Does Pilates Count as Strength Training?

Before we answer the big question, it helps to get clear on what strength training really means. At its core, strength training is any exercise that challenges your muscles against resistance, forcing them to work harder than they normally would. That resistance can come from weights, machines, bodyweight, or, yes, resistance bands.

The key word is progressive overload. Over time, you want to be making things harder for your muscles, whether that is adding weight, increasing reps, slowing down the tempo, or reducing rest time. That is what drives muscle growth (hypertrophy) and genuine strength gains.

So Does Pilates Count?

Here is the honest answer: it depends on how you are doing it.

Traditional mat Pilates, the kind you might find in a beginner class, is brilliant for building body awareness, improving posture, developing core stability, and increasing mobility. Those are all genuinely valuable things, especially if you are newer to training or recovering from an injury. But at a certain point, if the moves are not challenging enough to cause real muscular fatigue, you are not going to see significant strength gains.

However, when you add resistance, things get a lot more interesting.

Resistance Bands Change Everything

This is where I get genuinely excited, because incorporating resistance bands into your Pilates practice takes it from a mobility and stability workout into something that absolutely can build strength.

Resistance bands add progressive, variable resistance to Pilates movements. Think about a classic Pilates leg press or a standing glute kickback with a band looped around your ankles. Your muscles are now working against meaningful resistance through the full range of motion, and you can increase the challenge simply by choosing a heavier band. That is progressive overload in action.

Our resistance bands are a perfect match for Pilates style training because they are smooth, consistent, and versatile enough to target everything from your glutes and hamstrings to your shoulders, back, and core. You can use them lying down, seated, standing, or kneeling, which fits perfectly with the floor based nature of Pilates.

Here are some of the best Pilates movements to supercharge with resistance bands:

•       Clamshells and lateral leg raises for hip abductors and glutes

•       Seated rows for upper back and postural muscles

•       Standing kickbacks for hamstrings and glutes

•       Chest press or chest fly from a mat for pushing strength

•       Pallof press variations for rotational core strength

What About Other Gravity Fitness Equipment?

If you want to take your Pilates inspired strength training further, there are a few other bits of kit that pair really well with this style of training.

Parallettes are another brilliant addition. Pilates places a huge emphasis on pressing from the floor, L-sit holds, and planche progressions, and parallettes allow you to do all of that with proper wrist alignment and full range of motion. If you want to develop serious pressing strength while keeping that controlled, body-aware approach that makes Pilates so effective, parallettes belong in your setup.

If you train at home, a gymnastics mat is worth mentioning too. The comfort and grip you get from a proper mat makes a real difference when you are spending time on the floor working through slow, controlled Pilates sequences.

Pilates vs Traditional Strength Training: Do You Have to Choose?

Not at all, and honestly I would encourage you not to think of them as separate worlds. The calisthenics community, of all people, understands that body control, mobility, and raw strength are not opposing forces. They amplify each other.

Pilates develops the deep stabiliser muscles, the intrinsic core, the postural muscles, and the body awareness that makes every other form of training better. Add resistance through bands or bodyweight progressions, and you have a training style that builds functional strength, reduces injury risk, and keeps your joints healthy for the long term.

The people who get the most out of calisthenics training are usually the ones with excellent body awareness and joint stability. Pilates builds exactly those qualities.

How to Make Your Pilates Sessions Count for Strength

If your goal is genuine strength development from your Pilates practice, here are a few things to focus on:

•       Add resistance where you can, even light resistance bands make a difference to muscle activation

•       Slow down your reps and focus on the eccentric (lowering) phase, this is where a lot of the strength stimulus comes from

•       Work to real muscular fatigue, if the last few reps are not genuinely hard, progress the resistance

•       Be consistent, strength adaptations happen over weeks and months, not sessions

•       Track your progress so you know when it is time to increase the challenge

The Bottom Line

Pilates absolutely can count as strength training, especially when you are using resistance bands and progressing the challenge over time. On its own, beginner mat Pilates sits more in the mobility and stability category. But push it with resistance, intention, and progressive overload, and you have a genuinely effective strength practice that also makes you more athletic, more resilient, and more aware of how your body moves.

That is a combination most training methods cannot claim. So no, you do not have to choose between feeling good and getting strong. With the right approach and the right kit, Pilates gives you both.

If you want to start adding resistance to your Pilates work, check out our resistance bands. They are one of the most versatile and underrated pieces of kit we stock, and once you start using them you will wonder how you ever trained without them.