So what are Pilates Apparatus?
Exquisitely adaptable and fiendishly clever
Joseph began developing various studio Apparatus ( 26 in total ) to fill in the gaps in the Repertoire as no single piece of Pilates equipment could give each individual client what their body needed. All his Apparatus are exquisitely adaptable, and fiendishly clever. They reward the curious with movements that feel amazing!
Learn about them here and how each one can benefit you. And not to worry: The full expression of many Pilates exercises can seem daunting and challenging, but with my cunning encouragement and tailored progressions chosen for you, your Pilates practice will develop confidently over time.
For some clients with injuries, some of the exercises may be contraindicated. Appropriate modifications that I teach will allow clients to explore and develop the essence of exercises in pieces and parts.
About Pilates
What is Pilates?
The history of pilates
Pilates is a system of exercises created by Joseph Pilates, which were based on his extensive studies in anatomy and training in the martial arts, boxing, fencing, and acrobatics. The Pilates Method connects the “Mind and Body” leaving you feeling renewed and energised.
Following the “system” is important. This is why the Firefly Pilates Studio uses a comprehensive offering of various Pilates apparatus in the studio to help you get the most out of your Practice in each lesson. Doing only a Mat group class or regular Reformer group class is great, but that will leave gaps in your Practice needs. Imagine making chicken soup and only ever adding chicken broth? You need all the other tasty ingredients to make the soup hearty.
Pilates Apparatus
The apparatus i use in my studio
BENEFITS
Mat work focuses on low-impact, bodyweight exercises performed on a special mat on the floor. It builds good posture, core strength, balance and flexibility, while creating a mind body awareness. It includes spine and joint mobility exercises which are a good way of easing ailments like back pain. In the Firefly Pilates studio I have a raised clinical bed which allows those with mobility issues to also enjoy the Mat repertoire without having to get up and down off the floor. Mat work (modified) is what I use to teach clients as young as 5 when the big apparatus is not yet appropriate for them.
All Pilates classes in the Firefly Pilates Studio are always started with a few minutes of “Mat Pre-Pilates exercises”. These are basic fundamental movements, which help to calm the mind and prepare the body for the start of the Mat Sequence. These exercises are often used to do a whole hour lesson, for complete beginners, or those rehabilitating from injuries or surgery, to help them understand and learn fundamental movements patterns, and common Pilates terminology.
HISTORY
The Mat Repertoire is a system of 34 exercises in sequence, developed by Joseph Pilates, at the time of World War 1. Each exercise has a name, which I will teach you, alongside its benefits. Over the course of his career, Joseph Pilates developed more than 600 exercises for the Mat!
BENEFITS
It is extremely versatile: the repertoire is performed lying down, both prone and supine, seated, kneeling, and standing. The Tower unit is essentially a scaled-down Cadillac with fewer bells and whistles. The Tower is ideal for beginner students as well as those who are recovering from injuries.
There’s very little pressure on the joints because the body weight is supported by the Mat portion of the apparatus and the exercise range of movement is moderate to protect the joints from over-stretching. Many of the exercises are performed in a seated or lying down face up, which is comforting for those who get dizzy or have a fear of heights.
Enjoy the Roll Back to banish back tension after a long day of sitting, or try the Push Through exercise to bring those naughty shoulders out of the ears! Relish in strengthening and lengthening the muscles to soothe your body and mind.
HISTORY
During WW1 when Joseph Pilates’ was interned at Knockaloe Camp on the Isle of Man, he apparently used bungee cords and springs attached to the metal frames of the hospital beds, to help patients to rehab. This may have been the birth of his Cadillac idea. The Cadillac is now the largest of the Pilates apparatuses. It resembles a four-poster twin bed, raised off the floor and fitted with a variety springs and bars. Like the Mat Work there is a sequence of exercises which Joseph created. Each exercise has a name, which I will teach you, alongside its benefits.
BENEFITS
In a class setting, without proper supervision, a Reformer can be a very dangerous piece of equipment. But having me help set up the equipment for you, and observe your body on the equipment, you will be safe, and soon you will be able to develop your own autonomy to manage the equipment and how your body moves on it. The springs on the Reformer, simultaneously stretch and strengthen the body. Instead of “old school” workouts which train one muscle group at a time, the Reformer works muscles in concert with one another, resulting in a balanced physique and leaving no muscle over or under-trained.
The springs can add challenge, or add support. It’s a dance of physics. It’s a great way for me to spot imbalances in your body especially when you lie down to do the “Footwork Series”. Those clues will lead me on to choose exercises to create better balance and harmony in your muscles and joints. Reformer Pilates is beneficial for beginners, those who want improve their current sport or exercise regime, and clients with scoliosis or spine concerns. It’s especially beneficial for the active ager 65+ to aid mobility and ease joint stiffness, and those with bone density concerns (menopause and osteoporosis).
HISTORY
Perhaps the best known piece of Pilates equipment - The Reformer was fully developed, when Joseph Pilates opened his studio in New York in the late 1920s. The Firefly Pilates Studio has a contemporary version of Joe’s original design. It is such a versatile piece of Apparatus, hence why it’s so popular. Like the Mat Work there is a sequence of exercises which Joseph created. Each exercise has a name, which I will teach you, alongside its benefits.
BENEFITS
Many exercises on the Combo Chair help strengthen the postural muscles of the core and back which aids in developing a more upright and aligned posture, reducing the likelihood of posture-related discomfort. The Combo Chair has a split pedal allowing for asymmetrical movements that can target muscle imbalances and enhance coordination, ideal for athletes, sportsmen and women. An additional benefit of the Combo Chair is the extendable handles that aide in balance and control.
The Chair offers options to do many exercises standing, which is particularly beneficial for individuals rehabilitating from injuries, clients unable to lie down, or for those who need vertical loading to strengthen bones. With spring tensions that can be fine turned, exercises can be adjusted to minimise strain on the hips, knees, and ankles. This gentle, low impact approach helps maintain fitness making it an ideal choice for maintaining activity levels, especially through the senior years.
HISTORY
The Combo Chair that we use today evolved from Joseph Pilates’ original Wunda Chair design, which he created in the 1930’s. He designed the chair to be a living room armchair doubled as a versatile exercise machine. Joseph created approximately 50 exercises for the chair, focusing on core strength, leg strength, shoulder girdle stability and mobility. The Combo Chair we see today is a more advanced version of Joseph’s Wunda Chair, incorporating modern designs and features like the split pedal and handles, allowing for more independent and versatile movements.
BENEFITS
The towel acts as an extension of the body. With regular use clients find correction to shoulder imbalances, aches and pains, improved awareness and symmetry, as well as better range of motion to the whole shoulder girdle, trunk and spine. This results in correcting forward head posture and more.
The towel mobility can be enjoyed as a standalone class for a full hour, but I often use parts of the towel work to target specific shoulder or postural challenges within a full comprehensive Pilates session. It can be used while standing, seated or lying down.
HISTORY:
Ron Fletcher was a professional dancer who learned Pilates directly from Joseph Pilates himself, earning him the reputation of a first-generation Pilates Elder. Years after Joseph’s passing, Ron was working with a client in the 1970s who struggled to raise her arms overhead. He later described seeing “seventy versions of wrong and not one version of right.”To move correctly, she needed spatial awareness—initiating the movement from her back, maintaining symmetry through her arms and shoulders—but she couldn’t grasp how to do it. Ron picked up a studio towel, folded and twisted it into a rope-like shape, and asked her to hold it while lifting it overhead, keeping the towel straight and parallel to the ground.
Instantly, she achieved better upper-body symmetry and connected more effectively to her back muscles. This moment sparked the idea of using a towel as a prop. Over the following years, Ron refined this concept, ultimately creating the Braided Towel design we use today.
BENEFITS
A Jumpboard is a padded, board-like attachment that replaces the foot bar on the Reformer. Where appropriate, I may choose to elevate your practice by adding a Jumpboard to your workouts. It can add a fresh, fun and dynamic twist to spice up your workouts. But there are many more surprising benefits for you:
The Jumpboard can turn up the intensity a notch, potentially making you get a sweat on. The repetitive jumping action elevates your heart rate, turning your workout into an effective calorie burner which raises the pulse. It is not a cardiovascular workout!
It can certainly improve endurance without putting undue pressure on your joints. In fact it will help achy joints because gentle jumping will increase the production of synovial fluid, which nourishes and lubricates the joints, reducing stiffness and discomfort. If you've been avoiding high-impact activities because of joint pain, try the Jumpboard! It offers a safe and enjoyable alternative.
It's great for rehabbing the lower limb to bring partial introduce partial load, before returning to full weight bearing jumps on the ground. It’s a rehabilitation technique used by physiotherapists.
The jump sequences ( either with hands or feet ), will improve your coordination. Your brain will also get a sweat on as it will have to work in sync with your body to perform each jump with control and accuracy. This makes it especially important for clients who are at risk of falling, to improve the nervous system connections to the feet. For those clients older than 80, sadly a fall which results in a broken hip can reduce life expectancy… so looking after your coordination, and leg strength is vital.
As we age and our bone density naturally begins to decline. Women going through menopause are especially susceptible to osteoporosis developing. The gentle yet repetitive impact of the Jumpboard promotes bone-loading - a process that helps stimulate bone growth and increase bone density.
HISTORY
Everyone agrees that Joseph Pilates did not invent it, and his original Reformers did not include it. Some of Joseph’s students ( now known as the Pilates Elders ) all worked in a close community of the Pilates world “back then”. So let’s just say it could have been Eve Gentry, Ken Endelman or Romana Kryzanowska who developed it. Generally it arrived into the Pilates studios in the 1970’s. That many of the Pilates Elders were professional ballet dancers, presumably it was invented as an add on to the Reformer to provide a more ergonomically appropriate surface for the feet and to assist with jump training for dancers.
BENEFITS
The Magic Circle is one of the most recognisable and versatile Pilates props. I have an unlimited imagination when it comes to creating fun and challenging ways to use it in workouts. The Magic Circle can improve body awareness, increase resistance, and add challenge by creating instability. It’s an effective way to work the inner and outer thigh muscles, but it can be used for so much more. For athletes who have a one side dominant sport, the Magic Circle helps to bring the body back into balance. Mainly it helps you to get a true connection to your core muscles.
HISTORY
It’s believed that Joseph Pilates created the first Magic Circle from the metal rings that encircle wooden beer barrels, which would have been easy to find and repurpose in early 20th Century Germany.
BENEFITS
I offer a variety of large and small balls in Pilates sessions. I love the versatility they offer to many Traditional Pilates exercises. A basic bridge done with feet on the floor can be made adapted by instead placing the feet on the big Stability ball, to add balance and coordination challenge!
I have quite a few clients with painful arthritic toes and as a result they cannot do a full plank on the Mat. However propping the legs up on the Stability ball offers them the same exercise but lifts the feet off the floor. The small “Over Ball” can be squeezed between knees during a bridging exercise to strengthen the inner thighs – and, as a result, the pelvic floor will too.
BENEFITS
I see so many benefits including these props, especially at the start and end of Pilates sessions. Using a foam roller can assist in breaking up knots and adhesions in your muscles which cause stuck stress in your body. I offer special techniques of gliding, rinsing, and friction with these props to stimulate normal blood flow and function to your tissues, resulting in reduction of returning injuries which caused you pain. Small balls I offer to clients to help release specific areas where a tissue might be tight. Like the piriformis, or the fascia under the foot.
BENEFITS
Ballet barre is a low-impact exercise system that blends Pilates principles with ballet barre work to improve posture, flexibility, and endurance. By doing Pilates in a standing orientation, the system helps to vertically load bones, which improves bone density over time, making it particularly beneficial for those with Osteopenia or Osteoporosis. The controlled movements in ballet barre increase your range of motion and stability, enhancing overall balance. By focusing on the deep abdominal and pelvic floor muscles, ballet barre strengthens the core, which supports better posture and spinal health. This whole body workout is easy on the joints, making it a safe option for people of all fitness levels and a great way to build strength without high impact.
HISTORY
The technique was developed by Ron Fletcher to bring Pilates to a standing position, applying its core principles to a ballet barre setting to make it more accessible and beneficial for all bodies. Ron Fletcher was a first-generation Pilates teacher who was influenced by Joseph and his wife Clara Pilates. He developed this unique technique by drawing on his background as a professional dancer and choreographer.
BENEFITS
Increases strength and flexibility of the spine in all its planes of movement. In so doing, it lengthens and strengthens the torso, shoulders, and back, helping to reverse the effects of pain and stiffness associated with poor posture. It’s a great addition to the mat repertoire, adding variety and options of more challenging exercises that test coordination and call out imbalances that live in the body. It’s particularly useful for clients with scoliosis or other spinal imbalances to refine the use of the spine in any position. The removable step, asymmetrical curve and ability to work on the top or the bottom of the arc means exciting exercises can be added into your Pilates repertoire. These can be useful for clients who need sports specific balance and stability training for things like dance, skiing, skating and martial arts.
HISTORY
The light weight, Balanced Body Pilates Arc I use in my studio, is based on the Spine Corrector, originally designed by Joseph Pilates. Following his death, Jospeh’s wife, Clara worked with Ron Fletcher to design the Clara Step Barrel which improved on Jo’s Spine Corrector shape and size. The two of them refined new repertoire for it.
