Whether you’re brand new Pilates or you’ve completed more hundreds in your life than you can count, learning (or relearning) the basics is always a good idea; they’re the bread and butter of the system. The more you master the “pre” work, the more you’ll get out of your workouts.

Understanding the jargon and experiencing the core concepts allows you to keep tabs on your body and where it’s at on a given day. You’ll begin to feel when you’re able to challenge yourself and when you might need to dial the intensity back. Coming back to the principals allows you to get deeper into the system, create new intention in your workouts and find something new in exercises you’ve done for years.

Below are 10 videos that a dear friend, colleague, and fellow Real Pilates graduate, Terriell Samuels, created to help with just this. You can learn about the six guiding principles, c-curves, Pilates stance, the proper breathing technique and more. These videos help to remove the smoke and mirrors from a Pilates session and get you in the know about what your instructor is actually asking you to do.