Team Hicks Fitness

A little Mat variation on the wunda chair. Sped up slightly for viewing pleasure.
This is one of my favorite things about Pilates. You learn concepts, not just exercises. Once you learn the concepts you can apply them on the apparatus’s. As of Mat isn’t the most challenging thing you can do, try it on the wunda chair to deepen into the work!

Why the method works.

This is what makes Pilates so valuable. The same exercise can be applied to any body and still do exactly what it’s meant to do.

The intention behind the movement is what separates Joseph Pilates’ method from exercises that are added or labeled as Pilates.

I love this exercise for KJ. It gave her exactly what she needed to find her balance and sit upright without holding on. You can see the difference from the very first day we tried it to just a few weeks later.

This is just a small glimpse of our training. We spent weeks working on the reformer, along with standing movement patterns.

KJ’s goal was to drive again. She has MS and a cervical spinal cord injury resulting in quadriplegia. Through Pilates, she learned how to access her core and reconnect with her body to create movement from within.

Authentic pilates - Contrology

The method of Joseph pilates, contrology, is a complete system. The work reinforces all 6 foundational movement patterns, It has progressions, foundations and concepts.

In my opinion, if you feel the need to add to the work, then you do not understand the work that is in the method. The better you get at things the harder they become. Even if one day they did become doable, perfectly, the exercises done correctly still remain challenging.

You learn the concepts and then the ways you apply them get increasingly more challenging. Pilates was never meant to be sculpting, or cardio, or whatever these “pilates” gyms are pushing. It does not need to be something it isn’t. We don’t ask CrossFit, or lifting, or sports, or yoga to be something it’s not. Pilates is not meant to replace lifting, or cardio, or sports, it is meant to compliment them all. Everyone needs pilates, to learn the concepts, the movement patterns and how to control your body, in a safe and effective environment. Find the work in the method, don’t change the method.

Let’s talk about Pilates and jiujitsu.

I know all my students hear about it everyday. I believe the concepts of control, connection and deeper mind body connection that you learn in Pilates is essential for jiujitsu. Learning to generate more power by connecting to your center, engaging your powerhouse is literally every aspect of jiujitsu.

Here again is one snippet, one exercise compared to one sweep or even a concept of a sweep to show you what I mean.

The tower exercise on Cadillac perfectly represents the dummy sweep. You lift your hips, you push your entire powerhouse into them causing them to fall, and then of course, all of this at an angle. So your body needs to obey your will, you need to have to connection the angle and power to actually complete the sweep!

The importance or a strong core.

We, as able bodies, may take for granted how much work your core does for daily tasks, but once you take that away the importance of your core comes to the forefront.

Taylor is an SCI, so before could start deadlifting lots of weights and hinging properly we had to find and strengthen the core. We had to teach Taylor what it felt like to use his and control his core. So guess where we started? Pilates!! We did so much core work before we started to lift heavy.

Shown here is the progression from a modified rowing, and hug on the reformer.

This work again is over months just showing snippets to see the improvement!

The truth about injury prevention…

Strength is what makes your body more resilient.

It’s how you reduce setbacks, recover faster, and keep training long term.

But it has to be done with the right approach. It’s not just about the correct programming for strength training, it’s cross training correctly for sports, and also in the Pilates world, exercise selection and order matters. You have to be intentional with your body, and understand your body is designed to move and perform in anyway you ask it to!

Build strength. Move well. Stay pain-free.

Push through bar on the Cadillac.

Here is one of my favorite exercises on the Cadillac. This is an intermediate exercises bc what is required before this, the basics, is the meat and potatoes, the understand and the concept of the scoop and the lengthened spine. My favorite part of this exercise is how comprehensive it is to combine the two in the same work. Here again we are using the spring as assistance to roll back and the work done from controlling the springs by using your entire powerhouse. So the concept and control of the scoop and a tall lengthened spine is necessary before. I also love that the shoulder complex gets to do exactly what it’s designed to. You can see the shoulder blades gliding and rotating over the ribs and then stabilizing for a true overhead motion in a controlled environment. Pairs nicely for any athlete who needs over head stability.

Let’s talk about pilates for physical therapy.

Here we have my client Valerie, she is an incomplete spinal cord injury, and below the knee amputee.

With that being said, she cannot feel her core, but she will learn how to use it. Mind you this is over weeks of work on many apparatus but I’m just showing snippets of our work.

So with the springs being our friends we start with bridges with the hp of the roll back bar, then we went to breathing on the Cadillac to incorporate the upper body to help, then we go to rolling stomach massage on the roll back bar. And then look at the core strength we gained, to neck pull on the mat! Look at that control and the scoop, she is considered paralyzed. Pilates is for everyone!

The springs are your friends.
They’re there to assist your movement—not act as resistance.

This isn’t about pushing harder or adding tension.

In classical Pilates, the goal is to move into less spring tension, not more—
because when the springs stop helping, your body has to do the work.

That’s where the control lives.

Airplane should be silent.
No clanking. No momentum. Just control.

Try it without the springs…
you’ll feel how much they’ve been helping 😉