Bringing a Limitless Mindset to your Pilates Practice
From the beginning, being a bigger bodied Pilates student meant I utilised different props and spring settings to find the right support and connection for my body in the classical work. As a scientist, and a lifelong learner, researcher, and questioner, I’ve always viewed props, springs, and variations as tools. I asked myself, if we can use our breath as a tool, why not other things? Where would we be in this world without tools?
It begs another question, “What would happen if we brought a limitless mindset to our Pilates practice?”
Pilates isn’t a set of active or passive poses. It’s not about how you look doing an exercise. Pilates is dynamic. Pilates is meant to strengthen you all while making you more flexible. It’s about how many muscles you can use while finding connections in your body. And this is where most of the social media world gets it wrong [not sorry]. EVERY body is different. We’ve all lived different lives. Our bodies have all been through different things. And that is amazing. And that is the actual reason why Pilates is beneficial to so many people, no matter their shape or size. Why divide the community, when we have this amazing practice that can help the masses? It feels like we keep circling back to our body shapes defining what we can / cannot do.
Instead of watching someone do an exercise and thinking “there’s no way!” - what if you simply said “I wonder…”
Where in my body do I need to stabilize to do the movement?
What muscles will help me stabilize?
What position should I be in to access those muscles?
Is there a prop that can help me stay in place, so I can stabilize easier to access more muscles?
What would happen if I changed my spring setting?
What would happen if I reduced my range of motion (or increased it)?
What would happen if I only did the first part of the exercise?
If substituting a different exercise on a different piece of equipment would help me find the connection I need?
If a bigger bodied Pilates student and/or teacher has thoughts on this exercise? **yes, we likely do**
Wow, that’s a whole bunch of wondering! GOOD! Asking questions makes us smarter.
Let’s walk through these questions with Short Spine while taking bigger bodies into consideration and thinking about why we get stuck (either physically or mentally). It won’t be inclusive, because this article would end up a short story, but I’ll hit the main points that have helped me and my students over the years.
Before we get started, please remember:
Where you have abundance in your body needs to be taken into consideration. If you hold “abundance” in your chest or your belly or both, the goal is still to use as many muscles as possible but without suffocating yourself. See next point.
How high your ass comes off the mat doesn’t fucking matter. Literally, who cares?
If you were told you need to use 1 heavy + 1 light spring (or 1 medium + 1 light); that’s bullshit. Play with spring settings and use the right combination that gives you the connection you need.
This article isn’t pure magic. Not everyone who reads it will magically be able to do Short Spine. You may need to practice and try different things, on different pieces of equipment, for months or years to do this exercise. The plus side is you still get to do a lot of Pilates!
A Short Take on Short Spine
The short answer on where you need to stabilise for Short Spine is just about everywhere. However, students focus too much on getting their butts up that they lose the engagement in their butt and their legs. Your midline connection is essential; your inner thigh connection needs to be as equal as the engagement of your butt and outer thighs.
I love to use a “heels touch” or “heels reaching together” cue to help people find their inner thigh connection, but I’ll only use it if I know students can touch their heels together (which is extremely important for inclusive cueing).
If your thighs hold abundance, the heels may not touch. Guess what? They aren’t the most essential piece, even though it can be a great teaching tool. Move up your body and find WHERE your midline connection is strong and focus there and up the body, then add the butt/outer thigh engagement. FULLY engage down there
Your upper body stability and strength is a huge part of every hip lifting exercise. However, some students cannot get their full arms or hands on the carriage. We need the ability to open up the shoulders and press the arms into the mat to engage our upper back muscles. The more of us on the mat, the more muscles we can access = more exercise support.
When someone doesn’t fully fit on the carriage and/or cannot get their arms to the mat to create stability and strength, we need to change the way we access those muscles.
Using the shoulder blocks or the posts can create a solid and strong upper body connection.
Using a resistance band under the tailbone or placing the reformer pole under can also help with engagement while allowing the arms to stay wide.
Strong Reminder: Your practice is 100% valid if you need to utilise any or multiple of these methods. In fact, by allowing yourself accessibility you are able to utilise more muscles thereby getting stronger, faster.
Moving on to props, I like to think of the Reformer as a prop. Actually, I like to think of all the equipment as props for the mat work. When on the Reformer, we need to decide if using “something extra” is beneficial and we need to understand why we are using it; are you using it to support or challenge the exercise? If the answer is neither, I tend not to use it.
Placing a stability pad, half foam roller, or quarter barrel under the hips can give some students a leg up on the exercise [pun intended]. By placing a stable, shorter prop under the hips it decreases the range of the exercise and can make it easier to lift the hips up.
Quick notes: the prop should be secure (doesn’t move) and the prop shouldn’t be too high (or it will be hard to get the straps on; could be a safety concern).
If you read my previous article for The Pilates Journal, my opinion on spring settings hasn’t changed and it will never change. What you’ve been taught about spring requirements for Reformer exercises isn’t inclusive. It’s great to have a guide, for sure, but we need to think about the people and what they need to be supported and challenged in their personal practices.
Different bodies need different spring settings, because every Reformer is different and people feel different on different days. Even if you had two identical Reformers with the same spring setup, same gear setup, and same strap setup - there’s still some level of variation. When you add how people are feeling on any given day, the level of variation increases. Where your straps are coming from, above vs below the carriage, also matters when it comes to the mechanics of the exercise.
Look at how you can best connect to the exercise using spring variation, regardless of where your straps are located on your Reformer. You can and should play around and find your best start settings.
A common thing I’ve seen over the years is adding loops to the straps or using the longer strap setting. SHORT Spine = SHORT Straps [for anyone roughly 6’2” and under, but it depends on the Reformer and where the straps are located and more]!
Length of straps does matter when it comes to this exercise because you need to utilize the spring resistance while you push the legs away AND you need to keep that resistance connected as your legs go up and over. Short straps help you do that; long straps change the mechanics/physics of the exercise.
If you are tight and cannot get your legs into the short straps (yet), you’ll need to adjust your springs by adding tension. I recommend adding a half spring, trying it out, and potentially swapping the half spring for a full heavy spring. The mechanics/physics of the exercise will still be different, but you’ll
I’m a huge nerd when it comes to Pilates. I became a teacher because I got strong quickly and because I saw how connected all the exercises are. One exercise is another, is another, is another, and so forth. Substituting a different exercise is a powerful tool. I’ll say it again.
Substituting a different exercise is a POWERFUL TOOL.
Ask yourself what other exercises you see in any given exercise; then do those exercises instead.
What you see in an exercise might be different than what someone else sees, but you need to remember that we all connect differently to the Pilates method and we’re all at different stages in our journeys. We should have an open mind when we talk about related exercises with other students and teachers.
My favorite substitutions or exercises to build strength for Short Spine are, but not limited to:
Rolling Like a Ball and Open Leg Rocker
Double Straight Leg Stretch
Scissors and Bicycle on the Spine Corrector
Frogs and Circles with long straps; building into short straps [especially if you have trouble getting into short straps]
Short Box Series
Tower with spring from below; building into Tower with no spring
Side Leg Series [mat and cadillac]
Zip Up and Standing Arm Springs
When in doubt, swap it out.
I’ll wrap this article up with some of my social media love notes I posted over the years to the bigger bodied Pilates students:
Do not apologise for taking up space in any situation.
Your body deserves to move in any space without judgement.
Do not apologise for being Spring-Smart or Prop-Smart. You know your body better than anyone else.
If you need something, ask for it or bring it with you to class.
Social media can be great, but it can be a trap lacking knowledge.
When it comes to Pilates (or movement)…The number of “rolls” you have OR “where you hold your fat” OR the “amount of fat you have” does not define your:
1 - “Level”
2 - Abilities
3 - Motivation
4 - Consistency
5 - Dedication
Show up for you, and you win.
It definitely helps when you have an amazing mentor or someone else (even if it’s someone you follow on Instagram) who believes in you when you are having a hard time believing in yourself. Find the right teacher for you.
Rachel has been teaching Pilates for 4.5 years and has been a trainer in the Biotech industry for over 20 years. She owns her own virtual studio @sizediversepilates, teaches at a local studio Rivercity Pilates in Iowa, and teaches at OnlinePilatesClasses.com. She offers Mat, Mat + Reformer, and Comprehensive Pilates Teacher Training Programs which are classical Pilates infused with accessibility and creativity.
Rachel always looks to create spaces for people who might not think they have a place in Pilates whether it's because of gender identity, race, size or shape, physical state, or being neurodiverse. She is also an advocate for those who may need additional learning support. She uses a visual, auditory, reading, and tactile/kinesthetic approach to her training methods and has incorporated it into her self-published Pilates Teacher Training Manuals. Rachel is also the author of Size Diverse Pilates Mat Book - available at Barnes & Noble (and Amazon later this year).