Athlete Keltie O’Connor has weight-trained for 15 years. Five years ago, she added in Pilates. ‘Today, I’m settling the debate over which is better – or maybe you don’t have to choose,’ she says over on her YouTube channel. As female physiologist Dr Stephanie Estima previously told us, the two have very ‘different applications to your muscles and therefore have different outcomes’, but since both technically fall under the resistance training umbrella, it can be hard to know which to go for and when. Here’s what Keltie discovered, including the benefits of each and how her body changed.
1. Pilates has transformed my posture and prevented injury
‘Pilates has worked on my mobility; it has allowed me to work on some posture correction and engage those little muscles that I didn’t normally engage. It’s a way to work on mind-muscle connection. It really utilises the smaller muscles that sometimes can go unnoticed in weight training, when you usually train the biggest muscle groups. Yes, you can also engage the smaller muscles in weight training, but I just find for myself there are little muscles that I’m like, “Oh yeah I never work on that”, and Pilates is good at using those. It also has a lesser risk of injuries because the weights aren’t that heavy with Pilates versus strength training. When you’re lifting heavy weights, if something goes wrong it can go really wrong.’
2. Pilates is a good low-intensity choice when you’re lacking energy
‘When I’m in my lazy girl era or my slow girl era and I just can’t be bothered by intensity, I go and do a Pilates class because I’m still getting some resistance training, but it’s not too intense. I can kind of just be like half out of it and go through the motions and it’s tough, but it’s a different kind of tough. It’s not screaming tough, it’s like holding plank tough – nothing too crazy but it burns.
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‘I tend to do Pilates because I find it relaxing and a good way to avoid cortisol spikes while getting some resistance training in, and also to check in with what hurts as it really allows me to connect with my body. It’s also a great way to enjoy fitness with friends. My weights are more like a prescription from my doctor; there are no ifs and butts, I’ve got to get it done even if I don’t want to because weight training is great for my health.’
3. The social aspect of Pilates helps with motivation
‘It’s a really fun thing to go with your friends, sometimes I get excited because I put on a cute fit and I go to Pilates and that’s what gets me there.’
4. Weight training is superior for longevity
‘Weight training has given me confidence, it has given me injury prevention, it has truly changed my posture. I’ve got a long way to go in my life, but I think it’s going to be the thing that allows me to have better quality of life as I age.
‘We especially need to talk about bone health for women. The best thing for this has been shown to be weight training with exercises like rows, deadlifts, squats, and heavier weightbearing exercises – you can get some benefits for bone health from Pilates, but you’re going to get more from weight training, simply because lifting more is better for stimulating bone density.’
5. It’s easier to weight train on a budget
‘Weight training is always there when money’s tight and I don’t want to spend that much money on a Pilates class. Pilates is expensive and weight training can also be incredibly expensive, depending on which gym you’re going to. But I find there are more accessible, cheaper ways to do resistance training than there are for Pilates. You can do free Pilates on a mat or at home on YouTube; you could just type in Move with Nicole and you get it for free, but in terms of classes, Pilates can be crazy expensive.’
My results
‘There hasn’t really been that much change in my body. I do think if I quit weight training for months or years on end, I would lose a lot of muscle definition fast, but did I get insanely bulky from weight training, or insanely bulky from Pilates? No, you have seen my body very rarely changes, and despite doing more weights and more Pilates, it has stayed pretty consistent.
‘I would say if you’re just starting exercise and want to burn fat and gain muscle at the same time, the only way you’re going to do it is through weight training. This is because you’re doing more progressive overload, so the fuel you’re eating – as long as you’re eating enough – will go towards building muscle, which leads to body recomposition.
‘It’s very hard to do this with Pilates because you’re just not lifting as much. If you strength train, you’re lifting really heavy so your body’s like “We’ve got to optimise these muscles, she’s lifting heavy things, she’s lifting really heavy things – put it towards the muscles.” Versus if you’re not lifting that heavy, your body’s like, “Yeah just throw out a little fat, we don’t lift that heavy, we’ll deal with it.” If you’re squatting and deadlifting heavy, your body’s like we need to prioritise rebuilding those muscles.
‘Progressive overload means lifting more over time. You can increase the weight, you can increase the reps, and you can increase the set. The problem with Pilates is that your only choice to overload is more reps and we only have an hour usually for a workout, so there will come a point where you just can’t progressively overload. Whereas with a barbell, you can just add a couple weights, or you could just pick up a heavier dumbbell.’
How to balance Pilates and weight training
‘You have to be aware of how intense your Pilates is. Are you doing more mobility, so you’re going through bigger ranges of motion with little weights? Or are you doing a heavy Lagree mega reformer class? Typically, all professionals will say weight train two to four times a week. If your Pilates is as challenging as your weight training is, swap one of your weight training sessions for Pilates. If your Pilates is more soft girl era with mobility training, do two to three weight sessions a week and then one to three Pilates sessions.
‘Listen to your body, but realise weight training should be the foundation. Sprinkle in Pilates as your mobility or as an alternative to weight training once or twice a week. But like I said, only replace a weight session with Pilates if you get enough resistance training from that class. If you despise weight training, Pilates is definitely better than nothing and you can still get a bunch of resistance training.’
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director (and a qualified yoga teacher), Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism. She secured her first role at Look Magazine, where her obsession with fitness began and she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!. Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red.
Now, she oversees all fitness content across womenshealthmag.com.uk and the print magazine, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, where we showcase the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise. She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how.
Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
