By Nadia Popescu, Strength & Conditioning Writer · Updated 22 September 2026
A reformer looks intimidating for about ten minutes. It's a padded carriage on rails, springs that pull it back towards a footbar, and a pair of straps on pulleys, and nearly everything you do on it is a version of pushing the carriage away and controlling it on the way back. The control part is the exercise. People who rush the return are doing half a workout.
These seven moves are the ones most studio beginner classes are built on, and they work on any home reformer with springs or cords. Our ZERELEK reformer review and AeroPilates 287 review cover two machines at different price points if you're still choosing.
Pilates is good exercise, and the research says so without needing to exaggerate it. A meta-analysis of Pilates in chronic low back pain found it reduced short-term pain and disability compared with minimal intervention, though it wasn't better than other types of exercise (meta-analysis of Pilates for low back pain). For strength, a systematic review of 11 trials found no meaningful difference between Pilates and other exercise methods (review of Pilates and muscle strength). The honest reading is that it works as well as other structured training, and people tend to stick with it.
One more finding worth knowing: a trial in women with chronic back pain found mat Pilates improved pain and balance more than apparatus Pilates over eight weeks (mat versus apparatus Pilates trial). The reformer isn't magic. Keep some mat work in your week.
Set the footbar and headrest first, every session. Lie on the carriage with your shoulders against the shoulder blocks and your head on the headrest; your knees should bend to roughly 90 degrees with your feet on the bar. If your hips are jammed up towards the bar or your legs are almost straight, adjust the footbar or the spring stop before you move.
Neutral spine is the default position: the natural small curve in your lower back, not pressed flat and not arched. Breathe out as you push the carriage out, in as it returns.
Spring settings vary
Spring colours and tensions differ between brands, so there's no universal "two reds and a blue". Treat the settings below as heavy, medium or light for your machine, and start lighter than you think for anything involving the arms or abs.
Springs: heavy. Reps: 10 per foot position.
Lie on your back, feet on the footbar. Press the carriage out until your legs are straight but not locked, then control it home over three counts. Do it with your heels on the bar, then the balls of your feet with heels lifted, then the arches.
The mistake is letting the carriage slam back. Your glutes and hamstrings should be working on the return just as much as your quads on the push.
Springs: medium to heavy. Reps: 8 to 10.
Feet on the footbar, heels on the bar. Peel your spine off the carriage one vertebra at a time until you're in a bridge from shoulders to knees, hold for a breath, then roll down the same way. For a harder version, hold the bridge and press the carriage out and in 5 times. It's a close relative of the glute bridge but with a moving base.
Springs: light to medium. Reps: 100 arm pumps, which is 10 breaths.
Hold the straps, legs in tabletop (knees over hips, shins parallel to the floor). Lift your head and shoulders, straighten your arms by your sides, and pump the arms up and down in a small range, breathing in for five pumps and out for five. Beginners should keep the legs in tabletop; extending them to 45 degrees is the progression.
If your neck aches, you're lifting with your neck rather than your abs. Put your head down for a breath and reset.
Springs: light to medium. Reps: 6 each direction.
Put both feet in the straps, legs straight up towards the ceiling. Keeping your pelvis still, draw circles with both legs: down, apart, round and back together. Small circles to start. The point is to keep the carriage and your pelvis stable while the legs move, so if the carriage rocks, make the circles smaller.
Springs: light. Reps: 8 to 10.
Sit upright on the carriage facing the straps, legs crossed or straight. Hold the straps with bent elbows and press your arms forward and slightly up, then open them out to the sides and back. Sit tall throughout; if you lean back to pull, the spring is too heavy.
Springs: medium. Reps: 8.
Stand on the carriage with your heels against the shoulder blocks and your hands on the footbar, hips high in an upside-down V. Using your abs and hamstrings, push the carriage back a short way and draw it in again, keeping your back rounded and your heels down. The movement is small. Big ranges turn it into a hamstring stretch and lose the abdominal work.
Springs: light to medium. Reps: 5.
Hands on the footbar, feet against the shoulder blocks, body in a straight plank. Push the carriage back with your feet a short distance and pull it forward again, keeping your shoulders over your hands. It's harder on a lighter spring because the carriage moves more easily. Stop if your lower back starts to sag.
Rushing the return. The carriage springs back quicker than you want it to. Resisting it is half the exercise.
Too much spring on arm work. Heavy springs make you recruit your back and neck. Light and controlled wins.
Skipping the setup. A footbar one notch too close puts your hips in the wrong place for every single leg exercise.
Holding your breath. Out on the effort, in on the return. It sounds basic, and it's the thing instructors correct most.
Two or three times a week, with a day off between:
Add reps before you add spring tension, and change one thing at a time. The machines worth considering, from £250 folding frames to wooden studio reformers, are ranked in our best Pilates reformer UK guide.
Two or three sessions a week of 30 to 45 minutes. Pilates is low impact, so recovery between sessions is quick, but beginners get more from spacing sessions out and practising the setup than from training every day with sloppy form.
Not automatically. The reformer adds adjustable resistance and support, which makes some moves easier to learn and others harder. One trial in women with chronic back pain actually found the mat group improved pain and balance more than the apparatus group. Use both: the mat builds the control, the reformer adds load.
It builds strength and endurance, especially in the legs, glutes and trunk, but it isn't a substitute for progressive weight training if muscle size is your goal. A systematic review found no difference between Pilates and other exercise methods for strength gains, which is a good result for Pilates but not evidence that it beats lifting.
It depends on the machine, because spring colours and tensions aren't standardised. As a rule, footwork and leg work use heavier settings, while arm work and abdominal moves use lighter ones. Lighter isn't always easier; on moves like the long stretch a lighter spring makes the carriage less stable and the exercise harder.
It can help. A meta-analysis found Pilates reduced short-term pain and disability compared with minimal intervention, though it wasn't better than other exercise. If you have a diagnosed back problem, get a physio or qualified instructor to check your setup before training alone at home.
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