Three modalities
Running, strength training and Pilates in one week.
Pilates is the third thing people add and the first thing that breaks the week, because it is easy to treat as "free", it is not a hard session, so it feels like it costs nothing. It costs a day, and sometimes it costs more than that.
Part of our guide to Strength training for female runners .
Treat Pilates as the flexible session, like upper-body work: it can sit next to a hard run. What it cannot do is replace strength training for a runner: it does not load the tissue heavily enough.
What Pilates does and does not replace
Pilates is good at control, trunk stability, hip control and mobility, and those matter for a runner. What it does not do is load the tissue heavily, and heavy loading is the specific thing that makes tendons and bone tolerate running volume.
So it complements strength work rather than substituting for it. If you have to choose one, and you run, choose the loaded strength session.
A sample week: 3 runs, 2 strength, 2 Pilates
Seven days with something on each is a lot; this only works if the Pilates sessions are genuinely easy ones.
- Mon, strength, lower body
- Tue, easy run
- Wed, Pilates
- Thu, quality run
- Fri, strength, upper body
- Sat, Pilates or rest
- Sun, long run
The cut-down version
If seven days is not realistic, and for most people it is not, this five-day version keeps the important parts:
- Mon, strength, lower body
- Tue, easy run
- Thu, Pilates
- Fri, strength, upper body
- Sun, long run
Where FitBoost fits, and where it does not
Being straight about this: FitBoost plans your running and your strength together into one week. It does not plan Pilates as a modality: it has one strength-and-Pilates challenge programme, but Pilates is not something it schedules for you.
So the honest use is: let it arrange the running and the strength, which is the part with the real conflicts, and place your Pilates sessions in the gaps it leaves. The days it marks as rest or easy are where they belong.
Questions
Can Pilates replace strength training for runners?+
No. It is good for control and mobility but does not load tissue heavily enough to replace loaded strength work.
How many days of Pilates should a runner do?+
One or two. More than that usually comes out of your strength or your recovery.
Can I do Pilates on a rest day?+
A gentle session, yes. If it leaves you sore: it was a training day, not a rest day.
Does FitBoost schedule Pilates?+
No. It plans running and strength together. Pilates is yours to place in the days it leaves open.
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How FitBoost builds these schedules
The placement rules on this page are the ones the app applies: hard sessions spaced apart, heavy lower body kept away from the key run, upper body used as the session that interferes least, and rest planned rather than left over. In the app they run against your own history, what you completed, what you skipped and what you reported as too hard, rather than against a template.
We do not claim a clinical review of this page. It is training guidance, not medical advice, and anything involving pain, injury, pregnancy or the postpartum period belongs with a professional who can assess you. FitBoost has no postpartum programme today.
Last reviewed: August 2026