Please report back. On the studio and if you end up taking an private lessons with someone.
Just wanted to vote for going to a good studio and doing even a few private or very small group sessions.
I imagine your original instructor was not interested in adding weights because that’s not really how Pilates is designed – resistance, yes, on some of the equipment, and you can make that resistance more or less, but not by using weights per se.
A good instructor can make a mat workout with NO extra toys PLENTY challenging, trust me! And if you get some good corrections for your particular issues you can work out at home with better results than you might see in your gym class. I would bet if you even went every other week and worked out a few times a week at home you’d see a difference.
Pilates has helped immensely with my strength, body awareness, ability to be straight and even and to activate specific muscles as needed. My riding is absolutely improved!!!
good luck!!!
Sure will do:). I schedule a time to meet with the personal trainer at work next week. We will see what come out of it. I also plan to go to check out this Pilates Studio in the next few days. I think it is only 10 minutes away so I can probably just take a longer lunch break to go there:lol:
I’ve been doing private Pilates lessons with an advanced STOTT instructor twice a week for 3 years. As mentioned, it is just like the difference between taking a group or private riding lesson. Also, if often makes me think of dressage training for a horse - frequent corrections to change ingrained muscle memory and postures, individual exercises that are relatively easy to start with but have infinate more difficult variations to progressively make the body strong, flexible, and more beautiful (just like the goals of dressage)!
The equipment is really helpful. The support it gives you allows muscles to be worked in a variety of angles and for me, where flexibility is my biggest challenge, allowing the springs/ropes to provide tension that stretches instead of having to use gravity or opposing muscle groups to stretch has been a godsend. The exercises are also amazingly designed to work some muscles and stretch others as you do each repetition which seems to be much more effective for me than traditional strength training that is done separately from stretching exercises.
You could be lucky like me in that I barter my 2 Pilates lessons with riding lessons for my instructor’s daughter! 
A pool at the Y
Do you have this?
Swimming may help, but the best core training I ever got was from a PT after a back injury from a car wreck.
She had specific exercises that did not require really careful attention to technique and minimal equipment. Easy was walking or jogging back and forth in chest deep water.
The butt/abs kicker was done in the deep end. You treaded water, but used your body as you would cross country skiing with arms and legs straight. 30 seconds on, 30 off for a few reps will show you where you are in the scheme of core fitness. Other variants were doggy paddling, but using your body as if running.
If this sounds cheap, feasible and attractive to you, I’m sure you can find better descriptions. But it does work!
How has Pilates improved your riding?
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I started Stott Pilates at a studio, in about 2001. Continued once a week until the studio closed, then went to the Stott DVDs 2-3 times a week (advanced mat, toning ball, medicine ball, Bosu, stability ball) (mornings that I don’t ride). I found that I needed physical therapy aimed at my crookedness, because at home I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of some subtle asymmetry in movement. This got me stronger in some muscles, so I added PT to my Stott sessions (90 minutes total). But the final kick to symmetry and body control came from going to an Alexander Technique guy who has worked with dressage riders and understood the problems underlying my reports of my problems.
Wish I had started this when I was young(er) but I am probably in better shape than ever (well, except for my knees).
Another vote for private instruction from a well-trained Pilates professional. I have been working with one for the past 8 months and it has greatly improved my stability.
I am fortunate todo two private Pilates sessions each week. I share the session with another woman and our trainer is great at adjusting everything for each of us…reformer, Cadillac, barrels, we use all the equipment. I’m 70. I think this has kept me in riding. also really like it because I get bored very easily and each session is just a bit different. A bit familiar, yes, but a bit different every time and that keeps me motivated.
The equipment is so precise and my trainer has such an educated eye for corrections. She is trained in Fletcher Pilates
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