When to Use Pilates Props Effectively
Wondering when you should use a prop? Maybe go to a Pilates class and they use a magic circle, and then they use a ball and they use weights, and you’re kind of like, when do I use what? Well, let’s talk about why these props exist and how they can support you in your practice, and when to consider using them for yourself.
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Hi, I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of onlinepilatesclasses.com and the props are really fun for me. Because my experience with Pilates was on the Mat, I experienced a lot of props. I had one teacher use blankets and one teacher use a magic circle. And I loved the magic circle days, whenever I’d see it, I loved it. And my father, when he took a class with me, he had the magic circle. He called it a torture circle. He called it a Satan circle. And so the circle is not everyone’s favorite, but it is quite amazing. And so I want to dive in with you today a little bit about the history of what Joseph Pilates created as far as props go, and then how they were intended to be used in your Pilates practice, and then how you can incorporate them, if it’s at all different, so that you can have a practice that connects you to your body and strengthens you for where you want to go.
What is Pilates and Why it’s Unique
First, let’s talk about what is Pilates. Pilates is a strength-based practice that’s designed to balance your imbalances. It’s going to tighten what’s loose, and it’s going to strengthen what’s weak. Pilates really is intended for your whole body. It is not yoga, because it is not a meditation practice that holds poses, we move the poses through. It is not just meditating, because in meditating you’re supposed to clear your mind, and in Pilates we want you to focus on what you’re doing. It is not what your strength training practice is, where you do sets and reps. In Pilates, we do each exercise one time with minimal reps to get maximum benefits. So quality over quantity every time. It can be done on the Mat, Reformer, Cadillac or Tower, Chairs. Joseph Pilates gave us a lot of variety when it comes to pieces of equipment to use his Pilates system. And it is a system. And he also gave us a few props, which can be great Pilates accessories for home workouts. If you’re curious about Pilates, if you want to get started and you want to make sure you’re doing it right, make sure you check out our Pilates for beginners video, it has lots of tips on how to make sure you’re in the right class and have the right form.
Benefits of Using Pilates Props
Enhances Your Mind-Body Connection
So when should you use a Pilates prop and why? Let’s go into those. So we have a few different reasons why this would actually help you with your practice. The first one is, define your connections. Joe Pilates gave us the magic circle, and he had several exercises that we can do to help us find the connection of our arms to our back or our legs to our seat. He gave us towels to help work our feet, right? So find the connections that you need for exercises. So, some people might consider these like a pre-Pilates exercise or a warm up, but it also can be a cool down, and it’s a way to use a prop to find the connections and then get rid of the prop and do the exercises without it now that you know where you’re trying to work from. So build that awareness.
Maintain Form & Avoid Strain Easily
Other reasons why you might use props for Pilates is for support. For example, using a squishy ball or a block behind your head to support your head and neck. If you’ve got something going on there, you might even sit on something small to get out of your hip flexors, but supporting your body so you can complete an exercise. People with scoliosis might use a towel or a prop on one side of their back so that they actually feel more even if you have one leg that’s longer than the other, you’re going to want to fill in that space sometimes, in order to create support so you can feel the exercise in your whole body. What you want to make sure that you don’t do when you’re supporting yourself is that you don’t over support yourself, okay? And so sometimes you’re going to want to just double check, like, do I still need this ball? Or can I use something smaller? Do I need a ball at all? Can I use maybe a towel or a theraband and then remove it? So always checking in when it comes to support, but it’s not something that you’re relying on too long.
Modify Exercises & Increase Accessibility
Another reason to use props is to make exercises more accessible, or in a way of modifying. Now, when I say modify, it’s really important that you understand I never want you to modify an exercise so much that you’re not getting the full concept and that you couldn’t ever do it on your own. Anytime you modify using a prop or not, you do want to ensure that someday, as you get stronger, you aren’t going to need that. That’s a better modification. But you can use a prop as a tool to make exercise more accessible. For example, if you have a hip click and a single leg circle, it can make you want to avoid the exercise. But by using a theraband, it can actually teach your body where to put that leg and then make the exercise more accessible to you. You might use a blanket underneath your hips when you’re doing your ab series, or doing anything where the hips need to go overhead, because it makes those overhead exercise a bit more accessible for your body as you build up your strength. So having props in a way to make an exercise more accessible in a modified way is key and wonderful and welcomed at OPC, and should be welcomed in any studio you’re doing your practice. Also, like I said with the other one, please make sure that you’re checking in to see if you still need them, so that you are not taking away the strength that you could be building and challenging your body another way.
Level Up Your Practice with Intensity
Using props to add a challenge to the exercise can be really fun. Also, I would say that in adding a challenge, you’re also increasing connections. And so these are things you want to make sure that you’re doing not too much. So some of these reasons for using props to challenge you, I would not want you doing every single time you do the exercise. I’d really want you to do it to see what more you could get out of an exercise. An example of this is doing a standing legs series with the magic circle. Right? You stand inside the circle, you push out, you try not to lean and then you’d get rid of the circle, and you try to do the same standing exercise without it feeling the same things. So increasing that ability to do an exercise be really amazing. Another place where you could do this is by picking up marbles and a pencil, doing the 2×4. And then the cool thing would be to get rid of that and see if you could do it. So finding ways to use your props to increase the challenge would be really amazing. Something that some people get confused about when it comes to Pilates with props is thinking that more is always better, or that beginner exercises are easy. If you’re truly an advanced practitioner or advancing in your Pilates practice, the beginner exercises should feel difficult. So I’d hate for you to add a prop to beginner exercise just to make it in air quotes, harder. I want you to actually make it harder from your own body. That being said, if you want to use a tool to find where you can make it harder and then get rid of it, I’m all for that.
Common Props and Their Uses
Alright, let’s get into the props, also known as Accessories. These are really fun for me to nerd out about, which is why I was really excited when we were creating our Pilates Accessories deck. So a lot of these things that you’re going to see are included in that. First up is the magic circle. Of course, I’m gonna bring that up first. It’s really amazing for connecting your arms to your back, connecting your feet to your seat. You can use it as an alternative to a Pilates strap for exercises like the Roll Up or your Neck Pull exercise on the Pilates Mat. Super, super amazing. There’s also wonderful ways of challenging your inner thighs and your outer hips with the magic circle. The ways to use it are endless. Please know though, that Joe Pilates had very specific ways of using it, and those are the ways that I’m going to include tutorials in our flashcard deck. The other ways are fun, creative ways that people have gotten into it. What I would also recommend, though, is don’t do a whole class with magic circle on every single exercise, because you’re just punishing yourself. Pick a few exercises to help challenge your body and create connections. Another great prop is going to be light weights, one or two pound weights. These are really essential for if you don’t have handles on your Mat, you can push– you can hold the weights, and you can push your hands into the Mat, push the weights into the Mat, to create that strengthening for your upper back to do overhead exercises, to help you pull your shoulders on your back in your Pilates Swan exercise for spinal extension and back strengthening. You can use them in place of a dowel for the Roll Up or for Pilates Teaser full-body control exercise or Pilates Thigh Stretch core stability exercise. So really light weights can be effective. Also, you can use them to recreate exercises on the tower and do some standing work.
A theraband is another thing. Joe Pilates did not give this to us, but I really love it for Pilates Single Leg Circles hip mobility exercise, although it does help the hip click. I am going to ask you to get rid of the theraband after a few reps, you can try to fill it on your own. Can your own muscles do what the theraband was doing.? But I also love using the theraband to pull apart in the Hundred as I pump up and down, pull apart and push down to the floor for the rollovers to help me lift my hips up over my head, it can be really, really effective for all of those things. A squishy ball. So that’s a ball that you let some of the air out. It’s amazing for helping you prop your head and chest up so you’re in the right place for a curl, for the Pilates Hundred dynamic core endurance exercise and Pilates Ab Series deep core workout. So you’re not feeling it behind your neck. We talked about it. Put it on behind your neck to support you, but you can put it a little lower to help you curl up and get the right curl that you’re looking for and work your abdominals into the Mat. Now, again, try to then find that same curl without the ball when you’re done. You can also use the ball as something to squeeze in your shoulder bridge, if you’re someone whose knees like to turn, like to turn out when you’re doing it, and avoid the stretch.
Maximizing Your Pilates Practice with Props & Accessories
Do you see how you can use these props to actually make an exercise more effective? But again, always removing that prop to try to see how it goes. I also love using a bolster. This could be a couch cushion. This is also something that Joe Pilates did not use, but for me, I really do love to use it in place of a small barrel or spine corrector to help create a supported extension. A lot of people are tight in their thoracic spine, so it can really help create that. There are so many more props you can use, and in a lot of studios are getting more and more creative. So know that there’s more to this list, but the ones that I talk about are ones that are more common, absolutely useful. And Joe Pilates gave us a lot more tools and accessories to use. You’ll find them in my accessory deck that’s coming out soon, but think of a toe corrector, or the foot corrector, or the neck stretcher or the push up devices. Those are a lot of tools, but I wouldn’t call them props, because they’re their own accessory to helping you get into the work. If you want any of these, we actually linked to all of our favorite props and other amazing gifts you can get a Pilates lover like yourself in our video over here. So either do some shopping for you or use it as a guide to help you find the perfect gift for the Pilates lover you know.
How to Decide If You Need Props
Finally, how do you know if you need a prop at all? Right? If you’re working at home, you might not know if you need a prop. And what I would say is, if you find yourself struggling, grunting, frowning, frustrated in exercise, your legs are lifted up when you know that they’re supposed to be staying down, that’s when I might explore a prop for accessibility or connection. If you are hearing a teacher create an instruction and everyone seems like they are in on the secret and you don’t understand the connection they’re talking about, that’s what I would also lean into a prop to kind of figure out what those connections are, that they have, that you haven’t had yet. And also, if you are having like, you’re coming back into your practice, sometimes props can be a really nice way of reintegrating what’s going on in your practice. Lastly, if you’re wanting to increase your level in your Pilates practice, you’re wanting to increase into those more advanced exercises, you might want to explore some props to help you lift your hips up off the ground, or help you find that arm back connection so you can’t lift your hips up off the ground. If you want to dive in a little deeper on what prop to use, especially on your Mat, check out this video we have here from a while ago, and it’s really fun answering some of your questions about props Pilates and when to use them.
Enhance Your Pilates Practice: Props, Tips & Community Support
Thank you so much. I really hope this helped answer some of your questions and even got you thinking about your own personal practice and how to use props, and if you’re a teacher, when to use them, and maybe if you’re over using them. If you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments below. I answer all of your questions here on a live on Sundays at 9am Pacific Time. If you are an OPC member, we absolutely can help you understand when to use your Pilates props. If you submit a video of yourself doing the exercise, we can let you know what prop to use, when to use it, maybe what other exercises you should be doing to get yourself ready for that exercise. And when you come to our live monthly classes, we can look at you doing there as well. What I also love about OPC is that each of our teachers often will use a different prop, or no props, but they’ll use a different prop to help you kind of feel exercises. And you might go, oh, I need to keep doing this. And then you have the agency to choose to keep that prop in your life. So I hope you check us out at OPC YouTube. Lastly, if you’re not ready to do that, make sure you subscribe to this channel. It means the world to us and helps us continue to do videos like this for you. So thank you so much, and have an amazing day.
