Does Pilates, Barre, or Yoga Really Create “Long and Lean” Muscles?
It’s a claim that never seems to die: “Pilates, barre, and yoga create long, lean muscles.”
Every few years, it picks up steam online and starts recirculating like a fitness version of déjà vu.
So, is it true?
Naturally, I had to ask my Instagram followers what they thought.
Now let’s break down the claim, the nuance, and the science behind it.
This question might have brought up more questions than answers.
Before we can even talk about Pilates, barre, or yoga, we need to answer two things first:
Can muscles actually get longer?
Can muscles actually get leaner?
CAN MUSCLES GET LONGER?
The primary driver of muscle growth (hypertrophy) is mechanical tension - the force a muscle experiences when it’s under load.
Both resistance training and stretching create mechanical tension, and therefore both can lead to muscle growth.
Muscles can grow in two main ways:
Radial hypertrophy: growth in thickness or cross-sectional area
Longitudinal hypertrophy: growth in the length of muscle fibers
So the answer is yes - but how this growth occurs depends on how mechanical tension is applied and the type of load the muscle experiences.
Resistance Training and Stretch:
Long Muscle Length Training
When a muscle is trained through its deepest, most lengthened position — like the bottom of a squat, the stretched phase of a biceps curl, or the fully extended position of a pull-up - this is called long muscle length training.
It shows the most promise for maximizing overall muscle growth.
In long muscle length training, the muscle is contracting dynamically under load while in a lengthened position, which creates significant mechanical tension.
A review of current research shows that strength training at long muscle lengths tends to lead to greater overall hypertrophy (both length and thickness) compared to training in shorter ranges.
At this point, we can’t fully separate the effects of lengthening versus thickening growth with any type of training.
So, while it’s possible this training may increase longitudinal hypertrophy (lengthening of the muscle), the evidence is still unclear and more research is needed.
Stretch-Mediated Hypertrophy
Stretch-mediated hypertrophy is often confused with long muscle length training, but they’re not the same thing.
It refers to passive muscle growth that occurs when a muscle is held in a stretched position under continuous tension for long periods of time.
Animal studies show that prolonged stretching (often hours per day) can produce notable hypertrophy and muscle lengthening.
In humans, evidence is far more limited.
For example, a case study found significant calf muscle growth from long-duration passive stretching - but the participant spent hours each week in a calf-stretching boot to achieve those results.
You could achieve similar, if not better, growth with just a few minutes of loaded calf raises through a full range of motion - a much more efficient approach.
Muscle Extensibility
Muscles also have the property of extensibility — the ability to stretch or lengthen.
But how much they lengthen, and how long that change lasts, is still unclear.
After stretching, you might feel “looser,” but most research suggests this is due to neural changes (your body perceives less resistance to stretch), not actual physical lengthening of muscle fibers.
So What About Pilates, Barre, and Yoga?
If these workouts use positions that train muscles at their most lengthened position (for example, deep squat and lunge positions), there’s a theoretical possibility for some longitudinal hypertrophy or muscle lengthening.
However, there are no studies that directly test this hypothesis in Pilates, barre, or yoga.
It’s important to remember that for meaningful muscle growth, the stimulus must be intense enough and progressively overloaded over time.
That can be difficult to achieve in Pilates, barre, or yoga due to limitations in external load - meaning not having enough weight to drive change.
As for stretching -
To create measurable, mechanical lengthening in the muscle itself, stretching would need to be both high-volume and high-intensity (like the calf stretching study mentioned earlier), which isn’t typical in most yoga, barre, or Pilates sessions.
We also don’t fully know how much of the “lengthening” you feel in these classes is actual tissue change versus your nervous system allowing you to relax deeper into a stretch.
So yes, muscles can get longer — but we don’t know if Pilates, barre, or yoga provide enough of a stimulus to do so.
Anatomical Limitations
The argument can also be made that the length of our muscles is finite.
Muscles attach to bones at an origin and insertion point.
They can’t grow beyond those anatomical boundaries unless your bones themselves grow longer.
Bones lengthen throughout childhood and adolescence but stop growing in early adulthood (around ages 16–18).
So how much can they possibly grow in length?
CAN MUSCLES GET LEANER?
Muscles are already categorized as lean body mass (or fat-free mass) and contain very little fat within the muscle tissue itself.
That small amount, called intramuscular fat (IMF), acts as an energy reserve and insulator - but it’s not visible fat.
When most people say they want “lean muscle,” they’re really referring to subcutaneous fat - the layer of fat that sits on top of the muscle and can be pinched.
To reduce subcutaneous fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit, meaning you burn more calories than you consume.
You can achieve this through:
Nutrition changes
Exercise
Or a combination of both
Any type of physical activity can help with this - not just Pilates.
To get that lean, “toned” look, you need to:
Build muscle through sufficient mechanical tension and overload
Lose body fat through a calorie deficit so that muscle becomes more visible
What the Research Shows for Pilates, Barre, and Yoga
While we don’t have studies showing that Pilates, barre, or yoga create “long and lean” muscles, research does show these exercise modes can improve:
Muscle strength, particularly in the core and smaller stabilizing muscles
Muscle endurance, allowing muscles to work longer before fatiguing
Body composition, especially in beginners, where muscle gains are easier to achieve
These workouts can absolutely help you feel stronger, move better, and look more toned.
But the claim that they create “long and lean muscles” isn’t supported by current evidence.
The Bottom Line
The idea of “long and lean muscles” is mostly marketing language - aimed at women who want a toned look without getting bulky.
We currently only have studies showing muscle lengthening with stretching in animals or high-intensity, high-volume stretching in humans - methods not typical of Pilates, barre, or yoga.
We also have studies showing that strength training in both trained and untrained individuals can increase muscle length (longitudinal hypertrophy) and thickness (radial hypertrophy).
But these studies do not examine Pilates, barre, or yoga.
Muscles themselves aren’t “leaner” or “fatter.”
How visible or “toned” they appear depends on overall body fat percentage, not the type of workout you do.
So while Pilates, barre, and yoga can improve strength, endurance, and body composition, there’s no current evidence that these exercise modes alone create “long and lean” muscles.
It’s just marketing.
