Joseph Pilates, a visionary in the realm of physical fitness, left behind a legacy that continues to shape the way we approach exercise today. Among his many contributions, perhaps one of the most influential is the 34 move mat sequence, a sequence of movements or exercises designed to incorporate strenght, stretch and coordination to promote strength, flexibility, and mind-body connection. Pilates  believed that modern lifestyle, bad posture, and inefficient breathing lay at the roots of poor health. To combat this, he devised a series of 34 exercises and training techniques. These movements are performed in a sequence, mostly  repeated 3 times with his belief being that 3 repetitions was sufficient to achieve the purpose

The original warm up is quite punchy and not what you might expect. You can see a video of this in my previous post of Pilates warming his class up with star jumps, spotty dogs and a high energy routine. From here, we stand, cross legs, fold arms and lower to the mat to start with The Hundred. This is all about the breath, oxygenating the body and really getting into lateral thoracic breathing.  Next into Roll up and Roll over, appreciating spinal mobility and the sense of opposition or 2 way stretch. Into the One Leg Circle for some tough obliques focus before some release and "fun" in the Roll back or Rolling. We then go into the One leg stretch and Double leg stretch, adding power to press down onto the stomach and improve circulation to the digestive organs. Adding Romana's exercises here, we continue the "Abs 5" with One leg straight, Double leg Straight and Criss cross. Spine stretch follows and is quite welcome from the previous moves and is a super prep. for the Open leg rocker. Corkscrew can be a beast to master, keeping to rotation and not hip hitching. The Saw is a combination of the Spine Stretch and the Spine Twist before flipping prone for Swan Dive for a lovely Thoracic extension with some moments and power. Single and Double leg kick challenge stability while opening up the hip flexors and lengthening the Quadriceps. Neck pull is a tough one too before we move into the "inversion series" of the High Scissors, High Bicycle and then drop down into High Shoulder Bridge. Spine Twist is one you know well before the very cheeky Jack Knife which requires a strong upper body connection. The Side kick is ALL about stability through the centre, keeping shoulders and hips inline before we go into The Teaser, probably the most famous Pilates move - a lot harder than it looks. The Hip Twist is similar to Corkscrew in the sense of maintaining rotation not hitching, moving into Swimming which again, requires thoracic extension and opposition of the two way stretch. Leg Pull prone is often referred to as a Plank and then we go into Leg pull supine or up, which needs that open chest again. Side kick kneeling reduces your conection with the floor so a bit more challenge on stability and then we go into Boomerang which is complex but fun. Seal is often misunderstood but focus on the hip opener action  followed by Crab which is precision and control. Rocking is a stomach massage and hip opener before moving into Control Balance. This is a tough one but so satisfying with a powerful hip opening action. The Push Up completes the series and this is a way to encapsulate all the elements of Pilates as you roll down, walk out, push up, walk in, roll up and repeat up to to 5 push ups.

This is the advanced description but we have so many ways to break down each and every exercise and make it inclusive for all. In my view, to attend an advanced class does not require you to do the moves at an advanced level but to have sufficient understanding and experience to adapt where you need. Those familiar to my classes know that I will refer to joint action, plane of movement, muscle groups and so on, and if you are for example, performing the Spine Twist, seated on a block with your knees soft, your arms folded, moving more slowly, is that not still a Spine Twist? While someone else has straight legs, wide arms and is adding power with pulse, you are both moving through the same joint action, using the same muscles and so on. Also, we can take a whole class to master one move - lets say for example that we want to perfect a Roll over. I will consider work to mobilise the spine, help us to understand the two way stretch or opposition, add some chest opener work and wake up the triceps, maybe lengthen the hamstrings  - this might the 8 or 10 exercises before we put all the benefits of this preparation and work together to enable us to perform the move.

The 34 moves really is a joy to perform and we will be working on this (again) in the Autumn where we will go over some of the more complex moves, understand how to break down and adapt before starting to sequence and link. I am sure some of you can remember when we did "The Christmas 68"?? We went all the way through and then went all the way back and while we were all dreading it, how STRONG did we feel at the end!  During lockdown when I moved us all online, we were meeting every single day and practising and practising and it is consistency that gets us the results . The beauty of this is that the body recognises the patterns and can almost be ahead of you - even if you are thinking "what next", your body is automatically moving into the next position. The purpose of habit is to save energy - the reason we have habits is so that we can perform daily tasks on automatic pilot without using energy to relearn all these things and The 34 Moves really embraces this.

What is your favourite move and why? and what do you absolutely hate.. and why? Personally, I LOVE so many moves but I find Hip Circles and Leg Pull supine the ones (or 2 of the ones!) I have to really work at. Mind you, I do not doubt for a moment that a fellow teacher would watch my practise and let me know I have a lot more than those 2 to work on.

I love sequences and I think we can pick and choose, mix it up and just have fun with it too to add some power, punch and variety.