Reformer Pilates is booming in popularity, with our colleagues at Marie Claire raving about it and Vogue calling it a celeb-favorite workout. The reformer is a piece of equipment, roughly the size of a single bed, with a sliding platform to sit or kneel on; straps, springs and pulleys that add resistance to movement; and a bar at one end for support. It's a complicated-looking contraption and honestly, when I first saw it, I thought it resembled a medieval torture device, but having learned a bit more about reformer Pilates, I was intrigued enough to consider trying it at some point.
However, I recently got the chance to speak to Pilates instructor Rebecca Dadoun, who has some words of wisdom for people like me with limited experience of Pilates—“start on the mat,” says Dadoun. Reformer Pilates is great, she explained, but it’s like jumping in at the deep end of the pool when learning to swim.
“I teach reformer Pilates, and I love it and I do it myself, but I also think that since there's been a boom on social media making reformer Pilates so trendy, it sometimes dismisses the beauty of just learning about your body on the mat,” says Dadoun.
“I think feeling something in your own body first, without anything else around you, is the best way to learn,” says Dadoun. “On the mat, there's nowhere to hide and we can focus on your form.”
That's not to say that reformer Pilates is totally out of reach for beginners, and while a reformer adds resistance in some areas, Dadoun points out that it also adds support. Dadoun says that if you've got a mat move that you can't do, you can sometimes work it out on a reformer, with the support it provides.
Don't worry if, even after learning the basics of mat Pilates, you're put off trying reformer Pilates by the price. You can replicate many of the benefits by adding resistance another way—using dumbbells, sliders, a Pilates bar or even a foam roller. Here's Dadoun showing how to use light dumbbells to replicate the reformer.
Shop light dumbbells
If you'd like to try the above move, but need to buy light dumbbells first, we recommend Amazon Basics neoprene dumbbells—they're always available and affordable.
Rebecca Dadoun is a Pilates instructor and founder of Pilates Prescription, an app with on-demand Pilates classes. Dadoun discovered Pilates when she was recovering from the difficult delivery of her first child. After over a year of training, she began teaching in studios, then she opened her boutique practice to create a Pilates space that welcomes all bodies and abilities.
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