Centring, coordination and breathing are amongst the leading principles of Pilates exercise (Latey P, 2002), which are also important respiratory functions to consider during swimming. We hypothesized, therefore, that training for swimming along with Pilates could be synergistic to improve overall physical capability, and aimed to observe whether there was any effect of Pilates on the development of motor functions and respiratory capacity of young swimmers. Following approval from the Institutional Ethics Committee, 16 competitive swimmers (CS) (who are in training for the last 5 years for 2 hours/ 4 days/wk) and 12 habitual swimmers (HS) were recruited as volunteers. They were divided into 4 groups: CS who did Pilates training, (CSpil, n=9, 16,7±2.9 years); CS controls, no Pilates (CScon, n=7, 15,7± 1,5 years); HSpil, (n=6; 19,2± 1,8 years; and HScon, (n=6, 21,2±1,7 years). The training was for 8 weeks, as reported by Muscolino and Cipriani (2004). Before Pilates training (bPT), the volunteers were asked to perform incremental exercise test (15-25 W/min) to the tolerable limit for estimation of lactate-threshold (θL) and determination of peak pulmoner oxygen uptake (VO2peak) using Vmax Encore system (VIASYS, USA). The CS group also performed at 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400m freestyle swimming, whereas HS group only at 25 and 50m. The values of hand grip and back power (Takei Kiki Kogyo dynamometers, Japan) as well as vertical jump heights (countermovement jump test) were also determined. All measurements were repeated after PT. Values are median (minimum-maximum) and analysed by Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-ranks tests. The level of significance is p ≤ 0.05. CSpil group presented significant improvement at VO2peak which was bPT: 28,5 (16,8-32,3) and aPT: 43,4 (34,7-57,5) ml/kg/min (p<0.05), and θL was bPT 14,4 (8,02-20.5); aPT, 21,73 (14,5-34,5) ml/kg/min (p<0.05). There was no difference at the power variables except for HSpil group back power values which were: bPT 69,4 (49,70-101,9) and 105,9 (80,1-146,5) kg (p<0.05). Swimming performance in seconds did not change significantly except for 200m in CSpil group. There was no difference for flexibility, body mass index, maximum heart rate and maximum load values amongst groups. Since Pilates is relatively easy and less stressful to perform as an exercise, there is a trend to recommend it in many areas. Regarding our study, three sessions of weekly Pilates for 2 months seems to positively affecting the improvement of peak VO2 in young CS. However, the contribution from that type of exercise into the speed and power variables seems less noteworthy. Before recommending Pilates as a “supplement” to the actual exercise during training, further work needs to be done.