Mastering the Trapeze Table: A Comprehensive Guide to Pilates Springs and Stability
Have you ever looked at the Pilates Cadillac or Tower and thought that is a little interesting, maybe a little scary, or maybe you thought something else? I’ve heard it all. But here is the deal, don’t let this piece of equipment scare you, because it’s actually great for beginners and those people who are trying to get connections to their practice to make their Mat and Reformer practice even stronger. So let’s talk about intro, beginner exercises you can do on your Cadillac or Tower.
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Introduction to the Cadillac and Tower Apparatus
Hi. I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of Online Pilates Classes. I’ve been doing Pilates since 2005 but I didn’t get on a Cadillac until about 2009 and let me tell you, I looked at the piece and I thought, this is a little interesting. I don’t know about it. I mean, I understand if that’s how you feel. So it’s called the Cadillac. The rumor is, the myth is because some clients said it’s the piece with all the options, just like the Cadillac car. For those of you who don’t know what that is, me either. Look it up. But it’s often also called a Tower, a wall unit. You might even see that there’s similar exercise you can do on something called a springboard, but other people will call it a trap or trapeze table, because you could do trapeze work on it, right? So if you’re a circus performer, you understand. Something you need to know about Pilates is the Mat work is a great place to learn any of the movements. Because you’re on a Mat, it’s quite accessible. Nothing is moving around. But when you are truly wanting to learn connections, your body is missing the Mat is going to show you just how hard things are and how many connections you’re missing, and that’s where the trapeze, Cadillac, tower table come in, because it’s a sturdy piece of equipment. It’s a great place to learn the things you need to improve your Mat and Reformer practice because the platform doesn’t move, but we have the springs to help us find our connections. So let’s talk about beginner pilates exercises that could work for you.
Why Is It Called a Cadillac? Stability for Beginners
What is the Cadillac? Well, as you can see, it is a large piece of equipment. Not a lot of studios have the space for this or the ceiling height, but it’s a large, very sturdy piece of equipment, elevated off the ground. So it’s often used in a lot of rehab facilities and things like that because it’s easier for a lot of people to get on and sit down on, and it’s stable. It’s not going to move like it’s pretty heavy-duty, and if yours isn’t, we have to talk about it. That makes me nervous. This is so hard to move. It requires a couple of us to go an inch at a time. That’s what you want. Not every studio, as I mentioned, has space for the height of this Cadillac, which is why they’ll often have a wall unit or a tower option on their Reformer. It’s different from a Reformer in that this platform isn’t moving. So, if you struggle with balance and coordination, this is where you want to be, okay.
The Reformer will definitely challenge that, and it can be really great if you’re recovering from an injury; you need to work a little more on asymmetrical movement. This is the place where you’re going to find these connections in a stable space, because the ground underneath you isn’t going to move. So we’re just working on the movements your body will make, rather than trying to perform those movements on a moving platform. It’s really great for beginners, because there are several exercises that can help you find a closed training experience, close training, meaning there’s something for your hands to touch or something for your feet to touch with springs to support your body.
If you are struggling with quad-dominant legs on your Mat, your hip flexors are overworking. Doing the leg Springs will help you understand how to engage more muscles and connect to your center while doing them, so you can interpret those exercises without the springs. Really important to give yourself a try. And in an ideal world, every new client would not just do Mat or a Reformer, but they find their way to a tower or a wall unit, a springboard, or a Cadillac to get some of these exercises in, so they can learn the connections they need a little bit faster. Alright, if you are still trying to figure out all the different types of equipment, because there are a lot and it can be confusing, we have a really great video where we break down every single one, and we talk about the best ones for your home. So check it out here.
Favorite Beginner Exercises: Roll Down and Leg Springs
Alright, let’s get into my favorite exercises for beginners, on your Cadillac or tower. So, roll down with the roll-back bar. Yep, I know it. The Pilates names are very fun, but when you use the roll back bar, and I specifically love ones that have a roll bar, roll down bar, that actually moves. But when you do this exercise, you get to start and challenge yourself with a tall spine, and then roll down the Mat. And it lets you see which parts of your back you like to skip, and which parts of your body come up in a chunk. It’s a really informative exercise. It’s also a nice way to ground into your Pilates practice. So it can be a delicious warm-up exercise. In fact, several of the exercises I’m going to give you will be great to do before you start your Mat. These really do ease your body in if you’re someone who needs that. It does challenge the reach of your legs into the pulse. It will reveal if you’re not doing that. So it gives you feedback on what you need, and it helps challenge your arm-back connection. Those are important things, no matter what level of practice you’re at, but when you’re a beginner, those can be difficult to learn, and the roll down with the roll back bar is going to give you the challenge you need with a little extra stretch and massage on the way.
Alright, these next two kind of go hand in hand. The setup is very similar. So it’s a single-leg spring. It’s where the spring is from across. I love this exercise, especially if you’re new to leg springs. But truly, even as you get more advanced, for me, it really helps me connect my legs to my center, and it challenges your outer hip connection. So again, my hip quady people, this is for you. It’s going to turn your seat on, what I like to call your fast. If that’s going well, then, as a beginner, you could switch into leg springs. Now, the leg springs series offers many options. We have a full list of tutorials on our channel. They are in our flashcards. But when you’re a beginner, I love it when you do the frog prep. It is a prep, but it really does help you understand a movement we do a lot in our Pilates practice that turned out, and in that you’ll feel in your double leg stretch, in your footwork, in your backstroke, in your seal, and you’re rolling like a ball, a very important connection that you’ll learn.
I love doing the big circles. Sometimes the little circles depend on how those big circles go. You will also enjoy it sometimes; some people can walk really well. If they’re not hypermobile in their knees, we’ll undo the beats, which will help you get the inner-thigh, outer-thigh connection we need. It’s going to balance some of your imbalances. So doing those will warm up the leg muscles. But more importantly, because of the leg spring, for those people like myself who tend to rely on the front part of our legs, it really does give you the back part of your leg, so the muscles in your legs are a little bit weaker, permission to show up so that you can use it in your Mat and Reformer practice.
Arm Springs and Posture Alignment
All right, let’s talk about the arm spring. So I mentioned the arm-back connection in the roll-down exercise. And after you get your legs turned on to your center, we have to connect your arms to your center. And here’s why: I tend to find that people feel the movements of the arms in Pilates are a bit choreographed rather than connected. And the reality is, we want your arms connected. We want your arms to lift up overhead so that they lift your upper body off your pelvis. When they reach over to the side, they take you that way. And so understanding the arm Springs is going to be so helpful. One, for my peeps who spend way too much time on their phones and computers, that’s everyone, including me. It’s really great for your posture. It helps you really understand how the arms move from your back versus just from the front, you’ll also feel your entire center get involved, because even though it’s called Arm springs, it’s a body exercise, and it will go over, up, down, circles, out and in, and some little tricep presses, which are really nice and challenging and connecting to your back, which are all the different types of movements your arms will do as you do a Pilates practice.
The Push Through Bar: A Delightful Challenge
Alright, I want to wrap this up with the push-through bar. This one for beginners can be tricky. Here’s the deal: if the roll-down with the roll-back bar and the arm springs didn’t go well, this is going to show you every reason why that happened. However, hear me out. It is a really cool exercise to help you understand flexion with the arm-back connection and leg reach. So I hope you do this after you’ve done the other ones, because I want you nice and warmed up. I want you to understand how your arms move from your back. But you’ll start to realize as my body rounds this way, how do my arms reach for without my shoulders coming into my ears when I roll up to seated? How do I reach the bar up without hanging in my armpits and going into extension? How do I use my legs to lift taller? It is its own fun challenge, and honestly, it’s like an advanced exercise that you must learn as a beginner, because it takes you your whole Pilates practice to really juice it out. Now, please be mindful that whenever you’re using the push-through bar, it has a spring attached to it. Never let it go until that spring is closed. But if you keep that safety in mind and you’re working from your center, this exercise is delightful, delicious, and if you’re lucky, some teacher will come over and give you a nice extra stretch at the end. If these exercises intrigue you and you want to create your own beginner intro workout on a Cadillac or tower. I highly encourage you to watch this video I did. I go live on Sundays, answering people’s questions, and I dug into specific questions just like this. And all of those tips will help you, no matter what your Pilates level is, based on the workout you’re trying to create on the Cadillac or tower.
Breathing: The Ultimate Mind-Body Coordination
Alright, I have one more exercise for you; however, it’s not one you can do on a tower or a wall-mounted unit. Everyone will want to put Lesley. I do it this way, and you’re gonna put it in the comments, and I’m going to challenge you that, for a beginner, it’s not ideal. And the exercise is called breathing. It requires the trapeze from the Cadillac, requires the rollback bar, and it is a full body exercise that really helps you understand the breath in your practice challenges that can coordinate your arms and limbs and torso at the same time, and helps you understand articulation and reach through your limbs, controlling the springs, controlling the movement. Oftentimes, people are too fast with their arms because the springs are winning. They’re too slow with the body. So it really helps them understand that complete coordination of mind and body, so that they can take on more advanced exercises, not just on the Cadillac or tower, but on the Reformer and Mat as well. It’s a great exercise. My teacher, Jay Grimes, gave it to me for a specific reason about my elbow. I give it to a lot of clients who are struggling to coordinate all the movements, because if you can learn it there, you can apply it to anything. So I highly recommend doing it when you have access to a Cadillac; when you don’t, don’t do it.
Why Choose the Cadillac? Accessibility and Growth
So why is a Cadillac so supportive? Well, as I mentioned, it is a heavy-duty piece of equipment. That’s what you want, especially when you’re someone who is worried about balance, injuries, things like that. You’re learning new things. The springs are nice and heavy, but you can also use lighter springs. So if the leg springs are too heavy, you can use the arm springs in place of them. The arm springs are too heavy; you can use the roll-back bars and springs in place of them. It better meets the needs of the person coming to the practice than any other apparatus. And here’s the deal in Pilates, the bigger the equipment, the more accessible it is to people with special needs or who are beginners to the practice. The smaller the landing space, the more advanced it’s going to be. Who is the Cadillac great for? Any Pilates lovers out there? Look, I love how popular Pilates is becoming around the world, but what bothers me is how much emphasis is placed on a single piece of apparatus that won’t work when the system needs to work together.
So the Cadillac is especially great for beginners and those people recovering from an injury or some sort of ailment or just an imbalance, very, very helpful for teaching those connections. But the more advanced you are going into your practice, the more you’re going to want to make sure you’ve had experience with the Cadillac. There are so many different exercises that will teach your body what it needs to advance on the Reformer. You want to do some standing stuff on the Reformer. You’re absolutely going to want to experience the standing arm springs. You want to be doing rolling exercises or headstands on the Reformer. You want to learn them here. I promise you that you want to do advanced stuff in your Mat practice. The springs here are going to help, so the Cadillac is great for everybody. Just because I’m doing this video doesn’t mean it’s only for beginners. It is for any Pilates lover who wants to get the most out of their practice. If you want to hear more comparisons about the Cadillac and the Reformer, we’ve got a great video where I break it down right here to help you pick the right thing for you.
How to Get Started and OPC Member Support
The best way to get started is to find a studio where someone has been thoroughly trained on the equipment and can teach you. Look, a lot of places will have classes on the tower or a springboard. That’s great. That’s a great place to start if you can’t do a one-on-one. However, it is nice to incorporate private sessions on the other apparatus, so that you’re getting the exercises on it that you need to progress the practice you have on other pieces of equipment that would be ideal if you don’t have that, of course, if you have access to a Cadillac in your own space, finding tutorials like I have, and exploring those in your body, asking questions here on the channel is great if you’re an OPC member we do a 45 minute tower class every single month, and it’s blended and combined to understand how it works with the same thing on theme, on the Mat and Reformer that can really help you understand these exercises better. And if you’re an OPC member, you can always submit a video of you doing an exercise on the Cadillac or tower, and I can give you feedback on your form and how to level that up or down as you need. If you’re unsure which springs to use. And look, there are a lot of different choices. We did a great video answering this question right here, how to choose the right springs on the Cadillac for you, especially if you’re shorter, we cover all those things.
Final Thoughts: The Essential Pilates Tool
Look, the Cadillac looks intimidating. I get it. It takes up a lot of space. And when I was building out the flashcards for the Cadillac and tower, it really made me cry a few times because there are so many exercises. How do I make sure that people understand it? But it is one of the most essential tools you can have in your back pocket for the Pilates practice you want. As I teach people Pilates, one of the things I love is getting them onto the Cadillac. Just like all the struggles you have on the Mat and Reformer, this is where you’re going to find the connections you’re missing. It really does put it all together so you understand how it works. I highly recommend making sure it’s part of your regular practice. And if it’s not accessible at a studio near you, get a tower on your wall and do it at home. I promise you it’s well worth the investment.
Thank you so much. And again, at OPC, we release a 45-minute tower class every single month. If you have a Cadillac, you can apply it to that workout, but we do make sure it’s accessible to anyone who has a tower, so you can get all the exercises we have designed for that class on onlinepilatesclasses.com/youtube. Thanks so much for watching.
