The Reformer is without a doubt the most popular Pilates equipment machine. With it we can perform the vast majority of the exercises in the Pilates Floor repertoire: from the most basic to the most advanced level.
As in Pilates Floor, Pilates Reformer exercises consist of the controlled execution of a full range of fluid movements that work specific groups of muscles.
When we exercise in the Reformer, the lever action performed by the muscles and joints, together with our body weight, is used as resistance when performing movements.
This resistance to movement that brings the Pilates Reformer is what makes necessary more work to overcome it, which implies that we have to apply a greater degree of intensity and strength, fact that will increase our fitness level much more quickly than practicing Pilates Floor exercises.
What are the benefits of Pilates Reformer practice?
We will begin by highlighting three of them:
Increase of the Core’s strength:
As it happens in Pilates Floor, the Pilates Reformer exercise also needs to be done under basic principles that include a certain technique. The right position will always focus on the strengthening of a group of muscles that are the key to our physical performance and that form the called “Core” (nucleus), and are located in the abdominal area, hip and lower back. Exercising them will imply a better stabilization and alignment of the Vertebral Column, which will reduce the possibility of suffering pains and injuries in the lumbar area, in addition to increasing our overall sports performance in general due to the effectiveness of having a strengthened Core, which makes our movements much more powerful and effective.
Increase in the degree of muscular resistance:
During the work in Pilates Reformer, our muscles have to exert force to overcome the resistance offered by the machine. This increase in resistance will offer us as a result a general improvement of our muscle tone, highlighting mainly the increase in strength and the muscles resistance level. This increase in muscular endurance plays an important role in our daily life, since it allows us, for example, to exert force during long periods of training without the appearance of fatigue; we will need less effort to fulfill our daily tasks and we will even reduce the risk of suffering bone injuries caused by Osteoporosis, since the training of muscular resistance also has benefits on our bones and joints health.
Posture improvement:
Working in Pilates Reformer also provides a correct alignment of our Spine Column. This, together with the fact that it strengthens the muscle group that forms the Core, causes muscular imbalances to disappear and visibly improves our posture.
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