Pilates or Strength Training: Why You Don't Have to Choose

Do you want a stronger core, move with greater ease, change the shape of your body and feel more capable in everyday life? Whether you're drawn to the weight room or working on a Reformer, the reality is that Pilates and strength training don't compete; they can actually work together.

The Pilates and yoga studio market in Australia is thriving, with industry revenue projected to surpass $630 million by 2026, driven by growing demand for holistic fitness, stress reduction, and low-impact strength training.

Is Pilates really enough as a stand-alone program, or do you need strength training? You don't have to pick a side or feel attacked for enjoying one over the other.

Pilates and lifting actually complement each other when combined with a bit of planning.

What Is Pilates (Really)?

Pilates is a low-impact, full-body training method built around breath control, precision, and core activation. Initially developed in the early 20th century in Germany by Joseph Pilates, it focuses on strengthening the deep stabilising muscles of the trunk while improving posture, balance, and mobility.

The original mat work has evolved to include spring-resistant equipment such as the Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, and Ladder Barrel, all designed to help you move with more awareness and control.

Initially developed in rehabilitation settings, Pilates is now supported by a growing body of research showing measurable improvements in core endurance, coordination, and neuromuscular control.

A 2025 study in Medicina found that Pilates-based core training improved deep stabiliser muscle thickness and contraction timing, particularly in the transverse abdominis and internal obliques (Lee, 2025).

Frontiers in Physiology (2024) reported that experienced practitioners demonstrated greater core muscle activation and improved movement efficiency than novices (Ko et al., 2024).

Pilates enhances core endurance and proprioception in healthy adults (Irish J Med Sci, 2021) and improves quality of life and trunk stability when compared with aerobic circuit training (Lim et al., 2024).

While Pilates may not be the fastest route to muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth), its controlled movements and focus on posture make it a powerful method for developing coordination, flexibility, and movement efficiency.

It's often included in rehabilitation and conditioning frameworks where spinal or joint loading needs to be moderated, but outcomes depend on the individual and program design.

What Makes Muscles Grow?

When it comes to building muscle, Pilates improves control and endurance, but true hypertrophy (actual muscle growth) happens through progressive overload.

This means deliberately challenging your muscles over months and years so they adapt and rebuild stronger each time.

Every lift or push creates tiny, controlled micro-tears within muscle fibres. Your body repairs this damage by activating satellite cells that fuse to the tissue, add new protein, and reinforce the fibre's structure. The result is thicker, stronger muscle capable of handling more load the next time you train. (Schoenfeld, 2010).

Inside the cell, a signalling system called the mTOR pathway drives this rebuilding process. When activated by mechanical tension and nutrients, it triggers muscle-protein synthesis and ribosomal activity, producing new muscle proteins that increase strength and size (Sirago et al., 2022).

Hormones also play a supporting role. Intense resistance training produces short-term rises in testosterone and growth hormone, which enhance recovery and muscle repair (University of New Mexico).

But physiology is only part of the story. The principle of progressive overload isn't about one magic exercise or supplement; you must be consistent and challenge your muscles.

You can lift heavier weights, add more reps, shorten rest periods, or slow down your tempo; each subtle adjustment forces adaptation.

Over time, the gradual increase in demand creates compounding cellular changes that build stronger, more resilient muscle tissue, leading to a body transformation.

Pilates helps you move with better control and awareness.
Strength training builds on that by teaching your body to handle and produce more force. Whether it’s slow, controlled reps or big compound lifts, the goal is the same: to gradually increase the challenge so your body adapts and gets stronger (Schoenfeld, 2010).

The "long and lean" claim? A complete myth.

Muscles don't lengthen through training; they grow in cross-sectional size when exposed to sufficient tension. What appears "longer" is simply better posture and reduced body fat, revealing definition (Haun et al., 2019).

If your goal is shaping, especially building glutes, legs, or shoulders, you need load and progression. The research shows that targeted resistance work, such as single-leg Romanian deadlifts and squats performed near muscular failure, produces significantly greater gluteal hypertrophy than body-weight or low-load training, such as Pilates (Barbalho et al., 2020).

Pilates activates and stabilises; strength training sculpts and strengthens. However, you can incorporate activation and stability exercises into your structured resistance training workout. This gives you the best bang for your buck.

Combined intelligently, they create physiques that move efficiently, perform powerfully, and look athletic, without chasing fitness myths and spending more time in your week doing separate workouts.

How Pilates Builds Functional Strength

Consistent Pilates training improves flexibility, functional movement, and core activation — key elements of everyday strength.

A 2024 study in Frontiers in Physiology found that experienced practitioners demonstrated higher core muscle activation and better movement efficiency than novices, indicating that Pilates develops functional control rather than maximal strength (Ko et al., 2024).

Reformer work adds adjustable resistance via springs, turning precise movements into measurable strength-building exercises (though the resistance is nowhere near as significant as in strength training). Core drills such as the teaser, plank series, and bridge strengthen the deep abdominals, glutes, and hip stabilisers — improving posture, coordination, and performance in other training modalities.

Think of Pilates and activation exercises, such as Dr Andrew Lock's Big 5, as building strength from the inside out. It helps you move well before you start adding heavy loads.

Who Benefits Most From Each

Pilates:

Pilates helps develop movement control, mobility, and neuromuscular coordination. It's great for helping your joints move more smoothly and teaching body awareness through controlled, low-load movement patterns. Making it a great option for people returning from injury, managing stiffness, or refining movement efficiency (Ko et al., 2024).

Strength Training:

Strength training is essential for building muscle, maintaining bone density, and improving long-term metabolic health. It reinforces posture under load and develops the physical capacity needed for both daily tasks and athletic performance (Schoenfeld, 2010) ; (Healthy Bones Australia).

Injury Prevention:

Both methods help reduce the risk of injury, but through different mechanisms. Methods that Pilates uses enhance coordination, control, and joint stability, while strength training increases tissue tolerance and mechanical resilience.

Integration:

With the right approach, many of the mobility, core control, and postural benefits of Pilates can be replicated in an evidence-based, structured resistance training program. When guided by an experienced strength and conditioning specialist, activation drills, tempo control, and stability exercises can be built directly into resistance training sessions, combining precision with progression.

Pilates is a valuable tool for improving awareness, control, and the quality of movement. These are skills that make strength training safer and more effective. Still, it's not a magic fix or a complete solution for rehab or significant body changes on its own.

Real, lasting changes in strength and body shape come from gradually challenging your body through progressive overload. Pilates fine-tunes how you move; strength training transforms what your body can do and how it looks along the way.

The goal of this article is to help readers make deliberate, evidence-based choices about their health and fitness. Science evolves, and so should our understanding. The objective isn’t to defend what’s familiar, but to think clearly and adapt when new evidence emerges. Exercise is a tool — and like any tool, its value depends on how and when it’s used. The key is choosing the right approach for the job at hand. At the same time, we should remember that people don’t train only for measurable outcomes. For many, exercise is also a way to connect with others and to reinforce who they are.

-Hamish Creighton