaker 1:

And then, speaking of Pilates does support hormonal health and recovery? Right, it's not going to spike your cortisol. Again, if we're already stressed out, we don't need our cortisol spiking more. Some is good, but too much of something can be bad, right? You know, if you're already in a stressed out state, you probably don't want to add a ton of cardio on top of things or maxing out a lifting session or, like I said, crossfit or boot camps. This would be a great way to experience a good burn without like overdoing it.

Speaker 1:

It's a great thing to do to get your body just moving, like on your period, on an active recovery day, or you just want to move your body, very similar to yoga or mobility and remember you can pick different intensities. You can make it really really or really really easy. Um, and I think it's a great thing to fall back on too, if you just need some consistency in your life again referencing yoga and mobility, you need to get some movement in that day, and the nice part is is you can stack it with strength training. Right, it doesn't replace strength training, okay, obviously, like you're using lighter weight here and you're going to see some progression, but I think pairing it with regular strength training Is like the perfect combo. So I love that.

Speaker 1:

And the really other cool thing just to kind of wrap this up on my thoughts on it the really cool thing is I view it almost as ice hockey. I don't know if you guys know much about ice hockey, but my husband plays ice hockey, so I know about it. But ice hockey is actually very low impact, aside from the men getting into fights on the ice. You're gliding right and Derek my husband, he plays on you know local teams and there's guys on his team that are in their 50s, 60s, even 70s, and of course, they're respectful and they're like, don't slam the 70-year-old guy into the wall, right, you know. And the younger ones they might. You know roughhouse a little bit, but it's great. And that's kind of how I view Pilates for women is, you know roughhouse a little bit, but it's great.

Speaker 1:

And that's kind of how I view Pilates for women is, you know, pilates and yoga and mobility, that's something. And strength training, you know, it can be modified, can be done well into your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, as long as you can keep moving. It may look different at each stage on what you're able to do, you know, maybe less weight if you develop any injuries or arthritis or whatever. It's going to be modified, but I love that. You can kind of carry it with you throughout your entire life. It's a good form of movement. So I love Pilates. I'm so happy it was introduced to me.

Speaker 1:

If anything, I encourage you, after listening to this one one, to try a Pilates workout and to, um, keep an open mind, be open-minded. I don't know how I trained myself to do this, but I feel like I have over the years. I've trained myself to approach everything with curiosity. Um, we kind of develop our own views over the years from our personal experiences. That's where our views and opinions come from, right, like we have a strong opinion towards something because maybe something happened when we were growing up or our parents or something happened to us. So we choose a view. I know in fitness a lot of that comes from, like, these people who are already athletic. Right, they're already athletic. So they kind of have their own views on working out. They've never been someone who's started completely new or had an autoimmune disorder. So I think I bring a fresh view with that. And there's definitely other trainers out there like me. But it's nice to have different views but approach things with curiosity.

Speaker 1:

You know, if you see some guy on social media bashing something, think about like okay, like get curious, get curious. You're not gonna go one way or the other but think why would he say this? Hmm, he's a big bodybuilder. Like he's bashing it. Okay, I could see where he's coming from. But you know, does this information pertain to me? Right? I've taught you guys about this before in past episodes.

Speaker 1:

This is a crucial piece of information. The number one thing I see my clients struggling with just this little tidbit and I'll close the podcast out. But the number one thing I see my clients struggling with is they get information overload. It's so beautiful that we have access to the internet and we're able to get any piece of information at our fingertips. The problem is is just because you have access to the internet and we're able to get any piece of information at our fingertips, the problem is is just because you have access to all the information doesn't mean all that information pertains to you. Like you could probably search up one thing, you could probably find arguments for opposite ends of the spectrum of something right. Like you can find fruit is terrible for you and fruit is great for you, fruit is okay for you. Don't think fruit is bad.

Speaker 1:

There are some doctors unfortunately out there with social media accounts that say fruit is bad, sugar is bad, and again, open mind. You got to be curious and ask why are they saying this? Is this true? Is this based in fact? Hmm, they cited a research study. Let me see this research study.

Speaker 1:

One other thing I'll give you an example of for 23andMe the DNA tests. Right, my husband got his results and I got my results and it said that he had a chromosome or something or whatever. For not a chromosome, but you know, whatever, something in his genetics that he could be more likely to get Alzheimer's right. So you're like, okay, let me look into this. He looked into this study that 23andMe used and he said it was a study done on Asian men. I think it was a very small populace. I think it was maybe like 20 Asian men and there were some other weird things about the study. But that's how they determined it and I'm like, okay, so one, you're not Asian and there was only 20 people. So like what, what kind of study was that? So you have to really watch because, like you know a lot of those headlines and things oh, this study, this, this, you know how was the study conducted?

Speaker 1:

A lot of times data can be manipulated, things can be cherry picked. You have to make sure and it is very hard to get like a truly accurate study that's representative of the population and all the conditions and things like that. But there are better studies out there and there's bad studies. So, again, do your research. Um, you know, think, is this information for me? You can always block that person or unfollow or say I don't want to see things like this. Usually you can hit three dots in the corner that says don't show me stuff like this. You can refine the information that you see, so it's a little bit easier to make educated decisions. And do what you can and try not to get overwhelmed, all right, because nothing's really black and white, so stay curious, right.

Speaker 1:

With that being said, I love Pilates. I think it's a great compliment to anybody's movement routine. Low impact makes a difference. You feel a good burn, it's fantastic, it's fun, it's a great social, uh kind of setting, and especially for the female feminine brain. All right, guys. So I will wrap up the podcast episode there. With that being said, I will catch you in the next one. Have a great rest of your day and chat soon.

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Tina Wieland

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