If you go into a yoga or a Pilates class at an area health club, odds are that 80 percent or more of the students in the class will be female.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Sherry DeShong of Franklin Park trains on Pilates equipment at The Pines Studio in Pine. The discipline's mat and equipment exercises are great for building core strength and improving flexibility. Click photo for larger image.

That's unfortunate, because though women often benefit immensely from these classes, men -- especially middle aged men -- need them more.

"Men in general are less flexible than women. They're just put together differently," said Dr. Betsy Blazek-O'Neill, Medical Director of the Integrated Medicine program at Allegheny General hospital.

The exercises men do, weight lifting in particular, also tend to tighten up their muscles, Dr. Blazek-O'Neill said.

Yoga and Pilates classes are safe, effective ways to learn how to stretch those muscles and make the body more flexible, she said.

Yoga's relaxation component is also good for men, who tend to be less aware than women of when they need stress relief, Dr. Blazek-O'Neill said.

Yoga is a series of disciplines developed over thousands of years. Pilates is of more recent vintage. But they are cousins. Both emphasize proper breathing, strengthening the core (abdominal and back muscles, principally), increasing flexibility and improving posture. The Pilates Fitness Journal has identified 27 poses yoga and Pilates have in common.

"There's a lot of crossover in the two disciplines," said Mark Puchany, who teaches Pilates at Club One in Shadyside. "I love them both. Pilates is more for core strengthening and spine strengthening. Yoga is more of a total body workout."

Proper breathing is central to both , but the techniques are very different. Yoga emphasizes belly breathing, with inhaling and exhaling done through the nose. Pilates emphasizes thoracic breathing (moving the ribcage out and in), and inhaling through the nose, then exhaling through the mouth.

Either yoga or Pilates, or the two in combination, should be the cornerstone of a fitness program, instructors say.

But while either will give the person interested in general fitness the resistance training their bodies need, yoga or Pilates should be supplemented with cardiovascular exercise, most instructors say.

Pilates "should be done in combination with cardiovascular training at least three times a week," said Missy Becker-Noll, proprietor of the Pines Studio for Pilates in Pine.

"The goal of aerobic exercise is to raise the heart rate, and yoga or Pilates don't do this very much," said Mr. Puchany. "You get a mild cardiovascular benefit, but nothing like walking on a treadmill for half an hour."

But Denise Germanowski, a trim former gymnast who teaches Pilates at Bodytech in Pine , thinks that Pilates and yoga, especially in combination, are sufficient.

"Except for my kickboxing class [that she teaches], all I do is Pilates and yoga," she said.

Yoga and Pilates have rehabilitative benefits no other forms of exercise can claim.

Pro wrestler Dallas Page turned to yoga after suffering a career-threatening back injury.

"Guys, I'm not BSing when I say that in my entire life I've never experienced a more profound and gratifying workout than those I've had in yoga," Mr. Page wrote in a book he coauthored with chiropractor Craig Aaron entitled: "Yoga for Regular Guys."

It was a serious back injury suffered in an automobile accident in 1966 that led Missy Becker-Noll to Pilates.

"I was told I would never walk again," she said.

Lynette Chugtai, 54, of Franklin Park suffers from diabetes. She has been going to Ms. Becker-Noll's studio for four years.

"When I came here, I couldn't lift my arms above my head," she said. "I had constant back pain. I couldn't walk up and down stairs normally. I'm 1,000 percent better now."

Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates, a German boxer and dancer who had studied yoga and Zen meditation, as a way to rehabilitate soldiers injured during World War I. He came to the United States in 1926 primarily to help dancers with the New York City Ballet avoid injury.

There are two types of Pilates exercises -- mat exercises and exercises performed on three machines Mr. Pilates invented. Though she also offers mat classes, Ms. Becker-Noll emphasizes apparatus workouts.

"What people who only do the mat exercises don't realize is that they also need to have the resistance of the equipment to fully exercise the body," said Ms. Becker-Noll, whose studio is one of only two in the country certified to teach the Peak method of Pilates. She has trained many of the Pilates instructors in the area.

Joseph Pilates developed the mat exercises first, then invented the machines after noting many of those doing the mat exercises were not using proper form, Ms. Becker-Noll said.

Form is awfully important, Ms. Germanowski said.

"If you don't do Pilates properly, you can hurt yourself," she said.

The most famous of Joseph Pilates' machines is called the reformer. More than 700 exercises can be performed on it.

Professional golfer Tiger Woods is a Pilates enthusiast, as is Annika Sorenstam, the top woman golfer. In an effort to lure more male customers, Ms. Becker-Noll has produced a brochure: "Pilates for the Golf Enthusiast."

Sue Colton, 55, who says she golfs almost every day when the weather permits, is a believer:

"I'm hitting the ball 30 to 40 yards further now, with greater accuracy," she said.

Dallas Page, the pro wrestler, tries to use the fact that students in yoga classes are predominantly female as a means to lure more guys into them.

"I can't think of a better place to meet women who are in, or who already are on their way to being in great shape with great, flexible bodies than in the yoga studio," he wrote.

Bill Doverspike, 36, a power lifter at Bodytech, admits this was his original motivation for taking Ms. Germanowski's Pilates class.

"I thought the instructor was hot," he said.

But he's stayed because "this gives you a totally different workout," Mr. Doverspike said.

There are plenty of books and tapes on yoga and Pilates, including Mr. Page's. But because of the importance of getting the breathing and the form right, the novice should take at least a few classes before trying to work out at home.