You’ve been building toward this moment.
Over the last seven posts in this series, you’ve explored how your body loves to move – one skill at a time. Upper spine flexion. Hip flexion and extension. Arm movement from your back. Spinal flexion, side bend, twist, and extension. Each skill is worth knowing. Each one changes something.
But here’s the thing – practicing each skill individually is a great start, and putting them all together in a Pilates workout is where the real magic happens.
This final post is your payoff. Below, you’ll find a complete Pilates workout that weaves all seven movement skills into one intentional, satisfying session. It’s sequenced so your body warms up gradually, works fully, and finishes feeling restored – not depleted. This is what a thoughtfully designed Pilates practice actually feels like.
What Type of Workout Is Pilates?
Great question – and one worth answering before we dive in.
Pilates is a low-impact movement practice built around controlled, precise movement. It trains strength, flexibility, coordination, and body awareness all at once – which is a big part of why people tend to stick with it. It’s not about going harder or faster. It’s about moving better.
Unlike a lot of traditional training that zeroes in on individual muscles, Pilates is interested in how your whole body works together. Every exercise connects breath, core stability, and intentional motion. That’s exactly why this series has been built around movement skills rather than a list of exercises. Once you understand how your body is designed to move, everything starts to feel more natural – and a whole lot more satisfying.
Pilates welcomes everyone: people coming back from injury, athletes looking for smarter cross-training, anyone living with chronic tension or pain, and people who simply want to feel good in their body on a regular Tuesday.
The Pilates Workout: All 7 Skills in One Session
This workout moves through your whole spine – and your whole body – in a sequence that actually makes sense. Each section connects back to the movement skill it draws from, so you can always revisit the details if you want a refresher.
Watch Kimberly guide you through the full Pilates workout in the videos below, then follow along with the breakdown underneath.
🎬 Pilates Workout – Part 1: Arms and Spine
Move Your Arms from Your Back
Exercises: Jumping Jack Arms · Arm Circles · Michael Phelps Arms
We start here on purpose – and if that surprises you, good! Before we ask your spine to flex, extend, or rotate, we want your back body awake and engaged. These three exercises teach you to initiate arm movement from the muscles between and below your shoulder blades rather than just waving your arms around from the shoulders.
Jumping Jack Arms get the back body firing with a familiar pattern made more intentional. Arm Circles ask you to maintain that back-body connection through a full range of motion. And Michael Phelps Arms – one of the most satisfying exercises in this whole series – challenge you to keep that engagement even as the movement gets bigger and more dynamic. By the time you finish all three, your posture will already feel different.
Spinal Flexion
Exercises: Spine Stretch Forward · Seated Wall Flexion
Now that your back is engaged, we ask your spine to flex – and there’s a real difference between the two. Spine Stretch Forward is an exercise that invites you to round forward one vertebra at a time, reaching through the crown of your head while you stay grounded. It’s not a hamstring stretch (though you might feel that too). It’s a conversation with your spine.
Seated Wall Flexion takes that same idea and adds the wall as a wonderful teacher. The wall gives you honest feedback about where your spine is actually moving – and where it isn’t. These two exercises together will make spinal flexion feel less like an effort and more like a release.
🎬 Pilates Workout – Part 2: Side Bending, Rotation, Extension & Powerhouse
Side Bend
Exercise: Saw Prep
Most workouts completely skip the side body. We don’t. Saw Prep is a seated exercise that combines a gentle lateral arc with a reach – and it creates a kind of length through the side of the body that’s hard to find any other way. Move slowly here, breathe into the stretch, and let the side body open up before we move into rotation.
Twist
Exercise: Supine Tabletop Criss Cross Prep
Lying on your back with your legs in tabletop, Supine Tabletop Criss Cross Prep introduces rotation in the most supported, approachable way possible. Your lower body stays stable while your upper spine learns to rotate, which is exactly how a healthy twist is supposed to work. This is the prep that makes more advanced rotation exercises feel achievable, and it’s more than enough of a challenge on its own. Take your time with it.
Spinal Extension
Exercise: Prone Subtle Extension
Flip onto your stomach for Prone Subtle Extension – and notice the word subtle. This isn’t about lifting as high as you can. It’s about finding the muscles of your back and asking them to do their job with minimal effort everywhere else. Lift just enough to feel your back body engage, then lower with control. Repeat. This small, honest movement counterbalances everything forward-folding that daily life asks of us, and it builds the kind of quiet posterior chain strength that keeps your back genuinely happy.
Upper Spine Flexion
Exercise: Powerhouse Play #1 with Arm Challenges
Here’s where things start to layer beautifully. Powerhouse Play #1 adds arm challenges that demand more from your core to stay stable. Every time your arms move, your powerhouse has to work harder to keep you from toppling. That’s the whole game – and it’s a good one! Focus less on the arms and more on what your center is doing to support them.
Hip Flexion and Extension
Exercise: Powerhouse Play #2 with Hip Extension and Flexion Progressions
We finish with the legs – and it’s a satisfying place to end. Powerhouse Play #2 builds on everything your core has been doing throughout this workout and adds hip extension and flexion progressions that challenge your stability in a whole new way. Each progression asks a little more of your powerhouse, your hip flexors, and your ability to move your legs without losing your center. By this point in the session, your body knows how to work as a team. This exercise just gets to show it off.
Pilates Workout Plan: How to Build a Consistent Practice
One great Pilates workout can shift how you feel for days. A consistent Pilates workout plan changes how you move – for good.
Here’s how to build something sustainable using these seven movement skills:
2-3 Sessions Per Week
This is the sweet spot for most people. Pilates is cumulative: your nervous system learns and refines movement patterns with every repetition, and the benefits genuinely compound over time.
Rotate Your Focus
You don’t need all seven skills in every single session. One day might lean into flexion and rotation; another into extension and hip work. Coming back to the full sequence (like this workout) once a week is a great anchor for your practice.
Progress Through Precision, Not Reps
This is one of the most freeing things about Pilates: doing an exercise slower and with more awareness is genuinely more advanced than doing it faster. As each skill becomes more familiar, ask yourself: Can I feel this more specifically? Can I soften the places that aren’t supposed to be working?
Let the Breath Lead
Pilates breathing becomes more integrated over time. It stops being something you remember to do and starts being something your body just does. That’s when things get really good.
Wichita Pilates: Keep the Momentum Going
If this series has sparked something in you and you’re ready to go deeper, we’d love to be part of your next step.
At our Wichita Pilates studio, we offer two ways to continue building your practice – both designed to meet you exactly where you are:
Individual Pilates Lessons:
These are one-on-one sessions built entirely around your body, your goals, and your movement history. This is the fastest way to develop skill, work through specific challenges, and have an experienced set of eyes on your form. There’s nothing quite like it.
Small Group Lessons (2–3 people)
Get ready for a small group Pilates workout that gives you real personal attention in a shared session. Working alongside one or two people at a similar level brings a little energy and accountability to your practice – and most people find it genuinely enjoyable.
Both options are open to all experience levels, including complete beginners. If you’ve been working through these movement skills at home and want to feel the difference that hands-on instruction makes, we’d love to hear from you.