How many classes should I be doing a week to achieve my goals?

We regularly get asked by new clients “How many classes should I do per week?” or “How quickly will I see results?” The answer to this is often the same. It all depends on what your goal is.

Of course, it’s not all just about exercise – healthy nutrition is also a very important factor – with 80% of your success dependent on nutrition and 20% dependent on the physical exercise that you do. At Yvonne-Marie Pilates, we have helped numerous clients achieve their goals by defining a healthy eating plan for them, combined with an achievable exercise programme – and the results have been amazing.

Below is a helpful guide to give you an indication of the amount of exercise you should be doing to achieve your goals.

• Get a long, lean body, improve muscle tone and/or reduce back pain

If you were thinking one Pilates session a week will do it, we’re sorry… to get these results, you will need to do a minimum of 3 sessions a week – either group classes or private sessions or a combination of both.

Like with all things, repetition, repetition, and repetition is the key to success. Train your body so that it works, even when it’s resting.

• Losing fat, increasing cardio fitness/endurance and building muscle

When your goal is to lose fat, you’ll need a greater amount and a greater intensity of exercise. This means at least 4 times a week… yes, unfortunately, it’s true!

HIIT sessions (exercising at nearly maximum heart rates for short intervals, varied with active recovery), are a really effective way of burning fat, developing muscle and improving fitness. BootyBarre is a great form of exercise to help burn fat while developing muscles – and best of all – it’s fun! Combine BootyBarre with a moderate intensity Pilates class and you’ll quickly be on your way to seeing great results.

• Quality is more important than quality

Ensuring that you’re training at the right level of your ability will increase the efficiency of your sessions. Adding a private session will improve technique, and in the long run, the quality of your session.

• Take care not to over train and burn out

If you want to go hard, we won’t stop you, however, make sure you get enough time to recover, by stretching, focussing on your breath and incorporating similar muscle groups to those that you’ve already exercised.

Whichever of the above is your goal, just always remember that nutrition is key. The right nutrition, along with enough sleep at night time are both key factors to your success.