Pilates is the same as yoga

Pilates and Yoga may appear to be comparable exercise practices on the surface, but they are actually quite distinct. This one is causing a gnashing of teeth for both Pilates and yoga practitioners, especially teachers who have students who assume yoga and Pilates are equivalent.

First of all, yoga has religious roots (it dates back over 5,000 years in India), whereas Pilates was designed with rehabilitation and physical fitness in mind. Second, Pilates and Yoga employ quite distinct breathing and focus approaches. You'll need to breathe in and out through your nose in flow-based Yoga lessons, synchronizing your deep breaths to the movements and postures. In Pilates, however, you inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Finally, Pilates sessions provide a full-body exercise with a focus on spine alignment and core strength. In yoga, you tend to train every muscle in your body equally, with little emphasis on any one muscle group in particular.

While Joseph Pilates, who is credited with inventing and promoting the Pilates method of physical fitness, may have been introduced to yoga and studied a variety of fitness and body/mind disciplines, there is no historical evidence that he took yoga seriously. While Pilates and yoga are complementary, they are also quite separate techniques.