Reformer Pilates: A Gym Man's 14-Day Experiment
I signed up to ClassPass for £1, booked five Pilates classes across five venues over 14 days, and documented everything. Here is what happened.
Background
I train 5–6 sessions a week, compound lifting. I just finished a 12-week creatine study. On paper I’m strong, but I’ve been carrying a weak groin from football and a rotator cuff issue that won’t go away, and I haven’t paid enough attention to mobility or recovery.
I came across reformer Pilates on video and it looked interesting, not just stretching but controlled, loaded movement. I thought it might be the thing I was missing. So I signed up to ClassPass. £1 for 14 days, 56 credits. First session booked at 1Rebel, 7:15am Easter bank holiday Monday.
Session 1 — 1Rebel, Bayswater | Easter Bank Holiday Monday | 7:15am
Arrived a bit nervous. The class is almost entirely women and I knew that going in, but being in it is a different thing. I bought grip socks at the desk for £12, felt prepared, then looked down and realised they were the exact same socks I use for football. Same socks. £12 to find that out. There was one other guy in the class, which helped.
The session is 45 minutes but the actual reformer work is around 30 of that, the rest is warm up and cool down. I didn’t know that beforehand.
The legs section is where it got interesting. I suspected I had some hip imbalance and the reformer confirmed it straight away. My left groin is weaker than my right, you can feel it in the resistance and the control. I kept up fine, it wasn’t as hard as I expected, but the feeling was different to anything I’ve done in the gym. Not intensity, more precision. Legs were jelly at points.
Upper body was easier, which makes sense given how much pressing and pulling I do. The rotator cuff didn’t cause problems, but I was aware of it throughout.
The instructor was Camila Crabb. I happened to end up next to her on the reformer. When I got lost on a movement I could glance across and watch her form. Small thing, but it helped.
After the session I felt genuinely good in a way I haven’t after the gym or football in a long time. Not soreness, not fatigue, something more like a full-body reset. Like I’d done something my body had no reference point for. I’m curious to see how this develops.
The morning after
Woke up with glute DOMS. The kind I’d normally only get from squatting or deadlifting north of 100kg. A reformer bed did that. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
Session 2 — Move With Yuval, Hampstead | Friday 10 April | 10:30am
Before this I did 120kg squats, five sets of five, then cycled from Ladbroke Grove to Hampstead. About 30 minutes on the bike. So I arrived having already trained legs and ridden across London.
The studio is on Rosslyn Hill. Small room, three reformer beds. The instructor was Jinji Garland. She told me straight away about keeping the core engaged and shoulder blades down, before we even started moving. Two other women in the class.
It was different to 1Rebel. Jinji was at the front teaching, not on a reformer herself. The music was light and in the background. The pace was slower and more controlled. She said it was classical Pilates.
I did all the movements and held everything. It wasn’t fast paced, but that wasn’t a problem. At the end Jinji said I’d picked it up exceptionally well and that most men can’t coordinate the way I did. I told her I’d played football my whole life as a kid. Very flattered by that.
I much preferred this style over 1Rebel. 1Rebel felt more like a fitness class. This felt like actual Pilates, the technique was the point.
Legs felt great after too. After squats and a 30 minute cycle I expected tightness, but the session seemed to help rather than add to it. Already thinking this would work well as a recovery day session after football. And longer term I’m thinking about mat Pilates, because if I learn the technique properly I can do it at home without needing a bed or a class.
Session 3 — Blanc Space Studio, Notting Hill | Monday 13 April | 7:30am
Played 90 minutes of football the day before and my legs were sore. I knew this session would probably help, but I was a bit worried arriving. Blanc Space is the closest studio to me, walking distance, so it made sense to try it.
Got there and it was packed. Two rooms, one big room with reformer beds, people coming out of a 7am class as I walked in. I didn’t know where to go. It was a bit overwhelming. I found the smaller room on the other side, about nine mats crammed into what is basically a box room with a fan. Tightest of spaces.
The instructor was Olivia L. Friendly, spoke to her before it started. Then the other women began filing in. The vibe was different to Hampstead and 1Rebel. Very middle class, very posh, and I got the sense from most of them that I wasn’t particularly welcome, like they were quietly judging me for being a man in the room. There was one other guy there with his partner, also his first time apparently. At some point while stretching my arms along the floor I knocked over a woman’s big cup holder water bottle. She gave me a dirty look. Anyways.
In terms of the actual session, I did like it. We used resistance bands and the glute bridges were good, my glutes held up fine considering the football the day before. The lunges were pretty easy for me, I do them regularly for football and my balance was there when most others were struggling. However, where I did struggle was the core work. Holding the core engaged while doing leg raises and similar movements, a few times my core just gave out. That’s clearly my weakest point right now, which is useful to know.
Overall a good session, and I’d do mat Pilates again. Not at that venue though. The irony is the women in that room probably go to Pilates as part of a routine that ends with a matcha somewhere, whereas I’m there because I play football twice a week, lift five times a week, and I want to improve my mobility, my stability, and my recovery. I’m not following a trend. I’m there because it actually works. And for a first timer on the mat I held my own, which I’ll take.
Anyways, the experience made me want to go back to Jinji. Classical Pilates, slow and controlled, that’s the style that suits me. I want to book her class again before the trial ends.
After the class I spoke to Olivia for a bit, she was chatty which was nice. She said I did very well and that she was surprised. I’ve noticed this across every session now, when a new movement comes up I can just glance at it and do it. I catch on quick and the movements feel natural. I don’t fully know why, probably the football, probably years of having to read and replicate movement patterns quickly.
Anyways, I’ve figured something out. Whenever I need my ego stroked, I should just go to Pilates.
Session 4 — Yogarise, Queen’s Park | Thursday 17 April | 12:30pm
Thursday I trained legs, so by today they were mostly fine, not that sore. This morning I trained arms, ate, then headed to the class about two hours later. So I arrived with arms already worked, which turned out to matter.
The venue was different to anywhere else I’d been. Spacious, wholesome, there’s a children’s play area in there, a yoga space, a café. The woman at the desk was friendly. Nice vibe walking in, not intimidating at all.
The instructor was Silvia Bird. She mentioned breathing early on, not just as a warmup cue but as something to actually pay attention to throughout. I hold my breath during effort. I do it in the gym too, on the bench press especially, just lock everything and push. Silvia’s point was that the breath is part of the movement, not separate from it. That landed. Also came back to the same cues as every other session, back and glutes on the reformer, core engaged the whole time. Four sessions in and that’s starting to click properly now. I’ve even started thinking about it when I’m benching, keeping the core switched on rather than just bracing and forgetting about it.
The arms were the issue today. The session had a lot of upper body work and my arms were already fatigued from the morning, so they were struggling more than my legs would have. Interesting observation. Legs can take a beating and still hold up through a Pilates session, but arms trained and then asked to do controlled reformer work the same day is a different story. Worth knowing for planning ahead.
No lunges this time, but plenty of glute bridges. Class wasn’t rammed either, more spacious than Blanc Space which made a difference. Spoke to someone after, friendly crowd, and left feeling good.
One more session to go before the trial runs out.
Session 5 — Re:Connect Studio, Kilburn | Sunday 19 April | 9:00am
Last session of the trial. Re:Fire Inferno Pilates, 50 degrees, instructor was Krzysztof Grabowski. It was the only class available on ClassPass that day so I booked it not fully knowing what I was walking into.
The women at the desk were lovely. I needed a mat, towel, and water, bought them all at the desk. They mentioned about 40 people had booked. I walked into a massive room, like a dance studio, all women except one other guy, everyone sitting on mats. I didn’t want to sit at the front, but it had the most space so that’s where I ended up.
The room was hot. As the class moved on it got very hot, and I noticed my left groin abductors were weaker than my right again, same thing that showed up in session one. Consistent finding across five sessions now. The class was 50 minutes and felt more like a workout than Pilates, similar to 1Rebel in that way, more fitness class than technique focus. However I enjoyed the heat, it added something different, and I kept up throughout.
Won a raffle at the end and got a free class. After we left the room the cold air of the changing room hit immediately, which felt good after 50 minutes in that heat. Spoke to the reception about what else they offer, reasonable prices, lots of classes, some focused on stretching which would be good. However it didn’t really give me Pilates vibes. I want to learn, I want slower and more focused on technique, not just a workout with Pilates movements.
Anyways, they have a two week trial offer. Might give that a go as a way to keep this going now that ClassPass has ended.
Two Weeks Done — What I Actually Think
Five sessions, five venues, two weeks, £1. That’s the trial. Here’s where I landed.
I feel considerably better than when I started. Not in a dramatic way, more like things are moving more freely and I’m more aware of what’s weak and what isn’t. The left groin showed up as weaker than the right in almost every single session. The core gave out before the legs did in mat work. Those are useful things to know, and I didn’t know them before I started.
Pilates works well alongside football and lifting, probably because I’ve always neglected this side of training entirely. The recovery day logic is real. The session after 90 minutes of football on the Sunday felt better than I expected, and the legs always responded well even when they were tired going in. It’s not a replacement for anything, it sits alongside everything else.
The venue matters more than I expected. Location shapes who turns up and what the atmosphere is. Notting Hill was snobby, Kilburn was down to earth. The physical space matters too, nine mats in a box room is a different experience to a spacious studio with a café. I’d be selective going forward.
The class style matters more than the venue though. 1Rebel and Re:Connect are fitness classes that happen to use Pilates equipment. Jinji’s class in Hampstead was classical Pilates, slow and controlled and focused entirely on technique. That’s what I want. I’d pay just for her classes, but she only teaches through ClassPass so that’s convenient at least.
Cost is the only real problem. Around £70 a month for four or five sessions is steep when I’m already paying for the gym. The Re:Connect two week trial is worth doing to extend this a bit. Longer term I want to build a mat Pilates practice I can do at home, because if I learn the technique properly I don’t need a bed or a studio. That’s the goal. Reformer when I can, mat at home when I can’t.
I pick things up quickly, I always have, and Pilates was no different. Every instructor said something similar. The football background probably explains most of it, years of reading movement and replicating it fast. I’m not saying this to be big headed, it just means I can focus on the actual weak points rather than spending time on coordination. The core is the weak point. That’s what I’m taking forward.
Anyways, for £1 it was one of the better things I’ve done for my body in a while. I wasn’t expecting that going in.