PilatesStick Home Workout Equipment Review Menu Verywell Fit Nutrition Weight Management Nutrition Facts Nutrition Basics Diets Meal Plans Meal Delivery Services View All News Fitness and Nutrition What to Buy How We Test Products Fitness Gear Nutrition Products Tools Recipe Nutrition Calculator Weight Loss Calorie Goal BMI Calculator Body Fat Percentage Calculator Calories Burned by Activity Daily Calories Burned Pace Calculator About Us Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Search Pilates Equipment and Apparel The PilatesStick Home Workout Equipment Review By Marguerite Ogle MS, RYT Marguerite Ogle MS, RYT Marguerite Ogle is a freelance writer and experienced natural wellness and life coach, who has been teaching Pilates for more than 35 years. Learn about our editorial process Updated on June 16, 2020 Fact checked Verywell Fit content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. We rely on the most current and reputable sources, which are cited in the text and listed at the bottom of each article. Content is fact checked after it has been edited and before publication. Learn more. by Emily Swaim Fact checked by Emily Swaim Emily is a fact checker, editor, and writer who has expertise in psychology, health and lifestyle content. Learn about our editorial process Print The PilatesStick is a piece of resistance equipment for the home workout. It simulates many Pilates tower exercises and adds interesting resistance potential to Pilates mat and other exercises. PilatesStick Set Up The PilatesStick package includes: A barA stretchy band made of slastixFoot loopsA long matA carrying bag Each end of the slastix clips to each end of the bar, and the middle gets closed in a door jamb, held in place by a foam anchor. It's a neat package, and it seems well made—for home use, not heavy-duty studio use. Finally, so that you can actually exercise, there are two DVDs, beginner and intermediate, and a reminder poster with 12 exercises. Do You Have a Place for the PilatesStick You are going to be putting serious pressure on a door in your house. The PilatesStick did not cause any damage to a hollow-core, freshly painted door. The selection of which door to use is important. You need a big enough area to work out in for exercises performed lying down, at least 8 feet. You will also need at least 3 feet on either side of you. Look for a minimum 8-feet by 3-feet spot next to a door, with no walls or furniture in the way. In one video, the model does her workout attached to glass-paned french doors, but that brings up a concern of breaking glass with the stick or metal pieces. You also need to be able to lock the door so nobody opens it while you are using the PilatesStick. So take a realistic assessment of your home and see if you have an appropriate door to attach the PilatesStick to. Yes? Good. The actual set up is not hard, and there are instructions on the DVDs and online. Extras There is a center door assembly that can be purchased. It lets you center the stick with a strap that wraps around the door from top to bottom. It can be difficult to get tight enough and may slip a few inches during the workout. The center assembly has the benefit of having a gizmo you clip the slastix into that slides along the door strap and lets you adjust the height of the stick easily. Working Out With the PilatesStick As traditional Pilates equipment goes, the PilatesStick is closest to the tower. Many mat and tower exercises can be done with the PilatesStick. It offers lots of possibilities and works very smoothly. It doesn't feel cheap. The slastix does not have strong tension, but a light resistance workout is fine. If you're a beginner and not familiar with what the Pilates tower is or what Pilates exercises are like, the PilatesStick isn't for you, yet. The beginner DVD does not provide sufficient Pilates instruction for a beginner. The PilatesStick Beginner Exercise DVD Susannah Cotrone, who worked a lot with Winsor Pilates (The late Mari Winsor endorsed PilatesStick.), is the model in both beginner and advanced PilatesStick DVDs. She demonstrates everything with fabulous form. However, I found the DVDs to be a little uneven in their presentation of the workouts. The beginner PilatesStick DVD has beginner-appropriate exercises, but there are almost no cues about how to do Pilates. The cues for changing exercises were also not very clear. You need to have the fundamentals already under your belt, a basic familiarity with Pilates terms, and at least some experience with Pilates mat exercise. The PilatesStick Advanced Exercise DVD The advanced PilatesStick workout is really good. The workout has great flow, it gets every part of the body, it's challenging, and unlike many Pilates DVDs, the workout is long enough. But the way the workout is filmed, you can't see where Susannah is relative to the door. I had some trouble following the positioning and adjusting my distance from the door. That is something you can figure out for yourself over time, but it would be nice not to have to fumble through. Overall, a few more instructions in terms of mechanics and exercise cues would have been good, but I can definitely recommend the workout. Bottom Line If you have enough experience with Pilates to do the workouts properly and cue yourself, and you have the right place in your home to attach the equipment, and you can afford it, PilatesStick is pretty cool. You might want to compare PilatesStick to Tower on the Go from Balanced Body. If you can't purchase the PilatesStick, tower equipment is your most similar option. By Marguerite Ogle MS, RYT Marguerite Ogle is a freelance writer and experienced natural wellness and life coach, who has been teaching Pilates for more than 35 years. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Review Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit Related Articles Winsor Pilates Slimming Pilates DVDs Is a Body Sculpting Programs The Best Pilates Equipment for a Studio Experience at Home How Working Out at Home Changed This Fitness Expert’s Life The 11 Best Workout DVDs of 2022 Best Online Pilates Classes of 2022 The 6 Best Online Barre Classes of 2022 The 7 Best Pilates Reformers for Your Next Workout Large Pilates Equipment in Pictures 10 Best Home Gyms on the Market for 2022 The Simple, At-Home Workout Perfect for Beginners What Is Pilates? 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