Take Your Pilates Mat to New Heights with the Pilates Reformer

There are innumerable benefits to incorporating Pilates into your exercise and wellness practice, especially when taking Pilates Reformer classes. This classic Pilates machine allows instructors to create a vast number of exercise routines for Pilates students of all levels.

The Reformer machine is made up of a spring-based carriage (adjustable for various resistance levels), foot bar or platform, shoulder blocks to create stability, and straps for arms or legs. In combination, these equipment pieces create an opportunity for endless movements.

At Sheppard Method Pilates, our Westwood Pilates instructors can help you target new muscles, find alignment during your movements, and increase the breadth of muscle engagement during your Pilates practice through the inclusion of the Reformer. Learn how our instructors enhance an existing mat practice and take it to the next level using the Reformer in our Pilates Reformer classes.

Contact Sheppard Method Pilates to schedule your first class or learn about all the options we have to offer. Call our Westwood team today.

15 Benefits of Using the Pilates Reformer

Pilates Reformer classes, along with all Pilates classes offered at Sheppard Method Pilates, can improve your life, health, and mental clarity on several levels. The benefits you take home from these classes can carry you through positive improvements in every aspect of your daily life.

Like yoga, Pilates does not just impact the physical body. It requires a focus and dedication that can be all-encompassing, changing your body, mind, and ultimately your soul. With breathwork, the practice of Pilates has the power to affect even your emotional state.

Some of the benefits of Pilates Reformer classes include: 

  • Improved balance through the strengthening of the core muscles and fast-twitch muscles
  • Increased flexibility through targeted muscle movements
  • Improved focus through specified, compound movements
  • Improved coordination
  • Improved joint mobility through flexion and extension
  • Improved posture as spinal and core stabilizing muscles grow stronger
  • Achieving proper body alignment through core stabilization
  • Improved cardiorespiratory health through breathwork and breath control
  • Improved cardiovascular health, aiding in reduced blood pressure and overall stress on the cardiovascular system
  • Reduced lower back pain via improved posture, blood flow, and mobility
  • Increased metabolic rate, aiding in weight loss
  • Improved strength in the core, back, glutes, and thigh muscles
  • Decreased levels of anxiety via the release of endorphins
  • Decreased levels of depression with boosts in endorphins
  • Increased energy through increased oxygen intake and blood circulation

Let Reformer Pilates Classes Elevate Your Exercise Routine

Take your Pilates practice from the mat to the platform, using the Reformer to increase your variability in movement and strength training. With the moving carriage and its attached springs for resistance, footboard, and straps, you can change your exercises to suit your level of fitness and mobility, with increased resistance as you learn and improve. These classes allow you to elevate your practice on a multitude of levels.

Call the Westwood Pilates professionals at Sheppard Method Pilates today to learn how Pilates Reformer classes can enhance your exercise regimen.