NEW OLD REFORMERS

Nicole Briggs from Strong Body Pilates

About twenty years ago I was lucky enough to get my one and only private Pilates workout with Romana Kryzanowska. During the Teaser part of the workout, she gave me a correction that I wouldn’t fully understand until just recently, thanks to the New Old style Reformers now on the market.

That day it seemed to me that I was working on an overused Reformer with loose straps and springs. Her correction during the Teaser was “bring the carriage all the way in and don’t crucify yourself.” I kept saying the Reformer is not working correctly, but she said there is nothing wrong with the Reformer and repeated, “Bring the carriage in and don’t crucify yourself. “ I didn’t understand what she was talking about so, sad to say, I never did the exercise right that day. What I was doing was coming down out of the Teaser, opening my arms and rolling down on top of the box as the straps went limp loosing connection to the rest of the apparatus. 

 Twenty years later, working on a New Old style Reformer, I can feel the straps and the springs as I work. I know better now than to open my arms wide as I come down out of a Teaser and, it’s easy to bring the carriage in all the way. It’s a tight fit, and I love it. 

But wait!!! Before you take all of your old Reformers “out to the alley”, there is still something to be learned from them, so at least keep one or maybe two in your studio. Every once in a while, either due to lack of a New Old style Reformer or by choice, I workout on one of the older models that may be too soft, or too this or too that or maybe, god forbid, it’s an 86” Reformer. On these I have to find in my body what I can’t find on the Reformer. Physical tasks in life are not always equal and so goes Pilates. Reformers are like life: you don’t always know what you will get, so be ready and “don’t crucify yourself”.