The Week Before the MATness

How’s it gonna go today?

This is my question whenever I step onto my Pilates Mat.

In today’s workout, I have decided to work on the Mat and Spine Corrector.

(1) Because it’s time to see how all my other workouts are going – if they have bettered any of my Mat exercises – and (2), for some reason, I can’t seem to visit the Spine Corrector as often as I oughtta.

Perhaps today I will discover why that is…

March is a time of great collaboration in the Pilates world. The global party that is March MATness is upon us.

We come together to celebrate the heart and soul of the Pilates Method: Joe’s 34 Mat Exercises. I’m giddy with the anticipation of an intimate month-long relationship with this brilliant system.

Are there exercises you look forward to visiting?

I’m sure there are plenty of them you’d rather leave out.

Lately the exercises I have neglected in the past – or that I have loved to neglect – don’t seem that bad after all. Instead, my most hated exercises have been replaced by a couple of exercises that I never thought were all that bad…

#themoreyouknow

Right now the Mat exercise bugaboos for me are Double Leg Kicks, the Neck Pull (always) and Rocking.

These 3 exercises present so much challenge to my body’s ability to maintain the integrity of connection – LOL – now that I know that’s a thing…

Today’s post will take a magnifying glass to the pitfalls in these 3 exercises – maybe you share the same struggles?

Wish me luck!

Double Leg Kicks (March MATness Day 14)

Maybe you’ve found yourself in this exercise at this very moment and you notice your stomach pushing out into the Mat. And your Pilates mind says “That’s probably not what I want to do…” yet despite your best efforts, your belly cannot obey.

All of your Pilates Mat exercises that lie you down on the Mat – on your back or your front – send a mixed message. With all the support from the Mat, it’s tempting to push down into it, either when rolling up and forward or in back extension exercises like the Double Leg Kicks.

The supportive padding of the Mat can rather be a surface to elongate upon, if you will.

Remember all your standing-up versions of the Double Leg Kicks – there’s a moment in the Side Splits on the Reformer and there’s another fun one on the Cadillac you may enjoy: Spread Eagle.

Transport yourself to a vertical happy plane and work towards pulling your body longer away from your feet.

And since when did this one get harder than Single Leg Kicks??

Neck Pull (March MATness Day 15/Beware the Ides of March)

Oh, Neck Pull, you’ll always be my first…impossible…blow to my ego…in my Pilates life.

Although I live forever in fear of being caught sans Neck Pull skills, I now really do enjoy the Roll Up, its famous pre-requisite. Although as recently as 2 weeks ago the Roll Up has gotten even better and fills my heart with joy all the more.

Someday soon, I firmly believe, the Neck Pull will also achieve this epiphany…

My current plan for the Roll Up and the Teaser applies to the Neck Pull as well: to allow the lower body (the lion’s share of the body) to do the heavy lifting of rolling me up off the Mat.

So easy for me to say…

Rocking (March MATness Day 29)

Okay, this one is like the Thigh Stretch and Double Leg Kicks had a baby.

Maybe I should have included the Thigh Stretch on this list too… but really that’s a whole other post.

The prelude to Rocking – the thigh stretch that happens before achieving the position in the photo above – is such a challenge to do properly. Sometimes I do all the moments that lead up to the Rocking but they are so challenging I leave out the actual Rocking part.

For now.

This kind of extension truly challenges my body integration. My stomach wants to just fall out all over the place in this exercise. In any rocking-on-the-stomach moment actually – Swan Dive, Swimming, Rocking – I feel so much inability to rock.

If it were Rolling Like a Ball I would call it Rolling Like a Brick.

But each trip around the Mat brings greater clarity and eventually greater proficiency.

The pitfalls I find in my Mat exercises can point me directly to exercises on the Reformer, Cadillac, and all around the studio. I’ll work on skills to support my Double Leg Kicks, Neck Pulls and Rocking.

Welcome to March.

Let’s work out. You know you want to.

It’s gonna be a great time on the Mat.

Find more info on March MATness and how you can participate at marchmatness.com.

This week on my YouTube channel you can enjoy a new Spine Corrector workout.

It’s the perfect finish for any Mat workout!