Pilates fits into marathon training as a supporting session, usually once or twice a week, alongside your runs and strength work rather than in place of either. It is most useful for the things running relies on but does not train well by itself: keeping the pelvis level on one leg, holding the trunk steady as you tire, controlling the foot and ankle, and moving well through the hips and upper back.
The Pilates equipment springs let you load each of these slowly, in positions close to running. How much you do should change as your training block moves towards race day.
What can Pilates train that running doesn’t?
Running places substantial demands on the knee. A systematic review by Hart and colleagues found that the compressive force between the kneecap and the thigh bone reaches about five times body weight during running1, and that load is repeated with every stride. These forces are a normal part of running, not a sign that something is wrong. They do show why it is worth building the strength, control and capacity to tolerate repetitive loading, through Pilates work that is programmed with intent alongside your running and strength sessions. These are the demands where studio work helps most.
Keeping the pelvis level on one leg
At midstance, with your weight over one leg, the hip muscles on that side stop the other side of the pelvis from dropping. Running in a straight line does little to build this side-to-side control. Single-leg step-ups on the stability chair put close to your full body weight through the standing hip while it holds the pelvis level, which makes them the closest studio exercise to midstance. Side-lying leg work on the trapeze table (Cadillac) can isolate the hip muscles first, and standing reformer work such as scooter and side splits asks the standing hip to hold while the carriage moves under the other leg. The aim is always to progress back to standing on one leg.
Holding the trunk steady when you’re tired
In running, the trunk has to stay fairly quiet over the pelvis while the arms and legs move, for hours at a time, so endurance matters more than strength. Plank work on the stability chair, with the hands on the pedal, has you hold a trunk position while the pedal moves under you, and the long stretch series and knee stretches on the reformer do the same with a moving carriage. Side bends over the ladder barrel and side-lying work on the spine corrector load the sides of the trunk, which keep the rib cage stacked over the pelvis as the arms swing. Progress by holding for longer with less support, not by making each repetition harder.
Calves, feet and ankles
In a modelling study, Dorn and colleagues found the soleus and gastrocnemius provided most of the body’s vertical support at speeds up to 7 metres per second, well beyond marathon pace2. Pilates equipment springs alone cannot get near that load, so heavier calf work is part of the strength and conditioning side of our sessions, similar to what you would do in a gym but with more focus on controlling the movement. The equipment adds control and range. Footwork on the stability chair, pressing the pedal down through the ball of one foot and lowering it slowly, works the ankle through its full range, first with the knee straight and then bent, which shifts the emphasis between the two muscles. Single-leg heel raises on the reformer do the same without full body weight.
A pattern we see when assessing runners
One common pattern we see when assessing runners is excessive foot pronation, where the arch tends to collapse inward under load. While pronation is a normal and necessary part of running, excessive or poorly controlled pronation can affect how forces are transferred through the foot and ankle and up the kinetic chain.
At Peak Performance Private Pilates, our programme for runners includes strengthening the intrinsic foot muscles and the calf muscles, particularly those that help support the medial arch and control ankle movement. The goal isn’t to stop pronation, but to improve the foot’s ability to absorb load, maintain stability during single-leg stance and become a more effective lever during the push-off phase of the running gait.
We usually build this into progressive footwork and single-leg exercises on the reformer and stability chair, focusing on controlled movement rather than simply holding the arch up.
Hips and upper back
At toe-off the thigh extends behind the body, and if the hip cannot get there the lower back can arch to make up the difference. Lunging on the reformer or the stability chair, with the back leg taken into hip extension while you keep the pelvis controlled, trains range and control together. Arm swing also rotates the upper body against the pelvis with every stride. Extension over the spine corrector and the ladder barrel, the push-through on the trapeze table and seated rotation on the reformer train that movement through the upper back rather than the lower back.
How should Pilates change across a marathon block?
Marathon plans usually run 12 to 20 weeks, and the Pilates work should follow what the running is asking of you at each stage.
Base phase
This is the time for new and more demanding work, while running intensity is moderate and there is room to recover from unfamiliar loading. Two sessions a week gives you time to learn the single-leg and trunk work properly before adding resistance from the Pilates equipment springs, range or complexity. Anything specific from your assessment, such as the pelvis dropping more on one side, is worth working on here.
Build phase
As long runs get longer and sessions get faster, Pilates moves to maintenance, usually about once a week. Schedule it after an easy run or on a recovery day rather than the day before a long run or a hard session, and keep the exercises familiar, with small progressions.
Taper and race week
Reduce the load and keep the movements. A session in the taper should leave you looser, not sore, so this is not the time for anything new. A short, easy session early in race week is fine. Leave the last two or three days to rest and your planned runs.
After the race
Spend the first week or two on easy mobility while your legs recover, then reassess before the next block, because what you need may have changed over the build.
What does the research show?
Most of the research here is not about Pilates, so it helps to be clear about what each study can and cannot tell us.
Well established. Strength training helps distance runners. Blagrove and colleagues reviewed 24 studies and found heavy, explosive or plyometric training generally improved running economy by 2 to 8% and tended to improve time trials over 1.5 to 10 km, while VO2max and body composition were typically unchanged3. Lauersen and colleagues pooled 25 randomised trials with more than 26,000 participants across many sports. Results varied between trials, but strength training cut injuries to less than a third, and stretching showed no protective effect4. None of this was Pilates, and the injury trials were not specific to runners.
Associations, not causes. Bramah and colleagues found more pelvic drop and forward trunk lean at midstance in 72 injured runners than in 36 healthy ones5. The runners were already injured when measured, so this cannot show cause. A systematic review of prospective studies by Ceyssens and colleagues found the evidence linking running mechanics to later injury sparse and inconsistent6. Pelvic control is worth training, but not as a promise of fewer injuries.
Preliminary, and specific to Pilates. Finatto and colleagues randomised 32 young men, all running for nine months or less, to 12 weeks of twice-weekly mat Pilates alongside their running, or to running alone. Both groups improved their 5 km time, the Pilates group by more (about 2.4 minutes against 0.7), and after training its runners used less energy per metre than the running-only group7. Only 28 men finished, the work was on the mat rather than equipment, and none were marathon runners, so it is an encouraging result from one small trial.
Practical application. The exercise choices and timing above apply standard training principles: train a movement close to how it is used, add load gradually, and manage fatigue around key sessions. They are reasoned recommendations rather than trial findings, and they are adjusted for each runner after an assessment.
Does Pilates replace strength training or physio?
Not on its own, and at Peak Performance the sessions are not purely Pilates. Your running plan is the training, and studio sessions support it. The Blagrove review points to two or three strength sessions a week for distance runners3, and if you can only fit in one extra session, the evidence favours strength training. We combine Pilates principles with strength and conditioning principles, and mix in strength and conditioning work depending on your specific goal, with more focus on control of movement than a typical gym session. If you are injured, your physiotherapist leads. We align with your coach, gym trainer and physiotherapist on goals and programming, so our sessions support their plan.
Where to start
Start with an assessment rather than a class. The initial consultation looks at how you move, compares that with what running asks of you, and takes your race calendar into account. The programme, a mix of Pilates and strength and conditioning work set by your goal, is then built, progressively loaded and reassessed through your block, with exercises to take away between sessions.