Equipment Vs. Mat; Better or worse?

A lot of people always ask me, "What's better? Equipment work outs or Mat for Pilates."  The answer is it depends...obviously!  You wouldn't think I'd waste a blog about it if it was a simple answer.  The reason why it depends is actually an easy one.  It depends on the person and the person's strengths.  Mat can be more challenging when done in a class, but in a private session; mat may be easier.  Sometimes equipment may make it easier to keep form in an exercise because it offers resistance.

Joseph Pilates created a series of exercises.  He created the mat work first.  He then was getting frustrated with his patients (at this time it's the WWI veterans in England).  He was really helping them, as a physical therapist would help patients today, to regain normal ROM (range of motion) and regain strength.  Pilates started by spotting his patients, but this way he could only help one person at a time.  By inventing a machine with springs to act as a spot, instead of him, he was able to coach multiple people at a time through rehabilitation work outs.  This first machine was called the Cadillac.

It was pretty much a hospital bed with springs attached.  Pilates eventually moved to NYC to escape from the Nazi regime (he was German).  He then moved next door the the NYC Ballet.  Who better to rehabilitate than Ballet dancers.  This is when he invented the reformer, his final invention.

This is a picture of Joseph Pilates on the original reformer.  You can see how the reformer offers the stability for his side plank by giving resistance.  The lighter the resistance, the harder this is to hold.  This move, "Starfish" is extremely advanced.  This is an exercise that you could learn on the reformer keeping a lot of resistance on the reformer to support the pose.  Once you've mastered this, you can then move the move onto the mat.  Once you can support this on the mat; you come back to the reformer and now incorporate movement within the pose.  The reformer has a mat that moves back and forth with the help of springs.   With a light spring resistance, moving forwards and backwards makes "Starfish" even harder than had you just kept yourself working in mat.

In short, the equipment will help you to first understand and learn the positions using the resistance to help.  Then, once mastered, you will use the movement and resistance (or lack there of) to make the exercise harder than not using the equipment.