PiYo vs Plyo Workout: What’s the Difference?

While PiYo and Plyo are only one letter apart in their spelling, they really couldn’t be more different when it comes to strength training workouts. When it comes to PiYo vs Plyo, one focuses on lengthening and stretching your muscles while developing a strong core, and the other works on building power and strength for more explosive movements—but, each of these strength training workouts can benefit the other. Want to know which is which? Let’s dive into PiYo vs. Plyo here. 

What is PiYo? 

PiYo is an exercise program that was developed by Beachbody coach, Chalene Johnson. PiYo is an acronym that stands for pilates (Pi) and yoga (Yo). It takes some muscle exercises from each format and then adds its own spin by speeding up the poses to get your heart rate up and adding some movements inspired by dance and martial arts. Classes are between 20 minutes and one-hour long and include total-body conditioning. You will especially feel this muscle workout in your core, because both pilates and yoga focus on building your core to help you hold poses and maintain balance. Unlike yoga and pilates, PiYo can be considered an aerobic workout. It gets your heart rate up and allows you to move through poses that are typically held for long periods of time in a quicker and more fluid way.

Benefits of PiYo

When you take a PiYo class, you will feel your muscles burn, which is fantastic, because that means that you are building up your muscles! You will do single leg yoga poses, pilates exercises, push-ups, squats, lunges, and more, which help to keep your workout dynamic. You will also only need your body weight (and maybe a mat) for this workout. Bodyweight workouts are perfect for travel, and even those days when you do not feel like going to the gym. Since PiYo includes some yoga poses, your flexibility should improve, which will help you to become a better athlete overall. Since this fitness program also hyper-focuses on core strength, you can also expect better posture and stability overall.

What is Plyo?

Plyo training , on the other hand, is short for plyometrics. These exercises are defined as “Any exercise in which muscles are repeatedly and rapidly stretched (“loaded”) and then contracted.” These plyo move exercises typically include jumps and can even be called “jump training” in some cases. Though plyometric movement will consist of a lot of jumps, plyometric workouts give you more power for any exercise. Plyometrics is especially helpful for sprinters or long-jumpers who need to be quick and have “explosive” power in their movements. Plyometric drills include lateral jump squats, burpees, lunges, jumping jacks, and the like.

Benefits of Plyo

Since plyo workouts are comprised of high-impact movements (as compared to PiYo and it’s low-impact workouts), you will gain more speed and power during your workouts by including them in your routine. You will also be burning calories far after your plyometric workout. That’s right, after a difficult workout routine, you have to use more oxygen to cool your body back down. In doing so, your metabolism has to work overtime. This “afterburn” effect can help you burn up to 15% more calories. HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) is the best for this sort of benefit. And, a HIIT workout is usually comprised of plyometric moves.. So, if you are completing plyometric moves, you should be enjoying more calorie burn overall. These plyo training workouts—similarly to PiYo—are also usually comprised of bodyweight. So, they really are a fantastic go-with-you-anywhere option.

Form Over Speed

Whether you are working on PiYo or plyo workouts, you will need to focus on proper form. That is why we recommend trying these workouts in a group exercise setting. Our group exercise classes and Team Training sessions have experienced instructors who are there to coach you through your plyometric drills and help you to complete your lower body exercises with proper form. This is important for any exercise, but especially a HIIT workout (High Impact Interval Training), where you will often find plyometric movements. Because of the high impact on your body, your posture could be the difference between having a great plyo move workout and getting injured. The same is true for PiYo as well. By joining in on a PiYo class, you  as an athlete have a better chance of learning how to properly engage your core, align your posture, and avoid injury.

If you would like to join in on a PiYo class or try out a plyometrics workout, come by any Chuze Fitness location and check it out! Our team will be able to show you the class schedule and show you around the gym. We can’t wait to get to know you.