Why I Combine Strength Training and Pilates After 40

Most training works one type of muscle fibre. Your body needs both. Here's why — and what happens when you train them together.

There's a question I get asked constantly, in different forms, by women who've found SoulSculpt Method.

Why both? Why not just strength training? Why not just Pilates?

And I understand it. We're all short on time. We want to know what actually works and do that — not spread ourselves across two disciplines when one might be enough.

But here's the thing. One isn't enough. And once you understand why, it becomes obvious.

It comes down to your muscle fibres.

Why Strength Training and Pilates After 40 Requires Understanding Two Types of Muscle

Your muscles are made up of two main types of fibres, and they do completely different jobs.

Slow-twitch muscle fibres are your endurance fibres. They work for sustained, repeated effort — walking, yoga, Pilates, holding a position for time. They're fatigue-resistant. They respond to longer, slower, more controlled movement.

Fast-twitch muscle fibres are your power fibres. They fire for speed, strength, and explosive effort — lifting something heavy, catching yourself when you slip, pushing yourself up off the floor, grabbing a heavy shopping bag fast off the ground. They respond to load, speed, and challenge.

Here's what most women don't know: fast-twitch muscle fibres are the ones you lose fastest as you age.

And when you lose them, you feel it. Not always dramatically at first. Just a quiet sense of being slightly less powerful than you used to be. A little less capable. A little more vulnerable in your own body. That moment of reaching for something heavy and feeling like you can't quite grip it the way you used to. That slight hesitation before you push yourself up from the floor.

That's fast-twitch fibre loss. And it's completely trainable.

What Most Exercise Gets Wrong After 40

Here's the problem. Most movement that women gravitate toward after 40 — yoga, walking, Pilates, lighter cardio — primarily trains slow-twitch fibres.

These are valuable. Essential, even. Endurance, mobility, body awareness, sustained strength — all of this matters. I'm not dismissing it for a second.

But if that's all you're doing, you're letting your fast-twitch fibres quietly decline. And with them, your power, your reaction speed, your ability to handle unexpected load — the things that determine whether you feel capable and confident in your body for the decades ahead.

This is why gentle movement alone isn't enough after 40. And it's also why pure strength training alone has gaps.

What Pilates Alone Misses

Pilates is extraordinary for slow-twitch fibre development. The sustained holds, the end-range strengthening, the controlled tempo, the breath integration — all of this builds endurance in the deep stabilising muscles, creates body awareness, and develops the kind of precise muscular control that most training completely ignores.

But Pilates without progressive load doesn't build the fast-twitch strength your body needs. It doesn't provide the mechanical stimulus for bone density. It doesn't challenge your muscles to the point where they're forced to adapt and grow.

You can practice Pilates for years and still feel fragile when life demands something fast and heavy from you.

What Strength Training Alone Misses

Strength training done well absolutely develops fast-twitch fibres. Progressive load, compound movements, working close to failure — this is what builds the power and muscle mass that protect your body in perimenopause and beyond.

But strength training without the Pilates foundation leads to something I see constantly: loading a body that hasn't yet developed the control to use that load well. Compensation patterns. Load going to the wrong places. Training that works in the short term but creates problems over time.

And for women coming from a yoga or Pilates background, jumping straight into heavy strength training without that integrated body awareness can feel disconnected — like the movement isn't fully landing in your body.

Why Combining Them Is the Most Intelligent Approach

When you train Strength x Pilates, you're not doing Pilates and then strength training separately. You're doing them together — one informing the other in every session.

The Pilates foundation — the breath, the alignment, the precise awareness of what each part of your body is doing — is inside the strength work. The goblet squat has spinal intelligence in it. The single-leg row has breath integration. The press has shoulder awareness.

And the strength work challenges the Pilates foundation in a way that pure Pilates never does. The load is real. The effort is genuine. The body is asked to organise itself under pressure.

In the same session, you train both fibre types.

Slow-twitch work: sustained holds, end-range strengthening, controlled tempo, mobility work. Your deep stabilisers, your endurance capacity, your body awareness.

Fast-twitch work: heavier compound movements, powerful transitions, explosive moments. I think of an exercise we did in class this week — standing, arms reaching overhead, then driving the knee and elbows in toward each other with speed and intention. That fast, powerful movement is fast-twitch training. It's not just fitness. It's functional. It translates directly into how capable you feel in real life.

What I Notice in the Women I Work With

Many of the women in SoulSculpt Method have been training with me for over a year now. And I'm watching something shift.

The foundation is there. The form is honest. The body awareness is real. And now we're ready to go further.

I've been pushing weights up in class. Not recklessly — but with intention. Because the form has been earned. The control is there. And now the load can increase.

This is progressive overload in its truest sense. Not just adding weight because more is better. Adding weight because the body is genuinely ready for it.

What's Coming: StrongSculpt

This is also why I'm very excited about something I'm building right now for the SoulSculpt library.

StrongSculpt.

Fifteen-minute sessions focused specifically on compound movements and fast-twitch fibre development. Heavy, intentional, progressive. The kind of work that directly addresses what women over 40 lose fastest — and what makes the biggest difference to how capable and powerful you feel in your body.

It's not a replacement for SoulSculpt. It's the next layer. The Strength x Pilates foundation is what makes StrongSculpt effective — because you're loading a body that already knows how to organise itself under pressure.

I'm filming now. It's coming soon. And I can't wait to share it.

The Simple Truth

Slow-twitch or fast-twitch. Pilates or strength. Control or power.

You don't have to choose. You need both.

Especially after 40. Especially in perimenopause, when muscle loss accelerates, when bone density needs progressive load, when your body needs to be challenged in ways that keep all of its capacities sharp.

Strength x Pilates trains both. In every session. That's not an accident. It's the whole point.

Come and experience what this feels like in practice.

Every Thursday at 10:15 CET, we train live online — Strength x Pilates, built specifically for women navigating perimenopause and beyond. Every session recorded, unlimited replays, no expiry, train whenever your week allows.

→ [Try a free sample class at soulsculptmethod.com]

Or keep reading:

• [Pilates or Strength Training After 40 — Do You Have to Choose?]

• [Why Women Lose Muscle After 40 — And Exactly How to Stop It]

With strength & softness, Shaini ♡

Shaini Verdon is the founder of SoulSculpt Method. E-RYT 500, Pilates instructor, NASM Women's Fitness Specialist, FRC Mobility Specialist. Based in Cantabria, northern Spain.