What's the Difference Between Yoga and Pilates?
By Edward Smith
Although we can't explain every small detail in an article like this, here are the main differences between Yoga and Pilates. They do have many similarities so it's a question that is often asked.
Both Yoga and Pilates are mind-body disciplines. Yoga is rooted in ancient East Indian cultural traditions. In contrast, Pilates is a modern exercise with influence from yoga, as well as Chinese acrobatics, gymnastics, and boxing.
Harmonize with yoga
Physical yoga practice, known as hatha yoga, developed more than 5,000 years ago in India and consists of a series of poses, known as asanas, that you hold anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. The moves in Yoga:
- require a blend of strength, flexibility, and body awareness;
- promote union of body, mind, and spirit;
- prepare the body for the discipline of meditation and other spiritual yoga practices.
Most hatha yoga styles include the same basic poses but differ in other ways, sich as how quickly you move, how long each pose it held, how much breathing is emphasized, and how much of a spiritual aspect is involved. While in the Indian tradition, all physical yoga is hatha yoga. In the West, particularly America, different styles of hatha yoga have been given new names such as power yoga, hot yoga or flow yoga.
Other various yoga styles have been named after the individual people who spread the exercise type. For example, Iyengar yoga, named after B.K.S. Iyengar, is the most widely practiced style of hatha yoga in America and Western Europe. It offers more modifications to help beginners and also uses multiple props. Other styles, such as Bikram yoga, are for more advanced practitioners you can already contort their bodies in ways you and I can't!
Move with Pilates
Pilates is an exercise form named after Joseph Pilates, the former boxing and self-defense trainer who developed the Pilates technique in Germany at the turn of the 20th century. Although many Pilates moves were inspired by yoga, others were inspired by gymnastics, Chinese acrobatics, and boxing. Pilates classes involve a series of specialized calisthenics exercises. Rather than hold the positions (as in many styles of yoga), you're constantly moving, in a flowing style which consists of a series of moves performed continuously as in the Sun Salutation.
About the
author:
Edward has been writing for the web and offline publications for over 5 years. His latest writings at http://www.stonefloortiles.org cover the popular topic of stone floor tiles and offer informmation and advice about them.
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I wish you all the best on your yoga adventure!
To your health,
Thomas T :)
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