Health Fitness

Piloxing: Pilates Fusions Dilute Workouts

Over the past decade, the number of fitness fusion classes has skyrocketed. Offhand, I can name half a dozen: Exhale Spa’s Piloxing, Piyoga, Yogilates, Walkilates, Poolates, and Core Fusion. Now, in the best of all possible worlds (yes, I did teach philosophy), any fusion training should offer the best of both while still respecting the separate disciplines. However, as is often the case, in practice fusion classes tend to offer, at best, a watered-down version of each discipline that does neither justice.

Take Viveca Jensen’s Piloxing as an example. According to her website,

“PILOXING combines the power, speed and agility of boxing with the beautiful sculpture and flexibility of Pilates. Add to that the fun and sexy dance moves that reflect Viveca’s personality…and the weight gloves.”

So far so good, except that Pilates itself is a complete system of full body exercise that incorporates both mat and specific apparatus, and boxing also has a training body. Nor is it just a series of “moves”.

Piloxing is also touted as being more female-oriented than Pilates or boxing, but again, that’s not true to the roots of either. Pilates was invented by a German man, Joseph Pilates, in the early 20th century while he was being interned by the British as an enemy alien during World War I. His original exercises were aimed at men who needed to keep fit in confined spaces, and although his clientele later expanded to include dancers and other performers, Pilates is not a female-focused method of exercise. In fact, neither is boxing.

And finally, where do the “fun and sexy dance moves” and heavy gloves come from? Neither in pilates nor in boxing, that I know of. Weighted gloves don’t feature in any Pilates exercises, although we do use arm weights and springs, as well as body weight to increase strength and tone in the arms. Weighted gloves do not “maximize cardiovascular health.” Doing high-intensity cardio, with or without gloves, does it. And the dance moves are, well, dance aerobics.

Is the training effective? Will you tone up, break a sweat, increase your cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength? Probably, but you could also manage to walk, run, bike or box, dance aerobics and Pilates separately. Look, if you need motivation to exercise and have fun, the new fusion gets you moving, great. But don’t expect to get the same benefits or intensity from a fusion workout that you would from a direct session of whatever modality you prefer.