Pilates Newbies: How Often Should I Do Pilates?
Many pilates newbies ask me how many times a week they should do pilates. For optimal progress, I usually suggest that beginners start with three sessions a week. At this point pilates newbies groan a bit and roll their eyes, thinking I’m just trying to pitch them a larger session package. The truth is, the short term gain of selling you a big package isn’t worth losing you down the road when you don’t see results because you haven’t really used pilates to its maximum potential.
People come to pilates to see a significant change in their bodies. Unless you are already very body aware, with one session a week you will experience some of the stretching but little of the strengthening and alignment benefits that come from a complete pilates program. Yes, taking one private session a week is still better than sitting at home and eating bon-bons. But to see the dramatic results for which pilates is famous, I have to be honest and say it won’t happen unless you are doing two or three private sessions a week.
Learning pilates is like learning a foreign language – for your body. As you may know from past experience, even one intensive three-hour workshop a week can’t compare to the new habits, vocabulary and processes you learn with daily practice.
When I was in college, all the classes met two or three times a week except for my language classes. We met every day, for one hour. It was a relatively short period of time but it was enough to refresh our memories with the material we learned the previous day and move onto new material more quickly. After the first two years, you could take advanced courses. These classes no longer met every day because the department assumed you had the foundations of the language under your belt. Learning at the higher levels involved using what you learned, leaving the foundational basics of grammar behind.
Pilates is not much different. First you learn the vocabulary and rules of pilates– the “what” of pilates. Then as you progress the instructor can start to really challenge you to apply those rules to your exercises – you can then focus on the “how” of pilates because you will have already mastered what the movements are. That’s when you’ll see the most amazing developments in strength, flexibility and coordination. In dance terms, beginner pilates students are at the choreography stage – just learning the sequence of steps. Once the basic steps are mastered, then experienced students, like dancers, can really start to flow and find the limits of what they can do.
As I mentioned, two or three sessions a week is the ideal. However, if you find that time and budget constraints don’t allow you to get in the studio as much as you would like, don’t give up. Get creative. Start with one private session a week if that’s all that works for you now and then supplement with a DVD or group mat class with the same instructor or another individual who inspires you. It’s not quite a substitute for one-on-one lessons but it’s better than sitting home wishing you were stronger, longer and leaner instead of doing something about it.