The Prestige of Reformer Pilates
For many people doing pilates on equipment, normally the reformer, is seen as better than doing “just mat” and there are reasons for this. Joseph Pilates invented the reformer to re-form the body and it absolutely does help you to learn Pilates faster.
However, there is also a “glamour” element to pilates on the equipment, the idea that somehow this is “doing the real stuff” and doing mat classes is a second rate option. This balances nervously on the truth that you will get more from an individualized program using all the apparatus under the trained eye of a good teacher than you can from large group mat classes with a teacher who doesn´t understand the pilates system in depth.
The Truth About Reformer Classes: Safety and Crowd-Control
However, simply using a reformer will not teach you pilates. The reformer is not a jelly mold - just being on it will not change your shape. In fact, many group equipment classes do little more to teach you pilates principles than a circuit class at the gym.
The reason is that, as a teacher, it is impossible to watch so many bodies at the same time, especially when they are beginners who need showing the basic shape of the movement. The result is that precision goes out the window.
In a group reformer class most of the teacher’s attention is (or ought to be) on safety and making sure that people don’t hurt themselves: it is not for nothing that teacher insurance for working with equipment is much higher than mat. This is why group mat classes work: the safety aspects are significantly easier to control and so the teacher can spend most of their energy on teaching Pilates.
For many people doing pilates on equipment, normally the reformer, is seen as better than doing “just mat” and there are reasons for this. Joseph Pilates invented the reformer to re-form the body and it absolutely does help you to learn Pilates faster.
However, there is also a “glamour” element to pilates on the equipment, the idea that somehow this is “doing the real stuff” and doing mat classes is a second rate option. This balances nervously on the truth that you will get more from an individualized program using all the apparatus under the trained eye of a good teacher than you can from large group mat classes with a teacher who doesn´t understand the pilates system in depth.
The Truth About Reformer Classes: Safety and Crowd-Control
However, simply using a reformer will not teach you pilates. The reformer is not a jelly mold - just being on it will not change your shape. In fact, many group equipment classes do little more to teach you pilates principles than a circuit class at the gym.
The reason is that, as a teacher, it is impossible to watch so many bodies at the same time, especially when they are beginners who need showing the basic shape of the movement. The result is that precision goes out the window.
In a group reformer class most of the teacher’s attention is (or ought to be) on safety and making sure that people don’t hurt themselves: it is not for nothing that teacher insurance for working with equipment is much higher than mat. This is why group mat classes work: the safety aspects are significantly easier to control and so the teacher can spend most of their energy on teaching Pilates.
Learn Good Quality Pilates Wherever You Can Find It
Doing pilates on a reformer will not automatically mean you are learning more or getting a deeper benefit. If your teacher is trying to keep 8 or even more people safe at the same time there is a very real possibility that your particular issues will not be addressed and, without the individualized corrections which make Pilates valuable, the class will be giving you much the same benefit as cardio circuits or “Stretch and Tone” at the gym.
There is nothing wrong with doing cardio circuits at the gym, but it does not give you the body-specific, targeted, corrective exercise which is the point of doing Pilates in the first place. You will find more of that in a decent, small mat class than you will in a reformer class of the same size.
You can do more pilates with dumbbells in the gym if you understand the principles of what you are doing than you can on a reformer if you don’t.
Doing pilates on a reformer will not automatically mean you are learning more or getting a deeper benefit. If your teacher is trying to keep 8 or even more people safe at the same time there is a very real possibility that your particular issues will not be addressed and, without the individualized corrections which make Pilates valuable, the class will be giving you much the same benefit as cardio circuits or “Stretch and Tone” at the gym.
There is nothing wrong with doing cardio circuits at the gym, but it does not give you the body-specific, targeted, corrective exercise which is the point of doing Pilates in the first place. You will find more of that in a decent, small mat class than you will in a reformer class of the same size.
You can do more pilates with dumbbells in the gym if you understand the principles of what you are doing than you can on a reformer if you don’t.
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