How Pilates Can Help Athletes

If you already train hard, Pilates might sound like the last thing you need. It’s low-impact, and from the outside it doesn’t look like much. But it works your whole body, and plenty of athletes have picked it up. Runners, cyclists, swimmers, people who play on a court or a field. It can help with strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination, and you use all of those in your sport.

Here’s where it can make a difference.

1. Core strength. Pilates spends a lot of time on your core, and those are the muscles that keep you steady when you run, jump, twist, or change direction.
2. Flexibility. A lot of athletes have tight muscles and a limited range of motion. That can hold you back, and it can make injuries more likely. Pilates does a lot of stretching and lengthening, which can help loosen things up.
3. Balance and coordination. Many of the exercises make you work to stay steady. Over time that can give you better control of your body, and fewer falls.
4. Overuse injuries. Tendonitis and stress fractures are common when you do the same movement over and over. Pilates can help even out muscle imbalances and clean up the way you move, which may lower your odds of that kind of injury.

If you want somewhere to start, try the Hundred, the Teaser, and the Roll-Up. All three work your core and your flexibility, and they make you control the movement instead of throwing yourself through it. That control is a lot of what you’re there for.