How the Franklin Method Can Enhance Your Pilates Practice

Ever been told to “engage your core” and had no idea what that actually feels like? You’re not alone. Verbal cues only take a body so far. At Active Pilates, we’ve found that a clear picture in your mind can do more for your movement than another instruction ever will.

What Is the Franklin Method?

The Franklin Method is a way of learning movement through imagery and a clear understanding of anatomy. Instead of just telling you what to do, it gives your body a picture to work with — a spine that lengthens like a stretching spring, a pelvis that tips like a bowl of water. The brain responds to imagery in a way it doesn’t always respond to instruction, so the movement arrives more naturally.

Pilates and Franklin Method: What’s the Difference?

Pilates is a structured system — a defined repertoire of exercises built around control, breath and core stability. The Franklin Method isn’t a set of exercises at all. It’s a way of thinking about movement, using imagery and anatomy to help your body find a pattern rather than force it. They’re not competing approaches, and we don’t treat them as either/or. We combine them regularly, using imagery to deepen the classical repertoire our clients already know.

How We Bring It Into Class

At Active Pilates, Franklin Method imagery is woven into our classical mat work most weeks, not taught as a separate class. We often reach for the orange balls — the Smooth set — to help you feel where your body actually is in space, particularly through the pelvis, spine and shoulders. Small tools, precise cues.

Franklin Method has changed how I teach. I see movement more clearly now. I notice patterns before I even say a word. And I teach with a much greater sense of joy and fun — that shows up in class, not just in how we cue an exercise. — Kat

Try These Franklin Method Cues Yourself

A few simple images to bring into your own practice:

1.     Imagine your spine as a string of pearls, lengthening one at a time as you roll down.

2.     Picture your sit bones as headlights, shining evenly toward the mat.

3.     Think of your ribs as an accordion, expanding and softening with each breath.

4.     Feel your pelvic floor like a soft hammock, lifting without gripping.

Note: If you’re managing stiffness, arthritis or an old injury, imagery can be gentler than repeated physical correction. It lets your body find its own safe way into a movement, rather than being pushed into someone else’s version of it.

Get more from your body

Imagery isn’t a gimmick — it’s another way in, for the days when words and repetition alone aren’t quite landing. Paired with classical Pilates, it’s helped many of our clients move with more ease and understand their own bodies a little better.

Curious how Franklin Method imagery feels in a class? Come try one with us and see how it feels.