It’s hard to believe we are on the cusp of March MATness 2017!
How did it all start?
Now in its 5th year, March MATness is a global celebration of the original Mat exercises and brilliant body conditioning system that is our beloved Contrology.
Read more here.
OMG I love the Mat exercises!
Yes.
It’s true.
I’m endlessly fascinated with all of Joe’s Mat exercises. He stretches us to the very edges of our capabilities with infinite variations on a theme.
My personal Mat workout consists of the 34 exercises from Joe Pilates and the 3 extra ‘Series of 5‘ exercises reportedly added by Romana Kryzanowska: Single Straight Leg Stretch (Scissors), Double Straight Leg Stretch (Lower Lift), and Criss Cross. Another staple is Thigh Stretch, an exercise Jay Grimes learned from Joe Pilates in the 1960s.
Which brings my total to a whopping 38 exercises!
Sometimes I like to add the High Bridge after the Shoulder Bridge. Because I can.
And if you can you should.
Every little bit of this workout can be completed in under 30 minutes.
Let’s get the party started with the Hundred on Wednesday March 1, 2017.
The Order of the Universe
I’m a huge fan of Joe Pilates’ original order of the Mat exercises.
What a precious gift from Joe Pilates.
We’ve got an entire month (and beyond) to focus on his brilliant sequencing.
Thanks Joe.
If you’re new to the order of the Pilates Mat exercises get your list of the exercises here.
Stay tuned in March for the debut of My Mat Poster…coming soon!
3 Cheers for our Faves
This year I’m thrilled to have a few more favorites on the Mat than in previous years. Maybe you do too.
Since last year’s MATness I have come to thoroughly enjoy Swimming.
Way more than I ever thought possible…
Other stretchy favorites include Control Balance and Bicycle.
Don’t get me started on the rolling exercises… #goodtimesroll
Wanna take a closer look?
On the Mat, perfecting your exercises can take time.
Use these posts to dive in deep this week and sail on through the weekend:
- I am my own Spine Corrector: How to Lower your Legs in the Hundred
- Pilates Mat Exercise #2: The Roll Up
- A Brief Pilates Tutorial on the Roll Up
- Pilates Mat Exercise #3: The Roll Over
- 3 New Thoughts on an Old Favorite: The One Leg Circle
- 10 Helpful Pilates Posts to Get the Ball Rolling
- Pilates Mat Exercises #6-10: The Ab Five
- Desperately Seeking Neck Pull on the Mat
Maybe you’re ready to link your exercises together into one glorious chain of movement?
Tighten up those transitions between exercises all month long:
Or you can watch the playlist on YouTube.
MATness All Month Long
I hope you’ll join me here for Mat-centric posts as we move and sweat our way through the MATness.
10 Responses
Speaking of Swimming. Funny I keep “forgetting” to do it during my mat. Maybe sharing your profound insights will burn it on my hardware for evermore…
Oriane,
I love your Pilates confession. I totally skipped Rocking for a while – and then I had to laugh when i saw another person doing it in their workout. Oh yeah… Rocking! Like it was a surprise 🙂 LOL
And I kind of like your literal translation. We are rewiring our habits… needs to be burned into our brains for sure. Thank you so much for reading and for sharing your thoughts here.
Happy March MATness!!
…ooops sorry for weird English…please forgive a native German for translating word-to-word…”to burn” should in this case mean “to record/ to upload”…
Hey there!!! Eek ???? March already!! Where did that time go?!!
Yup I’ll be looking forward to seeing how the 30 day barrel-of-love challenge has improved my mat, maybe even adding some much needed love ❤️ to those exercises I kind of accidentally leave out….. of which there are a few!!
Actually I was wondering which exercises on the mat you would consider to be ‘foundational ‘ like the selection you talk about on the reformer… footwork, frogs, elephant etc. Would it be the first few exercises I wonder? Just in case one wants to do a quick mat… which exercises would you consider to be essential for a balanced workout, particularly for those of us still struggling with those circus tricks????????…
Looking forward to seeing you next week … xoxo
Hey there 🙂
This is a good question – let me think about what exercises on the Mat would be considered foundational. I would say off the top of my head that it would be the basic 5 exercises – I believe there is a post on those as well – so it would be Hundred, Roll Up, One Leg Circle, Roll Like a Ball and Spine Stretch – or even more so – the Basic 7 shall we say – these 5 plus Single Leg Pull and Double Leg Pull.
Just those 7 exercises are in my 5 minute Mat workout on my YouTube channel as well. See what you think and I will see you in a couple weeks 🙂
xox
and….we’re off! March.Mattness.of.Love.Challenge! ????????????????♀️ Gotta nail those Transitions in 2017! The most effective whole shibang body workout you can do ANYWHERE. ????????????
Lovely to see you today – keep up the awesome work, yo! xox
thanks yo! the “new” Semi Circle really got in there…if you know what I mean! xo
Love this post! I always forget how challenging the mat is (but also how much I love it) until March rolls around. This year, I’m going to stop “forgetting” the control push-ups…
Thank you so much Rachael 🙂 Oh gosh, you and me both with the “forgetting” the pushups ha ha ha… there IS a reason they are there! Aha! Yes, the mat is so good, sweaty, challenging, humbling, and so SO good. Happy March to you, my friend. And bonne chance LOL