Pilates fits into weightlifting, powerlifting and HYROX training as a supporting session, usually once or twice a week, alongside your lifting and conditioning. It is not a substitute for heavy loading. It helps with the control around the load: bracing the trunk with the rib cage stacked over the pelvis, moving well enough through the hips, ankles and upper back to reach your positions, and staying steady on one leg. In HYROX those qualities have to hold up under fatigue, between runs.
The Pilates equipment springs let you work on each of these at loads you can control precisely, and the work changes with your training cycle.
What does lifting heavy ask of the trunk and hips?
A heavy lift asks the trunk to stay stiff while very large forces pass through it. An updated systematic review by Tung and colleagues found the knee, lower back, shoulder and hands most often injured in weightlifting, and the lower back and pelvis, shoulder and elbow in powerlifting1.
Bracing under load
Lifters brace by holding a breath against a tightened trunk, which raises the pressure inside the abdomen. A systematic review by Blazek and colleagues found that pressure highest in the squat, at over 200 mmHg, followed by the deadlift2. Your lifting coach trains that maximal brace under the bar. Studio work adds control of what it depends on: expanding the lower ribs into the back and sides rather than lifting the chest, and keeping the rib cage over the pelvis while the limbs move. Plank and pike work with the hands on the stability chair pedal asks you to hold that position while the pedal moves under you. The roll-down bar on the trapeze table (Cadillac) trains controlled spinal flexion against the Pilates equipment springs, and side work over the ladder barrel loads the sides of the trunk.
The pelvic floor takes the same pressure. The Tung review found pelvic floor problems such as leaking in about half of female lifters, against 9% of men1. It is worth raising at an assessment, and where treatment is needed a pelvic health physiotherapist leads.
Albert, a powerlifter, came partly because of his scoliosis, which he felt was “partly why it’s much harder for me to hold weight and keep myself stable”.
Range for the squat, snatch and overhead positions
A deep squat needs ankle and hip range with the spine held. A snatch or jerk needs the arms overhead without the lower back arching to make up for a stiff upper back. Extension over the spine corrector and ladder barrel, and the push-through on the trapeze table, train the upper back to extend as the arms go overhead. Footwork on the stability chair takes the ankle through its full range under control. That range is then tested under the bar.
Single-leg and lunge strength
Split jerks, lunges and the HYROX sandbag lunges ask one hip at a time to control the pelvis and knee. Step-ups and lunges on the stability chair put most of your body weight through the working leg, and scooter and side splits on the reformer ask the standing hip to hold while the carriage moves. Heavier single-leg loading, such as weighted split squats, is part of the strength and conditioning side of our sessions, similar to a gym session but with more attention on how the movement is controlled.
What changes when the lifting happens in a race?
HYROX alternates eight 1 km runs with eight stations, including the sled push and pull, burpee broad jumps, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and, last, wall balls. No load is maximal for a strong lifter; the difficulty is repeating them with a high heart rate. In 24 men racing in the Pro division, Gutiérrez-Hellín and colleagues found running speed fell from about 16.1 km/h on the first run to 13.6 km/h on the eighth3.
The sled push needs a stiff trunk while the legs drive, and the sled pull needs the upper back and grip working while the trunk holds still. Burpee broad jumps repeat a jump and landing for 80 metres, the farmers carry pulls the trunk sideways, and wall balls combine a squat and a throw when you are most tired. Studio work holds trunk positions for longer as sessions progress, uses controlled pushing and lowering on the stability chair and reformer so the legs absorb force as well as produce it, and adds side work on the ladder barrel for carries. Race fitness itself comes from your HYROX training.
Richelle Samy, a HYROX Pro Women’s finisher, was near the end of her preparation for the August 2024 race and wanted help with her burpees (80 metres of broad burpees) and a sled pull of about 100 kg. In her review she wrote: “My core strength and movement improved fast, and I felt stronger in the race.” That is one athlete’s experience, not a trial result.
How should the work change across a training cycle?
General preparation. New work goes in here, usually twice a week, while lifting intensity is moderate.
Intensification and peaking. As loads get heavier, Pilates becomes maintenance, about once a week with familiar exercises, kept away from your heaviest or most explosive sessions.
Meet or race week. Reduce the load and keep the movements, and add nothing new.
After competition. Easy mobility, then a reassessment before the next cycle.
What does the research show?
Reasonably established. Injury rates in weightlifting and powerlifting are modest, around 1 to 4 per 1,000 hours of training, though the studies vary widely in design1. Bracing raises abdominal pressure, and Hackett and Chow concluded this may help stiffen the spine, a reasonable mechanism rather than a proven outcome4. Schumann and colleagues pooled 43 studies and found that adding endurance work did not reduce gains in maximal strength or muscle size, but blunted explosive strength gains, especially within the same session5.
Preliminary, and specific to HYROX. In the first study, Brandt and colleagues followed 11 recreational athletes through a simulated race. Heart rate, lactate and perceived effort peaked at the wall balls, and faster finishers had higher aerobic fitness6. The authors rated its maximal strength and mobility demands moderate to low. A 12-week study of 89 athletes by Chittenden and colleagues recorded 14.4 injuries per 1,000 hours, nearly three quarters of them overuse, most often at the knee7. HYROX research is thin and early, and we found no trials of Pilates in lifters or HYROX athletes.
Practical application. The choices above apply standard training principles: train positions close to how they are used, add load gradually and manage fatigue. They are reasoned recommendations, not trial findings, adjusted after an assessment.
Does Pilates replace my lifting or my coach?
No. Your lifting programme and coach lead. At Peak Performance the sessions are not purely Pilates: 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. If you are injured, your physiotherapist leads. We align with your coach, gym trainer and physiotherapist on goals and programming.
Albert put it this way: “I did achieve personal bests after my Pilates, which I haven’t had in like three years. And I think it’s a combination of definitely the work in the gym, but also being able to move differently now than I used to.”
Where to start
Start with an assessment rather than a class. The 55-minute initial consultation looks at how you move, compares that with what your lifts or race stations ask of you, and takes your competition 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 cycle, with exercises to take away between sessions.