I’ve worked as a physiotherapist for more than 15 years, and a huge proportion of that time has been spent working with women.
I’ve taught and practised Pilates for more than a decade, I run, and more recently I’ve made strength training a much more deliberate part of the way I exercise myself. I've always dabbled in strength training, but never found a way to make it a regular feature in my exercise routine.
Although I have always known the benefits of strength training, it hasn't felt very accessible to me and as with most forms of exercise, I've naturally gravitated to what I feel more confident in.
Unfortunately, I'm seeing a lot of messaging online at the moment suggesting we need to choose a side: Strength vs Pilates.
This makes me feel a little sad because I know so many women who, for the first time in their lives, actually enjoy exercising once they discover Pilates. So to make these women feel like what they are doing is not enough is such a shame (and is also untrue).
Different types of exercise create different adaptations in our bodies. If we want to be strong, mobile, fit, coordinated and physically capable throughout our lives, it makes sense that we need to challenge our bodies in different ways.
I want women doing Pilates AND lifting weights. But most importantly, I want women to enjoy moving their bodies.
What strength training gives us
When our goal is to become stronger, we need to progressively challenge our muscles with resistance.
That's one of the things traditional strength training does incredibly well.
We can take a simple movement, a squat, deadlift, row or press, and gradually increase the load as our body adapts.
5kg becomes 7kg.
7kg becomes 10kg.
Over time, we're asking our muscles to produce more force, and they adapt by becoming stronger.
For women, this matters enormously.
Maintaining muscle as we age
We naturally lose muscle mass and strength after the age of 30, particularly as we move through midlife and beyond.
Resistance training is one of our most useful tools for fighting that decline. And the sooner we start, the easier it is to maintain that strength.
It's what allows us to lift our children, carry heavy bags, run, hike, get up from the floor, travel and continue doing all of these things independently as we age.
Supporting our bones
Bone is living tissue and responds to the demands we place on it.
Resistance training can provide an important stimulus for maintaining and improving bone density, which becomes particularly relevant for women as we approach and move through menopause. Our bone density naturally declines with age, and the reduction in oestrogen associated with menopause accelerates that process.
Building strong bones earlier in life and continuing to load them as we age is an investment in our future selves.
So where does Pilates fit?
If strength training is so important, does that make Pilates less important?
Absolutely not!
In my opinion, the benefits of Pilates are equally as important as the benefits of strength training: movement control, balance, coordination, mobility, postural awareness and muscular endurance.
Pilates asks you to pay attention to how you're moving. Can you control your pelvis and trunk while your limbs move? Can you maintain your balance as your base of support changes? Can you move your spine and joints comfortably through different ranges? Can you maintain good control as the exercise becomes more complex or you start to fatigue?
I also think there's value in simply moving our bodies in lots of different ways. We spend so much of modern life in relatively fixed positions, sitting at desks, driving, feeding babies, carrying children. Pilates gets us bending, rotating, extending, reaching, balancing and moving our joints through ranges we might otherwise rarely access.
We want strength, but we also want to be able to control that strength, move well and feel confident using our bodies in different positions.
That's where I think Pilates and strength training complement each other so well.
You do not need to choose
After more than 15 years working as a physio, one thing I know is that there is no single form of exercise that gives our bodies everything they need.
We need strength to maintain muscle and support our bones. We need balance, mobility, coordination and control. We need cardiovascular fitness. And I also think we need movement that makes us feel good physically and mentally.
So if Pilates is the first form of exercise you've ever genuinely enjoyed, please don't let anyone convince you that it's suddenly not worthwhile. Keep doing it.
But I'd also encourage you to think about what else you could add to your week to challenge your body in a different way.
For me, that's where strength training has found its place. It hasn't replaced Pilates or running, it's simply added something that was missing.
You don't need to choose a side. Move in different ways, challenge your body, and most importantly, find a combination of exercise you actually enjoy enough to keep doing.
Han x