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Over 60? This 30-minute standing wall Pilates workout will boost your full-body strength, balance, and coordination
There’s no denying the many (many) benefits that come with practicing mat Pilates. First off, this low-impact form of fitness can enhance your core strength, give your flexibility a boost, and improve posture. This mind-body practice can also reduce stress, help with injury prevention, and improve your overall well-being.
But these benefits aren’t only gained from doing your glute bridges and pushups on your Pilates mat. Oh no! This multitude of pros can also be felt by taking your practice to the wall. In fact, making use of a wall during your session will help to provide stability, making this form of fitness even more accessible to the masses, including those aged over 60 and over.
Just take this 30-minute wall Pilates workout for seniors, designed by certified instructor and YouTuber Rachel Lawrence, who is the founder of The Girl with the Pilates Mat, for example. The standing session uses a wall to help stabilize and challenge your body, while adding some extra resistance. If this sounds like your kind of workout, all you need to do is roll out an exercise mat, find a spare wall, and you’re good to go.
What is Wall Pilates?
In a nutshell, wall Pilates involves performing Pilates exercises with the use of a wall. In some cases, wall Pilates is likened to Reformer Pilates as, depending on the exercise you are completing, it can mimic the use of a football.
This adaptation also uses the wall as a supportive tool to increase stability and balance, specifically if you’re doing unilateral exercises, like standing single-leg toe taps and standing single-leg extensions.
Watch how to do this 30-minute wall Pilates workout
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Instructor Lawrence leads this standing session, which involves completing traditional Pilates exercises with the use of a wall. “This session is my adaptation of Pilates Matwork exercises to a wall,” the expert says. “What this will do is to switch up the challenge, change the muscle focus, and improve proprioception and balance.” For example, Lawrence suggests completing classic moves like toe taps, ankle circle,s and lunges along with leg circles and a wall sit while standing and making use of your wall.
In an ideal world, Lawrence recommends completing this standing session three times a week for six weeks to see and feel the difference.
According to the expert, doing so will help strengthen, tone, and build strength in your muscles. “You will work both upper and lower body, all using a wall to help stabilise and challenge your body to become stronger,” she adds.
And researchers agree. A review published in the Bulletin of Faculty of Physical Therapy suggests that low-impact Pilates workouts can increase flexibility, strength, and mobility and give your balance a boost.
Plus, much like a Reformer machine, the standing exercises included in this session will help increase the burn by spending time under tension to challenge your muscles in new ways.
