Circuit Training in Pilates: Find, Feel, and Discover

Cross-Training with the Balanced Body Allegro® 2 Reformer and EXO® Chair

Pilates has long been recognized as a comprehensive movement system, but one of its greatest strengths is its ability to bridge disciplines. Whether an individual is training for sport, recovering from injury, building strength, or simply striving to move more efficiently through daily life, Pilates develops the fundamental qualities every body requires: mobility, stability, balance, coordination, control, and strength. As a cross-training method, Pilates doesn’t compete with other forms of exercise—it enhances them by improving how the body organizes and responds to movement.

The Balanced Body Allegro® 2 Reformer and EXO® Chair create an ideal cross-training partnership. While these two pieces of equipment are often taught independently, I use them together because each serves a different purpose in the learning process. The Allegro® 2 Reformer becomes the place where clients begin to find, feel, and discover movement. It is the learning environment where awareness develops into organization. The EXO® Chair then asks clients to maintain that same connection while increasing the demands for strength, coordination, balance, and control. Rather than repeating the same exercise on both pieces of equipment, I choose complementary exercises that reinforce the same movement objective in a different environment.

My sequencing is built around one guiding principle: Stability Before Mobility. Before asking clients to move, I first ask them to become organized. Throughout the workout, I use questions rather than commands, encouraging clients to become active participants in their own movement experience.

Begin with Awareness — Find

Before clients can move efficiently, they must first understand how they are standing.

Before stepping onto the Allegro® 2 Reformer, begin with a standing assessment. This is not a visual assessment in front of a mirror. Instead of asking, “How do I look?” ask, “How do I feel?”

Can you notice your feet? Do they feel equally grounded, or does one foot accept more weight than the other? Can you feel even pressure through your heels, the balls of your feet, and your toes? Does one side of your body feel heavier?

Now gently close your eyes.

Are you swaying?

Without judgment, simply notice how your body organizes itself against gravity. This brief assessment establishes a baseline before movement begins and often reveals subtle asymmetries that will influence how the body responds on both the Reformer and the Chair.

Repeat this same assessment at the end of the workout. Clients are often surprised by the immediate changes they feel in their balance, posture, breathing, and overall body awareness. When they can both feel and observe those changes, the value of the movement experience becomes tangible.

Connect the Lower Body to the Center — Feel

The Allegro® 2 Reformer becomes the place where clients begin to find, feel, and discover their connection to the center. Rather than focusing on moving the carriage, encourage them to organize from the ground up. The goal is not simply to perform the exercise; it is to discover how the lower body supports and connects to the powerhouse.

Lunge Sequence (1 Red Spring)

Standing with both hands on the footbar, one foot grounded on the floor, and the opposite knee resting on the carriage with the foot against the shoulder rest, press the carriage away and pause.

The pause is intentional.

Can you find your pelvis? Can you gently explore an anterior pelvic tilt and then a posterior pelvic tilt? Can your pelvis move without your ribs following?

Can you organize from the standing foot first? Feel your weight travel from the heel, across the lateral border of the foot, through the forefoot, and toward the big toe. As the foot organizes, notice what happens up the kinetic chain. Can you feel the medial line responding? Does that connection travel toward your pelvic floor and ultimately your center?

Where is your breath? Can you maintain that connection before asking the carriage to move?

Once that connection has been established, begin to increase the complexity without changing the objective.

Suggested Progression

• Standing Lunge
• Standing Lunge with Lateral Flexion
• Standing Lunge with Rotation
• Standing Lunge with Hands Off the Footbar
• Standing Lunge with a Lighter Spring and Changes in Tempo

Each progression asks a new question while reinforcing the same movement objective. Can you maintain your connection to your center as the challenge increases? The exercise evolves, but the purpose remains the same.

Transfer to the EXO® Chair — Discover

Rather than repeating the lunge on the EXO® Chair, choose a complementary exercise that reinforces the same movement objective through a different movement experience.

The lower body has already begun to find its connection to the powerhouse.

Now we invite the upper body into the same conversation.

Connect the Upper Body to the Center

Seated on the EXO® Chair with two springs on a low setting (1 or 2), place both heels on the pedal and begin simple leg pumps.

Although the exercise has changed, the coaching language remains the same.

Can you feel both sit bones evenly on the seat? Is your pelvis balanced? Can you lengthen through your spine without becoming rigid? Where are your ribs? Can you feel the crown of your head reaching toward the ceiling? How does your body organize differently sitting and moving compared to standing and lunging?

Once clients can maintain that organization, give the upper body another job.

One simple progression is to introduce the Magic Circle.

Place the hands inside the Magic Circle while continuing the leg pumps. Now raise the arms overhead.

Can you continue pumping the legs while maintaining your connection to your center?

What happens to your breath as the arms travel overhead? Do the ribs begin to lift? Does the lumbar spine begin to arch? Can the exhale reconnect the ribs, abdominals, and center without interrupting the movement of the legs?

Now notice your hands.

Are you pressing only through the thumb and index finger, or can you broaden your awareness across the entire hand, including the ring and little finger? How does that change the work through your shoulders? Your upper back? Your connection to your center?

Suggested Progression

• Leg Pumps with the Magic Circle held inside the hands, pressing outward as the arms reach overhead
• Leg Pumps with the Magic Circle held outside the hands, pressing inward as the arms reach overhead

If you have a split-pedal EXO® Chair, remove the dowel rod and replace the Magic Circle with the dowel. As the arms travel overhead, begin alternating single-leg pumps.

What changes?

Where do you feel more stable?

Where do you feel less organized?

Can you move with greater freedom while maintaining your connection to your center?

This is the beauty of cross-training.

The equipment changes.

The movement objective does not.

The Allegro® 2 Reformer provides the opportunity to find, feel, and discover movement. The EXO® Chair challenges clients to maintain that same organization while increasing the demands for coordination, strength, balance, and control.

Cross-training is not simply about changing equipment. It is about changing the way clients experience movement. When the movement objective remains consistent across apparatus, clients begin to recognize patterns instead of memorizing exercises. They develop confidence, move more efficiently, and learn to move from their center regardless of the apparatus beneath them.

I hope this article inspires you to look beyond the exercise itself and think differently about how you sequence movement. Every client learns differently, and not every body experiences movement the same way. By creating opportunities to explore, ask questions, and connect to the center across different apparatus, we empower our clients to take their Pilates practice beyond the studio and into everyday life.

As you plan your next class, ask yourself: How can I use my equipment differently—more integratively—to create opportunities for my clients to find, feel, and discover their own bodies through movement?