I tried Pilates and I loved it, but running and HIIT training is my priority. How can I fit it all in?
We know prioritising the movement practice you love is important, but did you know that Pilates can help improve your performance in running and HIIT sessions?
Incorporating Pilates into your weekly routine can be of great benefit in achieving your fitness goals, as well as decreasing your chance of injury.
This magical movement practice improves core strength, flexibility and mobility and works many stabilising muscles that are required in high-impact exercise.
You don't need to only do one of your favourite movements, you can have it all! There are a few ways you can include both Pilates and the high-impact training you love into your weekly routine!
Pre-activation
The YR- At Home OnDemand app includes Pilates sessions as short as 15 minutes, and mat and matcore Pilates classes that are great to do before the higher-intensity session you have planned.
Incorporating these types of sessions before your run or HIIT workout will help prepare your muscles, joints and ligaments for a great session ahead. Our core and lower body burn series are both perfect for this!
Post-training/ recovery
Incorporating Pilates post-training or post-run can also be a great way to include this Pilates into your week without adding or sacrificing a session. Add a class to the end of your session to soak up the benefits of Pilates, post-training. We recommend our stretch and strength or stretch and meditate classes for this, ranging from 10 – 20 minutes.
Add an active rest day
You may have heard of ‘active rest days’ in the training world, and many of you may already be including these into your week, perhaps as a walk. Pilates is another great way to achieve this, providing the benefits of building strength on your non-training days, as well as lengthening, recovering and preparing for the sessions ahead. All while allowing your body a break from the impact of running and HIIT sessions. The YR OnDemand app includes a diverse range of class styles to choose from for this, including specific Pilates for runners classes.
Try our HIIT Hybrid classes!
Want to combine the benefits of Pilates with the higher intensity of HIIT? We also have HIIT Hybrid Pilates classes on our app that do exactly that. They'll get your heart rate up, but also include the stabilisation, core activation, and other Pilates techniques found throughout our classes.
If you want to know more about Pilates for runners, you can read more in our blog post!
We'd love to see how you incorporate Pilates into your running or HIIT schedules, so remember to tag @yourreformer in your pre, post or active rest day workouts. We'll share as many as we can in our stories!