Many women have heard of the workouts Yoga and Pilates. I'm sure most of you know yoga from seeing the super flexible women stretching away on TV or in magazines.

But what is Pilates? And what is the difference between the Yoga and Pilates?

Get Flexible With Yoga

According to Wikipedia, Yoga (/ˈjoʊɡə/; Sanskrit: योग, Listen) is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice or discipline, that aims to transform body and mind.  Its origin is unknown but many people think the practice of yoga was based in Hinduism.  Yoga can help you increase flexibility, decrease and as a result can also cause you to burn a ton of calories holding those poses.

If you are looking for a low impact routine to recover from an injury or because of pre-existing injury yoga is a great choice.  It is also great as a "go to" workout to help you de-stress after a hard day at work or to relieve stress if the children were extremely terrible that day.

Yoga's main purpose is to increase flexibility and spinal alignment by the use of intense stretching and holding.

Tone Up With Pilates

Joseph Pilates created Pilates.  It is the art of controlled movements, which should look and feel like a workout. If practiced with consistency, Pilates improves flexibility, builds strength, and develops control and endurance in the whole human body.  It puts emphasis on alignment, breathing, and developing a strong powerhouse, and improving coordination and balance.  This definition by Wikipedia also makes it sound a lot like Yoga now doesn't it?

Just Breath

It's really interesting that Yoga and Pilates are a lot alike. Both focus on doing each move correctly instead of how many times you can do it.  Both also focus on breathing and controlling your breath.  With yoga the breath is controlled and slowed to achieve maximum spinal elongation and flexibility.  However, with Pilates the breath is used quickly to create tone and better posture.

Yoga And Pilates? Which Will Get Me Toned?

If you are looking to tone up both workouts will help you with that.  But, Pilates is known for building lean muscle and core strength through their exercises.  Pilates also uses stability balls to increase strength and flexibility where Yoga concentrates only on stretching by the use of a mat if you want to use it.

If you are looking to achieve a toned tummy Pilates is the program you will want to use. Of course with any workout program you are also going to have to focus on your diet to get the results you will want.

Why Not Have Both Yoga And Pilates In One Program?

You can always do a hybrid of both programs to get the best of both workouts. However, if you aren’t looking to spend money on two programs, Chalean Johnson has created a new home workout program that will give you both Pilates and Yoga in ...