Dynamic Pilates for developing strength
Our goal at Epoch Fitness Pilates is to empower our clients by showing them what their body is capable of. Our combination of Reformer Pilates and strength training uses the same scientific principles as traditional strength training. Your body is challenged in the safest, most efficient way possible. A few basic principles are required for building muscle strength and they feature heavily in our sessions.
Progressive overload
You are encourage to work to muscular fatigue. Following a period of recovery this leads to gradual increase in muscle strength and endurance. Our workouts challenge major muscle groups such as buttocks, legs and arms using a series of compound exercises. This means you hit almost every muscle group in the body within one session improving your whole body strength.
Variability
Variability in muscle load leads to continuous adaptation. To ensure that you never get the same workout twice we always keep our sessions varied. As well as being more fun this gives your muscles little option but to adapt and improve.
Frequency of training sessions
To improve muscle strength the body needs to be challenged regularly while also having enough time to rest and recover between workouts. We encourage our visitors to train 2-3 times a week and recommend to give your body 24-48 hours rest between workouts. This gives your muscles the perfect amount of time to recover and strengthen.
Number of repetitions vs time under tension (TUT)
There is a debate about the optimum number of repetitions you should do in any given set to achieve muscle strength. Much scientific evidence suggests that what matters more is “time under tension” i.e. the amount of time the muscle is spent in a contracted position. We utilise 90 second periods in each of our sets in order to fatigue the muscles to their fullest.
Number of sets
The right number of sets to achieve strength benefits is a hot topic. In the long run what matters is consistency. The latest scientific research suggests that a single set of any one exercise is sufficient providing the exercise is performed to the point of muscle exhaustion. For this reason we recommend doing each exercise once for 90 second period and to exhaustion. This allows for maximum number of exercises to be completed within each session without compromising on form
We look forward to training you at the studio soon.
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