A pilates instructor on how to recreate a little piece of that studio magic on your mat at home

If you’re sitting at home in lockdown, you may be finding it difficult to maintain your regular workout routine and keep the same energy flowing on the mat at home as you have in the studio.

I get messages from our amazing STRONG Pilates clients everyday telling me how much they are missing the studio – I hear you and I see you! But I assure you, you can create a little piece of that studio magic on your mat at home.

Here’s how I’ve been recreating the electricity on my mat until we can get back into the studio!

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Step 1: Set up your exercise space

Allocate an area away from your work and resting space to set up your mat and workout essentials.

This helps streamline your transition from work to workout and assists with a shift in your mindset. Choose a part of your home where you get some nice natural light, or where you have space to stretch out. If space is a luxury you don’t have – take your exercise space outdoors!

Step 2: Remove distractions and get in the right headspace

“Burn now, brag later” is something we say in our studios at STRONG Pilates – and the same thing applies at home. When you step those feet onto your mat, you are there to put in the work and give yourself 30 mins of time to sweat it out.

Distractions like your phone, your pets, your work laptop, dishes in the sink – whatever it may be will distract you from getting the most out of your workout, and you deserve the most.

Step 3: Make it fun & set the tone

At STRONG we have playlists curated specifically to our workouts on the Rowformer. Follow STRONG on Spotify for some deep house/r&b or play your own music, anything with a good beat to get you moving!

Step 4: Keep consistency in your workouts

I try to keep my home workouts as close to what I do in the studio as possible to keep consistency in my routine. Our classes at STRONG Pilates are notoriously tough with a mix between working the slow and fast twitch, which keeps the body guessing in so many ways.

I like to re-create this same feeling in the body when working out at home and here’s how:

Choose five of your favourite exercises. Complete 5 rounds of 60 seconds for each exercise. Some of my favourite exercises include:

1. Squat
2. High Plank
3. Reverse Lunge
4. Push Up
5. Tabletop Crunch

Every round you do, alter the movement and tempo slightly to keep the body feeling STRONG.

1. Round 1 = work in the classic STRONG 4/4 tempo. This means that you are moving consistently slow in both the concentric and eccentric contraction of the muscle (ie. in both directions of the movement!) Slow movement helps create stability and strength.
2. Round 2 = work fast. Spike the HR by working through maximum reps in the time frame.
3. Round 3 = in the mid range of your movement add in 4 x pulses.
4. Round 4 = work the negative tempo, this means you go slow in one direction and fast in the other.
5. Round 5 = add an explosive element. For a squat, this could be a jump squat; for a high plank, you could add mountain climbers; and for reverse lunges you could alter them to plyometric lunges. This is the toughest round that we work up to!

If you want a little more from your workout try not to take a rest but if you need a little less, add in a 30 second rest each round.

Step 5: Set goals

Plan your workouts. Hold yourself accountable. You would never just rock up to the studio in hopes of getting to a class, you would always pre book using our STRONG Pilates App.

Treat your home workouts in the same way. Pencil in your mat time at the start of the week and hold yourself accountable.

Sometimes self care looks like hard work. Listen to your body and remember you got this!

Timea Berenyi is the Head Trainer at STRONG Pilates.