Is Pilates enough after 40? An honest answer

Here’s the short answer: Pilates is genuinely good for you. It can help build strength, control, balance, mobility and body awareness, and there are so many things I love about it.

But as we move through our 40s, 50s and beyond, it’s also important that our muscles and bones are challenged progressively. Depending on the type of Pilates you’re doing and how it’s programmed, Pilates alone may not always provide enough progressive resistance to support all of your strength and bone health needs.

That doesn’t mean you have to choose one or the other. For most women, Pilates and strength training can work really well together.

I’m qualified in Matwork Pilates, so this definitely isn’t me talking Pilates down. I love it, and I bring elements of it into my own training and coaching. It’s simply about understanding what Pilates can offer, what strength training can offer, and how the two can complement each other.

What Pilates is genuinely brilliant at

Pilates has so many benefits, and there are good reasons why so many women enjoy it and feel better for doing it.

• Control and coordination: Pilates encourages you to move with intention and control, helping you become more aware of how your body moves.
• Core strength and stability: Pilates includes plenty of work for the muscles around your trunk, hips and pelvis, which can help support strength, stability and everyday movement.
• Mobility: Pilates takes your body through a variety of movements and ranges of motion, which can help you maintain mobility and feel more comfortable moving.
• Balance and body awareness: Pilates can challenge your balance, coordination and awareness of where your body is in space, all things that continue to matter as we age.
• Low-impact movement: Pilates gives you a way to challenge your body without high-impact exercise, and exercises can often be adapted to suit different bodies and abilities.

If you’ve been doing Pilates for years and you love it, keep doing it. You don’t need to give up something that makes your body feel good. Strength training can simply be another piece of the puzzle.

So where does strength training come in?

This is where progressive resistance becomes important.

Our bodies adapt to what we ask them to do. To continue building strength, we gradually need to increase the challenge over time. That might mean increasing the resistance or weight, changing the exercise, or progressing the way a movement is performed.

Pilates can absolutely challenge your muscles, and it can be progressed in different ways. But depending on the type of Pilates you’re doing and how it’s programmed, it may not provide enough progressive resistance on its own to support all of your muscle strength and bone health needs as you age.

That’s where strength training can complement it.

Maintaining and building muscle becomes increasingly important through our 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. Our bones also respond to appropriate loading, which is another reason resistance training becomes such a valuable part of looking after our bodies as we age.

There’s some encouraging research here too. The Australian LIFTMOR trial from Griffith University looked at postmenopausal women with low bone mass, with an average age of around 65. After eight months of supervised high-intensity resistance and impact training twice a week, the women in the training group improved measures of bone density, strength and physical function compared with the control group.

That doesn’t mean everyone needs to start lifting heavy weights. It shows us that getting older doesn’t mean we have to stop challenging our bodies. We simply need to start where we are and build progressively.

Is Pilates a waste of time after 40, then?

Not at all. If you enjoy Pilates and it helps you feel good in your body, there’s absolutely no reason to stop.

The question isn’t whether Pilates is good for you. It’s whether it gives your body everything it needs as you move through your 40s, 50s and beyond. For many women, adding progressive strength training alongside Pilates can help support muscle strength and bone health while still keeping all the things they love about their Pilates practice.

And I think this part really matters: if Pilates is something you genuinely enjoy and turn up to every week, that consistency is incredibly valuable.

The best kind of movement is the kind that works for you and your life. We can build around what you already enjoy rather than taking it away.

What “enough” actually depends on

Enough for what? That’s really the question underneath the question.

If you enjoy Pilates because it helps you move more comfortably, feel more connected to your body and maintain your mobility, it may already be giving you a lot of what you’re looking for.

But if your goals also include building strength, supporting your bone health and staying strong for the things you want to keep doing as you age, carrying your shopping, getting up from the floor, travelling, gardening or keeping up with the people you love, then adding progressive resistance training can be really valuable.

It’s not about Pilates being “enough” or “not enough.” It’s about what you want your body to be able to do, and choosing the types of movement that support that.

How I’d combine the two

There isn’t one perfect combination of Pilates and strength training that works for everyone. It depends on your goals, what you enjoy, how often you can realistically train and what else you’re doing during your week.

If you love Pilates, keep it in. Then look at where strength training could fit alongside it. For many women, two strength sessions a week can be a great place to start, with Pilates, yoga, walking or other movement fitting around that in a way that works for their life.

And if strength training is the part that feels intimidating, you’re definitely not alone. You don’t need to know how to use all the equipment or feel confident in a gym before you start. That confidence can build over time.

And one more thing: starting strength training doesn’t mean starting heavy.

We start where your body is today, find the right level of resistance for you and gradually build from there. As you become stronger and more confident, we can increase the challenge.

Strength isn’t something you need to prove. It’s something we progressively build.

If you’d like to explore a little more, I’ve put together a few guides that might help. If you’re unsure about adding weights, you can read more about starting strength training in your 50s. If mobility, posture and stiffness are more on your mind, there’s a guide for that too. And if you’re navigating perimenopause, menopause or beyond, my complete menopause guide looks at the bigger picture.