History: Where did the Pilates Reformer come from?
Joseph Pilates. A man with an imagination and appreciative understanding of human movement. Whilst working in a hospital during WWI he attached springs to the bed frames, so the bed bound patients were able to exercise their muscles to aid faster recovery. This invention developed into the Cadillac and Pilates Reformer machines.
Pilates moved to New York in 1923 and opened a Studio of Contrology using both the mat and various pieces of apparatus including the Reformer to help everyday people to strengthen and rehabilitate their bodies, it was here the dancers and actors began to flock to him for his expert assistance in keeping their bodies in best form.
In his book Your Health JP talks of busy inactive lives leading to poor posture and bad health (for many people, these are still relevant complaints). The reformer along with his other Pilates machines were designed to reform bodies back into health. Even then, nearly 100 years ago, he could envision all the biomechanical, physiological, neurological and psychological benefits of his method that would remain advantageous until this today.
Description: What is it?
The Pilates Reformer has a base carriage which is moved by your own body strength. There are springs underneath which sometimes assist the movement of the carriage (and your body) and other times they resist. So choosing light springs for one exercise may be easy, but for the next it could be core crunchingly sweaty! There are many different reformer models, but Joe’s original Universal Reformer included 4 springs of equal resistance, adapting the effort level by attaching fewer or more springs.
Usage: What Can you do on it?
So what can you do on it? A chap came into nose around the studio after his visit to the gym and said “Yeah it looks just a leg press.” Well, if you are laying down pushing your feet on the footbar it may resemble a leg press. But with the different bare foot positions, you will be strengthening fascia connections through your whole body not just heating up your hams & quads. Using the Pilates stretch you’ll feel it flowing all the way up to work your your pelvic floor and stomach.
You’ll also gain more from the push/pull action of the springs (eccentric conditioning has 30% higher strength improvements), then think of the reflexology pressure points and all the benefits they provide too! Take a quick peek at my footwork video on facebook, it has the most deceptively relaxing look about it!
The foot work series is just the warm-up exercise, you can also expect to do exercises kneeling, standing, forwards, backwards, sideways, on a long box, short box, spine corrector, with a pole, or using the straps. The straps are at the other end to the foot bar, they can connect to either handles or foot straps depending on the chosen exercise, of which there are hundreds.
Benefits: What will I gain?
All of the Pilates mat moves can be done on the Reformer, they will mostly be the same but also supercharged to the next level! The best sessions are full of failure as we push forwards trying to achieve more challenging moves concentrating on muscle co-ordination and improving motor control. You might work up a sweat, but your core will thank you and your body will be reformed!
These sessions offer a great core workout along with full spinal mobility and a demanding body stretch, they allow you an hour of head space from your daily life, you will leave with the much-needed feeling of the self-care box being ticked. Each exercise has an individual intensity, beginning from deep in your core every movements engages your stomach and back muscles creating a workout warmth from within. Our goals are to improve each exercise through increased strength and flexibility of your whole body, this improved mobility will help your body move more functionally.
Does Pilates provide weight loss and a toned belly? It sure does! But at Alento we don’t focus on weight loss and body image. They are just the bonus!
Classes
I am currently offering individual 45 minute sessions, and 30 minutes shorter introduction sessions. Your body will benefit most when the sessions are block booked for consistent weekly improvements. Next year I would like to introduce group Reformer Pilates classes to the studio, the Reformers I hope to work with are on a 6 months production and delivery time frame, so we will have to wait for those!
I hope you enjoyed reading about the reformer, please do get in touch if you are curious and would like to book a session.
Click Here for Pilates Reformer Sessions Information in the Andover Studio