Your Pilates, Yoga, or Barre Class Is NOT Strength Training | Ep 455

You've been showing up to Pilates, yoga, or barre for months, maybe years, and your body composition hasn't changed. You're not getting stronger.

And if you're over 40, the muscle and bone you need most may be slipping away while you work hard at the wrong thing.

Building muscle and maintaining bone density after 40 requires two specific things from your training: mechanical tension and proximity to failure. Pilates, yoga, and barre are not designed to deliver either one. 

Philip covers why these modalities plateau fast, what the research found when scientists actually measured muscle growth from Pilates with MRI, and a 10-second audit you can run on any workout to know if it qualifies as strength training.

Join Eat More Lift Heavy, a 26-week coached program that pairs nutrition strategy with a coach-assigned strength training program from Day 1, so you stop guessing and start building the muscle and bone density that matter most after 40: eatmoreliftheavy.com

Timestamps

0:00 - Why your Pilates class is not strength training
3:00 - What every modality gets right at first
4:45 - Two requirements for muscle growth
6:30 - Proximity to failure in group fitness classes
7:30 - The limits of a Pilates reformer spring
9:00 - Progressive overload and the repeated bout effect
11:00 - How Pilates, yoga, and barre plateau quickly
13:15 - Volume-hypertrophy data and diminishing returns
14:55 - Getting started with progressive resistance training
16:30 - Sarcopenia risk from perimenopause to menopause
18:30 - Bone density, the LIFTMOR trial, and lifting heavy
21:06 - Do THIS to build strength and muscle over 40
24:30 - Bonus: 3-question strength training audit

💪 Join Eat More Lift Heavy - A 6-month coaching program for lifters over 40 who are done collecting information and ready to have real human coaches watch their data and know what to focus on each week.

📱 Get Fitness Lab (exclusive 20% off) - The #1 adaptive fitness and nutrition app. Daily coaching, workouts, and biofeedback-based guidance to help you build muscle and lose fat over 40.

👥 Join our Facebook community -  For adults over 40 who want to build muscle, lose fat, and stop following bad advice. Weekly Q&A threads, coaching insights, and real chat with other lifters.

👋 Ask a question or find Philip Pape on Instagram