Pilates ≠ Reformer: Understanding the Full Method
- Sheela Cheong
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Let’s set the record straight: Pilates is not the Reformer. While the Reformer is iconic, it’s just one tool in a much larger method rooted in body awareness, breath, and intelligent movement. Pilates is a system—originally called Contrology—and its essence lies in how we move, not what we move on.
Whether you're new to Pilates or a long-time practitioner, understanding the full Pilates method—including matwork and apparatus—deepens your practice and avoids misconceptions about Reformer Pilates being the whole method.
The Origins of Pilates: Joseph Pilates' Early Life and Training
Joseph Pilates was born in Germany in 1883. As a sickly child—suffering from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever—he became deeply interested in physical culture, anatomy, and movement. By his teens, around 1898–1905, he was training in gymnastics, boxing, and martial arts and working as a circus performer and self-defence instructor.
By the time WWI broke out in 1914, Pilates had already been experimenting with his own physical training method, combining breath, control, and precision. He was interned in a British camp as an “enemy alien,” where he began teaching his system to fellow internees, using floor-based exercises that later evolved into mat Pilates.
Between 1915 and 1918, while working as an orderly in a camp hospital on the Isle of Man, he started attaching springs to hospital beds to help bedridden patients exercise. These spring-based resistance systems were the beginning of what would become Pilates apparatus like the Reformer and Cadillac.
Pilates Timeline: Matwork to Reformer
1898–1914: Joe develops the early foundations of his method through personal exploration in gymnastics, martial arts, boxing, and anatomy.
1914–1918: While interned in England during WWI, he begins teaching fellow internees mat-based exercises and creates resistance apparatus using bed springs—early prototypes of the Cadillac and Reformer.
1926: Joe emigrates to New York with his wife Clara and opens a studio above the original location of the New York City Ballet. He continues teaching Contrology, using both matwork and apparatus. His clients include dancers, athletes, and injured civilians.
1930s–1940s: He invents and refines the Reformer, Wunda Chair, Spine Corrector, and other apparatus—not as the method itself, but as tools to assist and challenge it.
1945: Publishes Return to Life Through Contrology, a book featuring 34 mat Pilates exercises with no mention of the Reformer—reinforcing the idea that the true heart of Pilates is in matwork, not machines.
The Six Pilates Principles (and Where They Really Came From)
The six guiding principles often cited in Pilates today—Control, Centering, Concentration, Precision, Breath, and Flow—were not coined by Joe himself. They were formalised in the 1980s by Philip Friedman and Gail Eisen, students of Romana Kryzanowska. That said, these ideas clearly run through Joe’s writing and teaching. As he wrote:
“Contrology is complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit… It develops the body uniformly, corrects wrong postures, restores physical vitality, invigorates the mind, and elevates the spirit.”
His focus was never on the apparatus—it was on how you move.
Why Mat Pilates Is the Core of the Pilates Method
Joe believed in developing strength and control from within.
He didn’t build the Reformer first and then create Pilates around it. He created a movement method first, and then designed apparatus to help people get there.
Romana Kryzanowska, one of Joe’s closest protégés, famously said: “If you can’t do it on the mat, you can’t do it anywhere.”
Romana understood that the mat isn’t a simplified or stripped-down version of Pilates—it is the method in its purest form. On the mat, there’s no external support, no springs to guide or resist you, and no straps to help you stabilise. It’s just you and your ability to move with precision, strength, and control.
So when Romana said, “If you can’t do it on the mat, you can’t do it anywhere,” she wasn’t dismissing the apparatus—she was honouring the fact that true control, integration, and understanding of the method starts in your own body.
The apparatus is there to support the method, not replace it.
The mat is the method in its rawest form—requiring no props, no straps, no springs. Just breath, control, and the body in motion.
Pilates can be practised on a mat, on apparatus like the Reformer, Cadillac, or Wunda Chair, or simply using bodyweight alone. The variety is there to serve the method—not define it.
Matwork vs Reformer: Why It Still Matters
Equating Pilates with the Reformer narrows its reach and misses its purpose. Not everyone has access to expensive equipment—but everyone has access to their own body.
Mat Pilates is not a warm-up or beginner’s version of the Reformer. It is the foundation.
It demands strength, clarity, and honest movement - and when the equipment is used, it’s there to serve the method—not replace it.
So whether you’re practising on a mat, a Reformer, a Chair, or the floor of your living room, if you’re moving with breath, awareness, and control—you’re doing Pilates.
Notes:
This article was inspired by Pilates teacher Maximilian Stohr's post on Facebook / Instagram (2 May, 2025).
Who was Romana Kryzanowska? Romana was one of the most influential figures in the world of Pilates and a direct protégé of Joseph Pilates, the creator of the method. Introduced to Pilates in 1941 by her ballet instructor George Balanchine, Romana initially sought the method as a rehabilitation tool after sustaining an ankle injury. Her deep commitment and dedication to the practice led her to study under Joseph Pilates himself at his studio in New York City, where she quickly became one of his most trusted assistants. Often referred to as "Uncle Joe" by those in the Pilates community, Joseph Pilates took Romana under his wing, teaching her the core principles of the method.
After Joseph Pilates' death in 1967, Romana Kryzanowska continued to honor his teachings, working closely with his wife, Clara Pilates, to preserve the integrity of the Pilates method. In 1970, Romana took the reins of the original Pilates studio, which later became known as The Pilates Studio. Here, she continued to teach and train others in the classical Pilates method, ensuring its authenticity and proper execution for generations to come.
Known as "The Grand Dame of Pilates," Romana dedicated her life to spreading the principles of Pilates worldwide. She traveled extensively, training Pilates instructors and ensuring that Joseph Pilates’ original vision was passed down without dilution. Romana’s legacy lives on today through the Pilates organization she founded, Romana’s Pilates, which upholds the classical approach to Pilates that remains true to its origins. Through her commitment, Romana Kryzanowska became not only a student but also a pivotal guardian of the Pilates method, ensuring its legacy and the continuation of its transformative power for future generations.
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