Lachlan’s Pilates Journey

Lachlan entered Swell as a 'gym guy', and quickly became a convert to Pilates! Read on to hear about the changes he’s noticed in his body over the past 5 months…

“Prior to working at Swell, I had basically no experience in Pilates. Over the past 5 months I have been attending pilates 3-4 times a week, and within the first month I started to feel some differences in not only my gym training, but also my day to day life. The biggest difference has been the strength gained in my core.

I have always been active and trained on a regular basis, maintaining a high level of strength to meet the demands of my sport. In Pilates I immediately realised that my level of fitness did not include various muscles, especially in my core and hips. For example, being able to squat 115kg in the gym is great for recruiting big muscles in the legs, but I was still shaking with simple reformer exercises such as feet in straps! Much to the amusement of others in the class!

Further to this, Pilates has complimented my strength in dumbbell rows, deadlifts and cable pull down. Pilates has introduced me to exercises that require a strong awareness of my abdominal muscles. This awareness has allowed me to improve on creating a stiff core ‘bracing’ for exercises that require this. Prior to Pilates, I was in a plateau of training, now I have been able to achieve an increase of up to 15kg on almost all of my exercises/lifts. 

Pilates has not just benefited me in the gym. In the time that I have been performing pilates I have seen a noticeable difference in my day to day life. I feel like I can move more efficiently, and through greater ranges. 

For example, I no longer feel stiff when cooking in the kitchen, reaching up into high cupboards, and down into low drawers. I’ve found improvements in my spinal flexibility, which is allowing me to reach further for things while sitting and standing, like reaching into the back seat of my car.

Pilates and traditional gym strengthening are very complimentary. I’ve found incredible improvements in my day to day and my gym strength from adding Pilates into my routine. We also find that Pilates clients who add in some extra weight training start to improve in their Pilates or physio rehab much faster. 

So, if you’re a gym person, maybe you should give Pilates a try; and if you love the reformer, maybe throw in a few dumbbell exercises each week!”