4 Benefits Of The Pilates Reformer Bed
The Pilates reformer bed is a specially designed piece of equipment that has a moving platform, a combination of springs, and a pulley and strap system. It was originally developed by Joseph Pilates during World War I. He designed equipment that could be fitted to hospital beds to help hospital patients tone their muscles and regain their fitness. After the war, Joseph Pilates designed the reformer bed as a standalone piece of equipment that would offer a way to help people recover from injury and medical conditions. In this blog, we take a look at the four main benefits of exercising using the reformer bed.
The Pilates reformer bed offers support whilst you’re exercising, helping you maintain the correct posture and technique. It was designed to help people recover safely from injury by supporting the body at the same time as allowing them to improve their flexibility and strength. This is why it’s so good at helping improve posture and technique during exercise.
The reformer bed is used in many different ways. Exercises have been developed to tone and strengthen the majority of muscles, and they are performed sitting, standing or lying down. The bed can be adapted according to your needs for each and every exercise, allowing you to use the springs to alter resistance levels to help raise your fitness level. This is one of the reasons why all our sessions offer the right level of challenge for beginners and the experienced alike.
The use of the springs on the reformer bed means you will always be pulling against them. You will also be using other aspects of the bed, such as the foot bar, the ropes and other accessories that will enable you to use your body as resistance. As the springs can be altered to provide greater levels of resistance, they will help you build up your strength at the same time as stretching and lengthening your muscles.
The bed has a rolling carriage that allows you to undertake a number of exercises that challenge stability and develop core strength. In order to stay balanced, your core needs to work harder to stabilise your body. Your instructor will tell you which springs to use before every movement, including which ones to use if you want to make the exercises harder.
Whether you are doing reformer Pilates or simple mat-based Pilates, your goal is to improve your posture, strengthen your core and improve flexibility. Reformer Pilates differs from mat Pilates in that it enables you to do a greater range of exercises using all the muscle groups rather than just the core. Reformer Pilates also offers resistance training which enables you to build up your strength in a way that is simply not possible with mat Pilates.
The best way to understand the benefits of reformer Pilates is to try it for yourself. That’s why we have a promotional offer of £10 for your first session, with the option of bringing a friend with you for free! The offer can be used at any of our Hertfordshire or North London studios. If you’re new to reformer Pilates, we’ll send you a tutorial video explaining more about the reformer bed and how to use it so you can familiarise yourself with it before your first class. We look forward to seeing you!
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