FitnessWorkouts

How to get in a full Pilates workout—no reformer needed

Pilates pro Heather Dorak created this 15-minute routine to mimic the effects of a Megaformer—but instead, all that's required are a pair of paper plates.

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Photos: Heather Dorak
Published Jun 7, 2016

Written by 

Erin Magner

What’s a Pilates junkie to do when she’s on a vacay so exotic, there are no Megaformer studios on the map?

For Heather Dorak, founder of Los Angles’ Pilates Platinum, it’s about improvising with a tool found around the world—paper plates.

“I travel a lot, so I’m always looking for creative ways to mimic what I do on the machine,” says Dorak, who teaches the popular Lagree Megaformer method at her four SoCal studios.

“I’ve tried a lot of techniques and toys, but nothing comes close to the simplicity of using paper plates to bring the reformer class to your hotel room.” Or town, should yours not have one.

When she says it’s simple, she’s not kidding—all you need is a pair of standard paper plates,  which act like gliders when you use them on a non-carpeted floor (hotel bathroom, perhaps?), and a few of Dorak’s favorite moves, which she’s shared exclusively with us.

“To really mimic one of our Pilates classes, do every exercise only on the right side and then go back to the beginning and do it on the left,” she suggests, adding that she sometimes runs a 5K before and after doing this sequence for an extra hit of cardio. (That’s one way to earn an extra poolside cocktail.)

“This is a workout that never gets easy and always gives me great satisfaction after completing it,” says Dorak.

Keep scrolling for Heather Dorak’s favorite Pilates Megaformer-inspired moves—with paper plates—in just 15 minutes.

Paper Plate Pilates_Plank1

1. Plank (30 seconds)

Place the plates under your toes and come into a plank position. You can do this exercise either on your hands or on your elbows. Keep shoulders directly over your wrists (or elbows if on your elbows), your abs pulled into your spine, your back flat, and press through your hands or elbows.

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2. Bear (1 minute)

Immediately after the 30-second plank is complete, keep your body exactly the same, and use your lower abdominal muscles to slide your feet in towards your hands. (Don’t lift your butt into the air!).

Once your feet cannot come any closer to your hands, push them back out.

Your back should stay as level as possible during the duration of the whole exercise. With control, keep moving your feet in and out for a whole minute.

Take a 30-second rest (if needed).

3. Bear with a Right Twist (1 minute)

Stay in your plank position with the plates under your toes; come up to your hands if you’re on your elbows. For this minute, your feet are going to stay next to each other and move as a unit.

Pull your knees towards your belly button as you twist your hips to open to the right. Aim to reach your knees to your right armpit. Once you can’t pull your knees in any further, straighten your legs back into the plank starting position.

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Keep in mind that while you’re pulling your knees in, you don’t want to pop your butt into the air. Your abs should stay tight and you should remain as low in the plank as possible. Keep pulling the knees in and out for the whole minute.

4. Bear with a Left Twist (1 minute)

Perform the same exercise as the previous minute, but this time pull your knees to the left and open your hips to the left.

Take a 30-second rest (if needed).

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Photos: Heather Dorak

5. Plank to Pike (1 minute)

Stay in your plank position with the plates under your toes, either on the hands or the elbows. Your back should be flat and your abdominals pulled in tight. Keeping your legs nice and straight, concentrate on using your abdominals to pull your butt up into the air as if you are folding in half.

Keep your shoulders relaxed and don’t let your thighs take over—try to just use your lower abdominals. As soon as you cannot lift your butt up anymore, return back into plank position in a slow and controlled manner. Keep it up for the whole minute.

Take a 30-second rest (if needed)

Paper Plate Pilates_Army Crawl1

6. Army Crawl (1 minute)

Stay in your plank position with the plates under your toes, and come down to the elbows. Your back should be flat and your abdominals pulled in tight. Keeping your legs nice and straight, move in a forward direction by lifting one elbow up and forward, then the other elbow up and forward.

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Your hips are going to want to naturally sway back and forth as you move your elbows, but try and keep them as level as possible.

Move forward three times with your elbows (alternating the elbows every time), then move three times back with each elbow (alternating the elbows every time). Keep this up for the whole minute.

Paper Plate Pilates_Reverse Plank

7. Reverse Plank (1 minute)

Begin sitting on your butt with your legs straight out in front of you, plates under your heels. Place your hands right next to your hips with your palms on the ground. Keeping your abdominals pulled into your spine and your butt flexed, lift your butt off of the ground until the front of your body is in a straight line. (Think of the opposite of what a plank would look like).

If your neck feels good, you can drop your head back. Hold here for the whole minute. Having the plates under your heels will create more of a challenge.

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Paper Plate Pilates_Spo

8. Spoon (1 minute)

With the paper plates under your heels, begin in the same position as with reverse plank—sitting on your butt with your legs straight out in front of you and your arms by your sides. This time, use your abdominals to lift your butt off of the ground, keeping your chest up.

Pull your abdominals back as far as you can, causing your butt to move behind you and your feet closer to your hands. You can try putting your hands on a platform if you need more height to get your butt off of the ground. Again, as soon as your butt can’t go back any farther, push it back forward and into starting position.

If needed, you can lower your butt back down to the ground each time; for more of a challenge, keep it lifted.

Take a 30-second rest.

Paper Plate Pilates_Low Bridge

9. Low Bridge Hold (30 seconds)

Start by laying on your back, legs straight out and plates under your heels. Keeping your hands by your sides with your palms on the ground, lift your butt a few inches off of the ground and squeeze it. Keep the work in your butt and hamstrings and out of your arms and much as possible. Hold for the full 30 seconds.

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Paper Plate Pilates_Bridge Hold

10. Bridge Hold (30 seconds)

Bring your butt back to the ground. Bend your legs so that your feet are under your knees. Squeeze your butt and lift your butt into the air; hold for 30 seconds.

11. Reverse Curl (1 minute)

Now, take your bridge hold and turn it into the low bridge hold. This happens by straightening your legs out as far as they can with your butt still lifted off of the ground. Keep moving your legs in and out from the bridge hold position to the bridge low hold position.

You should feel a lot of this movement in your hamstrings. It’s okay if your butt touches the ground; just know that you’ve gone a bit too far. End in a bridge hold position.

12. Bridge Pulse (30 seconds) 

From the bridge hold position, pulse your hips up and down. Your hips should only move about an inch up and an inch down. Keep this up for 30 seconds. Then lower back down and rest.

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Photos: Heather Dorak

13. Side Lunge Left (1 minute)

In a standing position, place a paper plate underneath your left foot. Your hands can be wherever is comfortable.

With your feet hip-distance apart, lower your butt back and down, so that your knees are as close to 90 degrees as possible with your chest lifted.  Keep your right leg stationary in a 90-degree position with your body weight pressing through the right heel, then slide your left foot out to the side. Once your left leg is straight, stay here for a moment before sliding your left foot back forward to meet the right foot.

Keep this up for a minute.

14. Side Lunge Right (1 minute)

Perform the exact same movement, but now with the plate under your right foot.

For more workouts that you can do anywhere, check out our very own collection of 5-minute Sweat Series videos, or this super-fun partner HIIT challenge.

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FitnessWorkouts

Doing This Type of Breathing as Part of Your Pilates Practice Can Help Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor

Here's how hypopressive breathing, a deep breathing exercise, can help you with your Pilates practice and other forms of movement.

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Photo: Stocksy/Atolas
Published Jan 29, 2025

Written by 

Kelsey Kloss

If you’re obsessed with all things Pilates, you already know about the best athleisure, accessories, and self-care moments to incorporate into your practice. However, you may be less familiar with a type of breathwork that can improve your practice — and help you feel more grounded.

Experts in This Article

Anouska Shenn

certified Pilates instructor and founder of The Office Yoga Company

Blair Mauri

a pelvic floor therapist and owner of Blair Mauri Pelvic Health

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Enter hypopressive breathing, a deep breathing exercise that involves emptying your lungs completely. It’s similar to the uddiyana bandha in yoga (or an “abdominal lock”).

“It involves breathing in a way that creates a vacuum-like effect in your thoracic, abdominal, and pelvic cavities by decreasing the pressure, causing a lift and toning of the pelvic floor,” says Anouska Shenn, a certified Pilates instructor and founder of The Office Yoga Company.

But before we get into how to do it, let us clear up one thing: Don’t try any breath-holding exercises during your practice, since Pilates focuses on breathing through movements.

That said, practicing hypopressive breathing before, after, or separate from your Pilates workouts can help support your practice in a number of ways.

What is hypopressive breathing?

Hypopressive breathing is a technique that involves completely emptying your lungs and holding that breath to create a vacuum. It serves as a core exercise that can benefit your pelvic floor health.

Think of it this way: Your abdomen is a closed pressure system. That means that when the pressure changes—like with a cough, deep breath, or force like a lift—your abdominal structures need to be able to manage that pressure properly. That’s where pelvic floor exercises, like hypopressive breathing, come in.

“When we’re not managing that pressure properly, gravity takes it and sends it down into the pelvic floor,” says Blair Mauri, MS, OTR/L, a pelvic floor therapist and owner of Blair Mauri Pelvic Health. “Repeated downward pressure not only weakens the pelvic floor, but can also cause it to become extremely tense.”

That tension may lead to symptoms such as incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, painful sex, low back pain, or chronic constipation. “Hypopressive breathing is an excellent way to optimize pelvic floor function, as it provides a natural lift to these tissues without increasing the tension,” says Mauri.

Improving your pelvic floor function can relieve pelvic pain or low back pain, improve your oxygen and energy levels, promote digestion, and support your movement throughout your Pilates practice.

In fact, an eight-week program of hypopressive exercises improved pelvic floor muscle strength and urinary incontinence symptoms in women ages 18 to 60 with pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence symptoms, per a 2022 study1 in Neurourology and Urodynamics.

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Plus, hypopressive breathing can work your lungs in a way that benefits your Pilates practice. “Optimizing your rib mobility is also important for diaphragm function and getting the most out of your breaths,” adds Mauri.

How do you do it?

First, take a few deep breaths and see where you notice that pressure (in this case, your breath):

  • Is it focused in your chest or belly?
  • Are your ribs moving apart as you breathe in?

You should feel some mobility in all of these areas, not just one. “Rib mobility is especially important for proper hypopressive technique, so you may need to start here,” says Mauri. “Take some time to retrain your breathing so that everything expands on the inhale and comes back together on the exhale.”

Once you’ve honed in on that, you can move on to your hypopressive breathing exercises, following Mauri’s instructions:

  1. 1.
    Gently exhale as if you are fogging a window. Don’t send any pressure or force down into your lower belly or pelvic floor.
  2. 2.
    After you exhale, hold your nose and close your mouth and “pretend” to inhale without actually taking in any air. Think about widening those ribs, which will make your stomach begin to look concave.
  3. 3.
    Hold this for 3-5 seconds and then inhale.

How does it benefit your Pilates practice?

This breathing technique shines as an add-on to your Pilates practice. You don’t want to hold your breath during Pilates moves (after all, Pilates is all about coordinating movement with breath), but hypopressive breathing exercises can serve as bumpers for an effective workout.

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“Hypopressive breathing is designed to stand alone, but you can use it as part of your warm-up or to close your Pilates practice,” Shenn says.

Pelvic floor strengthening is already often a key element of Pilates. In fact, a 12-week Pilates program focused on pelvic floor strengthening significantly improved stress urinary incontinence symptoms in women ages 45 to 70, with the results lasting even six months after the program, per a small 2020 study2 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

“Hypopressive breathing complements a Pilates routine, as it also retrains and strengthens the deep core along with your pelvic floor,” says Mauri.

A strong and coordinated deep core and pelvic floor gives you more stability as you move your body throughout your Pilates practice—and throughout the rest of your day.

“Our pelvic floor muscles work together with our deep core muscles to stabilize the spine—supporting our posture and providing a solid foundation for all of our movements,” says Shenn.

Tips to get started

As you integrate hypopressive breathing into your Pilates routine, Shenn recommends keeping these tips in mind:

  • Start with 1-3 sets of 3 repetitions, resting between sets.
  • If you’re a beginner, practice your breathing lying down or seated, before progressing to more challenging positions like side-lying or quadruped (a four-point kneeling position).
  • Do your hypopressive breathwork on an empty stomach (it’s recommended to not eat at least two hours beforehand, since this type of breathing involves suctioning the abdomen inward and upward).
  • Avoid wearing clothes that are too tight—including collars, waistbands, and belts—as they can impede your breath.

Very little research has been done on the effect of breathwork on babies in the womb, so avoid hypopressive breathing if you’re pregnant.

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One more thing to note: Certain preexisting health conditions like high blood pressure can also be contraindications for breathwork, so always check with your doctor first and consider working with a trained provider to make sure your form is correct.

  1. Molina-Torres G, Moreno-Muñoz M, Rebullido TR, Castellote-Caballero Y, Bergamin M, Gobbo S, Hita-Contreras F, Cruz-Diaz D. The effects of an 8-week hypopressive exercise training program on urinary incontinence and pelvic floor muscle activation: A randomized controlled trial. Neurourol Urodyn. 2023 Feb;42(2):500-509. doi: 10.1002/nau.25110. Epub 2022 Dec 8. PMID: 36482844; PMCID: PMC10107869.

    ↩︎

  2. Hein JT, Rieck TM, Dunfee HA, Johnson DP, Ferguson JA, Rhodes DJ. Effect of a 12-Week Pilates Pelvic Floor-Strengthening Program on Short-Term Measures of Stress Urinary Incontinence in Women: A Pilot Study. J Altern Complement Med. 2020 Feb;26(2):158-161. doi: 10.1089/acm.2019.0330. Epub 2020 Jan 9. PMID: 31916840; PMCID: PMC7044776.

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The 10 Best Pilates Exercises for Beginners, According to a Peloton Instructor

A Peloton instructor shares the best beginner Pilates exercises and how to do them, plus the benefits of Pilates.

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Photo credit: Peleton
Published Jan 27, 2025

Written by 

Kristin Jenny

Pilates was created in the 1920s in New York City by Joseph Pilates and many of its exercises were originally used to help World War I patients rehabilitate injuries. Today, Pilates is used more for fitness than for physical rehabilitation, although its focus on building a strong core may help prevent or speed along healing from other injuries.

Experts in This Article

Rebecca Kennedy

certified personal trainer and Peloton instructor

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If you’re considering giving this mind-and-body-focused workout a try, it’s key to have a grasp of Pilates’ foundational moves so that you can safely make the most of this muscle-building, endorphin-inducing workout.

The benefits of Pilates

Pilates is a unique fitness practice in that it focuses on more than just burning calories and achieving toned muscles—although you’ll do both of those things with a regular cadence of classes.

Pilates is focused on three principles, according to the Pilates Foundation: breath, whole-body health, and whole-body commitment, with “the whole-body encompassing mind, body and spirit.” Within those principles, the concepts of breath, concentration, centering, control, precision and flow are mainstays in any well-rounded Pilates practice.

“There are many benefits of Pilates that go beyond toning muscles or getting in a great workout,” says Rebecca Kennedy, CPT, a Peloton Pilates and Tread instructor. “Some of the top benefits of Pilates for me are that it improves posture and balance, helps with overall flexibility and mobility, and is low-impact and low-stress on your joints.”

Additionally, Kennedy notes Pilates can be an excellent complementary workout to other fitness activities like running, cycling, or strength training.

Lastly, Kennedy believes the mind-body connection that is achieved from a frequent Pilates workout is unmatched in the fitness world. “A regular Pilates practice will improve your mind-body awareness while improving mental focus and concentration,” Kennedy says. “Its emphasis on enhancing breathwork can also have the effect of reducing feelings of stress and anxiety.”

Beginner Pilates tips to keep in mind

Before diving into Pilates head first, remember to listen to your mind and body—it’s better to forego a move or modify it than cause yourself pain or injury. While it may be tempting to launch into some of the more advanced Pilates moves, it’s better to view each movement with “curiosity, instead of just trying to do each move and check off a box,” Kennedy says.

She recommends nailing the basics of the moves featured below—and not just acing the look of a move, but truly internalizing the breathing rhythm, form, and alignment of these foundational Pilates movements before becoming overly concerned with time spent in a movement, number of reps, or moving into more challenging variations of a move.

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“A common misconception about Pilates is that you need to be flexible and also have a ton of equipment to get started with your practice,” Kennedy says. “Neither of these things are true. You do not need to be flexible to start a Pilates practice, and much of the equipment used is all extra, so don’t let either of those misconceptions hold you back from beginning a foundational practice.”

Finally, Kennedy reminds those who are new to Pilates that this is a slow, methodical practice. “Move slower than you think you need to, and always move with control,” Kennedy says. “Take modifications for any exercise that feels too challenging—it’s better to take a modification that allows you to maintain good form, breath control, and pelvic floor connection than to rush through a movement.”

The best Pilates exercises for beginners

Kennedy demonstrates each of the 10 moves in the video below. Follow along with her or scroll down for detailed exercise instructions.

1. The hundred

The Pilates hundred works your core and introduces the concept of timing your breath with your movements.

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