02/09/2026
Why do we start with The Hundred?
Because it tells us — and you — a great deal about the body before the session has really begun.
The Hundred is one of the defining exercises of the Classical Pilates system. On the Mat it opens the traditional order; on the Reformer it arrives immediately after Footwork. And there is a reason it appears so early.
It wakes up the whole body.
The abdominals organise and support the trunk. The arms pump strongly from the back. The legs reach away from a stable centre. The head and upper spine lift, the breath becomes deliberate, and circulation begins to increase.
But The Hundred is more than a warm-up.
Done well, it introduces many of the ideas we will keep returning to throughout the session:control, opposition, length, stability, coordination, concentration and breath.
It also gives the teacher an immediate picture. Can you organise the centre without gripping? Can you sustain the position while breathing? Can the limbs move vigorously without disturbing the trunk? Where does the body compensate when the work becomes demanding?
And because Pilates is a system, what we discover in The Hundred doesn’t stay in The Hundred. The same organisation reappears in exercises throughout the Mat, Reformer and wider apparatus work — expressed in increasingly complex ways.
So when a room full of people begins pumping together, it isn’t simply tradition for tradition’s sake.
The Hundred sets the body up for everything that follows.
100 beats. One whole-body exercise. A very Classical place to begin.
