Well, well, well!
Since I’m writing this close to the end of March that means it’s time to wrap up my musings on March MATness.
As a reminder, March MATness is the campaign that happens each year in the Pilates community to focus on Joseph Pilates’ original 34 Matwork exercises.
It’s an awareness campaign as well as a celebration. Even the name’s a bit playful since it’s a twist on the USA college basketball championships. They’re known as March Madness - clever, right?
If you’ve read my blog from two weeks ago that looks at the first 15 exercises, then you know that I’ve been transferring the Mat exercises to my Spine Corrector (or Step Barrel as some - including me - sometimes call it). That’s what’s going on in the video embedded at the top of the post. For a reminder more on the Spine Corrector and the first chunk of exercises, or to read it for the very first time click here for that post.
This week we’re focusing on days 16 - 31. (on the 16th, 24th, and 28th there are two featured exercises so the the 34 fit into the month’s 31 days) - clever, right?
What you might notice once you read down the list is that yes, in the second half of the repertoire a lot of the exercises are in more advanced territory - hello Boomerang & Crab.
But..
It’s great to see how those more advanced exercises are layered in with ones that you probably do pretty much every single class, like Shoulder Bridge, Side Leg Kicks, or Seal.
Without further ado Exercises 16 - 34 are in order:
16. Scissors
17. Bicycle
18. Shoulder Bridge
19. Spine Twist
20. Jackknife
21. Side Leg Kicks
22. Teaser
23. Hip Circles (Hip Twist)
24. Swimming
25. Leg Pull (Leg Pull Front?)
26. Leg Pull Front (Leg Pull Back?)
27. Kneeling Side Kicks (Side Kick Kneeling)
28. Boomerang
29. Side Bend
30. Seal
31. Crab
32. Rocking
33. Control Balance
34. Push Ups
The names in parentheses are the official March MATness ones but you can see they’re hardly different from what I learned except that I always get super confused with the two Leg Pulls.
If you click on the highlighted ones you can read a dedicated blog post where they’ve been featured as one of my Exercise Deep Dives.
So now that this month is over what has been my Biggest Take Away from engaging with these exercises more cohesively than I usually do?
Well
Joseph Pilates was on to something!!
If you just get down on your mat and flow through all the exercises, 1-34, linking them with hopefully, mostly smooth transitions, then you do get a heck of a full-bodied workout.
I did them all yesterday in 30 minutes and it was full on concentration time. If I’d taken a little bit more time with some of them and pushed the number reps it would have been even more satisfying!
JOIN ME!!
Remember I said that March MATness was a celebration?
Well, I’m celebrating by offering a Free Mat Class.
If you want to do all 34 exercises with me, click HERE to sign up for the class on 31/3/23. (yes you will need to give my booking system your details)
The class is a live-stream event via Zoom but if you can’t make it in real time, no worries, you’ll get the replay of the class just for signing up and you’ll then have it for your reference.
I hope to see you on your mat.
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
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