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Yoga vs. Pilates

The Dilemma: You want to exercise, but you prefer something that chills you out instead of buffing you up. Should you take yoga or Pilates?

The Explanation:
We in the western hemisphere tend to think of yoga as a way to stretch out or shed stress. But the practice began as something very spiritual. Those who practiced yoga (yogis) did so to control their bodies and free themselves from temptation and achieve nirvana. In fact, yoga actually predates Hinduism.
The main yoga practiced outside India today is called hatha yoga. The point is to balance your body and your mind through controlled breathing (pranayama), mental focus, and a series of postures called asanas, like the well-known Lotus (padmasana) and Downward-Facing Dog (adho mukha svanasana). Some ascribe a spiritual dimension to the practice akin to its Eastern origins. This kundalini yoga uses asanas to release life energy clustered in seven chakras, or centers of spiritualenergy.
Bikram, a kind of “hot yoga” named after its originator, increases flexibility (and sweating) by doing yoga in a really hot room. Bikram, by the way, is not quite as exotic as it sounds: The main studio is on La Cienega Boulevard in L.A.

Pilates, on the other hand, combines the idea of mind-and-body union with an emphasis on physical development and fitness. It was originally named Contrology by its inventor, Joseph H. Pilates, and although it’s not as old as yoga, it’s older than you’d think. Pilates came up with the exercises while working as a nurse during World War I! His focus was to “control” the muscles with the consciousness. Instead of lots of repetitions of simple movements (like dumbbell curls), Pilates stressed doing fewer reps of more skilled movements, thereby engaging the mind. He came up with over 500 of these (today there are thousands). Of course, his original method involved a lot of specially designed machines as well (basically modified gymnastics apparatuses, with springs added for resistance), including the Spine Corrector Barrel and the Cadillac, the latter involving a bench and parallel bars and looking an awful lot like a torture device.
The Pilates method gained popularity in the U.S. when it was espoused by two dance giants of the era: Martha Graham and George Balanchine.