What Types of Pilates Exercises Are Performed on the Tower?

The Pilates Tower is a vertical piece of equipment created to support and enhance your Pilates practice. You’ll often find it against a wall or even attached to a Reformer. The Tower is used similarly as the Cadillac but with a more spatially aware design, making it a great addition to a home gym or studio space.

It’s components such as the roll-back bar, push-through bar, various springs, and mat or Reformer base make it an exciting, versatile apparatus! You can perform all of your favorite mat exercises with added resistance, technique support, and adaptable levels of difficulty.

The Tower also opens up the possibilities for multi-plane movements as you incorporate standing, inverted, seated and reclined exercises into your routine. If you’re still curious about how the Tower can elevate your Pilates practice, check out some of its benefits and exercises below!

Strength

When doing a mat Pilates workout, you’re using mostly bodyweight to build strength. The Tower has a variety of spring placements that add resistance to the exercises performed. You’ll find these locations useful in targeting different areas and muscles in the body. It’s not only diverse in the movements it supports, but also the intensity. This makes it a fantastic tool for building strength and finding your desired level of challenge.

3 Strength-Focused Tower Exercises:

• The Roll-Down – The Tower roll-back bar allows you to further engage your underarms and stabilize the shoulder girdle, the added resistance offers an extra challenge to your core, and the support of the bar allows you to move slowly and take your time.
• Row – A row is typically an equipment-based exercise, the roll-back bar springs add resistance needed to gain strength in the arms, shoulders, and chest.
• Squats – The Tower is great if you’re looking to incorporate more standing strength into your routine! By using the roll-back bar for squats, you’ll find both resistance and balance support to explore your full range of motion!

Alignment

Pilates is focused on safe, effective alignment. Each exercise is designed so that you can get the most out of your workout and tone the entire body. The Tower is a great tool to help you improve your alignment!

3 Tower Exercises that Support Alignment:

• Swan – With the help of the push-through bar, you’ll experience swan in a new way on the Tower! The bar will help you feel the engagement of the shoulders down the back and assist your range of motion while continuing to challenge your upper back and core.
• Dolphin – Dolphin is a somewhat advanced Pilates exercise that can feel quite challenging. With the use of the tower frame for stability, and foot straps for control, you can break it down and take your time focusing on the alignment of the exercise as you grow and build strength.
• Tabletop Hip Extension – Using the push-through bar to the bottom of the foot for your hip extensions will help guide the motion of the leg while also reminding you to keep the foot flexed and engaged to balance the bar!

Flexibility

The Tower is a fantastic stretching tool! Features such as the bars, springs, and straps support and boost your flexibility. You might not think of stretching when you hear the word resistance, but resistance can actually deepen each stretch.

3 Tower Exercises to Lengthen the Body:

• Thigh Stretch – For a kneeling thigh stretch use the roll-back bar for support as you lean back, press the hips forward, and relax the thighs. Not only targeting the thighs but also stretching the hip flexors!
• Standing Back Stretch – Grip the push-through bar for support and resistance as you take a standing cat pose. By keeping the legs long you’ll stretch the entire back and even the hamstrings!
• Leg Stretch – Whether you’re lying on the back to focus on the hamstrings, or on the side to open the hips, you’ll love the intensity the push-through bar adds when you press the foot to it as you stretch your legs!