What Does PiYo Do for Your Body?

PiYo is a dynamic fitness program comprised of mostly pilates (Pi) and yoga (Yo) movements. While the name of this workout may be new to some of you, the benefits certainly are not! So, if you are questioning what does PiYo do for your body? We will answer that for you here.

Tone and Define Your Full Body

PiYo is formatted to hit all of your major muscle groups in one class. Each class will begin with a warm-up and then move through the rest of your body: lower, upper, core, etc. With the pilates and yoga exercises sped up to create an aerobic-style workout, you will get the benefit of elongating and strengthening your muscles, allowing them to tone up without bulking.

Improves Overall Flexibility

Pilates and yoga both focus heavily on flexibility and is a relatively low-impact workout. By combining them and adding in other dynamic movements to the workout, you will enhance the flexibility in your entire body. Not flexible? No problem! That’s what these classes are here for. Our instructors will be by your side, helping you to properly fold into the movements, and even pushing you beyond your current abilities to help you become more flexible overall. When it comes to flexibility, practice makes pliable.

Improves Your Posture

In this day and age, slouching has become “the norm.” A lot of us sit at a computer all day, leaving our hip flexors stiff and shoulders hunched forward. Then, when we get home, we sit down and check our smart devices to catch up with friends, watch videos, or read the news. This all leads to poor postural habits. Yoga and pilates are both fantastic tools to help you improve your posture, but when linked together in a PiYo class you get the benefits from both workouts wrapped into one. The pilates movements will help you to build the muscles wrapped around your core, while the yoga poses help to counteract the slouching and open up your hips to provide better posture overall. 

Improves Balance and Stability

Balance is important for the things we do every single day, like walking up the stairs, standing up straight, successfully getting out of a resting position, and so much more. And—while you may not realize it yet—balance is something we can lose as we age. The American Heart Association recommends three or more days a week of balance training. Since a PiYo workout tends to focus on strengthening the core and working on balance, it is a perfect workout to add to your balance training routine. By strengthening your core muscles, you will be more likely to catch yourself when you start to stumble, and the added bonus of practicing balance within this routine will help you to know how to engage those muscles when the time comes. With falls being the leading cause of death and injury among the elderly, this is something to prepare for as you age. 

Burn More Calories

Depending on the class you join in on, and the workouts you complete, you can burn anywhere from about 200 to 400+ calories in a PiYo exercise class. That’s equivalent to running at 5 mph for 45 minutes for many of us. With the dynamic movements, and low-impact nature, not only will you be able to do this workout more often than other high-impact alternatives, but the class will be anything but boring!

Build Confidence

When we build muscle and start to feel the positive changes we experience from a workout, we start to feel more confident—and confidence is something we all need a little dose of. For some of us, when we think of our bodies we think of what we cannot do. But, by practicing a workout—like PiYo—consistently, you can track those can’ts as they turn into cans. You may be able to fold further into a yoga pose or hold yourself into a plank for longer than you ever thought you could. That will help you to build confidence knowing that, when we say we cannot, we are usually wrong—and you will start to want to prove even more to yourself through practice and consistency.

Where To Take PiYo Classes?

You can take PiYo classes online or in-person and all fitness levels are welcome. We recommend taking a class in-person so that a trained instructor can help to guide you through your workout and correct your form. Your instructor will also be able to make small micro-adjustments to help you target specific muscles and take your workout to the next level, or give you alternatives for any exercise that doesn’t feel right for you. You can take PiYo at some of our Chuze Fitness locations. Check out the class schedule at a location near you to see when you can join in!