What is Reformer Pilates?

A reformer is a low wooden frame with a padded carriage that slides along two rails. The carriage is attached to a set of springs. You lie, sit, kneel or stand on it, push against a footbar or pull on two straps, and the springs resist you in one direction and pull you back in the other.

What the springs actually do

This is the part people get backwards. Heavier springs are not automatically harder. On some exercises a heavy spring supports you and makes the movement easier; on others it is the load you are fighting. That is why the instructor changes your setting between exercises, and why a reformer class is difficult to do well without one.

The second thing the springs do is make the return journey count. A dumbbell is only heavy on the way up. A reformer carriage is trying to snap back the whole time, so the slow, controlled return is where most of the work happens — and where most of the soreness comes from the next day.

What happens in a first class

You will be asked to arrive early. Someone will set your footbar height and your springs, show you where the straps sit and explain what to do if something feels wrong. Then:

• Breath and spinal work, on your back, for the first several minutes.
• Footwork — the reformer's signature opening, pushing the carriage away with your feet on the bar.
• Arm and leg work through the straps, then abdominal work.
• Standing or kneeling work if the class calls for it.
• Stretching, at the end, properly.

Nothing about it is fast. Most first-timers are surprised by how much attention a slow movement demands, and by which muscles ache the next morning.

Reformer or mat?

Mat Pilates uses your bodyweight and gravity. The reformer adds a variable resistance and a moving surface, which means it can make an exercise easier for a beginner and much harder for someone strong — often the same exercise. If you are coming back from a period away from training, or you want the movement supported while you learn it, the reformer is usually the better first room.

Reformer or the gym?

They answer different questions. A gym is where you load a movement heavily. A reformer is where you find out whether you control that movement across its whole range, on both sides, while breathing. People who do both usually find each one makes the other better.

How often

Twice a week is where most people start noticing something — usually in how they stand and how their back feels at the end of a long day, before anything visible changes. Three times a week is where it becomes a practice rather than a class.

Book a session at Chattarpur or DLF Galleria.