It was shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic that things began to shift in the fitness industry. Whether driven by TikTok trends or a collective desire for something new, one thing became clear: reformer Pilates was booming. Studios opened rapidly, and seemingly overnight, everyone wanted to become a reformer instructor.
In the past year alone, I have personally trained more than 100 students in Manchester. So what exactly is this “new” phenomenon called reformer — and why has it captured so much attention?
Reformer was designed by Joseph Pilates and his wife Clara — and if you haven’t been in the know, they’ve both been dead for more than 50 years. So when we say it’s new, it’s not. The reformer is a machine that looks like a torture bed with springs, ropes and pulleys — ideas born out of hospital beds where no other equipment was available to train patients.
It’s part of the Pilates method. Designed to complement the existing mat method with the use of external resistance — especially for pulling, which is the main action not feasible on the mat. The exercises on reformer resemble those in mat and enhance the experience with added resistance or changes in stability.
So that is reformer. Yet the question remains — is it a fad or not?
It is. And it isn’t. I’ll explain my opinion on both.
It Is a Fad
Every time I start a reformer qualification, I have one question for the learners — before we even begin getting into any detail.
“Have you ever had your height adjusted on the reformer?”
The answer is always the same. About 20% will say yes, while the other 80% won’t even know what I’m talking about.
The People
Reformer became really popular not because of the benefits it presents as a workout, but because of the image it projects of who you are. Reformer female instructors on Instagram are skinny, toned, wear expensive skin-suffocating clothing, and all look the same way. They all go for matcha afterwards and live the reformer lifestyle — whatever that is.
What about guys? They’re all majestic dancers, love to be topless, do splits and circus performances — guilty as hell, by the way, I’m not leaving myself out of this — on the machine, in demonstrations that have nothing to do with the Pilates method.
This image of the instructor looking a certain way and being part of a closed club pushed more people toward becoming instructors. And of course no one really cares about the Pilates method — everybody wants to jump straight to reformer. Similar to what was happening with Les Mills ten years ago. No one bothered with aerobics or exercise to music. It was all about just becoming a Les Mills instructor.
The Business
While the reformer crowd was changing, another shift was happening on a global scale. Reformer beds had always been tied to the big American companies that carried on Joseph Pilates’s work — Scott, Peak, Balanced Body, and so on. These companies dedicated themselves to designing, improving, and revolutionising the industry across all Pilates apparatus. As a result, the beds were expensive to buy and maintain.
That changed after COVID, when lower-cost and lower-quality beds started hitting the market. A bed that normally cost $2,500 USD was suddenly available for $500. Setting up a studio went from $25,000 to $5,000. I’d say that’s quite a difference. Aldi and Lidl are practically giving them away for £150.
People coming out of COVID also had money to invest — and turning your passion into work was the thing to do. This created a significant gap in the industry. Many studios, but not nearly enough instructors. A classical reformer qualification is long, expensive, and genuinely difficult — so one-day or even online qualifications started appearing.
Although there have been many efforts to regulate reformer and Pilates qualifications, it remains an unresolved issue. You can change the name of the qualification — or claim you’re using it for fitness purposes rather than Pilates — with no consequences or checks.
Which brings us back to my initial question. If your instructor doesn’t know — or doesn’t inform you — about adjusting your height, that should raise some concern. A lot of classes are now following a trajectory that goes against all the principles and fundamentals of what Pilates is about. Loud music, rapid uncontrolled movement, sweat and tears — all in order to feel like you’ve worked out.
It’s Not a Fad
Reading up to this point might make you feel discouraged — like you never want to set foot in a class again. But that’s not the whole story.
As I said, reformer has been around for 50+ years. Nobody is reinventing the wheel. There are still plenty of studios that follow the Pilates method and build on its principles. Reformer has the ability to change your life — but not in the ways you might think. It won’t make you “snatched” or give you a bikini body. It will, however, improve your strength and flexibility in ways you never thought possible.
We now see reformer being used by elite athletes — and that’s a strong indication it works for the best of the best. Regulations are slowly being put in place to ensure that new students build the necessary background. Companies that create low-quality qualifications tend not to last long, and students who feel unsatisfied will always seek out better education.
Reformer is also a magnificent rehabilitation tool — it offers support, resistance, and loading within a controlled environment. And even though I am highly biased because I love mat more than anything, I can’t deny that reformer is a wonderful piece of equipment.
Summary
To say that what’s happening with reformer is one of a kind would be a terrible lie. Many fitness trends have followed the same trajectory. With reformer, it feels slightly more exaggerated because the equipment and classes cost a bit more. But it was the same with CrossFit when it became a protected name and people were paying extravagant memberships for four classes a month.
And while bootcamps, circuit classes, and cross-training were always available elsewhere, people kept coming back to it — before all the scandals, obviously.
Reformer is Pilates. And as long as you teach it as Pilates, people will always be drawn to you for the benefits of it.
“The rest is merely a fad that will have its shining time — and fade like all the others.”
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