Longing to have the lean muscles of a dancer but have about as much rhythm as Elaine on Seinfeld? Save the money you would spend on tap shoes and invest in a Pilates class instead. Similar to yoga with its concentration on breathing, the practice of Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates in just the past century. And although you don’t usually break much of a sweat during a session, Pilates can still help you with your weight loss goals.

“Pilates can help to build and maintain lean muscle mass while you are losing weight, help to realign posture as the body’s center of gravity changes, promote long elegant posture and graceful flowing movement, and keep you centered and energized—all at the same time,” says Jillian Hessel, a Los Angeles–based Pilates teacher with 26 years experience. Once a favorite of 1930s New York dancers George Balanchine and Martha Graham, Pilates now has over 10 million followers in the United States alone.

Thanks to focusing on major muscles groups and slow, intentional movements, Pilates has become widely popularized as a perfect weight loss regimen. “I find that many people are successful losing weight with Pilates because they become much more aware of their bodies and in turn treat them better and make better food choices,” says Ana Cabán, Pilates fitness expert. After chatting with a panel of Pilates pros and diving into the fitness method’s history, we present you with the top 5 ways to become trim and toned by practicing Pilates.

1) More Muscles = More Calories Burned

Creating muscle mass is one of the best ways to increase your calorie-burning potential. Pilates can help you accomplish that in spades. “Simply stated, Pilates is strength training. We work with resistance to increase strength and hence, muscle mass. Using springs and different apparatus to increase the load to the muscles, we can affect a metabolic increase by building lean muscle mass,” says Alycea Ungaro, owner of Real Pilates NYC.

You can add a variety of tools to your basic Pilates mat routine to help tone muscles all over, and avoid boredom. “I enjoy adding bands, body rings and light weights to my Pilates routine because it provides variety and challenges muscles in a different way,” says Cabán. Resistance bands are easily portable, yet create a notable amount of challenging resistance to help firm and tone. The body ring, well known among Pilates fans, is another resistance tool used during mat exercising, often focusing on the lower body and core muscles.

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[Image courtesy of Betsssssy on flickr.com]