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Mat Pilates Case Study
Block A
Student Details
- Name
- Anne Kelleher
- Tutor
- Pilar Lokko
- Course Location
- Dublin - Swords
- Course Group
- Mat Pilates April 2026
- Course Start
- April 2026
Block A
- Total word count
- 379 words
- Fields completed
- 26 of 26 (100%)
Block Overview54 words
Class Focus: Core Strength, co-ordination, hip and shoulder mobility and stability, strenghten obliques, core muscles and spine stablity
Duration: 55 minutes
Key Exercises: alignment and breathing, roll down, swimming prep, swimming, leg lift single, leg lift double, side kicks, c curve, half roll down and into rolling like a ball, then cool down exercises
My Goals131 words
I want my client to feel like they are in a safe class so I will offer my client modifications on each exercise depending on their fitness level on the day. I also want to talk about alignment and posture with them. I want my client to understand the principles of Pilates and how they impact every exercise in this class. I want them to understand how lateral breathwork is vital in our Pilates class. I want my client to have their mind and body connected and forget about any external problems they may have for an hour, hopefully leaving my class a little lighter than they came in. I hope I build a good rapport with the client so that they would want to come back to my next class.
Block Details23 words
Block Name: Block A
Class Duration (mins): 55
Focus: Alignment and Breathwork, core strength, co-ordination, Shoulder mobility, hip stability and mobility, spinal stability
Goals & Pilates Principles171 words
Class Principles: Breathe, Centre, Concentration, Control, Precision, Flow
Class Focus: This class is built on the 6 Pilates principles. I will focus on introducing my client to correct alignment and lateral breathing, i want them to understand that their breathwork is almost like a remote control for the speed of each exercise, we want nice and slow controlled breathing.
I will start my class in a standing position then safely bring my client down to the mat into a kneeling tabletop position, complete some exercises here then lower my client into a prone position for some exercises, then side line position and finally onto supine position. I will use this flow to give my client some variety of movements. I will ensure each exercise flows nicely onto the next. I will explain how important control and precision is in every Pilates move, control over momentum, quality over quantity of each move. I want my client to feel lighter leaving my class, more centred and ready to face the day with positivity!
Warm-Up
| Exercise | Reps | Cues | Modifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alignment and Pelvic Tilts | 3 | Please can I ask you to stand at the end of your mat. Your feet should be hip distance apart and soften your knees. We are looking for a neutral spine so if we put our hands on our hips are want these to be 2 straight lines. Lets imagine you have a glass of water on your pelvis and if you push your bum out to far it will fall out onto the mat. This is what we call an anterior tilt. If you were to tuck your tailbone under too much the water would fall onto your belly. This is what we call a posterior tilt. We need to find our neutral pelvis so our water doesn't spill out, lets imagine a headlight on each of you hip bones and they are shining out straight ahead of you that is what we are looking for - straight lines. | tilts can be small, don't need large movements, just trying to get the client to understand we are looking for neutral pelvis. |
| Breathwork | 3 | Next please move your hands up to your side ribs and we will discuss lateral breathwork which will help to centre your deep core muscles. When you inhale for a count of 5 in through your nose the ribs expand outwards and your fingers will come apart. The belly does not expand. When we exhale through pursed lips for a count of 5 , pretend you are blowing out candles on a cake, you will feel your ribs knit back together and your fingers come back towards each other. This breathwork is engaging our deep transverse abdominis muscles which act like a corset muscle and on our exhale they wrap around our torso and keep our pelvis and spine stable. This lateral breathing activates our parasympathetic nervous system and it releases oxytocin and endorphins into our body which helps our mind and body work together in harmony. | |
| Alignment | 1 | Next we will flow back into more of our alignment, lets imagine there is a helium balloon attached to the crown of our head lifting and making us the tallest version of ourself. Lets think of our shoulders now and relax them, imagine them sliding down in to our back pockets away from our ears. Arms are down by our side now, palms facing out and thumbs are lateral, fingers are extended long together. This is our perfect posture - ears over shoulders, shoulders over hips, hips over knees and knees over ankles- perfect plumb line. | |
| Roll Down | 1 | We need to get down to the mat now safely while keeping this height and connection in our ribs so we will flow into our roll down. So inhale to prepare and stabilise our core muscles and as you exhale engage your deep abdominal muscles and tuck your chin to chest, curl your shoulders around and slowly imagine you are peeling your spine off a wall one vertebra at a time, soften your knees as your hands lower to the mat. Concentrate on your lateral breathing as your spine curves. Once your hands touch the mat walk your hands forward until you can gently and safely lower your knees to the mat. | I could ask my client to stand next to the wall to perform the wall roll down, which will help them with spinal articulation. I could also ask my client to place their hands flat on their thighs as they start to roll down, this would give them some support to the weight of their upper body. Also if my client cannot walk their hand out to the mat I could say roll down as far as you can comfortably reach then bend your knees until you can place both of your hands safely onto the mat, then lower one knee then the other. |
| 4 point kneeling position | 1 | Here your hands should be directly under shoulders and your knees directly under your hips. Two straight lines. Ok perfect so now lets imagine our back is a flat tabletop and we want to keep it level so lets pretend the glass of water is now resting on our backs. We want a neutral pelvis so inhale wide into your ribcage and exhale to knit your ribs back together engaging those deep transverse abdominal muscles. (I will explain the anterior and posterior pelvic tilts here again to the client.) We need to maintain this breathwork to maintain a strong centre and we wont lose our alignment. Now lets think of our shoulders - lets not sink into our armpits, lets push the floor away and open up our chest, imagine your collar bones are smiling and getting wider. Now onto our neck lets keep it lovely and long, set your eye gaze to the top of the mat and imagine a laser shooting out of the crown of your head towards the wall in front of you. Lastly don't forget that gravity is probably trying to pull your belly down to the mat, but fight against it and use your exhale to lift your belly up towards your spine to support your lower back, keeping our corset tight. |
Main Phase
| Exercise | Reps | Cues | Modifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| swimming prep | From this 4 point kneeling tabletop we will flow into our swimming prep exercise. We need to concentration now on our co ordination. So as we inhale to prepare and on our exhale lets extend our right arm forward and our left leg straight back. Inhale as we lower down, exhale and repeat on opposite side. Keep a long line from your fingertips all the way down to your toes. This movement should be done with precision, we are not using momentum here, keep the core engaged, neutral pelvis, concentrate on each movement and let the speed of your breathwork lead the movements, inhale for 5, exhale for 5. slow and controlled on the exhale as you lift and lengthen. | If I want to modify this for my client I could tell them to keep their legs down and just focus on their arms moving and keeping the core stable, pelvis not rocking. Then move onto focus on the legs lifting and pelvis not rocking. Eventually over time the client will be able to do arms and legs but until then just focus on one. | |
| childs pose | 1 | Well done and from here we will flow into a childs pose. Take a deep inhale and on your exhale press your hands into the mat and shift your hips all the way back towards your heels. Take another deep breathe and allow your lower back to go wide and release any tension. We are going to lie prone (flat) onto the mat for our next exercise so we will look forward between our hands keep your chest as low to the mat as possible and slide your chest forward between your hands and let your legs and hips unroll behind you until you are lying flat on your stomach. | If my client has knees that can't flex all the way back into child's pose I could ask my client to go down onto their forearms then melt their chest and forehead onto the mat and release their legs down one at a time onto the mat using their breathwork at all times. |
| Swimming Prone | 5 | So from our prone position, (ie legs are long, point your toes and lengthen your arms out towards the front), we will inhale to stabilise our pelvis and as we exhale we lift our 2legs and 2arms up off the mat and start to move up and down, inhaling for 5 lifts and exhaling for 5 lifts. Try to imagine the glass of water is on your back now and you are trying to keep it steady. After client has finished their reps I will ask them to rest their forehead on their arms and kick their legs up to their glutes for a little stretch. Now release your legs down and get your breathing under control and let your back muscles soften. From here we want to roll onto our side carefully and safely so please stretch your right arm in front of you and lay your head on it like a pillow. Bring your left and flat on the floor right in front of your chest , zip your legs together and inhale and on your exhale press through your left hand to smoothly roll your body over onto your right side. | I would ask the client to start with lifting the legs on the exhale and swim only in the legs then progress to just lifting the arms. Or I could ask the client to lift the opposite arm and leg and switch over to the opposite leg and arm after 5 reps |
| Leg lift side (single and double) | 5 | Now we need to get aligned on our side line position. Our legs are extended straight and stacked on top of each other. Make sure your ankles, knees and hips are stacked on top of other another. We will lift onto our forearm and engage our obliques. Make sure you are lifted up out of your obliques. Elbow is under your shoulder. Use your top hand for stability by placing on the floor in front of you. Lets inhale for count of 5 and exhale of count of 5 to stabilise ourselves before we start. We will use our centre (our powerhouse) here to prevent us from falling backwards or rolling forwards onto the mat. Lets use our breathwork to control all our movements here and stay focussed. So feet are pointed lets inhale and as we exhale flex our top foot and lift the leg to hip height. Inhale point down. Exhale flex and lift. Inhale point and lower. Lets do 5 reps here then lower down. From here we will progress onto our double leg side lift. Place your hand behind your ear for this double leg lift as I want you to focus on your lower body now. You can also bring the feet very slightly in front of you now just for a little extra stabilisation. So inhale to prepare and stabilise our core muscles. And on the exhale lift both of our legs to hip height. Inhale and lower down. Repeat inhale squeeze legs together and exhale lift, repeat for 5 reps and lower down. Well done! So now we need to transition over to the other side carefully so lets roll onto our tummy and then use your hand to push you up onto the other side line position. We will repeat what we did other side. So get into our alignment here again for our single leg lift, ankles, knees and hips are stacked in one long line. lift up into your obliques, elbow under shoulder gaze forward and stabilise with your other hand. Use your lateral breathing to engage your powerhouse, using our deep abdominals muscles to stabilise your core by wrapping a corset around your torso. perfect set up. now inhale and as we exhale flex our top foot and lift the leg to hip height. inhale point down. exhale flex and lift. inhale point and lower. lets do 5 reps and rest. and lets move onto our double leg lift now. Again I want your hand behind your ear for this double leg lift as I want you to focus on your lower body now. You can also bring the feet very slightly in front of you now just for a little extra stabilisation. so inhale to prepare and stabilise our core muscles. and on the exhale lift both of our legs to hip height. inhale and lower down. repeat inhale squeeze legs together and exhale lift, repeat for 5 reps and lower down. well done great work. | The lift doesn't have to be as high as the hip, small lifts with precision and control is more important than the height. Client can also change the position of the arm, they could rest their heads on their arm or they could bend it and place it behind their ear. Whatever feels comfortable for them. |
| Side kick | 5 | One last side line exercise, this one is great for our hip flexion and extension. we are in our side line position, ankles, knees and hips are stacked. you can rest your head onto your palm and place your other hand out in front of you for some extra stabilisation. Lets keep our neck long and look straight ahead. Flex your feet, inhale to stabilise and on the exhale lift your top leg up, inhale point toe back and squeeze your leg back then exhale flex foot and kick forward twice. We inhale to stabilise and exhale to kick forward. We should have control of our torso and flow of our leg through our lateral breathing. make sure your hips don't roll with your leg, stay steady. lets do 5 reps on this side. now we will roll over to complete this exercise on the other side. Lower your foot down please and use your hand to press into the floor to lift your torso up to a seated position gently swing your legs to the opposite side of the mat and lower down to the mat with control and get into your side line correct alignment and we will complete 5 reps on that side. great work! | My client can rest their head on their arm for this exercise if they are tired now. The kick forward doesn't have to be too far. Control over distance and quality over quantity. |
| C curve | 5 | So please roll onto your back now gently and hug your legs into your chest and rock from side to side. you can rotate your neck from side to side also to release any tension felt there. Now stretch your legs long and your arms long over your head and give your body a nice big stretch. From here please take your time and come up to a sitting position. Please sit nice and tall on your sit bones with knees bent, feet flat on the mat. Your knees and feet should be hip distance apart, don't let your knees fall inwards or out. And roll your shoulder back away from your ears. The main thing with this is to move with precision and control. We don't want to collapse onto the mat. Lets put our hands out in front of us with our palms facing our knees. So we will inhale to prepare and as we exhale we will nod our chin to our chest slightly, scoop our abdominal muscles in, our tailbone is tucking up slightly and we are rounding onto our lumbar spine through to our middle spine keeping our collar bones soft. we are trying to create a lovely c shape. Hold and then inhale and draw yourself back up until you are sitting back up tall on your sit bones. As you are drawing yourself back up try to lead with the crown of your head until your torso is over your hips and then lift your crown up tall and lengthen your spine. | My client could keep their hands with a light hold onto their hamstrings for extra support. |
| Half roll down | 5 | On our next c curve I want you to progress onto a half roll down. We need to concentrate for this to maintain control throughout the movement. I would like you to hold your position when you are on your c curve then inhale and on your next exhale please simply roll down further to the mat, opening our hips and pulling your belly away from your thighs. Arms are completely straight as you roll down, feet are anchored to the mat. Hold that position inhale and exhale use your breathe to engage your deep abdominal muscles to pull your torso forward over your hips keeping your c curve then restack your spine one vertebra at a time until you are sitting back up tall on your sit bones. Perfect lets do 5 reps of these. | The client doesn't need to roll down too far if they find it difficult. the client can also keep their hands behind their thighs for support. |
| Roll like a ball | 5 | Now onto our final exercise which is a fun one, its called rolling like a ball. Also really good for our core stability. So as your are sitting lovely and tall on your sitbones, please ensure you have a nice neutral pelvis, knees bent hip distance apart. Place your hands onto your shins and hug your legs in close. Tuck your chin slightly to your chest. We need great precision and balance on this move. So inhale to stabilise and exhale lift those feet off the floor and find your balance then lower back down to mat. Lets repeat that a few times now. Now the next time we balance off the mat we are going to perform our c curve, so we need to focus as we don't forget to curve onto that lumbar spine and then roll back onto our shoulder blades, do not touch your head to the mat. The main difference with this exercise is that we inhale down on our c curve and we exhale to engage our deep core muscles to get up back up to our starting position, sitting back nice and tall balanced on our sit bones and feet hovered off the mat. So lets try it, make sure momentum isn't doing the work on the way back up. Use your lateral breathing and core to stop yourself at the top, control at all times. We will do 5 reps of this and then we will move onto our cool down exercises. Well done! | If the client finds this too hard I could ask them to bring their hands behind their thighs or they could even just practice the lifting and balancing feet of the mat. If they want more of a challenge to finish off they could bring their hands to their ankles and squeeze into a tighter ball! |
Cool-Down
| Exercise | Reps | Cues | Modifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knee to chest and spinal rock | 4 | Please lower down now safely to the mat. hug your knees into your chest and gently rock from side to side to give your back a nice massage. | My client can lift one knee at a time. or they could just lenghten their legs and arms long and stretch like they are being pulled in two opposite directions. |
| Neck rotation | 4 | Please rotate your neck from side to side to release out any tension stored there. | |
| Final breathwork and posture check | 4 | Please when you are ready sit up onto your mat comfortably, take a deep inhale into your ribs and roll your shoulder up to your ears and exhale them down and back, let your collarbones go nice and wide. | |
| Stand up | 1 | When you are finished with your breathwork please gently and with care stand up and you are ready to go. I really hope you enjoyed your class and have a wonderful day. thank you so much. |