Classical Pilates is a system which uses equipment, but it is also possible to study it with mat based exercises, and indeed, in the UK, this is what most people think of when you talk about pilates. What can you get from doing mat alone and what do you miss out on?
What You Can Get from Mat Exercises
Any good Pilates teacher will use the exercises to teach you the principles and priorities of how to use your body which we call the “Pilates Method”. The idea is not simply to go through the movements so you feel a little out of breath or a little stretched, but to start to change your body in a more fundamental way.
Studying mat alone with a good teacher will give you much of the benefit of the method: you will start to even out your “box”, you will find your powerhouse and you will begin to get control of your body.
Mat is especially excellent for strengthening the stomach and it’s portable. Just doing mat alone will make a real difference to most people’s bodies.
What is Missing If You Only Do Mat Exercises?
However, if Joe Pilates thought that the mat was all that people needed he would never have invented the rest. Exactly what else you need depends on your body type, but almost everyone can benefit from using the apparatus, even if it is only a shorter term exposure.
One of the senior teachers who trained me in Holland is a short ex dancer and her training of choice is to do mat 3 or 4 times a week. The apparatus doesn’t help her that much as it is too large for her and she has a lose body that needs to stay strong. For some people just doing mat is ideal.
The Advantage of the Equipment
However, for most people the apparatus has a number of solid advantages. It was invented by Pilates to get the movement in the body faster, and helps you to feel your box and your power house in a deeper way.
If you are stiff you also need the apparatus more, as it helps stretch you out more than is easily possible with the mat work. If you have special needs (a very bad back, pregnancy, etc) then mat classes are not the thing for you either as so much has to be omitted that you may as well not bother.
There are parts of the body which are worked less thoroughly with the mat – the legs and upper body are more systematically trained using equipment – and there are also certain movement patters which don´t happen on the mat.
Group and Private Classes
Studying the mat alone is not the same as only taking group classes, though for most people the two things are linked. Group classes often involve the use of small bits of apparatus, so the work is not exclusively mat: wall exercises, hand weights and the magic circle are easily incorporated. A group class is not simply mat work only.
What You Can Get from Mat Exercises
Any good Pilates teacher will use the exercises to teach you the principles and priorities of how to use your body which we call the “Pilates Method”. The idea is not simply to go through the movements so you feel a little out of breath or a little stretched, but to start to change your body in a more fundamental way.
Studying mat alone with a good teacher will give you much of the benefit of the method: you will start to even out your “box”, you will find your powerhouse and you will begin to get control of your body.
Mat is especially excellent for strengthening the stomach and it’s portable. Just doing mat alone will make a real difference to most people’s bodies.
What is Missing If You Only Do Mat Exercises?
However, if Joe Pilates thought that the mat was all that people needed he would never have invented the rest. Exactly what else you need depends on your body type, but almost everyone can benefit from using the apparatus, even if it is only a shorter term exposure.
One of the senior teachers who trained me in Holland is a short ex dancer and her training of choice is to do mat 3 or 4 times a week. The apparatus doesn’t help her that much as it is too large for her and she has a lose body that needs to stay strong. For some people just doing mat is ideal.
The Advantage of the Equipment
However, for most people the apparatus has a number of solid advantages. It was invented by Pilates to get the movement in the body faster, and helps you to feel your box and your power house in a deeper way.
If you are stiff you also need the apparatus more, as it helps stretch you out more than is easily possible with the mat work. If you have special needs (a very bad back, pregnancy, etc) then mat classes are not the thing for you either as so much has to be omitted that you may as well not bother.
There are parts of the body which are worked less thoroughly with the mat – the legs and upper body are more systematically trained using equipment – and there are also certain movement patters which don´t happen on the mat.
Group and Private Classes
Studying the mat alone is not the same as only taking group classes, though for most people the two things are linked. Group classes often involve the use of small bits of apparatus, so the work is not exclusively mat: wall exercises, hand weights and the magic circle are easily incorporated. A group class is not simply mat work only.
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