does Pilates actually work?

[jasper]

I have been going to a class for a few months and am not convinced!

DIscuss!

it did for me. would still be doing it if it weren't for a 7 mo taking up all my time

how frequent is your class? i was just doing it at home, doing about 40 mins daily. as the weeks passed exercises i thought were insane started to get doable and even easy!

ah this is just reminding me how out-of-shape i am now sigh

Yes if you are doing it properly.
It's easy to cheat.

Absolutely if done properly. I go for a back problem. Went first to classes and was sceptical like you, but then to a one-to-one and realised how woeful the classes were. You don't say what you're doing, but am guessing it might be that?

Definitely. If taught, and done, properly. I didn't do the machine sort, just the mat sort, and it was brilliant - I've had two kids since (c-sections to boot) and I still have some muscle tone left from years of doing it.

I should start again for my middle-aged back now...

I had some 1 to 1 and am now in a class of 5 and it's the hardest class I've ever done - and I've tried a lot of gym -fads- classes in my time.
It is easy to do it wrong though (and then it's easy), having a good instructor in a very small class means that you get told if you are not moving correctly.

very small class with locally acclaimed teacher (who has huge waiting list ) who comes round us to correct any defects in our technique.

It just all seems a bit lame

If it feels lame then I'd say you're not doing it properly. I thought that too when I went to small classes, but my opinion soon changed when I found my one-to-one teacher - what she has me doing is incredibly challenging, whereas before I felt like I'd done next to nothing.

Try it. I must do something like that!

I had a class a few years back .. went to one class, and I couldnt laugh/cough for a week!

I felt muscles where I didnt even know they existed!!!!