The second most significant component of his Pilates Apparatus is the springs. It is the spring that makes his apparatus so unique to delivering his Pilates Method. It is through the spring that the body engages with the apparatus to stabilize, strengthen and open the body this is where the magic happens. As you move through the exercises you engage the spring with your core muscles and deepening the bodies connections. Your spring becomes your ally. You start to listen and feel the springs and how you engage your core with them. Are you moving them evenly or do you hear them whoosh in one direction? Have you just banged your reformer closed? Are you bouncing in your leg springs on the Cadillac? Are the strong springs of the High Chair moving you instead of you moving them? The quality of Classical Pilates is in the quality of your relationship with the springs and the apparatus you are working.

Knowing your apparatus and the nature of the springs will guide you to know what to choose to work with on a specific day depending on how your body feels. A regular weekly Pilates practice should have you working with most of the apparatus that Joseph designed. One day you are drawn to the Universal Reformer, but another day serves you better to start seated on the High Chair. Why? If you are tired and feeling weaker than normal you may not work deep enough for the Reformer to open your body, you may feel like its too heavy and shortening. In Classical Pilates we do not change the exercises rather we choose the ones that will connect the core to strength it and open us. If an exercise is too heavy or strong it can push us out of our centered core and into our shoulders and bigger muscles and miss the smaller deeper muscles of our core which switches the whole bod on. This is how we use the whole system of apparatus to meet our body's needs and create the change we desire... the perfect balance of stability, strength and flexibility.

The Classical Pilates method married with the intended apparatus is powerful and effective. The body changes quickly when you develop a regular practice of Pilates (2 to 4 times per week) using the apparatus.