Pilates is one of the best cross-training options for runners. It strengthens the exact muscle groups that running neglects, improves how efficiently your body uses energy at pace, and targets the hip and core stability problems that lead to most running injuries. A study published in the journal PLOS ONE found that trained runners who added Pilates to their routine significantly increased strength in five key muscle groups and improved their 5K performance by lowering their metabolic cost, meaning they used less energy to maintain the same speed.
Why Runners Specifically Benefit
Running is a repetitive, forward-only motion. It builds strong quads and calves but leaves gaps in your lateral stabilizers, deep core muscles, glutes, and hip flexors. Over thousands of strides, those imbalances compound. Your pelvis drops, your trunk rotates too much, and your joints absorb force that stronger muscles should be handling.
Pilates was designed around what it calls the “powerhouse”: the spine extensors and flexors, hip extensors and flexors, and pelvic floor muscles. These are the same muscles that keep your torso stable and your hips level while you run. Strengthening them means less wasted side-to-side motion per stride, which translates directly into better running economy.
What the Research Shows
In a controlled study of trained runners, those who added Pilates sessions to their regular training saw significant strength gains in their outer and inner obliques (the deep abdominal muscles that stabilize your trunk), their lower back extensors, their hamstrings, and their gluteus medius, the muscle on the side of your hip responsible for keeping your pelvis from dropping when you land on one foot. The control group, which only ran, showed no change in any of these muscles.
The Pilates group also improved their 5K times, and the mechanism was telling. They didn’t get fitter in a cardiovascular sense. Instead, their metabolic cost dropped and their muscle activation patterns changed, meaning their bodies became more efficient at converting effort into forward motion. A more stable core wastes less energy on trunk rotation and lateral sway, so more of every stride actually moves you forward.
Muscles Pilates Targets That Running Misses
The specific muscle groups where runners saw the biggest gains from Pilates are worth understanding, because they map directly to common running problems:
- Gluteus medius: Controls hip stability on every single-leg landing. Weakness here causes the opposite hip to drop, a pattern linked to IT band syndrome, knee pain, and shin splints.
- Deep obliques (internal and external): These wrap around your trunk like a corset and prevent excessive rotation. Stronger obliques keep your energy directed forward instead of twisting side to side.
- Lower back extensors: Maintain an upright posture as you fatigue. When these weaken late in a run, your trunk leans forward and your stride shortens.
- Hamstrings: Work with your glutes to drive hip extension during push-off. Runners often have tight but weak hamstrings, which Pilates addresses through controlled lengthening under load.
Best Pilates Exercises for Runners
Not every Pilates exercise matters equally if your goal is better running. These five movements target the areas runners need most:
The Hundred is a core endurance exercise where you hold your legs elevated while pumping your arms for 100 beats. It builds the kind of sustained abdominal engagement you need to maintain form in the last miles of a long run. It’s also a good indicator of where your core endurance stands: if you can’t hold proper form through the full set, that weakness is showing up in your running whether you notice it or not.
Leg circles improve hip mobility and strengthen the hip flexors through a full range of motion. Running locks your hips into a narrow forward-and-back plane, so this movement restores the rotational flexibility that keeps your stride fluid. Side leg series exercises target the glutes, outer thighs, and hips in the lateral plane, building the stability muscles that prevent your pelvis from swaying on every footstrike.
Heel raises on the reformer (or standing calf raises in a mat class) strengthen the calf muscles responsible for push-off power. And pulling straps, a prone upper-back exercise, counteracts the forward-shoulder posture that develops when runners fatigue, helping you stay tall and breathe efficiently deep into a workout.
Mat vs. Reformer Pilates
Both formats work for runners, but they offer different advantages. Mat Pilates uses your body weight for resistance on a padded surface, requires minimal equipment, and is cheaper. It’s easier to pick up the foundational movements, and you can do it at home. For runners just starting cross-training, mat classes are a practical entry point.
Reformer Pilates uses a machine with adjustable springs, straps, and a sliding carriage that lets you change resistance precisely. A 2025 study on soccer players found reformer Pilates was more effective than mat Pilates at improving explosive physical capacities like broad jump distance, flexibility, and sprint times. The adjustable resistance also makes reformer work well suited for runners coming back from injury, since you can dial the load up or down to match your recovery stage. The trade-off is cost: reformer classes are more expensive and require access to a studio.
If you can afford it, reformer sessions offer more exercise variations and finer control over difficulty. If budget or access is a concern, a consistent mat practice will still deliver the core and hip stability gains that matter most for your running.
How to Add Pilates to Your Training
The study that showed performance improvements in trained runners used a protocol of two Pilates sessions per week alongside regular running training. That frequency is a reasonable target. One session a week will maintain some benefit, but two sessions give your neuromuscular system enough repetition to build lasting strength and motor patterns.
Each session typically runs 45 to 60 minutes. You don’t need to replace running days. Pilates works well on easy or recovery days since it’s low-impact and won’t tax your cardiovascular system the way a tempo run or interval session does. Some runners pair a short Pilates routine with an easy run on the same day.
Expect to feel the effects in your running within four to six weeks. The first thing most runners notice is less fatigue in their posture during long runs. Over time, you’ll feel more stable through your hips on hills and uneven terrain, and your pace may improve without any change in perceived effort, the hallmark of better running economy.
What Pilates Won’t Do
Pilates is not a substitute for running-specific training. It won’t build your aerobic capacity, improve your lactate threshold, or teach your body to handle race-pace fueling. It also won’t replace traditional strength work like squats, deadlifts, or plyometrics if your goal is maximal force production or speed development.
What it does exceptionally well is fill the stability and mobility gaps that running creates. Think of it as infrastructure work. Your cardiovascular fitness is the engine, but Pilates builds the chassis that keeps that engine pointed in the right direction with minimal energy loss. For most recreational and competitive runners, that’s the missing piece that turns consistent mileage into faster, more resilient performance.