Strength Training in Pilates: How to Combine Both Without Overdoing It

Pilates and strength training are often talked about like they are competing methods, but in reality, they can work beautifully together. If your goal is to feel strong, stable, mobile, and maybe a little bit superhuman, combining the two can be one of the smartest ways to train.

Pilates helps improve control, alignment, core strength, mobility, posture, and body awareness. Strength training helps build muscle, increase overall strength, support bone health, and improve how your body handles load in everyday life.

The key is not choosing one over the other. The key is learning how to combine them intentionally.

Pilates Is Strength-Based, But It Is Not Always Enough on Its Own

Pilates absolutely challenges strength, especially through controlled movement, stability work, and deep core engagement. It can help improve muscular endurance, posture, balance, flexibility, and overall body awareness. Research also supports Pilates as a method that can improve strength, endurance, flexibility, posture, and balance.

That said, traditional strength training has a different purpose. It usually involves progressively increasing resistance over time through weights, machines, bands, or bodyweight exercises. This is called progressive overload, and it is what helps the body continue adapting, building strength, and developing muscle.

So while Pilates can make you stronger, pairing it with strength training can create a more complete routine.

Why Strength Training Matters Alongside Pilates

Strength training supports the body in ways that directly complement Pilates. It helps improve muscular strength, joint support, bone density, and overall physical capacity.

For Pilates practitioners, this matters because stronger muscles can support better control, better endurance, and more confidence in movement. When the body is stronger under load, Pilates exercises often feel more stable and accessible.

Strength training can also help fill gaps that Pilates may not always address, especially if your Pilates practice is lower resistance, mat-based, or focused mostly on mobility and control.

How to Combine Pilates and Strength Training Properly

The biggest mistake people make is trying to do everything at full intensity all the time. Pilates and strength training both require recovery, especially when you are working the same muscle groups.

A balanced weekly routine might look like this:

Option 1: Balanced Schedule
Two strength training days, two Pilates days, and one active recovery day.

Option 2: Pilates-Focused Schedule
Three Pilates days, two strength training days, and one full rest day.

Option 3: Strength-Focused Schedule
Three strength training days, two Pilates days, and one mobility or recovery day.

There is no perfect schedule. The best routine depends on your goals, your current fitness level, and what you will actually stick to.

A good rule of thumb: strength training should be used to build capacity, while Pilates can be used to build control, stability, mobility, and endurance. Some days Pilates may feel like active recovery. Other days, especially in a more intense reformer or mat class, it may absolutely feel like a workout. That is why paying attention to intensity matters.

Using Pilates as Strength Training: From Class to Workout

Pilates can also be approached as strength training when it is programmed with intention.

There is a difference between simply moving through a class and building a workout with a specific goal. A class may focus on flow, variety, mobility, or full-body movement. A workout is usually more targeted. It has structure, progression, and a clear training purpose.

To make Pilates more strength-focused, I use many of the same principles found in traditional strength training with my clients. This might look like increasing resistance, slowing down the tempo, adding pauses or holds, repeating specific movement patterns, or focusing on one muscle group with more intention.

For example, instead of doing glute work as a quick part of class, you could build a lower-body Pilates workout that focuses on hip extension, glute bridges, side-lying work, lunges, and controlled pulses. You are still using Pilates principles, but you are applying them in a more strength-based way.

This is where Pilates and bodybuilding techniques can overlap. Things like time under tension, progressive overload, mind-muscle connection, and strategic exercise order can all make Pilates more challenging and more effective for building strength.

How I Use This With My Clients

What I’ve seen work best with clients is treating Pilates with the same intention you would bring to a strength training program. Instead of just moving through exercises like we would in a traditional Pilates class, we look at the client’s goal first and then build the program around that goal, using the reformer as a tool for a more targeted workout.

Once the goal is clear, the workout becomes much more effective. Each session has a purpose and supports the long-term goal we are working toward.

For example, I had one client who wanted to build more lower-body strength and specifically focus on her glutes. Instead of creating a general full-body flow, I built her program around lower-body strength patterns: squats, hinges, lunges, hip extension, abduction, and adduction. From there, we would pick two to three patterns to focus on each session. Sessions might include three to five sets of each exercise, using rep ranges of 8 to 15 reps and placing extra emphasis on glute-focused work.

Another client loves focusing on building his back and biceps, so in his sessions we often use circuit-style programming with rows and pull-ups, gradually adding springs each set to increase resistance. We also use modified movements that mimic exercises like preacher curls to target the biceps more directly, sometimes working close to fatigue with drop-set style work.

This is where Pilates and traditional strength training principles can overlap in a really effective way. Time under tension, progressive overload, mind-muscle connection, strategic exercise order, and training close to fatigue can all make Pilates more challenging and more strength-focused.

Not every session has to be in a workout format, though. Often, a great place to start is by teaching a Pilates class and then pausing when we get to an area the client wants to focus on. From there, we can spend more time on that muscle group, repeat the exercises for multiple sets, and then return to the class format. This keeps the Pilates method intact while still allowing the session to support a specific strength goal.

The Bottom Line

Pilates and strength training do not have to compete. Together, they can create a strong, mobile, balanced, and resilient body.

Pilates teaches control. Strength training builds capacity. When practiced together with intention, they support each other beautifully.

The goal is not to do more just for the sake of doing more. The goal is to train smarter, recover well, and build a body that feels strong both in the studio and in everyday life.

All ideas and assertions expressed in The CORE are those of the individual contributors, offered to spark conversation, enrich understanding/inspire growth and share diverse perspectives within our community. They may not necessarily reflect the views of Balanced Body®.