Does Pilates make you taller?

Does Pilates make you taller? Can it really be true? I am happy to talk about how Pilates in being reported and represented in the International Press, and I think it is important that we all know what is being said.

I was reading an old article during my flight from London home to Barcelona which was an interview with Rosanna Davison, the former Miss World and daughter of the aging singer Chris de Burgh (admit it, you have sung Lady in Red into the mirror using your hairbrush as a microphone. Or is that just me?)

Rosanna, who is now is her early 30’s, won Miss World in 2003. She did an interview with an Irish newspaper and told them that she has been doing Pilates since she was 18, and she says she has added a half-an-inch to her own height since she became a devotee. She told the Sunday Independent: “I’ve stretched out about half-an-inch through Pilates – I was 5ft 9 and now I am 5ft 9-and-a-half inches. It’s a known effect from practising it regularly. Pilates helps to elongate and lengthen muscles, improves posture and plumps up the cushioning discs of our spine.”

She also said that Pilates has helped her cope with stress, boost her confidence and improve her posture.

“It is so important to feel you are doing the best you can at your level of ability. Then you will always feel confident in yourself. Back when I wasn’t quite so into fitness and nutrition, I would have felt less confident in myself. I think it’s about knowing you are pushing your own limits and achieving your own personal goals. I am competitive. But these days, I only compete with myself.”

Does Pilates Make You Taller?
Three hours of Pilates at a local studio is now her weekly routine, which also includes two hours of gym-training and another hour of running or time on the cross-trainer. She also follows a strict dairy and gluten-free vegan diet.

Rosanna is not the only person who says that they have “grown” due to Pilates. Jennifer Aniston has said Pilates “makes me feel taller”, while singer Belinda Carlisle claims to have grown over two inches after practising it for eight years.

There are a lot of claims made about the benefits of Pilates; some true and other not so. Of course “getting taller” is something that a lot of people associate with Pilates. The reality is that Pilates certainly makes people feel taller, and it can also add some physical “height” as the posture improves and people stand up more.

PilatesEVO
I totally agree with Rosanna’s varied workout that includes cardio as well as Pilates, and I also agree that Pilates helps many people cope with stress. It is for this reason that my system PilatesEVO introduces mindfulness meditation to the practise. Rosanna also reported that Pilates has helped her confidence which is a vital point for many people. Whether the effects of regular exercise are physical, mental or simply psychosomatic is to some degree irrelevant as long as benefits are percieved. The PilatesEVO educations also teach about NLP which is a great way for people to improve their communication skills with themselves and with other people, all of which helps with self worth. When they study PilatesEVO, teachers learn how to use the techniques to make themselves more effective, and also how to pass on these skills to their clients which will make their teaching more effective.

So does Pilates make you taller? Celebrity comments about Pilates in my opinion do not always help the credibility of Pilates, but as I have said before, no news is bad news? Now where is my hairbrush and mirror…. “Lady in Red, is dancing with me……”

If you want to know more about PilatesEVO, and how you can study the system online, at educations around the world, or at the PilatesEVO School in Barcelona, then please click here