Pilates Fitness Friday: Cardiovascular Training for Pilates Clients

Active older adults power walking with poles through leafy park path.

There is a quiet gap in the Pilates world, and it sits somewhere between beautiful control on the Reformer and the simple act of walking up a hill without losing your breath. We spend hours refining alignment, cueing the centre, improving hip stability and shoulder mechanics, yet many teachers hesitate when the conversation turns to cardiovascular training. It is almost treated as if it belongs to another industry. It does not. If you teach bodies, you teach hearts and lungs as well.

When we talk about cardiovascular fitness, we are really talking about VO2 max. This is the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during exercise. In simple terms, it reflects how efficiently the heart pumps blood, how effectively the lungs transfer oxygen, and how well the muscles use it. A higher VO2 max generally means better endurance, better recovery between efforts, and greater resilience under physical stress. More importantly, strong cardiorespiratory fitness is one of the most powerful predictors of long term health and longevity. It is not cosmetic. It is not athletic vanity. It is survival capacity.

Pilates on its own does not significantly improve VO2 max unless it is programmed at a sustained and challenging intensity. Most traditional matwork and apparatus sessions focus on strength, control, precision, and mobility. These are essential qualities. They support posture, reduce pain, and improve movement efficiency. However, if a client cannot climb stairs without pausing halfway, or feels breathless carrying shopping bags, then something is missing. Cardiovascular capacity underpins everything else. It allows the strength you build in the studio to be expressed in daily life.

Brisk walking is often dismissed because it seems too simple. It is not. When performed at a pace where the client can talk in short sentences but not sing, it becomes an effective moderate intensity stimulus. For many clients, especially those over fifty, brisk walking offers joint friendly loading, accessibility, and consistency. It supports bone health when hills are included, and it builds a cardiovascular base without overwhelming the system. The limitation comes when the pace never progresses. If walking remains comfortable and unchanged, adaptation stalls. Progression might mean increasing speed, adding incline, or extending duration.

Cycling offers another option, particularly for clients with joint sensitivity. It allows clear control over resistance and intensity. Steady cycling at a moderate effort improves aerobic capacity with minimal impact stress. However, posture matters. Poor alignment on a bike can reinforce hip flexor dominance and rounded shoulders. As Pilates teachers, we are well placed to correct this. We understand pelvic positioning, spinal length, and scapular support. Cardiovascular training does not need to be separated from good movement principles.

Interval training deserves attention, although it requires more careful screening. Short bursts of higher intensity work followed by recovery periods have a strong effect on improving VO2 max. This might be as simple as one minute of faster walking followed by two minutes easy, repeated several times. For appropriate clients, this approach is time efficient and powerful.

For deconditioned individuals or those with medical concerns, it needs gradual progression and, where necessary, medical clearance. The goal is not exhaustion. The goal is adaptation.

In practical terms, Pilates clients do not need extreme programmes. If they attend two or three Pilates sessions per week, adding two structured cardiovascular sessions is a realistic starting point. One session might be a steady thirty minute brisk walk or cycle. The second might introduce gentle intervals every other week. Rest days remain important. Mobility work can complement the programme. The key is consistency and clarity about intensity.

Teaching clients to estimate their maximum heart rate using 220 minus age provides a simple framework. Working within defined effort zones removes guesswork and adds purpose.

As Pilates teachers, we speak often about integration. The body is a connected system. The same principle applies to training. Strong glutes, a responsive pelvic floor, and organised scapulae are valuable. Yet without sufficient cardiovascular capacity, those strengths operate within a limited range. The heart is not separate from the method. It is central to it. If we claim to teach functional movement and long term wellbeing, then we must address the engine that powers it.

Cardiovascular training does not dilute the Pilates method. It completes it.