Hello,
We're planning a piece for an upcoming issue of SWIMMER on the benefits and downsides of yoga vs. Pilates. We'll talk to experts of course, but wanted to see if anyone on the forums had a strong opinion one way or the other.
Thanks. Feel free to respond here, or message me privately.
Best,
Laura
I do a yoga class at the gym once a week and a pilates mat class once a week. The instructors are good, the degree of difficulty varies, they give options due to the wide range of abilities of the women in the class.I enjoy the non-competitiveness and meeting new people. I started these classes after I retired, I didn't have time while I was working unless I gave up some swim time and I didn't want to do that. There are studios where one might get more personalized attention but the classes cost more-at the gym they are included in the membership fee. I guess it is like swimming-you can opt for a convenient place to swim or pay more for coaching and other perks. I do download classes from yoga today so I can do them at home and I have an app on the ipad-Namaste yoga-it is a series of 20 minute classes. I would like to see in your article any other suggestions for mobile devices or PC's. I have the Yoga for swimmers video that was featured last year in the Swimmer. I feel that even though I have been doing the Pilates for less than a year it has contributed to strengthening my core.
I've done both mat Pilates and a bit of the reformer Pilates before and have tried a couple of yoga classes. For me yoga was a good way to get hurt fast. I have the rotten combination of loose tendons and ligaments and tight muscles. For five years I've been fighting posterior tibial tendonitis in both feet. Due to the loose tendons and ligaments my feet are very flat. Everything hurts them including swimming; swimming just hurts less than any other aerobic exercise. I've found yoga instructors to be very inflexible with regard to accommodations for injuries or weird bodies. They either don't even mention various ways of doing things or flat out don't believe me when I say I can't do poses (or anything else) barefoot. I also can't do plank exercises because of the stress it places on my feet. I always get vibes from yoga instructors that I must be shirking if I refuse to do exercises I know will hurt my body. The Pilates folks are much more understanding; most of them will show you exercise variants
Yoga and Pilates instructors along with physical therapists are always big on stretching. I've come to the unorthodox, heretical conclusion that stretching is bad for my body. Every time I try to do it I hurt worse. I don't think it's possible to stretch muscles without stretching the connecting tendons and ligaments and on me they don't need to be stretched further.
Jan, whose feet are particularly annoying tonight
