The Pilates Ladder Barrel

What is that?! How do you use it? Clients that come into the studio are always curious as to what the ladder barrel is and what you can do on it!

If you have seen one you may have felt a bit scared (a common response to the dungeon-like apparatus on the walls), or you’ll likely want to drape yourself over the ladder barrel as soon as you see it.

The latter is EXACTLY what it is designed for!

Whilst the other pieces of Joseph Pilates equipment were designed from pieces of furniture (the original reformer was made from bedposts and mattress springs), the ladder barrel’s origins are a little more unusual, it was made from an empty beer keg! Joseph Pilates was a fan of beer and had many uses for the beer barrel. I recently told one of my clients this and he said that it was his green light to drink more beer!

There are no longer any kegs in sight and the modern versions are wood and leather. As its name suggests, the ladder barrel is made up of two parts: a wooden ladder with rungs and the barrel, which is padded and leather-clad for comfort. The two-component parts of the ladder barrel are attached to one another by a sliding frame base. This frame can be adjusted to make it work for different heights and builds.

As with all of the Pilates apparatus, the Ladder Barrel is designed to give us feedback. This feedback is an important part of motor control, basically our ability to control movement as human beings. Motor control includes our reflexes as well as directed movement and is crucial to us interacting in our world to carry out our tasks and for posture, balance, and stability.

The shift in our lifestyles and the work that we do means that we have become more sedentary, going to work no longer means bending forwards and back or squatting up and down and for the majority of us it means sitting at a laptop or computer screen for 8-10 hours per day. 

The ladder barrel is a great piece of equipment to counterbalance the effects of modern-day life slumping over computers and phones. Its rounded shape means that it gives us that all-important feedback as to ‘how’ to arch our back and it gives us a shape in which we can mold ourselves around. Without this ‘feedback’ or shape for us to feel many of us would find this movement in our spines daunting or even scary. Back-bends, arching or extension as it’s known anatomically, is a place that our spines don’t go to very often anymore but is important for the health of our back. Too much rounding forward of the spine creates bad postural habits which can inhibit good breathing as well as cause dysfunctional movement patterns which can go on to cause injury, pain, and tension.

As well as bending and rounding exercises the ladder barrel can be used for abdominal exercises, and because of its rounded shape it means the spine has to move further than on the mat which makes the exercises much more challenging!  The side-sit below is a great example of this, your feet are perched on the rungs of the ladder whilst you lift and lower yourself over the rounded arc shape of the barrel.

Another option on the barrel is seated exercises such as Horseback, like a rising trot in horse-riding is brilliant for strengthening the legs and pelvic floor.

At our studio, we use all pieces of equipment in our 1-2-1 sessions and group apparatus classes so your body can move efficiently, with ease, and ultimately feel amazing!

If you’re interested in trying it for yourself then why not get in touch hello@laurenhiltonpilates.co.uk

Photo credit: Florence Fox Photography