Why I Fell for Pilates (After Boxing Destroyed My Arms)

Let me tell you how this started, because it’s not a glamorous story.

A friend convinced me to try a boxing class. I loved it. I also could not lift my arms for three days afterwards. Washing my hair was a team sport. Holding a coffee cup was an event. I went back, because I’m stubborn, and after a few weeks I realised I loved the energy but I was always a little bit wrecked.

Then someone at the gym said, “Try pilates on your off days.” I thought pilates was just lying down and breathing. Ay, I was so wrong.

Slow is not easy

The first class humbled me. Everything is slow and controlled, and that’s exactly what makes it hard. There’s nowhere to hide. You can’t use momentum, you can’t rush, you just have to do the small movement properly and feel every bit of it.

But the feeling afterwards was different from boxing. Instead of wrecked, I felt awake. Tall. A bit shaky, very happy. Like I’d spent an hour paying attention to my body instead of fighting it. That’s the part that got me. I still box sometimes, but pilates is the one I look forward to.

Reformer vs mat

People always ask me which one to start with, so here’s how they feel to me. I’m not an instructor, just someone who fell in love with both.

The reformer is the machine: a sliding carriage, springs, straps and a foot bar. It looks like a medieval invention the first time you see it. The springs give you resistance or support depending on how they’re set, so it can feel both helpful and very challenging. I love the rhythm of it, the carriage gliding back and forth. Reformer classes are usually in a studio with small groups, which is nice because the instructor can actually watch what you’re doing.

Mat pilates is you, a mat and gravity. Sometimes a ring, a small ball or a band. No machine to help, so a lot of the moves feel harder than they look. The big plus: you can do it anywhere. My balcony at sunrise, my living room floor between the table and the sofa, a hotel room. My mat has been to Lisbon.

Honestly, I do both. Reformer when I want a proper class, mat at home when I want twenty quiet minutes.

The hundred

If you’ve done pilates, you know. If you haven’t: you lie on your back, lift your head and legs, and pump your arms up and down while you breathe in for five and out for five. Ten times. One hundred pumps.

It sounds cute. It is not cute. Around pump sixty, I start laughing. Around pump eighty, I think I might cry. Around pump ninety-five, I’ve had a small spiritual experience. Every single class. My instructor now just smiles at me when it starts, because she knows what’s coming.

My beginner tips

These are just things that helped me, not rules.

Start with a beginner or intro class, even if you’re sporty. The technique and the breathing are what make it pilates, and you learn them best at the start.

Tell the instructor if it’s your first time, and mention anything going on with your body, an old injury, anything. They’ll adapt the moves. If you have any health concerns, check with a professional before you start.

Don’t compare yourself with the person on the next mat. She might have been doing this for ten years. You’ve been doing it for ten minutes.

Wear grippy socks for reformer, many studios ask for them anyway. And comfortable clothes you don’t have to keep pulling up.

Go slower than you think. Slower. Still slower. Mira, that’s the whole secret.

And laugh during the hundred. It helps. I promise.

Why it stuck

I think I fell for pilates because it matches how I want to live in general. Slow, but with intention. Not punishing, not rushing, just showing up and doing the small things well. Like cooking rice properly or opening the shutters every morning.

If you’ve been curious, try one class. Tell me how your hundred goes.