The reformer was the first piece of equipment that Joseph Pilates made in the basement of his New York City apartment when he first moved from Germany to the United States. His original reformers were made using bed frames as the bases, similar to the way he used the beds of the injured soldiers during the war as the base for their exercise equipment.
There are hundreds of exercises that can be done on the reformer, in the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Most exercises on the reformer can also be done on other pieces of equipment. If you are having trouble figuring out a reformer exercise, it is usually helpful to practice it again on a different piece of equipment so you can get another perspective on the exercise.
One challenge on the reformer is teaching your body to work with the springs and to control both the outward and the inward movements of the carriage. Anytime you need to move the carriage away from the "home" position, it must be done primarily from your core muscles.
When its time to move the carriage back in, the springs assist in that movement, but if you let them do all the work for you, the carriage will crash. If you don't let them do any work at all... well that's impossible, right? They do half the work. That's why, generally, the lighter the springs on the reformer, the more challenging the exercise because you are being offered less help.
When you come to pilates on a regular basis, you should start to notice that there is a specific order to the exercises on the reformer. One exercise leads to the next, as the body warms up and no exercise is introduced until the body is warmed up for that specific exercise by doing a previous exercise.
Here are some exercises on the reformer. Like all pieces of pilates equipment, the reformer offers a work out for your entire body.
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The reformer was the first piece of equipment that Joseph Pilates made in the basement of his New York City apartment when he first moved from Germany to the United States. His original reformers were made using bed frames as the bases, similar to the way he used the beds of the injured soldiers during the war as the base for their exercise equipment.
There are hundreds of exercises that can be done on the reformer, in the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Most exercises on the reformer can also be done on other pieces of equipment. If you are having trouble figuring out a reformer exercise, it is usually helpful to practice it again on a different piece of equipment so you can get another perspective on the exercise.
One challenge on the reformer is teaching your body to work with the springs and to control both the outward and the inward movements of the carriage. Anytime you need to move the carriage away from the "home" position, it must be done primarily from your core muscles.
When its time to move the carriage back in, the springs assist in that movement, but if you let them do all the work for you, the carriage will crash. If you don't let them do any work at all... well that's impossible, right? They do half the work. That's why, generally, the lighter the springs on the reformer, the more challenging the exercise because you are being offered less help.
When you come to pilates on a regular basis, you should start to notice that there is a specific order to the exercises on the reformer. One exercise leads to the next, as the body warms up and no exercise is introduced until the body is warmed up for that specific exercise by doing a previous exercise.
Here are some exercises on the reformer. Like all pieces of pilates equipment, the reformer offers a work out for your entire body.