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Most boards that stop being used stop in the first month, and it is usually the setup rather than the exercise. A board that lives folded in a cupboard, on a floor it skates across, with bands that are too light by week three, is a board that gets sold on. Here is what the first month should look like.
Where it lives
Leave it out. A board that is unfolded on a mat in the corner gets used on the way past; one that has to be fetched, unfolded and latched does not. If the room cannot spare a 42 by 16 inch rectangle, store it on edge against a wall rather than flat under the bed, because flat under the bed is where boards go to be forgotten. The wooden boards that do not fold are, oddly, better for this: they are furniture and they stay where they are.
What goes under it
A yoga mat, always, on a hard floor. It stops the creep and saves the floor. A folded towel or a folding mat for the knees on any floor. If you bought the HomeHarbor the mat is in the box; otherwise the Stakt folds into the block you will want under your hips as well.
12 mm folding mat that stacks into a block
Stakt folding mat, original
Stakt The Mat
A 69 by 24 inch mat at 12 mm, twice a standard yoga mat, that folds into a 24 by 12 by 3 inch block to kneel on, step on or sit on. Three pounds, EVA foam, a patented fold. It is the mat people buy for the knee padding a board or discs need.
- Size
- 69 × 24 in flat, 12 mm thick; 24 × 12 × 3 in folded
- Material
- EVA foam blend, non-slip surface
- Weight
- 3 lb
- Colours
- Dune, Iron, Rosewater, Seafoam, Tide
- Warranty
- Stakt
Suits: Mat and sculpt classes, kneeling work on a hard floor, and the pad under a board.
Weigh: No slide and no bands; it does none of the board's job on its own. Stakt says wipe with warm water and a soap without oils, and keep it out of the sun.
A twenty-minute session
The videos that come with the boards run 15 to 40 minutes and are built around the same dozen movements. A session that works without a screen:
Warm up with slow sliding lunges, ten each side, hands on the handles. Then kneeling pikes, feet on the pads, ten. Mountain climbers, slow, twenty. Bridges with the feet sliding out and back, ten. Kneeling rows with the bands, fifteen, then kneeling chest presses, fifteen. Side-lying leg slides, ten each side. Finish with a plank, feet on the pads, drawing the knees in for thirty seconds.
Do it three times a week and the glutes and the core will tell you about it for the first fortnight. After that the question becomes whether the bands are enough.
When the bands are too light
They will be, for most people, within a month or two. The signs: you are doing thirty rows where you did fifteen, you are doubling the bands, or you are standing on the board for presses because kneeling is too easy. At that point the options are a heavier band set that clips to the same carabiners, which is where a bar kit’s 40 and 50 lb bands come in, or the admission that you wanted springs.
Three-section bar, four bands to 140 lb, ankle cuffs
Bbtops Pilates Bar Kit, stackable bands
Bbtops Pilates Bar Kit with Resistance Bands
The bar kit with the most ratings in the category: a three-section adjustable bar, four latex bands (two 30 lb, two 40 lb) that stack to 140 lb, foot straps, handles, ankle cuffs and a door anchor, with reinforced nylon where the bands meet the carabiners.
- Bands
- 4 latex bands: 2 × 30, 2 × 40 lb; up to 140 lb stacked (listing)
- Bar
- Three-section adjustable steel bar
- In the box
- Bar, 4 bands, 2 handles, 2 foot bands, door anchor, bag, manual
- Weight
- 2.6 lb (listing)
- Warranty
- 2 years (listing)
Suits: A first bar kit for the person who wants light to moderate resistance and the ankle cuffs for leg work.
Weigh: Two resistance levels only; the 50 lb bands of the ALongSong are not here. No website; figures from the listing.
What to check each week
The bands, by hand, for cracks and tackiness. The latch, if the board folds, because a latch that has worked loose is how a board folds under a lunge. The anti-slip feet, which pick up grit and stop gripping. The glide pads, for a bit of grit in the track; a wipe is all it takes. The elastic rebound cord: if the pads stop returning on their own, the cord is going, and on a plastic board that is the end of the glide.
