“I tried a 10-minute wall pilates workout – here’s why I’ll keep doing it”

Classical pilates offers a whole host of benefits, but is this new version of the low-impact exercise as good for us? Alice Porter investigates.

While most of the movements involved in pilates are small and fairly simple, anyone who’s had a pop at mat, classical, ring or reformer pilates will know only too well how bloody painful those micro-movements can be. Go for a faster-paced session, and you may even find yourself out of breath by the end of the hour. 

But there is a new kind of pilates doing the rounds – one that offers all the benefits of the low-impact exercise without the risk of falling over or crippling core DOMS. 

Wall pilates is a version credited with making the method more accessible. The benefits are numerous – but include helping to ease back pain – and it requires no previous experience.

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Sounds pretty good right? Well, to see if wall pilates is really all it’s cracked up to be, I tried a 10-minute online class from Trifecta Pilates. The channel has a selection of free wall workouts available – including some full-body ones lasting up to 40 minutes. 

While 10 minutes might not seem long enough to make much of a difference, it’s a really achievable pocket of time that can be squeezed in on days we’re working from home or while we find ourselves waiting to hang up laundry, etc. And in my mind, wall pilates should mean sweating slightly less – making a 10-minute workout the perfect circuit breaker between meetings or to overcome desk-induced brain fog.

I’ve tried regular mat pilates in the past, but I’m not very experienced and still find certain moves incredibly challenging. So, I was keen to see how I’d get on against a wall.

First things first, you’ve got to get the right placement. I set my mat vertically against the wall, before lying on my back – feet up on the wall and knees bent so that my shins were parallel to the floor. 

The workout started with glute bridges and, remarkably, I was able to lift my bum further off the floor with my legs rested against the wall than I’ve ever been able to do on a mat. The extra lift provided a really satisfying stretch along the spine – perfect for overcoming lower-back laptop-induced niggles.

Having my legs against the wall also meant being able to better engage my glutes. It removed some of the pressure that glute bridges normally put on my calves and hamstrings, meaning I got a deeper glute workout than usual. And having the feet elevated also meant that my knees felt more protected than usual during this ultra-low-impact workout.

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The rest of the session included various ab exercises such as crunches, and these engaged the abs and obliques just as deeply as any mat workout. In fact, I’d argue that they felt slightly more difficult against a wall than having my feet on the ground but easier than if my shins had been hovering in tabletop. In other words, doing core exercises against a wall is a perfect halfway progression. 

Overall, the wall pilates session left me feeling more mobile and open. I managed to enjoy a full-body, low-impact workout in just a few minutes, which didn’t feel overly challenging but still got my glutes and core fired up. 

Sure, I wouldn’t replace my current strength training with it, but that’s not really the point of pilates. This is the perfect workout for feeling a little looser on rest days, warming up the body ahead of a run or more strenuous workout or for making modifications to a longer pilates sequence. 

And, 10 minutes of wall pilates is also the perfect way to boost your mood and inspiration while WFH. I’ll definitely be popping my feet onto the wall the next time I need an injection of energy at work.

Images: Getty

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