Pilates Mat? March MATness 2026: Days 1-3 Let’s Go!
here we go again… the world’s month long celebration of the OG Pilates Mat exercises begins now. I’m excited, are you excited?
Hello Reader,
If you didn’t know, the month of March is when the Pilates world brings attention to Joseph Pilates’ original 34 Mat exercises. It’s called March MATness.
Because of the nature of the Ever Expanding Pilates (but is it really Pilates?) Universe a lot of people are unaware of two things:
Pilates is named after the man that created it (he called it Contrology)
That man, Joseph H. Pilates, created a specific order for the Matwork starting with The Hundred and ending with the Pilates Push Up
Every year I celebrate March MATness in a slightly different way
When I was active on social media I would post the exercise of the day, trying to come up with ever more creative ways of exploring the exercises.
different props
different pieces of equipment
different locations
different model(s)💀
Some years the exercise would be explained in great detail, some years I’d just whack up the name but always, always, always, the hashtags - hashtags up the wazoo😅
Last year, my first on Substack, I switched it up yet again and sent daily emails with the pertinent exercise. (If that sounds painfully too much, it was an ‘opt in’ situation so only those that wanted the daily bombardment received it😉)
So what am I doing this year?
Well, a combo of old and new and here’s the plan:
The Old: Over the years through my blog/newsletter I’ve written deep dive, long form posts on pretty much all 34 original Mat exercises. The posts include the What, Why, and How of the exercise plus a video tutorial.
The New: This month I thought I’d do a round-up of those but in a weekly format. Once a week you’ll receive an email with a link to the exercise of the day deep dive plus the links for the next six days.
My usual posting day is Wednesday but since the month begins on a Sunday, today on March 1st, I’m sharing days one through three.
Transparency alert, once March MATness is over the majority of the deep dive exercise post will remain free but the video tutorials go behind a paywall.
I hope these posts not only enhance your understanding of the beauty, flow, and intelligence of the original Pilates Matwork but also your personal Pilates practice. 🙏Let me know how you go
March 1st: THE HUNDRED
March 2nd: ROLL UP
March 3rd: ROLLOVER
Enjoy,
xBec🤎
P.S. 34 exercises in 31 days? If you’re scratching your head at the maths never fear, there will be a few days showcasing two closely related exercises.
P.P.S. For the Pilates Nerds, here’s another post that delves into the history of March MATness
