If you don’t sweat during a Pilates class, is it working?
Sweat is simply your body’s way of regulating your temperature.
Many people think sweat is the only gauge of exercise intensity, but it’s more about how much you contracted and released your muscles because that’s how the muscle gets stronger.
Sweat isn’t even an indicator of calorie burning. The amount you sweat is extremely individual. It’s not a reflection of how hard you’re working out. People often think, "oh, I sweated so much at the gym earlier, I must have burnt a lot of calories", but it’s more an indication of having been very warm. Sweat is your body’s natural cooling system…not an indicator of the intensity of the exercise.
If you’re reading this and you're new to Pilates and you’re sweating…that’s normal. Sweating during a brand new workout, even if it’s low-intensity, is normal because your nervous system is amped up and you don’t have any muscle memory for these new Pilates moves you're learning. The more proficient you become at Pilates, you may find that you’re sweating less, even though you’re able to push yourself harder. As you become stronger, your body becomes more efficient, and the more efficient it is, the less you may sweat. But, if you're NOT new and you're thinking "I perspire every class, so I must be out of shape", this is totally normal as well. You can take Beginner classes for years three times a week and sweat every class because your heart rate rises. This may be because you know how to engage your muscles properly and you’re moving with great control of your body. Many people that have been doing Pilates for 10+ years only take Beginner classes because they like to fine tune every single Beginner exercise with absolute precision…can you imagine how hard your brain and muscles are working? Heck yeah, your heart rate is increasing and you may sweat!
What is a great marker for working out is your resting heart rate. When you workout your heart rate increases…the sooner it returns to your resting heart rate, the greater your fitness level is.
(One caveat to this sweating thing is that some people just have higher internal temperature all the time and do sweat easily).
Workouts like Pilates— which improve strength and mobility without necessarily getting your pulse up — offer lots of health benefits. Flexibility and mobility are so important, especially as we get older. As you know, if you lose mobility in your joints, especially in your hips and low back, every day movements can become very difficult. Incorporating Pilates reformer exercises is a good idea to protect bone density, keep flexibility and build strength. Yes, getting your heart rate up is important, but it doesn’t have to be a really intense cardio session — even walking or gardening can count. You don’t need to break a sweat.
Case in point to all this madness about Pilates not making you sweat and being “not hard enough”…one of the latest fads are Hot Pilates classes. Guess how this came about? Some folks didn’t see Pilates as a “hard” enough workout, so some genius studio owner decided to crank up her thermostats and voila! Students started to drip all over the place and all of a sudden Pilates became a “killer” workout. Oh really? Hmmm…..
Want to pour sweat and slip and slide all over a reformer at The Pilates Place? Try a private session with the heat blasting at 80. ;-)