Pilates with Matthew

02/16/2026

New Reformer teaching videos dropping all week!
Kneeling Abs Facing Rear | Short Box Abs | Allegro 2 Adjustments
Shot at the amazing One Playground in North Sydney

Filmed at One Playground in North Sydney, this kneeling rear-facing core sequence challenges deep abdominal control, shoulder stability, and total-body coord...

01/10/2026

See Todd's transformation in body and mindset, from making dramatic changes in 2014 to living as a consistently healthy man in 2026. The last picture is from January 2026, literally him living his healthful life today.

Here's his quote:

"As someone who has never been personally motivated to work out, Matthew has turned me around with his enthusiasm, positive attitude, and steady increases. I've obtained the core strength I always wanted, and have incredible stamina and strength. My back pain is almost entirely gone and definitely manageable. Everyone wants body victories, and Matthew Carney can show you the way to efficiently obtain the body you've always wanted."
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Today, Todd looks and feels younger than he did over 15 years ago, living at his ideal weight, and pain-free. As a super bonus, Todd's entire family became healthier around him, with great joy for all in their family transformation.
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If you want to read more, our back story is pretty cool: We worked together 1-on-1 at the gym for about 10 months, 2 or 3 days a week, back in 2013. He started quite limited with chronic pain, needing to lose weight, and no history of regular exercise.

But he quickly grasped the concepts of gentle exercise, strength and posture theory, Pilates and easy diet improvements-- which means he had the knowledge and new skills to quickly reverse the direction of his life and health.

As he made big progress, he became an expert at hacking his own health. After I moved away from California, literally over a decade ago-- he has kept honing his skills this entire time.
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Todd taught me so much about personal health hacking, as well as the family dynamics of health. We had fun together in the gym and the Pilates studio. I'm blessed to have worked with him, and call him a friend for life. Now HE is the fit inspiration to so many people around him, and hopefully he inspires you to take action too!

01/10/2026

Client testimonials for my 1-on-1 personal training services, now available in North Sydney.

Knowing and doing the 'easy stuff' in nutrition and exercise-- consistently-- gets you the biggest health results.

When training with me, you will immediately feel functional results in the muscles, joints, and fascia chains, and new awareness points for you that immediately improve your walking, mobility, and physical safety.

These immediate functional results are quickly followed by visual results, including better body symmetry, trimming down the waistline, improved posture, and more muscle tone.

Working together on training and nutrition (even just a touch-up on your nutrition protocol) will compound your results.

You make 'total health' gains when you start living with this combination of precise, gentle exercise and nutritional health. This is the state of being where we can overcome or reverse chronic problems like back pain, osteopenia, constipation, poor cardiovascular health, joint function problems... etc etc.

Training with me for 3-12 months will get you the skills and knowledge you need for your specific total body transformation, or lifetime achievement. like some of the folks shown below.

02/24/2025

Just a throwback to my awesome old studio in Austin, called VBodies (2015 - 2021).

Here we had such a great community, and the coolest machines, and I called them Powerformers. A combination of weight training and Pilates reformer, the Powerformer was a beast of a machine and worked so well. We had 6 of them, for a small studio.

We have a provisional patent but decided to not produce them, as just a loan for a prototype would have been mortgage-sized. We are now focused on smaller, more affordable, direct-to-consumer products.

Love the people that made Vbodies so special, members, trainers, visitors screened by Texie :) I haven’t lived in Austin after selling Vbodies, but I might again someday, and hope to be around such great people again in my hometown.

02/20/2025

Early Pilates days, circa 2010, training in Cape Town with hardworking ladies Charlbi and Charissa ♥️ We had a great community boot camp at beautiful Green Point park too!

This is fun uploading old training photos! Found them on an old computer. It helps me remember so many great people I’ve been blessed to get-to-know thru Pilates and fitness, in gyms and other communities, over the years. ❤️

02/19/2025

Working with Mom on lengthening thru Long Spine! Circa 2021.

02/18/2025

Feeling extra nostalgic about teaching today, so here’s my 2014 barre class, at Bay Clubs Cupertino, with stepladders as barres.

We did so much pilates and athletics, kickboxing and dance kicks too, fan favorite was the high kick competition 😂

Still my biggest classes to date and they were so much fun! Still rocking those 2014 Hot 100 Playlists on Spotify! 🔥

02/18/2025

Teasers and matwork circa 2014 at Silicon Valley Pilates studio, in Cupertino.

02/14/2025

There are several good ways to do overhead presses, and this is my favorite, on reformer, and the same technique works for dumbbells too.

Allow the shoulder to elevate, not too much, and with your control.

Eyes on the pressing hand at all times.

1. Sidebend
2. Press directly upwards
3. Pull directly downwards and sidebend opposite.

This style of overhead pressing will encourage thoracic mobility and anterior delt action, and really engage the obliques too!

It can also help folks reorganize their upper body strength, get out of the traps and occipitals, and help them press overhead without pain.

Borrowed from Eugen Sandow — swipe right — we had his poster in VBodies studio for years!

02/14/2025

Always nice to have a spotter for Long Stretch AKA Superman!

08/22/2024

Setting up my new rental reformer from its a very nice piece of home equipment, solid, smooth, quiet.

Your Reformer is a cool company from Australia that rents reformers for home use, it cost $39.00 AUD per week for 12 weeks. Great deal! They’re expanding to SoCal, so LA peeps keep them on your radar!

Can’t wait to take it for a spin and start posting some moves, sequences, breakdowns, deeper ideas, and studio-style full workouts on the reformer.

01/24/2023

Squat Camp! Everybody's best squat is unique; no two will look alike.

It’s fun getting to play with a group and trying to quickly improve their individual squats; a bit different mindset than personal training!