Clients often look at the springs and wonder if adding more will make the work harder. They compare Mat to the Reformer, or Pilates to lifting weights, searching for a clear measure of intensity.
But in Pilates, intensity is not simply about more springs, faster movement, or more sweat. What we are really seeking is challenge. The Pilates Method challenges and develops the body’s Stability, Strength, Stamina, and Stretch: The Four S’s of Pilates.
Why Pilates Uses Springs
Springs appear throughout the apparatus, including The Reformer, The Wunda or High Chair, The Cadillac with its many accessories, The Arm or Baby Chair, The Pedi Pole, The Foot Corrector, The Neck Tensometer, and The Toe Stretcher.
Joseph Pilates used springs to create resistance. Resistance changes how muscles engage, affecting recruitment patterns, challenging balance, and demanding control to perform the movement well.
Resistance and Muscle Engagement
For instance, consider a typical squat with and without resistance.
With resistance, such as spring tension, you increase muscular tension throughout the exercise. It is progressive. As the spring opens, the effort and muscle recruitment must increase. To resist the springs and close them, the muscles must work differently again.
The movement can be easier on the joints because the acceleration of the spring opening is not just body mass. The same is true in reverse, as the body has something to resist on the way down instead of simply dropping mass.
Engagement from the hips, inner thighs, and glutes increases to create and control the resistance. To maintain stability and balance, the body must also recruit the core.
Without spring resistance, the body must lift its entire mass from the bottom position, fully weighted at the start. On the way down, the joints have nothing to resist against.
The Reformer as an Example
Heavier springs on the Reformer can add assistance, challenge, and stability. Using Footwork as an example, with a typical new client our goal is to engage the abdominals and create stability and alignment.
Keeping four springs (for a typical client) will not only challenge them but also provide the stability they need, especially at the beginner level.
If we choose a lighter spring, we challenge their stability and core engagement in a different way, often with less support. The lighter the spring, the more instability. This is not our goal with a beginner client, outside of special cases.
Four springs will require more core work to open the spring with control while maintaining form. It will also require more work to close the spring, recruiting greater core engagement, precision, and control, especially at the end range.
Using Instability to Build Stability
Consider Leg Springs and Frog. We are challenging hip stability and seeking connection to the abdominals.
If we add more spring tension, a typical client may push the carriage out using the feet and larger muscles such as the quads. Instead, we want a degree of instability so they must recruit smaller muscles and use oppositional reach to control the movement in and out.
This also requires deeper core engagement to stabilize the pelvis and upper body.
Heavier springs may feel more like strength training to some, but that is not always the goal. They can add resistance, assistance, and stability.
On the Reformer, heavier springs can assist in exercises such as Pelvic Lift, Long Stretch, Snake, and Side Splits.
Progression and Control
This concept takes time for clients to understand and feel. When first learning an exercise, there is a temptation to push with the larger muscles and allow the carriage to pull them in.
Once they have achieved control and skill, we can challenge them with lighter springs, making both the opening and closing phases more demanding. This requires significantly more engagement and control.
What many newer Pilates practitioners do not understand, especially those coming from a gym environment, is that these exercises often become more challenging with lighter springs. Muscle recruitment changes and deepens. Stability and strength are both tested.
We must first build the client’s ability to control and perform exercises without muscling through them before adjusting spring settings for greater challenge.
The Wunda Chair and Cadillac
It becomes even more nuanced when we consider the Wunda Chair/High Chair and the Cadillac.
On the Wunda/High Chair, the spring tension comes from beneath, requiring even more strength and stability. Tension from below must be considered alongside gravity and the plane of movement.
The High Chair is almost always set on two top springs. This provides assistance when lifting and lowering the pedal.
However, the client must still provide resistance and control when lifting the pedal and closing the springs, recruiting multiple muscle groups on both the lift and the descent.
Adjusting Springs for the Client
Take Going Up Front, which primarily challenges pelvic stability. Two top springs assist the client in floating the pedal up on a rhythmic count and prevent the pedal from crashing down.
We must also consider the client’s body weight. For a lighter client, lifting the pedal may be easy and not particularly challenging.
On Classical equipment, lowering the connected end of the spring in the back decreases resistance. To perform the exercise well, the client must recruit stabilizing muscles to keep the hips square and control the pedal.
Springs on the Cadillac
Another benefit of springs is that they work both vertically and horizontally, unlike traditional weight lifting.
In Arm Springs, whether standing or lying on the mat, the tension is above. We challenge muscular strength, stability, and connection based on the relationship between the spring and the body.
As the spring opens, the challenge increases. As it closes, the body must recruit stabilizers to control the return and maintain balance.
Springs can also be loaded from the bottom of the Cadillac. In exercises such as Tower and Monkey, the Push Through Bar is loaded with a bottom spring.
This increases load from below, making the exercise more challenging and requiring greater Powerhouse engagement to move against gravity.
Why Springs Are Unique
The stretch in these exercises is performed with resistance, keeping the muscles engaged and allowing for a more dynamic and safer stretch.
While both weights and spring tension stimulate muscle and bone density growth, springs provide continuous, adjustable resistance.
They keep muscles engaged while reducing joint impact. Unlike traditional weights, springs function both vertically and horizontally, allowing for slower, more controlled movement.
So, how many springs does it take?
