Effects of Pilates on Body Posture: A Systematic Review.
Fangyi Li, Roxana Dev Omar Dev, Kim Geok Soh and 2 others
PMID 39372244WHAT IT FOUND
Pilates improved posture in some small studies of sedentary women, adolescents with hyperkyphosis and preschoolers, but not in children, women with temporomandibular dysfunction or adolescents with scoliosis.
Most studies scored 4 to 7 out of 10 on quality, so the overall picture is uncertain.
Key findings
01Pilates significantly improved posture in some groups: sedentary women with postural disorders after 8 weeks, women with breast cancer after 16 weeks of mat Pilates (posture and balance), 5- to 6-year-old children after 10 weeks, and adolescents with thoracic hyperkyphosis after 38 weeks (thoracic kyphosis and hamstring extensibility).
02Other studies found no significant change in posture: 8- to 12-year-old schoolchildren after 12 weeks of mat Pilates, women with temporomandibular dysfunction after 15 weeks (posture and postural habits unchanged), and adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis after 8 weeks (spinal deformity and self-perceived deformity unchanged).
03The evidence base is thin: the 13 included studies together had 783 participants, most studies had fewer than 50, and quality scores ranged from 2 to 7 out of 10.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The 13 included studies were small (most had fewer than 50 participants) and differed in population, setting and outcome measures, so their results could not be combined into one estimate. Quality was mostly low: PEDro scores ranged from 2 to 7 out of 10, with only 6 of the 13 studies rated good. Blinding of participants, therapists and assessors was not possible in these exercise studies, and the PEDro quality scoring was carried out by a single reviewer. The search covered only English-language articles published from 2019 onwards with full text available, so earlier or non-English studies on the same question were left out. Most participants were women and only 2 studies included people over 50, so results say little about older men. Photogrammetry was the most common way of measuring posture and is cheap, but the authors describe its measurements as unstable and inaccurate.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict of interest statement appears in the text supplied, so the source of support for this review is not stated.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that Pilates corrects posture. Several of the 13 studies found no change at all, three scored 2 out of 10 on quality, and the studies were too different in size, population and design to combine. The positive results come from small trials, and the authors themselves say more research is needed.
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