Even before I enrolled in Pilates instructor training, it was not lost on me that Pilates can feel overwhelming – from all of the different types of equipment to the price tag on in-studio classes. In recent years, reformer classes (and their cousins, Lagree or Megaformer classes) have exploded in popularity, sending the message that these classes are somehow better or harder than mat Pilates classes. But I’m here to say that within this debate of mat vs. reformer Pilates, we’re all missing the point.
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Alycea Ungaro is the founder of Real Pilates and is a licensed physical therapist and a nationally certified Pilates teacher.
In fact, mat Pilates was meant to be the most difficult form of Pilates – once you mastered the exercises with other equipment, including reformers, moving to the mat was a sign of mastery. “The original mat syllabus that Joseph Pilates created was extremely rigorous. If you look at his book ‘Return to Life’ and imagine that as a ‘home prescription’ for exercise, it’s almost alarming,” says Alycea Ungaro, who’s the founder of Real Pilates and trained under one of Joseph Pilates’s direct protégés. “The level of mobility, strength, and agility required to perform all 34 exercises is very high.” Reformers, chairs, and other tools were later developed, at least in part, to help practitioners reach the level of ability to “graduate” to the mat.
When I learned this, I never looked at a reformer Pilates class the same way again. While I personally love to practice both mat and reformer Pilates, I no longer believe that reformer is the be-all, end-all form of Pilates again.
“You don’t get any help on the mat – it’s all you – which makes it challenging in a very different way from the reformer, where you’re managing the interplay of springs, straps, the moving carriage, the headpiece, and the footbar,” Ungaro says. “For many people, the reformer can feel overwhelming, while the mat strips it back to the pure essence of control,” which is one of the key principles of Pilates.
That said, a reformer class can be more challenging than a mat class. There are so many variables in a class – including which moves you do, how you perform them, etc. and it doesn’t mean that a reformer can’t also help you reach goals related to building strength or becoming a better athlete. “Understanding the reformer as both a resistive and assistive device is key,” Ungaro says. “It’s what makes the apparatus so versatile and so profound in its impact on the human body. That dual capacity is what allows the reformer to meet every student where they are – whether rebuilding strength after illness or pushing toward peak performance.”
Ultimately, I’m here to say: there doesn’t need to be a debate about which type of reformer is best, or if mat Pilates is “harder.” At the end of the day, Pilates is about what feels best in your body, for your own life and goals. “My greatest takeaway from those years [of training] is that original Pilates was never meant to be one-size-fits-all,” Ungaro says. “The classical studio is filled with a wide range of [equipment] precisely because no two bodies are the same.”
Mercey Livingston is a writer and editor with eight-plus years of experience covering fitness, health, and nutrition for media outlets and brands including Well+Good, Shape, and Women’s Health. She was the fitness editor at Peloton and held editorial roles at Equinox, Shape, and Well+Good. Mercey is a NASM-certified personal trainer and women’s fitness specialist. She’s also a certified holistic health coach through the Institute For Integrative Nutrition, with an additional certification in hormone health. She has a BA in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi
