We Need to Talk About It: Is Pilates Cardio?
Disclaimer before we start:
There are clinical markers used to determine whether an activity qualifies as cardiovascular exercise.
These include heart rate, oxygen consumption, and subjective measures such as the Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and the Talk Test.
For this conversation, I'm going to focus on the subjective measures because I doubt your Pilates studio has you hooked up to a VO₂ max analyzer while you're doing Single Leg Stretch. 😂
And with that disclaimer out of the way, here's my answer:
Pilates can be cardio.
The important phrase there is can be.
Think back to some of the exercise classes you've taken in the past. What made your heart rate climb? When did your breathing get heavier?
I'll venture a guess that one thing those moments had in common was that you didn't stop moving for a prolonged period of time.
That's the piece of the Pilates conversation that often gets overlooked.
It's not necessarily about how fast you're moving. It's about how continuously you're moving.
Let's look at the Reformer.
Imagine you're in a Reformer class and you have no idea what's coming next.
You finish an exercise and wait for your teacher to tell you what to do.
"Get the Long Box."
Pause.
"Put on two springs."
Pause.
"Kneel on the box."
Pause.
"No, face the other way."
Pause.
"Okay, here's what we're doing..."
By the time you've actually started moving again, your heart rate has had plenty of time to come back down.
Meanwhile, your instructor hasn't taken a breath because she's been giving you seventeen setup instructions. (This is also why Pilates teachers deserve snacks.)
Now imagine you know your Beginner Order.
You finish the 100, your teacher says, "Pull Straps," and you already know exactly what that means. You count your last hundred, transition to the box, get yourself into position, and start moving.
You keep moving through the transition.
That means less downtime, more total movement, and more exercises completed during your session.
And, yes, a higher heart rate.
Notice that I didn't say you need to move faster.
This isn't Panic Pilates™.
It's about eliminating unnecessary pauses and making the transitions part of the workout.
Now let's look at the Mat.
This is where things get really interesting.
Anyone can grab a copy of Joseph Pilates' Return to Life and work through the mat exercises. There are also countless free Pilates videos online.
But knowing the exercises isn't quite the same as knowing your order.
Your order is the sequence of exercises that you are currently ready for. Maybe that means doing the entire traditional mat order. Maybe it means skipping exercises you're not ready for yet.
The important part is knowing what's next.
When you know your order well enough that your brain doesn't have to stop and ask, "Okay... what's next?", you can flow from one exercise into another.
That's where things start to change.
I can do my entire mat order, three reps of everything, in about 25 minutes. And I promise you, my heart rate is up by the end.
But hat's not because I'm rushing; it's because I'm moving continuously.
So, is Pilates cardio?
It can be.
But it depends on how you practice.
If your Pilates session consists of long pauses while you wait for setup instructions, change equipment, or figure out what exercise comes next, you're probably not getting much cardiovascular stimulus.
If you know your order, understand your setups, and can move smoothly from one exercise to the next, you can create a very different experience.
And that's one of the reasons I keep coming back to the importance of learning the method—not just doing individual exercises (aka Reformer fitness).
The more you know, the less you stop.
And sometimes, the difference between a Pilates workout that raises your heart rate and one that doesn't isn't the exercise itself.
It's what happens between the exercises.
Want to practice your own order?
I've put together my Beginner Mat Order with video demonstrations so you can learn the exercises, practice the transitions, and start building your own at-home practice.
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