Reformer classes in Asheville
Pilates on the reformer machine.
The reformer is the Pilates machine: a padded carriage that slides on rails, with springs underneath, a footbar at one end and straps with handles. You push and pull against the springs while lying, kneeling, sitting or standing. Same Pilates principles as on the mat, with more resistance and more support.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Reformer does for you
Springs give resistance and support at once, so you feel muscles working hard while the machine guides the line of each movement. The moving carriage shows up every small wobble, and steadiness has to come from your center rather than momentum. Many people like that a strong class can still feel kind to the joints. Small groups mean the facilitator actually sees what you are doing.
It suits you if
- you want strength work that feels controlled and joint-friendly
- you like equipment and clear feedback
- you have done mat Pilates and want more resistance
- you prefer small classes with lots of attention
Read the full guide to ReformerWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Classes usually run 45 to 55 minutes with 4 to 12 machines, so they book up quickly. The facilitator calls out spring settings, cues each exercise and moves around adjusting footbars, straps and form. You typically start lying down with footwork, then move to arm work in the straps, kneeling and side-lying series, and often standing balance on the moving carriage. Expect a slow, deep burn, some shaking and a steady stream of instruction. Grip socks are usually required.
Your first time
- Bring or buy grip socks, and wear fitted clothes without zips or buckles that could catch on the straps or scratch the upholstery.
- Arrive ten minutes early so the facilitator can show you the springs, footbar and headrest.
- Book a beginner or intro class if the studio offers one.
- Don't assume heavier springs mean harder: lighter springs often make an exercise wobblier and more demanding.
Good to know
- If you are pregnant, postnatal, or managing a back, neck, joint or pelvic floor issue, check with a doctor, midwife or physiotherapist first and tell the facilitator.
- The carriage moves under you; get on and off only when it is resting against the stopper and the facilitator says so.
- Reformer classes usually cost more than mat classes and fill fast, so read the cancellation rules before booking.
Where it comes from
Joseph Pilates built equipment alongside his mat work and called it apparatus. A popular story says he rigged springs to hospital beds at the Knockaloe internment camp on the Isle of Man during World War I so that bedridden internees could exercise. It is plausible but undocumented, and Pilates historians still debate it.
What is documented: in 1924 Pilates filed a German patent in Hamburg for a body exercise machine with a rolling carriage, and he patented it in the United States after moving to New York in the mid-1920s. He marketed it as the Universal Reformer, for universally reforming the body. Through the late 1920s and 1930s it gained straps and handles, a set of four springs, an adjustable footbar and wooden clawfoot legs, a design he kept for decades.
Alongside it he built the Cadillac, the Wunda Chair, the Ladder Barrel and the Spine Corrector. After his death in 1967, his student Romana Kryzanowska worked with the manufacturer Gratz to reproduce his later aluminum reformer, and other makers went on to develop lighter, more adjustable versions.
Group reformer classes grew from the 2000s, and in the 2020s reformer studios have opened across Germany's big cities, about a hundred years after the patent was filed in Hamburg. Berlin has many, from classical studios to music-driven contemporary ones, mostly in small groups because the machines are big and expensive.
Words you will hear
- Carriage
- The padded platform you lie or kneel on, which slides along the rails.
- Springs
- Coiled springs under the carriage that set the resistance; their colors mark different loads.
- Footbar
- The adjustable bar at one end that you press against with your feet or hands.
- Straps
- Loops with handles for your hands or feet, pulled against the springs.
- Footwork
- The opening series, pressing the carriage out and in with your feet on the footbar.