Why Mat?

I love the mat. Even on the odd occasion when I bust out a few moves on the large Pilates apparatus, I always return to mat. Why? Because:

✨ F L O W : I once heard someone say that changing a spring isn’t an exercise 😂 I love the potential of matwork to have a seamless flow, moving from supine to prone to sidelying to standing to seated to inverted... without having to change or adjust anything. The freedom to move, explore + integrate exercises into full-body sequences feels like... I’m trying to think of a better word than ‘poetry’, but that’s actually how it feels when you move through a freestyle sesh on the mat; like poetry in motion.

✨ S I M P L I C I T Y : just me + my mat =
Perfect. Simple. Portable. Available to everyone. Although small apparatus adds variety - I almost always use at least one ‘toy’ in classes that I teach - my favourite personal practice sessions are those that require nothing more than myself + a Pilates mat.

✨ G R O U N D I N G : I enjoy the feeling of my toes + feet connected to the mat. It keeps me grounded. Centred. Stable. Anxiety, stress + overwhelm seem to be a shared cultural experience in modern life; solace can be found in connecting to the earth (at least in my experience).

✨ C R E A T I V I T Y : sometimes the less you have to work with, the more creative you can - + need - to be. I’m always thinking of new ways to move + often my best ideas are born of having limited - or no - apparatus to use.

Somewhere in the deep recesses of the internet there’s a quote by one of the Pilates elders (was it Mary Bowen?) about how Pilates begins + ends on the mat; a beautiful full-circle sentiment that seems to carry great metaphysical weight*.

(* I’m keenly aware that the impact of this paragraph is lost because I don’t remember the exact words spoken... if someone could point me in the direction of the actual interview, that’d be greatly appreciated 😂)

Julia x