Reformer Pilates for Beginners — The Complete First-Class Guide

The first time someone shows you a reformer, your brain does one of two things. Either:

“Oh. Looks like a torture device. I’ll be fine.”

Or:

“Oh. Looks like a torture device. I’m definitely not fine.”

Both reactions are 100% normal. The reformer is one of the strangest-looking pieces of fitness equipment ever invented — a wooden bed on wheels with springs, ropes, foot bars, shoulder rests, and roughly seventeen different ways it can fold itself around your body. It looks intimidating until you’ve used it, at which point it becomes one of your favourite things on Earth.

We’ve taught Reformer to thousands of first-timers at Reform Society over the years. The pattern is identical every single time: nerves on day one, awkward on day two, hooked by week three. The reformer just takes a little while to read like a friend.

This guide walks you through everything we wish someone had told us before our own first Reformer class. The machine, what to wear, what to bring, how to breathe, and the rookie mistakes that absolutely everyone makes (including us — yes, all of us, on day one).

What a reformer actually is

The reformer was invented by Joseph Pilates in the early 1900s. He was a German-born physical fitness trainer working with injured WWI veterans and dancers — he wanted a piece of equipment that gave resistance training without crushing the joints, so he built one.

The bed you see in studios today is the modern version. It has four main parts:

The carriage — the long flat platform that slides on wheels. You sit, lie, kneel, or stand on it. It moves smoothly back and forth as you push or pull against the springs.
The springs — colour-coded by resistance (usually red = heaviest, blue = medium, yellow = lightest). You add or remove springs at the start of each exercise to dial in how much resistance the carriage gives you.
The foot bar — the metal bar at one end where you press your feet (or hands) to push the carriage away.
The straps and ropes — the long handles attached to the top of the bed. You hold them to pull the carriage with your arms or hook them around your feet to pull with your legs.

That’s it. Everything you’ll ever do on a reformer is some combination of those four parts. The complexity comes from the positions — there are over 250 documented Reformer exercises — but the machine itself is genuinely simple once you’ve spent 5 minutes on it.

What Reformer Pilates actually feels like

It’s hard to describe. The closest comparison is: imagine a workout where you’re working really hard, but nothing hurts.

You feel:
– Resistance, not heaviness. The springs push back against you. Your muscles do work — sometimes a lot of work — but it’s controlled, smooth, and steady. There’s no jarring impact.
– Deep small muscles activating that you didn’t know you had. Reformer is genius at finding the muscles a normal gym workout skips — the deep core, the obliques, the tiny stabilisers around the spine and hips.
– Shake. The “Pilates shake” is real. Your muscles will start trembling halfway through an exercise. This isn’t weakness; it’s the small stabilisers firing for the first time in years. Embrace it.
– Length. Most people walk out of a Reformer class feeling literally taller. The combination of decompression, lengthening through resistance, and breath-led movement gives a physical sense of being stretched out from the inside.

The thing it doesn’t feel like: it doesn’t feel like a gym workout. There’s no grinding rep counts, no chasing one-rep maxes, no music telling you it’s leg day. It’s more flow, more breath, more body-awareness.

Three classes in, you’ll feel the difference in your body even outside the studio. Better posture. Easier deep breathing. Stronger core. Less back niggle.

What to wear

Less complicated than fitness fashion makes it.

The essentials:
– Form-fitting clothing — leggings + a fitted top (or sports bra + crop). Baggy clothes get in the way of the carriage and make it hard for your instructor to see your alignment.
– Grip socks — non-negotiable. The carriage and foot bar are slippery, and bare feet slide. Most studios sell grip socks at reception ($15-25) if you don’t own a pair yet.
– Hair tied back so it doesn’t end up in the springs.

What to avoid:
– Shorts that ride up. You’ll spend half the class on your back with your legs in the air. Trust us on this one.
– Anything with zips, buttons, or hardware that could scratch the upholstery.
– Heavy jewellery — necklaces and dangly earrings whack you in the face when you’re inverted.
– Strong perfume / cologne — small rooms, deep breathing, sensitive people. Easy on the scent.

What to bring:
– Water bottle (refill stations available at most studios)
– Hand towel for sweat
– Whatever you’d bring to a gym — minus the sneakers and the weights bag, neither of which you need

That’s it. No yoga mat needed (the bed is your mat). No dumbbells. No fancy gear.

How to breathe (the secret nobody tells you on day one)

This is the single biggest thing that separates “I’m doing Pilates” from “I’m getting Pilates”.

The breath in Pilates is lateral / thoracic breath. Instead of breathing into your belly (like in yoga) or breathing high into your chest (like when you’re stressed), you breathe into your ribs sideways — expanding the rib cage out to the sides on the inhale, drawing it back in on the exhale.

Why this matters: lateral breathing lets you keep your deep core (transverse abdominis) engaged throughout the breath cycle. If you belly-breathe, the core relaxes on every inhale and you lose 50% of the workout. If you chest-breathe, you tense up and tire fast.

The cue: inhale through the nose, fill the sides of the ribs (not the belly), exhale through the mouth like fogging up a mirror.

The pattern: inhale to prepare, exhale on the effort. Whatever the hard part of the movement is — pushing the carriage away, drawing it back in, lifting — that’s the exhale.

You won’t get this on day one. That’s fine. By week three you’ll catch yourself doing it without thinking, and that’s when Pilates starts working properly.

The 5 rookie mistakes literally everyone makes (and how to fix them)

1. Gripping the foot bar / handles too tight

You’ll find your hands clenched white-knuckle around the bar by minute 10. This wastes energy and creates tension in your neck and shoulders.

Fix: every minute or so, deliberately soften your grip. Imagine you’re holding a baby bird. The reformer doesn’t need force — it needs control.

2. Going too fast

The instinct is to power through each rep like a gym set. This is wrong.

Reformer is slow. Like, surprisingly slow. Each rep is a 4-count out, 4-count back in (sometimes slower). The slower you go, the more the deep stabilisers have to work. People who rush the reps look like they’re working hard but get half the benefit.

Fix: match the instructor’s tempo. If they say “slowly”, they mean it. Slower than feels natural.

3. Forgetting to change the springs

The instructor will call out spring changes between exercises: “drop to one red”, “add a blue”, “all springs off”. This isn’t optional advice — it’s the resistance for the next exercise, and the wrong spring loadout will either make the exercise impossibly hard or weirdly easy.

Fix: listen for spring cues. Watch your neighbour if you missed one. Ask the instructor — they don’t mind, everyone’s been there.

4. Holding your breath

Especially during the hard moments. The body’s default is to clench and hold breath when something feels difficult.

Fix: the harder the movement, the more deliberate the exhale. Out-breath on the effort, every time.

5. Trying to be invisible in the back row

We see this constantly. New people pick the back-corner reformer hoping not to be noticed. Then they can’t see the instructor’s demos and end up doing exercises slightly off.

Fix: pick a reformer in the second row or one with a clear sight line to the instructor. We’re not watching you to judge — we’re watching you to help. The members who progress fastest are the ones who set up where they can see and be seen.

What your first class will look like

The full play-by-play is in our What to expect at your first Reformer class post — door to walk-out. But the short version:

Arrival — 10-15 minutes early. Front-desk team will check you in, give you a quick studio tour, show you where to leave your shoes and bag.
Studio walk-in — your instructor will introduce themselves, walk you to your reformer, and give you the 60-second machine briefing.
Warm-up — usually 5-8 minutes of breath work and gentle mobility on the bed.
Main set — 30-35 minutes of structured exercises. Footwork, leg circles, arm work, abdominal series, side body, back extension. You’ll hit every major muscle group.
Cool down — 5 minutes of stretching, often with the straps.
Walk-out — instructor will check in, ask how it felt, answer any questions.

Total class length is 45-55 minutes. You’ll leave a little wobbly-legged and a lot lighter.

How long until you feel “good” at it

Honest answer: 8-12 classes.

The first 3-4 classes are pure orientation — you’re learning the machine, the breath, the cueing language, the names of the exercises. You’ll feel awkward. That’s universal.

By class 5-8, the machine starts to feel like a friend. You set up the springs without thinking, you find your foot placement on the bar without looking, you know the names of the basic exercises.

By class 10-15, you’re properly in flow. Your body knows what to do before the cue lands. The instructor is correcting fine points, not the basics. You’re moving with the breath. You can feel the deep core firing properly.

By class 20+, you graduate out of pure Beginner territory and start exploring Intermediate. New exercises stop feeling intimidating because you trust the system.

The mistake people make is quitting at class 3 because it still feels awkward. The reformer is intimidating until it isn’t — give it three classes minimum, ideally six, before you decide if it’s for you.

How to start at Reform Society

We run dedicated Beginner Reformer classes throughout the timetable. Smaller groups, slower pace, more instructor attention. It’s where almost every member started, regardless of how fit they were when they walked in.

The easiest way to start is our 4-class trial: $80, valid 7 days, gives you four classes across any classes we run — so you can stack two Beginner Reformer, a Functional, and a Boxing, get a feel for the studio across multiple class types and instructors, and make a properly-informed decision.

Book at https://reformsociety.com.au/ or call 0403 443 112. We’ll match you to the right starting class — usually a Beginner Reformer with a senior instructor — and walk you through every step from front door to first foot on the carriage.

Reformer machines are intimidating until they’re not. Give it three classes — most people are surprised how quickly the machine starts to feel familiar.

See you in the room.

Reformer Pilates for beginners — everything you need to know before your first class