Doing pilates is an excellent way to burn calories.
Move it and Lose It?
Pilates is a form of exercise that has been around for years and is centered around the activation of the musculature of the core. It is one of the most popular exercise forms in society today. The exercises used in Pilates isolate groups of muscles effectively, with a degree of intensity to match.
Chop and Burn
While performing Pilates, the body makes small, controlled movements of the arms, legs and trunk while the core is engaged. This includes drawing circles in the air, making up and down motions and back and forth motions from side to side. This has a tendency to get the heart rate to rise. Any time the heart rate goes up, so does caloric expenditure.
Active Recovery
Often, it is better to perform Pilates routines in between sets of a conventional weight training program. This adds to the overall caloric expenditure of the workout. Not only because of the Pilates maneuvers but also because the heart rate is already up, which further increases calorie expenditure.
The Bigger They Are, the Harder they Fall
A big factor that is involved with calorie expenditure is one's size. Automatically, the bigger a person is the more calories they burn. This goes for when they are exercising or when they are at rest. The amount of calories someone burns while at rest is called the resting metabolic rate. The average amount of calories burned during Pilates is very dependent on the weight of the individual.
The Law of Averages
There are also different levels of Pilates that cause different caloric expenditures. These are beginner, intermediate and advanced. The important thing to remember is the different caloric expenditures from different sized people.
The following example is based on an average 165-lb. person. During an advanced workout, they can expect to burn 480 calories per hour. During an intermediate workout, they can expect to burn 390 calories per hour. During a beginner workout, they can expect to burn 270 calories per hour. This all equates to about 8, 6.5 and 4.5 calories per minute respectively.
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