Your health and fitness journey is a life-long commitment. Now that you are in midlife, you need to adjust your fitness strategies to suit your aging body. Sorry, but it’s true! With so many new exercise regimes available nowadays, deciding which is right for you can be difficult. If you’ve been wondering whether it’s too late to start Pilates, then read on to hear my personal and professional opinion on this up-and-coming fitness system! What about Pilates over 50 – is it too late to start?

Pilates Over 50 – Is It Too Late To Start Now?

Let me say one important thing before we go any further on what exactly Pilates is or why you should or shouldn’t try it out. It’s this: IT IS NEVER TOO LATE.

It is never too late to start getting fit and healthy, regardless of age or fitness level. You can always adapt the routines to suit your current capability, and you are never too old to try new things or feel great in your own skin.

So, now that we’re on the same page, you’ll be glad to know that Pilates is an amazing fitness program for any age and ability. Here’s the lowdown.

What exactly is Pilates?

Pilates is a system of exercises designed to improve physical strength, flexibility and posture, breathing, and overall well-being. You can practice Pilates with specialized equipment or in a more simplistic form without the equipment and just on simple floor mats (we call this Mat Pilates). Either option has amazing benefits, particularly for women over 50. Over 500 exercises in the Pilates equipment repertoire and 34 mat exercises exist. As you can see, it’s an in-depth workout for your whole body.

I began Pilates about 20 years ago, and I’ve never looked back. There came a point in my fitness coaching journey when I had to decide whether to teach Yoga or Pilates, and I’m so glad that I decided to go with Pilates. My experience with this routine has brought me and my clients many benefits as a middle-aged woman. Read on to find out what they are.

Benefits of Pilates for Women Over 50

1. Improves Posture and Confidence

Every exercise in Pilates Matwork emphasizes good posture, encourages standing tall, balance throughout the whole body, and ease of movement. As you stretch your body, you lengthen your spine, which naturally forces you to straighten up your posture. I like to think of this posture as if you’re wearing your crown. Your shoulders roll down and back, your jaw rises, and you look and feel so regal!

2. Leaner Muscles

Pilates focuses on lengthening and expanding the muscles, which allows them to become longer and leaner. Movements are done with precision and focus and often include isometric contractions – tightening the muscles without moving them. Ultimately, this builds strength without adding bulk

3. Builds Core Strength

Since Pilates is a weight-bearing exercise, it increases power throughout the entire body and the spine. Every exercise in the repertoire targets the core. Additionally, holding your torso in place whilst moving your limbs in different directions develops greater flexibility and balance alongside that core strength.

4. Reduces Back Pain

Pilates often addresses back pain as it corrects postural and muscular imbalances. Your spine deteriorates with age and is a major reason for the back pain you suffer from. By strengthening your core from deep inside rather than from the outside inwards (like Plank positions do), Pilates reduces and prevents back pain.

5. Low Impact

Low Impact I know my knees don’t take the same amount of impact that they used to. Luckily, Pilates is low-impact in nature. It’s a flowing routine with no jarring movements. This makes it an ideal choice for participants of any age. I still practice it 2-3 times a week!

6. Breathing

Breathwork has received a lot of recognition lately for the role it plays in stress reduction and overall health. Like Yoga, Pilates focuses on breathing as part of the movement sequence so that you inhale and exhale at times that support your body movements. It becomes a very fluid-moving meditation and is used for stress reduction. In addition, mindful breathing techniques during stretching and lengthening movements enable our chest to open fully and our lungs to breathe the way they are supposed to.

7. Mindfulness

Pilates connects your body and mind through its focused and precise movements. This, combined with breathing and slow controlled movements, energizes the body. Unlike other exercises, the repetitions are minimal, focusing on technique. This makes it a less intense choice which for over 50’s is often a welcome change. The slower pace is calming, helps to reduce stress, and creates an almost meditative aspect if you ask me.

8. Builds stronger bones (risk of osteoporosis)

One in every two women over 50 in the USA will suffer Osteoporosis-related hip, spine, or wrist fractures in their lives. Wow, that is a lot of fractures that could be avoided by stronger, better bones! Research has shown increases in bone density by practicing Pilates. This is an essential practice for women who are in or approaching menopause. In case you didn’t know, women do lose bone density during menopause so it’s vital to build up your bone bank account with healthy lifestyle choices like Pilates as early as possible. You can hear more about that in this earlier episode.

What else is there to say?

In case you haven’t spotted it, I’m a big fan of Pilates for women over 50. It brings to the table so many of the extra considerations that we need to account for in our fitness journey and healthy lifestyle strategies. It can be easily implemented in short periods of time, and it delivers results. Some of the most frequently asked questions are listed below just to make sure that there is no doubt as to whether you can start and master Pilates over 50.

Some frequently asked questions about Pilates

• How long does it take to get in shape? If you’ve listened to my podcast or read my blogs before, then you probably know the answer to this…It depends! There is no one size fits all, and how long it takes will depend on where you are in your fitness journey right now and how often you commit to the routine. Don’t worry about how long it takes; just make sure you commit regularly and enjoy it!
• Can Pilates tighten your skin? Is it good for sagging skin?
  Unfortunately, this is a hard no. However, Pilates does develop leaner muscles underneath that skin, which you will be able to see and feel. What’s going on under your skin is way more important, so you should feel great about that!
• How often should you do Pilates?
  My standard recommendation for strength training is to alternate it with cardio. So every other day is enough, and make sure to mix up what you do so that you don’t get bored and start to slack on your goals.

• Does Pilates help with losing belly fat?
  Pilates is not a weight loss program, but it can become aerobic depending on your fitness level. Some of my clients found they lost weight because they started paying more attention to their bodies and, hence, their diet. You will begin to lose inches as your body tones up, but Pilates can’t claim all the glory for that!
• Is Pilates for everybody? Pilates may not be a choice for everyone, but it is most definitely an option for everyone. Whether you feel it fits in with your health goals and lifestyle choices and is a method you will enjoy is up to you. You may like to listen to this interview with Jillian Hessel, a 2nd generation Pilates teacher who worked directly under the founder of Pilates (Joseph Pilates). Jillian discusses just how Pilates can work for any age and fitness level. I highly recommend listening if you’re still on the fence.

How to get started with Pilates

It’s never too late to start Pilates. If you’re interested in taking it up and improving your health and fitness, then the first thing to do is decide which style suits you best: equipment or mats. Maybe you want to go all out for the full repertoire, or maybe you’d rather dip your toe into the equipment-free sessions first. There is no right or wrong answer.

Once you’ve decided, you can head over to my YouTube Channel to find an array of Pilates videos you can follow. Most of them last between 3 and 9 minutes, so don’t worry about keeping up or being new to it.

Finally, you can join a group or class to make it a social event. Check out the Pilates Method Alliance for listings of reputable teachers in your area. Of course, you can also join online sessions, which I also offer. If you have any questions about the online workouts and personalized programs, please reach out at heikeyates@gmail.com.

Have you tried Pilates yet? I’d love to know what’s stopping you or what benefits you’ve noticed since taking it up. Let me know in the comments.