What’s the difference between Traditional Pilates and Reformer Pilates?

While traditional Pilates is soothing and a great flow to slide into your routine, Reformers Pilates with an experienced Exercise Physiologist is guaranteed to really improve not just the tone of your body but the overall feeling and movement of it.

Traditional Pilates

Traditional Pilates focuses on taking your body through yoga-like movements performed on the floor with a mat, the main focus being the use of your core muscles during the flow. Many people practice this form of Pilates either in their homes or at a Pilates studio, with studios offering hot Pilates which is Pilates performed in an environment that is heated, normally around 30 degrees Celsius, to really work up a sweat. This form of Pilates, heated or unheated, is perfect if you’re looking to increase general flexibility, tone, mental strength and posture through movements performed with nothing but your body weight.

Reformer Pilates

Reformer Pilates is taking this practice an extra step further. Adding the use of technical equipment or machinery, such as the Reformer, which is a spring loaded machine to add an extra dimension to your Pilates workout. The springs in the Reformer machine force your muscles to work that much harder to push, pull and hold yourself steady during the movement. You’re still working with and against your own body weight but with the added tension of the springs in the Reformer machine, your body is treated to a deeper tone as well as incorporating a further focus on all of your muscle groups beyond your core.
Finding the right Reformer Pilates class is so important to make sure that you’re staying safe on the machines and getting the most out of what you’re putting in. At Body Smart, all of our classes are run by Exercise Physiologists. This means that when you take one of Body Smart’s Reformer Pilates classes, you’re not attending a standard run-of-the-mill class. All of our instructors are university qualified Exercise Physiologists and therefore design a program specifically tailored to your fitness, mental health and wellbeing goals regardless of your age, ability or injuries. Body Smart instructors also lend a helping hand with managing and preventing chronic illness through Reformer Pilates. After a musculoskeletal assessment has taken place, our Exercise Physiologists are able to design a specific program to target muscles that you need to focus on.
At Body Smart, we ensure your Reformer Pilates program is one that suits you, not one that suits people ‘like you’. You’ll be able to focus on posture, core strength and stability, flexibility, balance and breathing to learn what issues cause you pain and how to use control to reduce the pain and increase the function of your body.

You can learn more about Reformer Pilates at Body Smart here, or check out our timetable and book yourself into a class and see the benefits of Reformer Pilates for yourself!