3 Thoughtful Gifts for Pilates Lovers
For one hundred years, pilates has given its enthusiasts abs of steel thanks to its focus on alignment and building core strength.
There are now endless workout options and equipment available to help keep your pilates practice dynamic and challenging, even during at-home workouts.
Thankfully, these options also provide a rich array of thoughtful gifts for pilates lovers.
We’re talking about pilates reformers, rings, precision chairs, core sliders, barrels, weighted poles … we could keep going.
If you’re looking for a gift for the pilates lover in your life, there are many great options.
We’re going to narrow down the best gift options for you and look at:
- What the most versatile at-home pilates exercise equipment is
- What accessories and add-ons you should consider buying
- How much you can expect to spend
- Why we love each gift idea on this list
1 - The Micro to Level up Your At-Home Practice
One of the best pieces of equipment to gift the pilates lover in your life is the Micro.
The Micro is easy to whip out, use, and store even in homes that are tight on space. Although it’s compact, it still delivers the strength training, alignment, and support of larger reformers typically found in a studio.
What Is a Reformer?
A reformer is a bed-like frame with a mobile carriage on top that rolls back and forth on wheels. The carriage attaches to the rear of the reformer via springs which create resistance for strength training.
As the carriage moves (driven by different parts of the body), the core is strengthened thanks to the resulting eccentric and concentric movements.
You know what the best part is?
This gentle workout builds core strength, body alignment, posture, control, coordination, and flexibility.
Traditional reformers tend to be bulky, much like a wooden or metal bed or table. With the added shoulder blocks, headrest and handlebars, they’re solid fixtures more suited to workout studios.
While the Micro isn’t a reformer (since you can’t lie down on it), it still functions based on the principles of pilates—concentration, control, center, flow, precision.
Why We Love the Micro
There are several reasons why the Micro is our go-to gift for pilates lovers:
- Size: The Micro is 71 inches long, 18 inches wide, 5½ inches deep, and weighs 50 pounds. It can be neatly under the bed, propped up against the wall, or mounted on the wall for a pilates-inspired art installation!
- Portability: It has a pair of wheels beneath the front platform, which makes it easy to wheel into position before and after a workout.
- Versatility: The Micro is ideal for hundreds of exercises, including lunges, planks, skating, crunches, reverse super crunches, and reverse giant bear.
- Low barrier to entry: The Micro provides an easy starting point for beginner pilates lovers because it’s affordable and has a simple configuration allowing for a gentler learning curve.
- Progressive resistance: The springs used in the Micro enable the user to build their strength progressively without injury or straining their muscles. The springs can deliver 6–70 lbs of resistance at full extension.
Pro Tip: If you’re gifting a beginner pilates lover, virtual workout classes are a great add-on. This way, they can learn how to use the Micro properly from the start.
You can also give them an easier storage option for the Micro with the Micro Storage Wall Bracket.
2 - Micro Accessories to Give Pilates Workouts More Nuance
What if the person you’re gifting already has a Micro?
Then, it’s time to go wild on the accessories.
The Micro’s accessories, including straps, cables, handles and springs, add dimension to any pilates workout whether it be more resistance (weight), a variety of angles, or better support and alignment.
Rear Platform
The Micro Rear Platform is probably the first upgrade you’ll want to consider. It provides a rest for the hands, knees, and heels. It also allows you to work out on the back end of the Micro with more comfort and stability.
Why We Love the Rear Platform
The Micro Rear Platform:
- Is an affordable yet impactful add-on to working out on the Micro
- Adds comfort and stability when working on the rear of the machine, which can be grueling because the muscles are working against gravity and the body’s weight
- Is perfect for at home use and small spaces since it doesn’t add much weight or height to the Micro
- Allows for a greater variety of workouts, including express lunge, 5th lunge, super crunch, and giant wheelbarrow
Self-Standing Weighted Pole
You might wonder, why buy a pole? Can’t a person just use the wall to steady themselves?
The answer is no. The Self-Standing Weighted Pole is an essential tool to ensure proper alignment and form.
One of the main exercise groups the pilates lover will master on the Micro is lunges.
Now, if you’ve ever held position in a lunge, you know the trembling burn you feel in your core and quads. It can really make you compromise your alignment.
The pilates enthusiast in your life will thank you for looking out for their core alignment.
Why We Love the Self-Standing Weighted Pole
It’s an inexpensive accessory that helps level up the integrity of your form as you work out.
The pole is versatile. It can even be a stand-alone gift to be used alongside pilates exercises on the mat—without the Micro. These include spine extensions, rotations, shoulder rolls, and shoulder elevation and depression.
Micro Handlebars
The Micro Handlebars or side handles are another must-have accessory for the Micro. They provide stability and support for the wrists, opening up the possibility of more advanced positions and angles that are difficult without this support.
The pilates enthusiast can therefore add moves, such as the catfish, twister, spoon, and runners lunge, to their roster of exercises.
Why We Love the Micro Handlebars
As we’ve said already, we love accessories that have a tremendous impact on workout gains without denting your pocket—and the Micro Handlebars meet these criteria.
They’re super easy to install and remove as needed, thanks to their pull-pin mechanism. This means the pilates lover you’re gifting can switch the side handles from front to back with ease—if you don’t want to buy two pairs of handlebars.
Lastly, they’re perfect for at-home workouts because they can be used in small spaces and are lightweight.
Micro Pulley Cable Bundle
We’re going to round off the accessories category with the Micro Pulley Cable Bundle. These accessories aren’t a must-have, but they are a game-changer; especially if the person you’re gifting wants to create an all-in-one home gym with their fully-loaded Micro.
Why We Love the Micro Pulley Cable Bundle
The straps included in the bundle are an effective safety feature your loved one can add to their Micro or Mini. Sweating is inevitable. With their feet in the straps, they can stop focusing on maintaining balance and apply themselves to the exercise at hand.
The Micro Pulley Cable adds upper and lower body resistance exercises to the roster. Think standing biceps curls, leg-foot-strap drives, and chest openers.
Five stars!!
The fully loaded option has everything I needed. It has so many more accessories compared to the basic option … the Microformer machine is the one to have at home. It is compact and easy to carry around.
- Sonia A.
3 - Pilates Barrels to Correct the Spine
Stepping away from the strength and resistance training we’ve focused on so far, let’s look at pilates barrels.
Specifically, we want to look at why the Hollow Arc and the Baby Arc are perfect gifts for the pilates lover in your life. Pilates isn’t just about strengthening the core, it’s also about realigning the spine, which is what pilates barrels do.
Barrels can help both people new to pilates and those struggling with poor posture, a weak core, or lower back pain.
Barrels, the Hollow Arc and Baby Arc, will improve the range of pilates mat exercises a person has available, including:
- Lateral bending: Bending sideways to develop the internal and external oblique muscles, the deep back muscles, and the quadratus lumborum muscle (deep lower back muscle)
- Spinal flexion: Forward bending to work the ab muscles with greater safety, thanks to the barrel support
- Spinal extension: Shoulder blade exercises to increase range of motion and to prevent overworking the neck and shoulder muscles in abdominal exercises
- Flexion and extension with rotation: Bending forwards, backwards, and sideways with clockwise and counterclockwise rotation to strengthen the spine against injuries and to support those with weak spines and reverse postural problems
The Hollow Arc
The Hollow Arc is the most minimal, stripped-down version of the pilates barrel.
It delivers the same spine lengthening, strengthening, and posture correction of a pilates barrel minus the bulk.
We love how low-profile it is while making the time on the mat more effective.
The Baby Arc
The name says it all. The Baby Arc has a lower barrel height but is wider than other barrels. It’s therefore gentler and perfect for those new to pilates or those who have reduced spinal articulation (ability to move the spine in segments).
Gift the Baby Arc to that pilates newbie in your life.
Price Comparison for Pilates Lovers Gift Ideas
We’ve already discussed why the items above are perfect gift ideas for pilates lovers and what kind of use each piece is suitable for.
In the table below, we make a price comparison of all these gift ideas, listed in descending order:
| Pilates Lover Gift Idea | Item Name | Starting Price |
 |
Micro | $1,230 |
|
Baby Arc | $375 |
 |
Micro Pulley Cable Bundle | $370 |
|
Micro Rear Platform | $300 |
|
Micro Handlebars | $290 |
|
Hollow Arc | $275 |
|
Self-Standing Weighted Pole | $120 |
Get To Gifting the Pilates Lover in Your Life
When it comes to choosing a gift for someone who loves pilates, think function. What do they need to succeed in their practice? A Micro machine is a great introduction into the world of wellness and fitness.
They can also begin with mat-exercise equipment, like pilates barrels, for better spinal alignment. Of course, gifting accessories for the Micro will ensure they have a nuanced and effective workout set-up.
So, what are you waiting for? First stop at our Pilates at Home collection.
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