I chose a few different forms of exercise and broke down some of their specific benefits and pitfalls. If you find yourself asking “What kind of exercise should I be doing.” this may help guide you.
🧘♀️ Pilates
Benefits (according to research so NOT all encompassing)
- May improve childbirth experience
- Helps with chronic back/neck pain
- Improves balance and pain in older adults
- Encourages mindful body awareness
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- If your goal is strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth) we must highlight the importance of mechanical tension and progressive overload
- 1) mechanical tension (how much force is placed on muscle), BY FAR THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR FOR BUILDING MUSCLE
- 2) Progressive Overload (increasing stress to gradually produce adaptation) NOT just increasing weight but also increasing the overall challenge to the body
- Due to low loads, high reps (which have many benefits) Pilates doesn’t get high motor unit recruitment preferred for optimal muscle building
- Takeaway: Will you get stronger and enjoy a slew of physical benefits with Pilates? Absolutely. Should it be your primary mode of exercise if your goal is to build muscle? Probably not. Pilates is a great option to work in conjunction with heavy resistance training.
🏋️ Lifting Heavy
Benefits:
- Builds bone density and tendon/ligament resilience
- Improves max strength and motor unit recruitment
- Stronger people are generally more injury-resilient and age better
- Encourages discipline and progression tracking
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- Over doing specific movement patterns can limit variability. *this can be avoided by including multiple forms of exercise
🏃 Running
Benefits:
- Increases cardiovascular capacity and VO2 max (linked to longer lifespan)
- Improves bone density and tendon endurance
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- Not great for building muscle
🥊 Boxing
Benefits:
- Enhances hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and rhythm
- Builds rotational core control and full-body power
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- Getting punched isn’t fun
🏋️♂️ Athletic Training (Plyos, Box Jumps, Sprint Work)
Benefits:
- Builds speed, power, and neuromuscular efficiency
- Trains rate of force development (RFD) and reactivity
- Improves agility, deceleration control, and coordination
- Highly transferable to sport and life movement
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- You’ll get more athletic than all your friends
🎾 Tennis
Benefits:
- Excellent for coordination, agility, and quick decision-making
- Trains rotational power, balance, and reactive movement
- Builds anaerobic endurance and cardiovascular fitness
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- You’ll never be good no matter how much you practice (take it from me)
🚴 Sprints on the Airdyne / Assault Bike
Benefits:
- Skyrockets anaerobic capacity and metabolic conditioning
- Fast, efficient, and brutally effective for short workouts
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- Not what I’d do for muscle building
🌀 Functional & Rotational Movements
Benefits:
- Mimic sport and real-world movement demands
- Improve force transfer through the kinetic chain
- Build usable strength, mobility, and movement literacy
- Great for joint control and fascia-driven athleticism
⚠️ Potential Pitfalls to Watch For:
- Might get made fun of in the gym
🎤 Final Word (Still Stands):
There’s no “best” form of training.
There’s just what works for you, what fits your goals, and what keeps you coming back.
✅ Be informed
✅ Vary your training
✅ Learn your body
✅ Get strong, move well, have fun.
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