Practice What You Teach: Bean Bag Pilates

If you didn’t think I was a Pilates Nerd already, this post may confirm any suspicions you had!  The workout I was most excited about this week was the one I did on a bean bag!  Yep I’m talking about a bean bag chair! In fact it’s the one that usually sits in our lounge area for clients and staff to sit on.  Let me explain….

I taught my regular Wednesday night Pilates Mat class this week and found myself talking to one of my clients after class about how we could find a better position for her to be able to do the Pilates Mat Side Leg Kick series.  She has a shoulder injury that really bothers her when she’s lying in any sort of side lying position on that shoulder.  I had played around with small pads, small balls and barrels to prop her but nothing really worked.  As I stood chatting with her in our studio lounge area I happen to spot our bean bag chair.  Mid conversation I plopped onto the floor and set myself up in the bean bag chair to do some side leg kicks…..it was perfect!!  I could position it around my shoulder so that I wasn’t putting extra pressure on the shoulder and it propped my head up in a supportive way too!  Even though she was laughing at me at first, my client then got on the floor and tried it out and she was almost as excited about it as me!!

I’m not quite sure why I never thought of using the bean bag as a prop! All of a sudden I was thinking of other clients who also might benefit from the adaptability of the bean bag to give support in a variety of positions.   I couldn’t wait to try it out!! So the next day I played around doing a variety of exercises using the bean bag for support!!  There’s a few pictures above of my play time!