Galen Schneider

December 4, 2014
Somatic Theories
Comparison of Pilates and Yoga
Both Yoga and Pilates embody within their practices the linking of body
and mind, at no point are these two to be separate in practice. Both
practices value creating a harmonious body and believe in order to achieve
this that one must condition body and mind. However these two paths were
severely different, although the two are often coupled together, the practices
are both very unique and offer different results if practiced often.
Pre-Vedic yoga started roughly 5,000 years ago and was considered a
way of life; practitioners would devote themselves to a spiritual and mental
practice. It wasnt until 2000 B.C. however that anything was recorded for
teaching, this was put into the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda is one of the four
religious texts in Hinduism it contains hymns, mentionings of gods, and
parable like verses. Then around 600 B.C. yoga went into its classical phase,
during this time Patanjali wrote the 195 sutras which was adopted as a
manual of aphorisms for Hinduism. In Patanjalis Yoga Sutra Patanjali laid
out the path for how to live a purposeful life which he called ashtanga or
eight limbs or what we commonly call today the eightfold path. These
eight limbs act as eight steps for guiding people to a meaningful life. It
advocates for moral and ethical decision making as well as practicing self-

discipline in the hopes that it will bring you to be more centered with the
spiritual. Then in 2nd C.E. post classical yoga came about with the
development of hatha yoga or asanas the yoga of postures. Then starting
from 1893 to the present we have what is called modern yoga, where yoga
becomes westernized and popularized, especially by America, and you get
fast food yoga which is yoga that pops up and has no basis within the
history and often doesnt connect the spiritual or mental to the practice.
Pilates had a much different start. Joseph Pilates was born in 1883 in a
small village near Dusseldorf, Germany to a prize winning gymnast father
and mother who believed in healing the body naturally. Pilates was a sickly
child growing up and was determined that he would overcome his illness. To
do so he began teaching himself anatomy, wrestling, gymnastics, yoga,
bodybuilding, and martial arts and by the age of fourteen he had become
healthy and was modeling for anatomy charts and was an accomplished
athlete. Pilates had overcome his affliction but now he was obsessed with the
idea of health and body. Even when he was detained in England during World
War I he would get his cell mates to exercise within the cell to remain
healthy. He even developed an early version his Pilates machines using
springs from the beds in order to be able to resistant train. In 1945 he cowrote Return to Life Through Contrology a guide if you will to Pilates in
which he states his six principals for Pilates. More recently there have been
three contemporary principals that have been added to the six.

It is interesting that if you look at both practices both have set

principals for optimizing life, where they say if you follow these rules you will
be content in both body and mind. In yoga you have the eight limbs the first
and second of which are moral precepts that help direct you towards wise
characteristics and codes for living soulfully. These could be seen as similar
laws to the Ten Commandments, or rules for how to live ethically correct.
The next three through eight dealt with: physical posture, breath control,
sense withdrawal, focus/concentration, meditation, and enlightenment. This
is very interesting because when you look at Pilates principals they line up
very closely with that of Patanjali. Pilates believed that if you could master
Breath, Concentration, Center, Control, Precision, and Fluidity in Pilates then
you would gain happiness. These principals lining up closely could be due to
the fact that Pilates gained much inspiration from yoga and after practicing it
in his youth found real comfort in the practice and used some of its principals
dealing with the union of body and mind to help form his own ideas about his
own practice. The one real difference is the addition of the spiritual in yoga.
The movement within the practice is varied from one another, each
being used and sought out for different purposes. Yoga is used more for
flexibility and lengthening and the practice is usually done in a calm and
quiet atmosphere. Within yoga a lot of static poses are held while the
practitioner explorers their breathing, physical feelings, and emotions. Where
as in a traditional Pilates class youll have lively music playing, machines
which you transition from the floor to, and an overall active atmosphere. The

movement is designed to tone the body and is heavily focused on

strengthening the core and lengthening the spine.
Though these two practices on the outside strive for different
outcomes; one wishes to tone you while the other wishes to lengthen you,
when you go to the core values you can see that these practices are
fundamentally similar. Both are looking for ways to bring about happiness in
life and even want to go about it in the same way. By taking time to
understand how your body aligns, how you breathe, how to take care of
yourself, and these truly simple things that are being suggested to us we are
told this will lead to a happier life. So often in life though we forget whats
important and lose sight of our principals and sometimes just forget how to
breathe. Its always important to take time for yourself whether it be Pilates,
Yoga, or whatever your fancy to just take a break and listen to your body.