Pilates-tok?

[treyarch1]

@seekinganswersinlife Not everyone involved will be outright lying. People will tell themselves that they’re seeing the MOST AMAZING THING EVER. They’ll believe the half truths stitched together, and because they don’t really know what they’re talking about on the actual science of hormones, etc. the pseudoscience marketing version of it sounds conceivable and they’re happy to get on board to promote it all.

In general, anything in exercise/nutrition/skincare/supplements that promises to be the one universal fix for everything is a complete crock of shit.

 

[rodneys]

@seekinganswersinlife Let me preface this rant with I love weight lifting AND Pilates

TikTok is a hotbed of health and fitness misinformation and I wish the whole website would be obliterated from the internet.

Weight lifting doesn’t cause your body to hold onto fat nor does it imbalance your hormones. ONLY A DOCTOR CAN DETERMINE IMBALANCED HORMONES. these TikTok influencers are so full of shit. They’re using fear mongering to get engagement and sell you things.

NO ONE is getting their dream physique in weeks. That’s BS. The only difference between Pilates and weightlifting is that with Pilates you were going to go smaller muscle mass. It’s not leaner muscle, because that’s literally not possible. All muscle is lean muscle. You’re going to have less muscle with Pilates only, and therefore less muscle definition. If you aren’t seeing the definition that you want, that means that you need to focus on a calorie deficit to lower your body fat percentage. Nothing will change for you as far as definition goes if you switch to Pilates if you don’t change your nutrition. It is no way superior for aesthetics.

As a general life rule, don’t ever believe anything that you see on TikTok . I never thought anything would surpass Tumblr or Instagram as far as health and fitness misinformation goals, but TikTok is far worse than either of those ever were.

I love Pilates and I think it’s a blast and I would encourage anyone to try it. And if you want to switch to that because you’re enjoying it or it’s good for your body, that’s great. If you want to add it to your routine, that’s also great. But it is in no way, shape, or form better for aesthetics than weightlifting. The muscle definition piece comes primarily down to nutrition.

 

[burgandybaby]

@rodneys I do both and also struggling to get the lean look. But I do have imbalanced hormones so calorie deficit isn’t the only thing not letting me lose weight. Just changed my meds and even more I’m bloated/inflamed this month with my diet being more or less the same (small deficit, protein forward)

I find that they’re not totally wrong but there is SOOOOO much nuance missing. Also see an endocrinologist to confirm your hormones are actually imbalanced.

 

[rodneys]

@burgandybaby Hormonal imbalances can make weight loss hard, but there is NO evidence that weight lifting causes hormonal imbalances. Too much HIIT or too much exercise in general can, but that’s not the same thing.

 

[irishcanadian402]

@rodneys This along with the whole “only walk and do yoga during your luteal phase because hormones” both drive me a little crazy. I wonder how much of all this “hormone balance” stuff is just because so many women are conditioned to eat like a bird and thus chronically underfueling their hard workouts and driving themselves into RED-S.

 

[michelle14]

@irishcanadian402 So I think it is very reasonable advice to listen to your body, take deload weeks regularly, etc. Also if you have bad periods or PMS it could make sense to take a few days of just walking/yoga if you aren’t feeling well, and for some women it helps to feel like they have “permission” from some expert to do that. But then that somehow became, moving your body above walking speed or lifting any substantial weight for half the month, even if you feel fine, is dangerous and going to ruin your health. It feels like the modern version of the old 1800s rules where women can’t run marathons because their uterus might fall out, except in the modern version you’re at least “allowed” to run half the month versus not at all.

 

[dawn16]

@michelle14 It's like no one can accept "rest when you need it", they need a reason why. And then it spirals.

If you feel like poo on your period and want to rest or only do chill exercise, go for it. But there's no reason to try and turn it into some weirdly complex and prescriptive thing.

 

[dawn16]

@rodneys You are so right! It’s the superspreader of fitness misinformation

 

[parentingpod]

@rodneys Mods need to sticky this to the top of the thread.

 

[slavic7]

@parentingpod stickied to the sub imo.

 

[annbrenda]

@rodneys Hi! In response to your "the muscle definition piece comes primarily down to nutrition". I understand body fat etc. However, i feel there is a reason that people who do pilates/dancers look different than people who primarily do weightlifting, or for example, CrossFit. I think that the latter sport is great for power (#s on the rack) and large primary muscle building (i.e. that dumptruck booty). However, i think that pilates/dancing/advanced yoga is very good at building those smaller stability muscles (esp in core and arms/ back), which I BELIEVE leads to aesthetically overall more "toned" looking. I, anecdotally, have noticed a more muscular back (as well as strong- i can do a press handstand now) and abs after a few months of Megaformer pilates.

So! I think there is a basis for this "omg my body after pilates" toks, that is a little contrary to your opinion.

 

[mtrenkner49]

@annbrenda That's false. It pretty much comes down to body fat and genetics

 

[rodneys]

@annbrenda Can you please site the research you are referencing about how Pilates and yoga build smaller stability muscles? I’d be very interested to read it!

As far as my own personal experience, I also noticed I looked more lean/toned/whatever buzzword is used for visible muscle definition after i started doing yoga and was doing it in addition to my lifting and walking. But there have been two times since then that I’ve had to stop lifting for a few months, and that muscle definition always vanished pretty quickly with just yoga and cardio (with no increase in body fat percentage .

Everyone is different, but I think a lot of times people just feel like they are leaner because they aren’t experiencing as much water retention, and more time has allowed for more fat loss. But if you have research that says otherwise I’d be really interested in reading it!

 

[annbrenda]

@rodneys Hi! No research except my own experience, which is why I said a lot of "i think" and "i believe" . If i were to do research, how would you measure "stability muscle" growth/strength? I would think with balancing skills (hand stands, arm balances, one legged balances). And i have found that my balancing skills most develop not from weightlifting, but from body weight exercises (incl. Pilates and yoga...which both often include balancing skills). So that's my thought experiment.

 

[rodneys]

@annbrenda There are plenty of body scans that can measure muscle growth, so I thought maybe you had read a study that had done that and that’s where you were getting this from.

With all due respect, I don’t really think that you can say that what I said was wrong or that you have something contrary to it when you have nothing to back it up? Even if building smaller, stabilizing muscles somehow made everybody look leaner, which I still don’t understand what that even really means, you don’t have any evidence to prove or even suggest that that’s a major factor if a factor at all. It may have been your personal experience, but as I said mine was the complete opposite so you don’t even have consistent anecdotal data to suggest that’s true.

I do think that genetic/bone structure play a big role in how people feel that muscle looks on their body. But the reality is is that there is no leaner kind of muscle that you can build with Pilates versus weightlifting. That just doesn’t exist. It’s definitely true that yoga/Pilates builds a different kind of strength and weightlifting does, but that doesn’t mean that the muscle somehow looks leaner or more toned.

 

[thiena]

@annbrenda Na, that's bullshit. Training the bigger muscles gives you a toned look.

Why do dancers etc have an overall more toned body? Because they fucking dance. It's a high intensity cardio workout. It burns a lot of calories that will lead to them loosing body fat.

In my own experience (I switched from primarily running to primarily weightlifting) this is what makes the difference: when weightlifting in a progressive overload I think I am hungry/hungrier than I really am and I tend to slightly overeat. Not so much as to gain a lot of weight, just enough to gain muscle. When adding cardio to the mix, my hunger actually decreases. I always had to basically force feed myself after a huge cardio session (either running or 2hrs of biking). Not sure why though. My uneducated guess would be that cardio fucks my CNS more than weightlifting 100%+, I'm tired after lifting but not fucking dead like post-cardio, so I still have enough energy to go and eat lol

Also not sure why pilates people are more toned. Maybe they don't have a larger appetite.

 

[anon103]

@annbrenda Why would building stability muscles make you look more toned? Lifting heavy weights is going to build those muscles as well.

 

[seekinganswersinlife]

@rodneys Thanks so much for your reply!

I know all of this stuff really after years of lifting and reading studies and tracking macros etc.

But you see something enough and it makes you start to question your reality or wonder if you’re missing something. And I’m 33 next week so I can’t even imagine how it must be impacting much younger women to see all of this content all the time - I think I might actually just delete the app you know.

 

[draculkain]

@seekinganswersinlife Yeah, as a 25-year-old who has only seriously been into fitness for a couple of years, TikTok/Instagram reels are of the devil. So much misinformation, and so many people touting their regimen, diet, workout, etc. as THE ONLY way to get the physique you want. One video will tell you that you need to start eating more protein to see results, and the next video will say that eating so much protein will kill you. Even though I KNOW what I want and how to get there, these messages still wiggle their way into my mind and I find myself doubting everything in a very unhelpful way.

 

[dawn16]

@draculkain I’ve went down that rabbit hole of misinformation and believing in it (I fell for fat burning pills and 1200 cal diet). What really pulled me out of believing everything was changing who I followed. My favorite quote to go by is from Brianna Jewel who makes amazing fitness critique content- “influencers sell/give you workouts, professionals give you demonstrations”

I’ve become highly critical content and only follow people who don’t post BS. Ignore they’re sponsored supplements and enjoy what they provide online for free. You get to learn something and I don’t have their workout program/merchandise/whatever shoved in my face.