The Answer is Never Black and White
The Gray Area: On Pilates, Principles & Strength
A thought on the debates shaking the Pilates world — and why the answer is never black and white.
If you have spent any time on the Pilates side of social media lately, you may have noticed a storm brewing. Actually, two storms. The first is a heated debate between classical and contemporary Pilates practitioners — each side staking a claim to the “true” form of the method. The second is a growing argument about whether Pilates even qualifies as strength training.
While I respectfully refrain from throwing my hat into that particular ring, these debates do make me think. And as with so many issues we face today, I don’t believe there is one right answer. The truth isn’t binary. It lives somewhere in between — in the gray area.
What makes something Pilates? Is it the choreography? The precise sequence of exercises performed in a particular order? Or is it the method itself — the underlying principles that give the work its shape and intention?
In my opinion, you can perform what looks exactly like a Pilates exercise without it actually being Pilates. And conversely, you can be fully, deeply doing Pilates even when the choreography looks nothing like the classical canon. Why? Because once you truly understand the ways and means of this method — the breath, the centering, the precision, the flow — you have the freedom to express any kind of movement in a Pilates way.
The principles are the method. The exercises are simply the vehicle.
Does Pilates make you stronger? Absolutely — but only to a point. And that “point” is worth exploring honestly. With a growing body of research showing that strength training offers a myriad of health benefits — particularly for women, and especially for women in midlife and beyond — we know that lifting heavy loads matters. Pilates alone isn’t going to get you to a bodyweight deadlift. But it will absolutely prepare you for it. It gives you the body awareness, the sound joint mechanics, and the technical precision to approach that heavy lifting safely and effectively.
And beyond the gym, Pilates continues to teach you how to move through the world — with grace, power, and agility, in every circumstance.
That is the beauty of this work. It makes you stronger in every sense of the word: muscularly, skeletally, cardiovascularly, and mentally. But it also restores you. It is your therapy, your recovery, your rehabilitation. It holds both truths at once.
