Pilates Technique Thursday: Class Planning With Purpose

Group performing shoulder bridge with single leg lift on mats.

Class planning is not a random act. It is not a playlist of your favourite exercises. It is a decision about what your clients need today.

We all know the original order from Joseph Pilates’ book. It is elegant. It flows. It challenges the body in a progressive way. But we also know the bodies walking into our studios in 2026 are not the bodies walking into a New York studio in the 1940s. They arrive with tight hips, rigid thoracic spines, protective shoulders, and a head full of stress. If you start loading stability on top of that, you do not get strength. You get bracing.

Recently I have shifted the way I organise classes. I begin with mobility. Not as an afterthought, not as a quick warm up, but as a deliberate phase of the session. Swan preparation, shoulder bridge prep, spine twist, spine stretch, the Saw. Rotational work. Extension. Flexion. Gentle articulation. I want the joints to move before I ask them to stabilise.

When you start with mobility, you give the nervous system permission to let go. You reduce background tension. You create space in the spine. You allow the ribs to move. You give the hips a chance to glide instead of grip. Then, when you introduce stability, whether it is lumbar control or upper body support, the client is working from length rather than force.

If you move straight into stability, many clients will hold. They will brace the abdominals. They will grip the glutes. They will elevate the shoulders. It looks strong, but it is protective. And protective patterns do not build efficient movement. They reinforce compensation.

Mobility first does not mean random stretching. It means purposeful movement with breath and control. It means asking, what does this group in front of me need today? Thoracic rotation. Hip extension. Scapular glide. Then you layer stability on top of that mobility. Now the centre engages because it has to organise movement, not because it is clamping down.

Creativity is welcome. I enjoy creative sequencing. But creativity without purpose is theatre. Your job is not to entertain. Your job is to improve how your clients feel and how they move when they leave the room.

So look at your class plan this week. Ask yourself why each exercise is where it is. Ask whether you are preparing the body for the demand that follows. If your clients leave feeling taller, freer in the spine, and more connected to their centre without excess tension, your plan worked.

Technique is not about strict obedience to an order. It is about intelligent organisation. When you organise mobility before stability, you respect the body in front of you. And that is the point.