What is Pilates Reformer?

What is Pilates Reformer?

Pilates you may have heard of, and you may have taken part in Pilates on the mat. But what is the reformer? You may have seen celebrities and sports professionals like Andy Murray on these strange-looking machines that look like a mediaeval bed. However, the reformer is probably the most famous piece of Pilates equipment. The reformer is just one of many pieces of Pilates equipment designed and developed by the founder of Pilates, Joseph Pilates.

This is Joe Pilates in his New York studio teaching on the Reformer. 

Reformer Pilates is the Pilates method done on the reformer - a piece of apparatus with a carriage designed with a system of springs. The springs are critical because working against the resistance of the springs, so you are lengthening your muscles as you put them under load. The springs work similarly to how the muscles in our body work. Like our muscles, springs can only pull. This means that when you're working on the reformer, you are resisting against and controlling the spring tension and the load of the springs. Importantly, as the springs close, this is called the eccentric contraction of the muscle. This is when the muscle is under load as it is in the lengthened state. As the muscle is lengthening, you are loading the muscles, which is what gives Pilates the famous results you may have heard of, of lengthening your muscles rather than bulking your muscles. This is why Pilates is very popular with certain celebrities because they get that long, lean muscle rather than bulking up or the appearance of bulking their muscles.

The reformer itself looks like a bed frame. It has a carriage that sits on top of it, and you will have springs that will attach from underneath. There are ropes and pulleys.

Before you undertake reformer sessions, you should take a series of individual one-to-one sessions with an instructor, or you should take a beginners course.

Here at the Rehab Hub in Glasgow, we have a beginners reformer course that you undertake before joining our semi-private or group reformer sessions. If you're interested in finding out more about getting started with reformer Pilates in Glasgow, don't hesitate to reach out to us. You can get information on starting with us in Glasgow by clicking this link.