March MATness 1-15, ‘23

Celebrate, Celebrate, dance to the music!

Wait, what music am I talking about, well my dulcet tones in the above video of course - bwah, ha ha.

Seriously, what I’m celebrating is of course, March MATness! 

Whoopeee!

Here’s a previous post that explains it in depth

March is the month for the Pilates world to honour and bring awareness to Joseph Pilates’ original 34 Mat exercises.

2023 happens to be the tenth anniversary of the March MATness movement and the call to action is #backtobasics

Did I hear the call? Well not until it was too late and I had already designated 2023 as the year I would adapt the Mat exercises to the Spine Corrector.

The Spine Corrector, unless you hang out in a fully (or like mine, almost fully) equipped Pilates Studio, is maybe not a piece of equipment that you’re familiar with, but as we know Mr. Pilates was a genius creator and this is one of his gems.

Now just like there are different styles and lengths and makers of Pilates Reformers, there are many, many, different Spine Corrector barrel designs. There are even West Coast and East Coast styles and here’s just one company’s offerings: Balanced Body step barrels & arcs

I got my Spine Corrector before I was even a fully trained Pilates Teacher so you know it’s been around for a while. I can’t even remember what it was called but I call it a Goldlocks Spine Corrector.

What do I mean by that?

Well, it’s got a Baby Arc, a Mama Arc,  and a Papa Arc which are all different heights, the better to accomodate different body lengths, proportions, and flexibilities.

True confession time… I filmed all of my March MATness videos and took oodles of photos over the course of two days at the end of Feb.

Here’s the behind the scenes shot of all of my tight choices working backwards and forwards from the 17th because I knew I had to wear those bright green ones for St. Paddy’s Day!

Am I embarrassed by that photo of excess? Not at all!

No matter how many times my hubby asks me if I ‘need’ another pair of black workout pants my answer is always, “of course!” (as you can clearly see there are hardly any plain black tights in that photo)

I live in exercise tights and if you add my dancing days to my Pilates teaching days, have for almost 40 years. Some of those pictured above are almost that old!

Kidding!

However, you know how it is, if they fit right AND are the right fabric, AND you feel good in them?

Back to the Spine Corrector

I’m of average height so when I use my Spine Corrector the Mama Arc is my go-to.

But I was so committed to my content batching that it took me probably until exercise number ten to realise that I was using the Papa Arc!

Whoopsie, no wonder some of those early exercises felt so dang hard!

As I said, I was 100% committed so I just barrelled along and finished up the filming (Pun def intended🤣).

So, Mat exercises on the Spine Corrector WHY? 

Three reasons:

1. Using it makes some of the exercises easier - The RollUp comes to mind
2. Using it makes some of the exercises harder - check out my Double Leg Stretch
3. Using it makes me be more creative - I love being creative!

This blog post highlights the first 15 exercises out of 34 (in a fortnight I’ll post about the rest)

Numbers 1 through 15 are in order:

1. The Hundred
2. RollUp
3. Rollover
4. Single Leg Circle (One Leg Circle)
5. Rolling Like A Ball (Rolling Back)
6. Single Leg Stretch (One Leg Stretch)
7. Double Leg Stretch
8. Spine Stretch
9. Open Leg Rocker (Rocker With Open Legs)
10. Corkscrew
11. Saw
12. SwanDive
13. Single Leg Kick (One Leg Kick)
14. Double Leg Kick
15. Neck Pull

The names in parentheses are the official March MATness ones but you can see they’re hardly different from what I learned.

Those that are highlighted have a dedicated blog post as one of my Exercise Deep Dives. Eventually I’d love to dive into each and every one of the 34 so stay tuned!

I hope wherever you are in your Pilates practice you have been celebrating Mr Pilates’ work and adding your versions of these exercises to the discourse. March MATness is very inclusive and is open to all fans of Pilates, not just teachers of the method.

Do you have access to a Spine Corrector? If you do why not have a play with some of these versions - I’ve already been inspired with what I’ve seen burbling up on the socials.

There’s a plethora of amazingly talented and creative Pilatistas out there and that is worth celebrating as well.

Be Well,

xBec

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog are not intended to amount to advice and Rebecca Forde disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this post