If it’s hard, you’re doing it right.

I love the Pilates matwork – I love teaching it, refining it, practicing it and talking about it.    This is not to say that I don’t like the apparatus routines – they certainly are effective and have their place.  But nothing gets my abs working or my blood flowing quite the same way as a plain old mat class.   I am amazed when I hear  people talk about how much they love Pilates and how they’ve been doing Pilates for years… yet they’ve not done a mat class.

The matwork is the root of all other exercises in the method.  You can do the matwork anywhere, at any time, and you can vary the level of difficulty to meet your particular needs or goals.  Without a deep familiarity with the matwork, the rest of your Pilates practice will lack in depth.

Many people believe that the apparatus work is more challenging.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because  it involves a machine.  Or perhaps because they are typically more expensive than a mat class, and people equate more money with better value.   A properly executed mat class will kick your butt and make you sweat and work your body, and I am not alone when I say that I prefer the benefits of an impeccable mat class to an equipment class.

A little background history might give some perspective.  Joseph Pilates created the exercises that became the matwork before all else.  The matwork, as noted above, is the foundation for everything that follows in the Pilates repetoire.  Within the matwork lies the basic movements upon which others derive: the abdominal scoop, the pelvic curl, the chest lift.  Of course, you could learn this basic movements while participating in a reformer class.  But, being able to really understand and feel what these moves are doing, why you’re doing them, and how to properly execute them, can only come if you’re working within your body alone, without the aid of the straps and pulleys on the equipment.

Fast forward to when Joe was working as a nurse while imprisoned during World War 1.  Many of the men he worked with, soldiers who had been injured during the war, were not strong enough to perform the matwork on their own.  Their bodies were injured and broken, and it was not safe for them to attempt these exercises on their own.  Enter the apparatus.  Joe created rudimentary machines by hooking the bedsprings to the wall, retrofitting wheelchairs, and finding other clever ways to give his patients the extra leverage and assistance they needed to perform the exercises.  The ultimate goal was to help them become stronger so they could perform the method on their own, without the assistance of the equipment.

This is where the apparatus is invaluable – it gives an instructor information about where a client is weaker or needs more attention, and it helps to give the client a little extra “push” to work through their own imbalances and/or misalignments.   The apparatus is used extensively for rehabilitation, and in physical therapy sessions, to great success.

The Pilates repetoire always comes back to the matwork.  It’s the alpha and the omega.

The matwork is not easy.  It is performed without any leverage or assistance, it’s just you and your own body weight fighting gravity and moving through space.  For those who are new to the Pilates matwork, you will find that even the most basic of these exercises is above the ability level of most beginners.   This is normal.  You are using muscles that are often neglected, unused or improperly engaged.  You are telling the larger, more dominant muscles that they are not center stage any more.

Our challenge for this week – get back to the basics and take a mat class!  Focus on what the instructor is trying to teach you – the minute, fundamental truths of the Pilates repetoire.  Reconnect with the “why” and “how” of Pilates.   Our bodies have the ability to do amazing things.  Take a mat class this week and see for yourself.

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