5 Pilates Movements Our Clients Love
Not sure what a Pilates class is like? We asked our clients about some of their favorite Pilates movements!
Our studio offers a ton of variety in movements, props, and class types to make each individual class unique. Unlike some larger commercial Pilates studios, our classes are never one-size-fits-all! Each of our instructors write workouts with each individual in the class in mind, focusing on carefully preparing modifications for injuries, addressing weaknesses, and targeting goals.
The classical Pilates repertoire includes 34 movements often completed from start to finish in order, whereas the contemporary repertoire ranges well over 100 movements. Rest assured, you will not be doing that many movements in one class! But you can count on each class being unique, and that variety is one of many reasons Pilates is such a great workout.
1. Feet In Straps (Beginner Friendly)
If you’ve ever done feet in straps before, you know why this is on this list! It feels amazing! The exercise starts with engaging your abdominals and pelvic floor, keeping your tailbone firmly planted on the carriage, and your feet in the straps up toward the ceiling. From there, the goal is to maintain that stabilized position throughout the movements of the legs.
With Feet In Straps, we can do a variety of exercises to strengthen the adductors, pelvic floor, abdominal muscles, and glutes, all while focusing on syncing with the breath.
Feet In Straps allows us all kinds of amazing, feel good stretches, and the crowd pleaser: Hip Circles (where you draw a circle with your feet, opening up deep inside your hips).
“Can we do hip circles for all 50 minutes today?” - says practically every Pilates client ;)
2. Reformer Roll-Ups (Intermediate)
While Amy H. does an amazing job at showing the most advanced form of this exercise, this exercise is often a favorite due to how functional, scalable, and modifiable it is. We can prop up the abdomen to minimize strain for someone needing less of a challenge.
Roll-ups—also performed in Pilates on the mat—are training the same muscles you use when getting up and off the ground, sitting up when playing with grandkids, or athletes looking to strengthen their full-body core coordination in their sport of choice.
On the Reformer Roll-Up pictured, we are working to find the timing of using our abdominals slowly while pressing out the carriage with control. This movement takes alot of coordination and concentration, timing the core with the legs.
3. Jumping (Intermediate)
At Pella Pilates, every four weeks we do something called “Jump Week” where we put jump boards on our reformers and do various jump board exercises in all the classes that week. Not all jumpboard workouts are fast-paced; they can be deep and slow (I can feel the burn just writing this!)
Some things you may expect from Jump Week:
Work on developing your coordination and focus.
Jumping on the reformer is a low-impact movement and can be adjusted to what feels comfortable for your joints! Lots of jumping, no joint aches!
Can be a great way to isolate areas of the body. Jumping can be done in a variety of positions to target muscles like glutes, delts, quads, hamstrings, triceps, you name it!
When asked about her favorite movement in Pilates, our client Michele said: “Easy! Any jump board moves!”
4. Reformer Pull-Ups (Beginner Friendly)
Reformer Pullups are a full body movement! Starting with our rocket position by lengthening and reaching the back legs, tightening the glutes, long strong back muscles holding the upper back rigid, core engagement underneath you, and finally: your arms pull you against the spring resistance to the end of the reformer.
This movement is excellent for training the pulling muscles in the arms. Because of the reformer spring system, we are able to find springs that give the right amount of tension without overloading or impacting your form.
“The pull up/rocket position work is my favorite because I feel like I’m working my whole body.” -our client, Lindsay says.
5. Lunge Stretch (Beginner Friendly)
The Lunge Stretch!
You will see this in most Core & Align and Fusion Foundations classes because it feels so good.
Unlike a lunge stretch on the floor, the reformer carries most of your weight so you can enjoy the stretch without having to worry about balancing or the stretch being too intense (like it often can be on the floor).
By moving the carriage through the stretch, you can find the perfect sweet spot to open up the front of your hip.
These are particularly great for people who sit all day for work and find they have achy hips.
There are many many more Pilates movements than just these five, and the best way to find out which movement is your favorite is to come try a class! We would love to meet you.
We offer classes for all levels, ages, and abilities. From Core & Align to learn the basics, Aging Gracefully for staying strong in the golden years of life, FUSION classes for a higher intensity workout class— we can meet you where you are.
