What You Actually Need for Pilates at Home

The list

Essential: a mat. Useful: grip socks, a ring, a small ball. Later: a bar, a board or a reformer. That is the whole thing, and most people never get past the second line.

• A firm mat — the only item you cannot practice without
• Grip socks — if you also go to a studio
• A ring — cheap, and it makes easy exercises hard
• A small soft ball — support under the head or hips, and another resistance option
• Something with resistance — a bar, a board or a reformer, months later

The one essential

A mat, and a firmer one than you might buy for yoga. Pilates rolls along the spine and slides weight from one end of the body to the other, and a soft mat lets your spine sink in, which removes the feedback the exercises depend on.

Five to six millimeters in a dense material is the band. If you already own a yoga mat, use it — it will be fine, and a few sessions will tell you whether you want something firmer. Mats for pilates has the full list and yoga mat versus pilates mat explains the difference.

Floor space matters as much as the mat. You want room for your arms out to the sides and enough length that your head and tailbone are both on the mat during rolling work — roughly 7 ft by 4 ft.

Genuinely useful

Grip socks

Not needed at home on a mat. Needed in almost every reformer studio, and useful on a reformer board. If a class is in your future, buy them before the class rather than at the desk — picks here.

A ring

The best value item in this hub. A sprung circle squeezed between the knees or hands turns an exercise you have been doing comfortably into one you have not. It costs very little and stores on a hook — ring picks here.

A small soft ball

An overlooked item. Deflated slightly, it supports the head in supine work if your neck is uncomfortable, it sits under the hips for pelvic work, and it squeezes between the knees like a soft version of the ring. Usually bundled with a ring rather than bought alone.