Arc Barrel

The Arc Barrel with its gentle curve is ideal for positioning the body properly and is used for a wide variety of exercises. It is designed to lengthen, strengthen and improve posture while at the same time bring focus to the abdominals and deep stabilizing muscles.

Cadillac

Joseph called this large piece of Pilates equipment the Cadillac, because the word “Cadillac” conjures up imagines of swanky convertible cars with all the bells and whistles. It even has a trapeze. The Cadillac is also known as the Trapeze table (trap table). The Cadillac has evolved from Joseph’s earlier creation of what he called the Bednasium. He created this to help bed ridden patients exercise. His design was a hospital bed with it’s springs attached to a wall.

Other variations of the Cadillac are Vertical Frames and Towers.

The Cadillac is different to a Reformer in that is does not have a pulley system, and there is no carriage that moves back and forth. The Cadillac is stationery and has springs, which provide support, but also challenge.

The Cadillac really builds on strength and flexibility. It can assist in a sit-up position, but it can also challenge you in more acrobatic, gymnastic type exercises, by hanging upside down.

The STOTT Pilates Cadillac work, like the Matwork and Reformer, is a repertoire of exercises made up of the Essential, Intermediate and Advanced Cadillac.

Essential Cadillac

The Essential Cadillac improves spinal articulation, deepens body awareness and efficiency, and supports and isolates movement. It helps you gain core stability, movement efficiency, and muscular balance, which are key elements of a fit and functional body.

Intermediate Cadillac

Once you have mastered the Essential Cadillac, this program of movement patterns will encourage less reliance on the equipment for body support, and more confidence in pursuing greater strength and coordination. It challenges balance, deepens movement awareness and range, while continuing to improve spinal articulation, and torso strength.

Advanced Cadillac

The Advanced Cadillac is one of the most physically and mentally intense STOTT Pilates workouts yet. You will soar to new heights of core stability, movement efficiency and muscle balance, whilst always maintaining ultimate precision and form.

Ladder Barrel

The Ladder Barrel is one of the simpler Pilates apparatus designs, but the exercises on it vary as much as any of the apparatus. The only resistance on the Ladder Barrel is that of gravity acting on the body. Posture is challenged as well as the many muscles that are engaged in activity.

The Ladder Barrel is a great way to challenge the body throughout all planes of movement. The exercises you learn can be incorporated into athletic performance enhancements or specialized rehabilitation programmes.

Many of the STOTT Pilates exercises learnt on the Mat or Reformer are similar or more challenging when performed on the Ladder Barrel, others prepare the body for the more challenging exercises on the Reformer.

Ladder Barrel Exercises

ladder-barrelLadder Barrel Pilates Equipment

Reformer

A Reformer looks something like a bed. It has a carriage that moves, with ropes, straps, pulleys and springs that offer resistance.

Whilst Joseph Pilates was placed in forced internment in England at the outbreak of WW1, he began working with rehabilitating detainees who were suffering from diseases and injuries. The Reformer was invention born of necessity. Joseph was inspired to utilize items that were available to him, like bed springs and beer keg rings, to create resistance exercise equipment for his patients.

The STOTT Pilates Reformer work, like the Matwork is a repertoire of exercises made up of the Essential, Intermediate and Advanced Reformer work. The Five Basic Principles are applied to each and every exercise as in the Matwork.

The Reformer is more of an opportunity to do various movements through the arms and legs while stabilizing through the torso in either a lying, sitting, kneeling or standing position.

Modifications are included where necessary to accommodate certain weaknesses, address specific injuries and body types, as well as to make the exercises more challenging (often by decreasing the spring tension). Props and Accessory Boards are also added to Reformer workouts to completely change the workout and add in some fun and variety.

At Pilates with a View all the Reformers have vertical frames attached to them. This offers limitless exercise possibilities. This means that the Reformers are standard Reformers, a virtual Cadillac and a breakthrough multi-planar, biomechanics training tool.

The Reformer can be converted into a virtual Cadillac, by placing the mat converter on, creating a table/bed. The vertical frame has the anatomy of a Cadillac, that is, a roll-down bar, a push-thru bar, a safety chain, leg and arm springs. This means that most of the Cadillac exercises can be taught on the Reformer, except for those that require the horizontal bars (overhead bars).

Spine Corrector

The Spine Corrector is an essential Pilates tool that can be used to perform exercises lengthening and strengthening the torso, shoulders, back and legs, while correcting or restoring the spine’s natural curvature.

Spine Corrector Pilates with a View

An ideal piece of equipment for aligning and mobilizing the spine, the Spine Corrector can also assist with improving posture, and can be used to prepare exercises for the larger pieces of equipment. It’s slanted platform with dense foam padding and smooth pale wooden handgrips provide comfort for clients while accommodating diverse exerciser needs.

Stability Chair

The Pilates chair, or “Wunda Chair” as Joseph called it, is a powerful piece of Pilates exercise equipment. It’s small size belies it’s remarkable ability to build more stability, upper-body strength and lower-body power to improve performance in athletes, retrain the body after injury and increase overall physical condition.

The chair was originally designed as a home exercise machine for New York City apartments. Early designs converted easily from a chair you could sit on to a Wunda Chair you could exercise with. The equipment was very simple, consisting of a seat, pedal and springs that attached to the pedal to adjust the resistance.

Joseph incorporated the Pilates Chair into his Pilates system at his Eighth Avenue Studio in Manhattan, New York. He used the chair to rehabilitate clients with knee injuries and to train more advanced clients in full-bodied, acrobatic exercises.

Stability Chair Pilates with a View

Joe’s background in gymnastics was reflected most clearly in the chair exercises. Men often preferred this apparatus, because of it’s emphasis on upper-body strength.

Along with the Wunda Chair, Joe also designed a High Chair, which included pads to adjust the seat height, boards to align the legs when stepping up onto the seat, a back to keep the knees in line with the toes, and handles to assist a client in the more challenging exercises. Key elements of the High Chair, such as the handles, have made it into today’s chairs, while other elements are used less often.

After Joe’s death, the chair fell into disuse, as most of the Students who carried on his work focused on the Mat, the Reformer and the Cadillac.

As the popularity of Pilates has grown, interest in the chair has revived, and many innovation have been added to the simple machine that Joe built.

A split pedal allows for reciprocal (opposite) action of the limbs, as in walking and climbing.
The chairs height on some models matches that of the Cadillac enabling beginner or injured clients to use the table’s support for more challenging exercises.
The number of springs on some chairs has increased from two to four, offering a wider range of resistance options.

The Stability Chair is available to suite any need, from post rehabilitation to athletic conditioning to small-group training. Programming and exercise options have expanded turning the chair into a full-body conditioning machine.

Unlike moves on the Reformer or Mat, most Chair exercises are performed while standing or sitting, which provides an excellent environment for functional and athletic training for clients of any level of ability. This makes the chair a choice Pilates entry point for men and women used to “feeling the burn”, as well as for deconditioned clients needing to develop basic strength, coordination and balance.

The STOTT Pilates Stability Chair work, like the Matwork, Reformer, and Cadillac is a repertoire of exercises made up of the Essential, Intermediate and Advanced Stability Chair.

Spine Supporter

The Spine Supporter offers a safe exercise alternative for people who have certain physical restrictions.

Spine Supporter Illustration
It’s particular appropriate for those with weak abdominals, neck tension, lordotic posture or in the early stages of pregnancy.