The Pilates Magic Circle

A very popular accessory for Pilates is the Pilates Magic Circle, as it offers a good resistance workout that covers many fitness level. Another great advantage of the Pilates Magic Circle is that it is not too expensive and it is portable.

When you are looking out for your magic ring, you will see that there are quite a lot of styles around, and these are of varying quality - so you need to know what exactly you are looking for when you decide to buy a Pilates magic circle.

The inventor of the magic circle was non other than Joseph Pilates himself, and it is said that the original circle was made from the wire out of a beer or wine keg. It has certainly improved over time!

The current style is a ring of between 12 and 14″ in diamter, that is made from sturdy rubber or flexible metal. This has two padded handles on opposite sides to each other.

The Pilates magic circle will provide resistance during your workout and it will create a responding feedback as it stimulates and nerves and muscles. The flexible ring is used to help with toning muscles in various parts of the body, including, arms, chest, thighs and hips.

When you use the magic circle you will put your legs/arms on either side of the cushioned pads - squeezing will give you resistance. Remember the aim of the Pilates magic circle is to provide gentle to moderate resistance. If you put too much physical effort into it you could either injure yourself or break your magic ring.

Although you can buy a magic ring that has been made from rubber, it is far better to go for one that has been made with flexible metal. The metal is much more pliable, and is still strong enough to be able to provide necessary resistance and then be able to bounce back to the original shape again.

If you are already fairly strong, then you may well find that a Pilates magic ring is not going to be the best Pilates accessory you could use, but if you are just beginning Pilates, or are not particularly strong then it will be ideal.