Ah, I’m guessing you’ve seen the growing number of yoga and Pilates studios and wondered, “What exactly goes on in there?” It's not really a gym, as there is very often little equipment. It’s not really a bootcamp or group HIIT class, although sometimes it does look like sweaty, hard work. And another thing, what’s the deal with all the specific clothing? Do you really need the latest, trendiest athleisure wear and yoga pants? I’d argue no, but full disclaimer: I would not classify myself as a yogi.
Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t see value in the physical practice - something we’ll discuss later.
With all this hype, my aim is to give you some substance. We are going to look at what exactly yoga and Pilates are first. However, most importantly, can they help you lift more? I mean, what is the point of exercise if it doesn’t increase my 1RM bench, squat, or deadlift? Of course, there are other reasons to train, but gaining strength is a huge one, and as most of us only have a limited amount of time to train in the day, ultimately, the question to ask is whether or not these practices (yoga and Pilates) will move the needle in regard to the metrics you care about most - strength gains.
Well, let’s dive in.
Yoga
There are entire books on what Yoga is and the Yoga philosophy.
Much of Yoga’s philosophy and story is tied to ancient religion. We’ll quickly look at that, but mainly look at the physical practice as it relates to exercise.
Classical yoga began roughly 5,000 years ago.
We have record of Indian Hindu priests writing about it in religious texts. The word yoga translates as “to yoke” or “to unite”, with the goal of bringing your whole well-being- mind, soul, and body to a state of connection through breath work, poses, and meditation. Hummmmmmmmmmm.
Yoga in the United States is much more about exercise and improving one’s physical health. Sure, there are some meditation and “spiritual” aspects to it, but it has largely lost its Hindu roots. Now, I will say this does largely depend on the yoga community or studio you go to. Some studios are entirely physical, while others lean more towards the traditional style of yoga. There has been a shift from "spiritual liberation" to fitness and relaxation in modern Yoga.
We are going to focus on the physical benefits of yoga, the benefits that may or may not help you lift more, rather than the yoga philosophy, quite so much.
Now, before we can look at the benefits, we have to look at what exactly yoga is. Physically, yoga practice looks like the following:
A typical class will include 8-20 members, all each with their own yoga mat. Additional pieces of equipment given to you by the yoga teacher may include yoga blocks and straps, designed to aid you by helping you get into certain poses and positions you may not have been able to otherwise. A typical class is 1 hour and begins very slowly, led by the yoga teacher, often with common poses such as child’s pose or forward fold. The time is viewed as a time to warm up the body. After a few minutes there, with a special emphasis on breathing, the yoga teacher slowly starts to lead the yoga community to increase in their pose complexity, speed, and difficulty. Now, the level of complexity, speed, and difficulty differs entirely based on class level. As with most fitness classes, a beginner level versus an advanced look worlds apart. This is where the bulk of the class is spent, typically with 40 or so minutes devoted to the working portion of the class. During this time, typically, the yoga teacher or instructor will lead you in the flow. During the flow, you will perform poses such as downward dog, upward dog, child’s pose, chair pose, cat-cow, tree pose, warrior 1, 2, and 3, as well as many others. Some of these poses you will hold, while others you will flow through. In some classes, the yoga teacher may have the yoga community take a quick “break” at the halfway or three-quarters mark in order to do a little bit of isolated core training. Now, I put “break in quotes here because, in my experience, this can be the hardest part of the class. Finally, the end of the class is where the cooldown comes in. This is where, as yogis say, all the “heat” built up finally feels like it pays off. After all of the moving and flowing, you are quite warm and tired. At this point, the yoga teacher leads you to sink into a few final stretches such as pigeon, lizard, happy baby, or a reclining twist, and boy, do these typically feel incredible. Finally, the best part arrives - savasana. All this fancy wording means is that you get to lie still on your back for about 5 minutes. If you're lucky, your studio has cool lavender towels that get placed on your forehead at this time. I know, I know that may sound odd, but especially if you just completed hot yoga, it’s quite nice. After that, the yoga teacher or instructor signals that class is over, typically with a gong, and you clean up and go on your way, feeling all the more limber.
Types of Yoga
There are many different types of yoga practices in the yoga community, all emphasizing something just a little bit different to help your well-being.
Let’s look at a few of them before embarking on your yoga journey.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga is great for those new to their yoga journey. It is typically a little bit easier and focuses on the fundamentals of yoga.
Vinyasa Yoga
Vinyasa yoga is much faster. It focuses on matching your breath to movement (inhale while doing one movement, exhale as you transition to the next). Because of the increase in movement, this style of yoga typically leads to a higher heart rate (harder workout).
Bikram Yoga
This yoga practice is one you are probably familiar with but don’t recognize the name - this is hot yoga. How hot exactly? Well, typically around 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 40% humidity. By increasing the heat and humidity, you allow yourself to warm up much faster and reach deeper into poses. It also increases blood flow and, of course, sweating.
Bikram yoga really does feel good.
Yin Yoga
Yin yoga is a slower-paced yoga. It emphasizes longer, deeper holds in poses, typically between 3 and 10 minutes. The goal here is to improve flexibility and breathing in deep stretches.
Power Yoga
This is not a traditional yoga practice, but essentially it aims to combine some strength training and calisthenics with yoga poses, creating a more balanced workout. You’d be amazed at how hard holding a Warrior 2, downward dog, or especially chair pose can be.
Now, you may be wondering how hard yoga is. Well, that depends entirely on the type you choose to practice.
Difficulty
Practicing yoga can be as relaxing and casual as you’d like or as challenging an endeavor as you can find. This really depends on the type of yoga being practiced, as we talked about above.
Sometimes, yoga won’t even feel much different than just stretching - that’s probably the easiest end of the spectrum; on the other hand, at a hot yoga studio, performing difficult movements and poses and focusing on your breath can be an incredibly challenging accomplishment on your yoga journey.
Benefits
Practicing yoga has many benefits for your overall well-being. On the one hand, the physical practice is a form of working out, so many of the common benefits of training apply here, including increased cardiovascular function, decreased risk of chronic disease, increased mood and mental health, stress reduction, improved mobility, increased bone and muscle function, among many others.
Let’s look at some unique benefits of yoga. First, increased flexibility and mobility. Yoga is a form of training comprised of many positions that test your end-range limits of flexibility and mobility. For this reason, it can also improve both your flexibility and mobility - flexibility being the ability to get into a position, mobility being the ability to get into a position and control yourself in it.
Second, increased strength in new positions. If you’ve never done yoga before, odds are almost all the positions are new. This means you likely have not developed a lot of strength and stability in the bottom of a chair pose or in a reverse warrior. By exploring new movements and having to own the position, you are building strength in new positions, likely also using new muscles or muscles that haven’t been used quite like that before as well.
Third is what I’ll just call body awareness. Yoga involves a ton of balance poses, both on your legs and hands. It puts you in weird positions and exposes you to poses you aren’t familiar with. All of this helps build a general sense of body awareness that most people don’t innately have. This can be great for helping you balance, get up off the floor, or avoid a fall, especially as you age.
Additionally, yoga can help calm your mind by reducing cortisol levels. Consistent yoga practice can help reduce low back pain, chronic pain, neck pain, arthritis, and stress. It can help you get deeper sleep and improve energy levels. We know that weight-bearing movements can help prevent osteoporosis, especially resistance training, but yoga does include similar postures that can help.
Pilates
Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates, a German physical trainer.
Pilates, in contrast to yoga, is a lot less about “flow”. When following an instructor in Pilates, you move from one movement to the next, but it is not all connected as one. Additionally, there is more emphasis on building positional strength and really using your core and surrounding muscles.
Pilates, similar to yoga, typically lasts for about 1 hour. There is generally a warm-up period and a cool-down period; they just look different than yoga - unfortunately, no lying-down pose over in the Pilates world. Much of Pilates is based on strengthening your core and surrounding muscles, including your glutes, hip flexors, abdominal muscles, obliques, and low back. Whether it was designed to or not, Pilates also has a general reputation for “toning” muscles. Now what exactly “toning” means is still being debated, as I’m not sure at a physiological level if a muscle has any idea if it’s being toned or strengthened, but anyway, I digress. Now, there are two main types of Pilates we will discuss soon, but just so you have an idea, there are Mat Pilates (no machine) and Reformer Pilates (machine). Some common movements you will see in Pilates classes include leg raises, planks, variations of V-ups, leg presses (if using the machine), glute bridges, etc. There is no doubt some upper body work, but the majority of Pilates is based on the core and lower body.
Pilates is fairly popular right now, especially among women. It combines resistance training and mobility into one class, with a big emphasis on control. Every movement should be done correctly with control (sorry guys, no ego lifting here).
Let’s look at three main types of Pilates.
Types of Pilates
Mat Pilates
If you were just walking by, you may mistakenly think Mat Pilates is a yoga class. That’s because Mat Pilates primarily uses your own weight and a mat - very similar to yoga. Mat Pilates is great for beginners, as it helps to build a lot of the foundational strength and position work needed for other forms of Pilates. You may often see Mat Pilates at your local gym, YMCA, or community center - places that don’t have enough room or budget for reformers like a studio would have. In Mat Pilates, you perform many of the same movements, just ground-based. It is still primarily focused on strengthening your legs, glutes, and core through holds, pulsing, and movement.
Reformer Pilates
More than likely, this is the type of Pilates you think of when the word Pilates comes to mind. If you’ve ever thought, “What’s that giant torture-looking device all those people are using?” Then you’ve probably seen Reformer Pilates. This machine, known as a reformer, consists of a platform that rolls horizontally. Additionally, the machine includes straps and springs, with the former often decreasing difficulty and the latter increasing difficulty. This machine opens up a ton of movements. If you come from a strength training background, the only thing I can really compare it to is a gliding bench with bands and cables attached to help perform various movements.
Wall Pilates
Wall Pilates is often performed at home and can be great for those new to training, providing an easier transition to training.
Difficulty
Just as with yoga, the difficulty lies entirely in the class type and level. A beginner's wall Pilates YouTube video is going to vary wildly from an advanced Reformer Pilates class. The difficulty also varies within the class; you can no doubt adjust the intensity or even take a break when needed.
Benefits
The benefits, according to TikTok, would tell you that it will give you your dream figure. That is, if you want to be a “toned” 20-something Instagram influencer. But for now, let’s ignore TikTok.
General well-being benefits of exercise, as mentioned above, also apply here - things like improved joint and bone health, a decrease in chronic conditions, increased mood, stress reduction, etc. Typically, a Pilates class will not be as cardiovascular as some yoga classes, especially hot yoga. So you will likely see fewer cardiovascular gains from doing Pilates.
Some Pilates-specific benefits include:
Increased core strength
The aim of Pilates largely centers around strengthening your core. No doubt, if you do Pilates, your core will get stronger. Almost every movement involves the core, and the classes are often 60 minutes long, so improving core strength is almost inevitable if you put the work in.
Improved mobility and flexibility
Similar to yoga, Pilates will help you improve your mobility and flexibility as well. Because Pilates focuses a little bit more on strengthening, you should expect to really feel like you have more control over the end ranges of motion when training.
Increased stability
Much of your body's stability comes from core and glute strength. By performing Pilates, you are targeting both large muscle groups heavily. This, in turn, can help you improve your ability to stabilize.
Alright, so we’ve talked about what both yoga and Pilates are, but the question remains: “Can they help me lift more?” Well, lucky for you, just keep reading.
So, can this actually help me lift more?
The short answer: it depends. I know, I know, but let me explain.
First, let’s start here. Generally, in order to lift more weight, you need to lift more weight.
Now there are some certain caveats to that, but for most people, lifting more weight comes from continuing to progressively overload their lifts slowly, over time, building strength and muscle.
What is progressive overload?
Progressive overload means slowly increasing the load of a movement over a time period. I know that’s very vague, so let’s take the back squat for example. Let’s say your current 1 rep max (1RM) is 225 lbs. Your most recent training day consisted of 3 sets of 185 lbs for 5 reps. There are a few ways you can progressively overload in your training moving forward. Let’s look at five variables you can change in order to progressively overload (i.e., make it harder) week-to-week.
Reps
Next week, or whenever you train the back squat next, you aim for 6 reps, even for just the last set or last two sets. You slightly increased the difficulty from the previous week (progressive overload).
Speed
This one is harder to track unless you have specific equipment, so I wouldn’t use this one unless you have a VBT tracker. This can be useful, but there’s no need, especially if you are relatively new to training. The principle here, though, is that you’d want to move the same weight for the same number of sets and reps, just faster than the week before.
Sets
So, you did 5 sets. How about next week, you do 6 sets?
Tempo
Instead of just going up and down, can you add a 1-second pause at the bottom? How about a 3-4 second slowing on the way down (eccentric)? This change in tempo is going to make your squats more difficult.
Rest
If you typically take 5 minutes between sets, you can try taking 3-4 minutes. I wouldn’t go much lower than that if looking to gain strength, but shorter rest times will make the movement more difficult.
What now?
So the point with all of this is that building strength requires progressive overload in some form or fashion over time. You can’t simply squat 185 pounds at the same speed and tempo every week and expect to get stronger. So, that is how strength is built. However, the question remains: what role do yoga and Pilates play in building strength?
Yoga and Pilates can be a good supplement but not a replacement. Here’s what I mean.
When thinking about training, you first need to determine your goals. If you don’t have any clearly defined goals, that’s cool too, but just a general sense of what you want to get better at and maybe what you don’t care about quite so much.
For instance, right now, I want to be as well-rounded as possible. As strong, mobile, and fit as I can. However, in saying that, I am now saying no to being the absolute strongest I can be. No powerlifter is doing as much cardio as I am. Similarly, I could be as fit as a marathon runner, but I have chosen to place more emphasis on being well-rounded and strong than a marathon runner would. This means they are no doubt a better runner, but I’m stronger - and I’m okay with that.
Choosing your training is about picking a goal, but it's also about saying no to not being great at a host of other things you may want to. Going back to the marathon runner example. If you want to be great at running marathons, you are going to completely ignore Olympic lifting, cycling, bodybuilding, strongman, and almost every other training variation except running and some resistance training. So, yeah, it’s cool you are training for a marathon, but if you are serious about it, you are saying no to a bunch of other training styles, and that’s okay; just be aware.
So, if your main goal is to get strong and lift more, your focus should be on lifting weights and progressively overloading. As you do this, some cardio is good for overall health, but too much will interfere with your primary goal. For most people, the benefits of cardio far outweigh any small amount of strength gains missed out on.
The main constraints I want you to consider here when it comes to deciding whether to practice yoga and/or Pilates in your training are time and volume.
First, let’s talk about time. You only have but so much time. Likely, you have a 9-5, family commitments, friends, and social events, etc. If adding yoga and/or Pilates takes away from your ability to strength train, then no, it will not help you lift more - assuming you aren’t overtraining to begin with. Let’s throw an example out for this. Let’s say you currently strength train 4x/week - two upper days and two lower days. If your time constraints mean that you would have to shift to 3x/week in order to add yoga or Pilates, then that is not going to make you stronger. However, if you have the time to add yoga and/or Pilates, that is another story. In that case, you need to look at why you want to add the classes. Are you someone who could use a little bit more mobility and flexibility? Do you feel stiff, and is your only source of training coming from resistance training? In that case, adding basic yoga could be a good fit. I would say, though, that if you currently aren’t doing any sort of cardiovascular exercise, that is going to be much more beneficial than adding yoga. I don’t see a ton of value for Pilates in that scenario, and here’s why. Pilates is essentially light, high-rep resistance training in various movement patterns. True, it will improve core strength, and you will feel your muscles working, but for true muscle strength - squatting, pulling, pressing - super high-rep training is not going to help. You may get some secondary benefits from Pilates, like core strength and strengthening of smaller muscles you may not use frequently, but consistent Pilates practice is going to lead to additional fatigue that is not helpful for building true strength.
Okay, the second consideration is volume. If you are training hard, 4x/week for resistance training is more than enough. That may even be on the upper end, depending on who you ask. The name of the game for strength is pushing and resting. You’ve got to hit upper limits responsibly and then allow your body to repair. The problem then with things like yoga and Pilates is that they essentially add extra fatigue when you are trying to recover. Both yoga and Pilates are stressors to the body, albeit less strenuous than resistance training; they are still stressors. So, if your volume is already high and you are struggling to fully recover, don’t add more. In the same way, if you are always feeling great and wondering why you aren’t getting any stronger, maybe you need to increase the intensity or add another day of training per week - not yoga or Pilates. Now, there is a place for really light yoga or even Pilates on an off day if it looks a lot more like stretching and movement - not a HIIT class. We are talking 2-3/10 in terms of difficulty. This form of active recovery, where you get some blood flowing to your muscles and hit some positions for mobility and flexibility, is great.
Now, I know this was quite a long answer, but it truly does depend. I would say that if you have the goal of only getting stronger, there are few reasons to add yoga or Pilates. If you care about getting stronger, but you also want to feel good, improve things like core strength, body awareness, see extra benefits in the realm of mobility and flexibility, and just improve overall well-being, then, no doubt, go for it. I don’t believe these benefits outweigh the fatigue and opportunity cost if you are solely focused on strength, but at the end of the day, it is working out, and that will be good for you, even if you never become quite as strong as Thor or Brian Shaw.
For me personally, I incorporate yoga maybe once every month or so. At times I’ve done it more frequently and at times less. I don’t have easy unlimited access to either yoga or Pilates, but if my gym offered them, I’d probably try to go once every couple of weeks. But the key here is that I am happy with my strength levels. I want to improve them, but it is not my sole focus. Plus, I enjoy different types of movement and training, and hot yoga really does feel great - don’t knock it until you try it.
At the end of the day, unless you are a professional powerlifter or strongman, give the classes a try once or twice if you have the opportunity.
Don’t feel the need to get an unlimited access membership or become a yogi, but you may learn something new that can help you in your training now or down the road.
Don’t be afraid to explore and see what your body is capable of. I've found that many yoga poses are great for warming up before a training session.
One final note: be sure to pick a studio that ensures its instructors have proper teacher training.
Teacher training is important to ensure you have an effective and safe experience practicing yoga or Pilates. There are actually certified Pilates or yoga schools where teachers are properly trained. This education can include training on the many different styles, and many organizations offer certifications.
The Yoga Alliance does a lot of work in this space (ethical practices, proper technique, etc.), so check them out if you want to learn more.
Sources
Brown, Kelsey. “What Is Yin Yoga? - Fitness & Exercise.” WebMD, 30 November 2024, https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/what-is-yin-yoga.
“What Is Pilates? A Beginner’s Guide.” BK Pilates, 24 June 2025, https://bkpilates.com/what-is-pilates/.
“Yoga for Exercise • The Nutrition Source.” The Nutrition Source, April 2023, https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/yoga/.