Pilates in the Roe

Joseph Pilates was not a woman in leggings. He was a boxer.

Before “Pilates” became a studio class, it was a system built by a man to make other men stronger. Joseph Pilates trained boxers and self-defense fighters in London. During WWI, he was interned on the Isle of Man, and instead of losing conditioning, he rigged bed springs to hospital cots so injured soldiers could rebuild strength while immobilized. That contraption became the reformer you’ll find in our studio today.

His original clients weren’t women. They were athletes, wrestlers, boxers, men who needed real strength, not just flexibility. He called his method “Contrology” for a reason: total control of the body, powered from the center out.

If you think Pilates is a stretching class, you’re missing the guy who invented it to build power, control, and a strong powerhouse from the inside out. Come find out what your core can actually do.

What Is the Cadillac?

This is the piece of equipment that raises the most eyebrows for people who’ve never seen it. Here’s the story behind it.

Joseph Pilates built the original version to help rehabilitate soldiers and hospital patients, using bed springs attached to the frame of a hospital bed. It evolved into what you see here: a raised table surrounded by an overhead frame, fitted with springs, bars, and straps that let the body work lying down, seated, standing, even suspended.

The name has a fun history too. Its formal name is the Trapeze Table, but in the 1940s a client compared it to the Cadillac automobile, the top-of-the-line option at the time. The nickname stuck.

One term you’ll see me use: a Tower is a smaller version of this same system that attaches onto a reformer instead of standing alone. My reformers will have towers for classes, so when I write “Cadillac (Tower),” that’s why, same family of exercises, different setup.

The full Cadillac itself is reserved for private sessions. Its adjustable springs and supportive design make it ideal for building strength and mobility at exactly the pace one body needs.

Pilates in the Roe

What Is a Reformer?

If you’ve never stepped into a Pilates studio, this machine probably looks like it belongs in a lab, not a workout. Here’s what it actually is.

A reformer is a sliding platform, called the carriage, connected to a set of springs. You lie, sit, kneel or stand on the carriage and push or pull against the spring resistance instead of lifting weights. As you move, the carriage glides back and forth on a frame.

Why springs instead of weights: springs create resistance in both directions, when you push out and when you control the return. That means the muscle stays engaged the entire time, not just on the hard part of the rep. It also makes the resistance smooth and adjustable, so the same machine works for a beginner and someone far more advanced, just by changing the spring tension.

The moving carriage is what makes it different from anything you’d find at a gym. Because the surface under you is moving, your body has to stabilize itself while it works, which builds core strength into literally every exercise, even ones that look like they’re only working your arms or legs.

Mine are hand built by Balanced Body, made from real wood rather than mass-produced. That craftsmanship shows up in how smooth and quiet the equipment feels to move on.

It looks complicated. It isn’t. And once you’re on it, it makes a lot of sense.

Pilates in the Roe

💫Pilates Doesn’t Stay in the Studio💫

This is Bryce Canyon, hundreds of miles from my reformer or Cadillac, and I still found a way to get a little Pilates in.

That’s the honest truth about this practice. It doesn’t stay in the studio. Once your body learns what it feels like to move from your center, to hold length in the spine, to breathe with intention, it starts showing up everywhere. On vacation. On a hike. Standing in line at the grocery store, quietly pulling your navel to your spine because it’s just habit now.

I didn’t plan this photo. I saw the view, felt the pull to move, and my body just went there on its own.

That’s what I want for everyone who walks into my studio one day. Not a workout you do for an hour and leave behind. A way of moving through your whole life.

Mat classes will be offered at Pilates in the Roe.

Push Through using the Push-Through Bar on the Cadillac (or Tower)

Seated tall, legs extended together, arms reaching up to hold the bar overhead. From here, the bar pushes down and through, the spine rolling back to follow it, then everything reverses to return to seated with arms overhead again.

The push-through bar works differently than the reformer springs. Instead of resisting a straight pull, it resists through an arc, so the challenge shifts throughout the entire path of the movement. That arc is exactly what makes this exercise so effective for spinal articulation. There’s no rushing it or muscling through it. The bar demands control at every single point, both on the way down and the way back up.

There’s also a deep stretch built into this movement. As the spine rolls back and the arms reach overhead, the whole front line of the body lengthens, chest opening, shoulders extending past the ears. It’s strength and mobility happening in the same breath.

Working here: deep abdominals initiating and controlling the roll back, spinal extensors driving the return to seated, shoulders and arms holding steady tension on the bar throughout, and the powerhouse tying it all together.

This is Pilates equipment doing exactly what it was designed to do, training the spine to move the way it’s supposed to.

Tower classes to be offered at Pilates in the Roe.

Climb a Tree on the Reformer

One of the most satisfying movements on the reformer. Seated on the short box with one leg anchored and the other extended, you walk your hands up the leg like you’re climbing it, then roll back down the box one vertebra at a time and climb your way back up.

What you’re seeing here is the full expression, complete articulation through the spine.

In Level I, we prep. The working leg stays bent, hands stay behind the thigh, and you only roll back partway before returning. The goal here isn’t the stretch. It’s teaching the spine to articulate, bone by bone, while the powerhouse stays connected and the supporting leg holds its anchor. Most people are surprised how much control that takes on its own.
*must master Level I*

In Level II, the leg extends fully and you roll all the way back, arms reaching overhead. Same movement, more range, more demand. Then, add leg circles too.

The progression isn’t about waiting until you’re “good enough.” It’s that the Level I version builds exactly what the full version requires. You don’t skip steps. You earn them.

Working here: hamstrings lengthening, deep abdominals controlling every inch of the roll, hip flexors and quads stabilizing the anchored leg, and the spine learning to move as the segmented chain it was designed to be.

Every movement in Pilates has a place to start.