How Often Should You Do Pilates?

How many times a week should you do Pilates?

There’s no official number, but this is a useful guide.

• Once a week is enough to learn the method and keep your body familiar with it. You’ll feel the benefit in how you move.
• Twice a week is a good middle ground, because you build on each session before you forget it.
• Three times a week lets most people make steady progress in strength and control.
• Four or more is possible, especially if some sessions are short or gentle. You rarely need that many unless you love it.

Whatever number you choose, keep it up for a few months before you judge the results.

How does Pilates fit into Canada’s activity guidelines?

The Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for adults aged 18 to 64, from the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, recommend two kinds of activity.

• At least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity.
• Muscle-strengthening activities using the major muscle groups at least twice a week.

Pilates fits most naturally into the second one. Two whole-body sessions a week can count toward your strength work. It doesn’t replace aerobic activity, though, so you still need brisk walking, cycling, swimming or anything else that raises your heart rate.

Can you do Pilates every day?

Most healthy adults can. Pilates is low impact and doesn’t put much stress on your joints, so practising on back-to-back days is generally fine.

Daily practice works best when you mix it up.

• Alternate a full session with a shorter, gentler one.
• Change the focus from day to day. You might work mostly on your lower body one day and spine mobility the next, then your upper body and arms.
• Take a lighter day, or a day off, when you’re sore, tired or unwell.

If something hurts, stop and get it looked at. Don’t push through it.

Is 20 minutes of Pilates a day enough?

Twenty focused minutes is a real session. Canada’s guidelines talk about building up activity across the week, so short sessions add up. Twenty minutes on five days is 100 minutes of practice, which is more than many people get from one long class a week.

What is the 10/20/30 rule in Pilates?

It’s a saying usually credited to Joseph Pilates. In 10 sessions you feel the difference, in 20 you see the difference, and in 30 you have a whole new body.

It doesn’t come from research, and nobody has shown that those exact numbers apply to everyone. How quickly you notice a change depends on where you start and how often you practise. How well the sessions are taught matters too, and so does whatever else you do in your week. Take it as encouragement to keep going past the first few sessions, when things can still feel awkward.

How often should beginners do Pilates?

One or two sessions a week is a sensible place to start. Your early sessions are about the basics, like breathing with the movement and finding your centre, and learning to move with control. Spacing them out gives you time to absorb all that before you add more. I go through those first steps in Pilates for beginners.

Once the basics feel familiar, add a session, or do some short practice at home in between your instructed sessions. If you’re pregnant, recently postpartum, injured or new to exercise, check with your doctor before you start, and tell your instructor what’s going on.

How do you make it a habit?

A few things make it easier to keep going.

• Fix the time. The same day and time each week takes the decision out of it.
• Make it easy to get to. The less travel involved, the more likely you are to go.
• Practise with other people. A regular group gives you a reason to show up.

Practising at home takes travel out of the picture completely. Mat work needs less room than most people expect, as I explain in how much space you need for Pilates at home.

Sources

• Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. Canadian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines: Adults aged 18 to 64. https://csepguidelines.ca/guidelines/adults-18-64/