Pilates Exercise Methods

Physical trainer Joseph Pilates (pronounced pih-LAH-teez) developed the Pilates exercise method in the 1920s. Pilates exercises include more than 500 movements and use the whole body to develop and improve strength, flexibility, posture and coordination, according to the Pilates Center at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland. Exercises are based on six principles--concentration, control, centering, breathing, flow and precision--and are either performed on an exercise mat similar to a yoga mat or on a special apparatus designed by Pilates himself, called the Reformer, according to Goucher College. You can perform the mat exercises right in your own home.

The Hundred

Often referred to as a good abs workout, the Hundred is a Pilates exercise method where you lay on the floor on your back and extend your legs into the air, lowering them to a challenging angle without touching the ground (usually a 45-degree angle), according to Pilates exercise instructor Ana Cabán in her video, “Pilates Abs Workout.” The exercise engages your abdominal muscles by having you draw your chin to your chest with your head and shoulders off the mat. You pump your arms 100 times straight out in front of you while alternating breathing in for five counts and breathing out for five counts. Throughout the exercise, you must maintain your legs in the air and keep your head and shoulders off the mat.

The Roll-Up

In the Pilates exercise the Roll-Up, you lie flat on your back with legs straight on an exercise mat. It begins with your arms up over your head and continues when you bring your chin toward your chest as you roll up keeping your legs on the mat and straight out, Cabán says in her video. It continues by reaching forward and stretching over your legs and exhaling. The exercise finishes as you begin to roll back down slowly to the original starting position laying one vertebrae of your back after another down on the mat with control.

The Corkscrew

Another Pilates exercise is the Corkscrew where you are lying flat on your back on an exercise mat. It begins by bringing your legs straight up to the sky and continues by lowering your legs together as a unit slowly to one side and making a circle in the air, engaging your abdominal muscles, Cabán says in her exercise video. The exercise is also reversed, lowering your legs down to the other side and circling the other way. When you lower your legs to one side, you inhale, and as you bring your legs back up from the circle, you exhale.