Your first month on a Pilates reformer
Most people buy a reformer and spend their first session figuring out what springs do. Here's the actual learning curve — what you'll be doing in week one versus week four, and what makes the difference between a reformer that becomes a practice and one that becomes a coat rack.
By The JustBeginning Editors · Published May 23, 2026
The reformer is not complicated. The learning curve that makes it feel complicated is mostly about learning a new physical vocabulary — what spring tension feels like, how the carriage responds to your weight, where to put your feet. Once that clicks, usually in the second or third session, the machine stops being an obstacle and starts being genuinely useful.
This is what your first month actually looks like, week by week.
Week 1: Don’t work out. Learn the machine.
Your goal for the first two sessions isn’t intensity. It’s orientation. You need to understand:
The spring system. On a cord-based fold-up reformer you have 2–4 resistance cords you snap in or out. On a spring-based traditional reformer, you have 4–5 numbered springs with a variable resistance arc. In both cases: more springs = more resistance = easier to hold form under load. Two springs is the standard beginner setting for most exercises. One spring is for arm work. Three or four is for Footwork and leg press variations.
The carriage. Push against the footbar and the carriage slides away from you on the rails; release and the springs pull it back. That’s the whole mechanism. The carriage should move smoothly and evenly — if it’s jerking, you’re gripping. Relax your toes.
The footbar. Most exercises use the footbar in “medium” or “high” position. Don’t change it mid-session until you know why you’re changing it. Low bar position is mostly advanced work; start in the middle.
The classic beginner sequence to run in week one: Footwork (feet in parallel, arches, heels, toes), Hundred prep, Single Leg Circles, Coordination. That’s four exercises. Do them slowly. Do them on two springs. Do them twice. You’re done.
Week 2: Foundation exercises, full sequence
By session three or four you should be able to run through the foundational sequence without stopping to think about the equipment. That’s your signal to actually start thinking about the exercises.
The Hundred is the first real Pilates exercise — one hundred beats with your legs held in tabletop or extended, pumping your arms to generate breath rhythm. It looks easy and isn’t. Your neck will fatigue before your abs do. Let your head down and work with just the arm pumps. That’s not cheating; that’s the right modification until your deep neck flexors catch up.
Rolling Back and Short Spine are the exercises that clarify what makes Pilates different from any other fitness modality. The movement is initiated from the abdominal connection, not from momentum, not from leg push, and not from throwing your head. If you find yourself using momentum to complete a rolling exercise, the weight is too heavy. Drop a spring.
What to pay attention to: Your lower back. If it’s doing the work in any exercise, the weight is wrong or the modification is wrong. A reformer makes it easy to “use the machine” instead of “use your body” — and those are very different things. Slower and lighter is almost always more correct in week two than faster and heavier.
Weeks 3–4: Building a repeatable routine
Around session six or seven, something shifts. You stop thinking about the machine and start thinking about what your body is doing. This is when the practice actually starts.
By the end of week three, you should be able to complete a 30-minute foundation sequence without consulting instructions. That means: Footwork, Hundred, Rolling Back, Single Leg Circles, Coordination, Long Stretch, Down Stretch, Short Box Series (if your machine has a box), and an elephant or two. Not perfect — just continuous.
The common plateau: Most beginners hit a point where their sessions start to feel repetitive. The exercises aren’t getting harder; they’re getting easier. This is when a lot of people stop. Don’t. This is when an online class subscription pays off — platforms like Pilates Anytime have hundreds of reformer classes that vary the sequence, introduce new exercises, and add challenges you wouldn’t think to add on your own. A 45-minute structured class three times a week is significantly more valuable than self-directing the same 20 minutes every day.
Spring settings to experiment with: By week four, try doing Footwork on three springs. Notice the difference in how your leg press needs to be initiated. Try Coordination on one spring instead of two — it forces more control from the deep stabilizers and less from momentum. These small adjustments cost nothing but give you a new challenge without new exercises.
What beginners consistently get wrong
The same handful of mistakes show up in almost every new reformer user. You’ll make some of them:
Using the carriage as momentum. Pushing the carriage out with a snap and letting it spring back passively is not Pilates. The return phase is half the exercise — control the carriage coming back just as much as you control it going out.
Holding breath. Pilates has a specific breath pattern for most exercises (exhale on exertion, inhale on return or holding position). You won’t nail it immediately. The priority in month one is to breathe at all — any breathing pattern beats apnea.
Going too heavy too fast. More springs feels harder and more like a “real workout.” It’s not — it’s just more load. The classical Pilates exercises are designed on light to medium spring settings precisely because the challenge comes from precision, not load.
Skipping the box work. Exercises done with the short and long box (Swan, Pulling Straps, Round Back) are usually taught in studio but often skipped in home practice because the box has to be set up. Don’t skip them. They’re the section of the reformer workout that most directly trains the posterior chain.
What to do in month 2
Once you’ve established a foundation sequence, three things will accelerate your progress more than any gear upgrade:
Add a weekly online class. Self-directed sessions are valuable; structured classes are more valuable. A real teacher (even on video) will sequence exercises in an order that makes sense developmentally and introduce variations you wouldn’t choose yourself. Pilates Anytime has the largest library; Merrithew On Demand is excellent for practitioners who bought Merrithew equipment.
Get one private session. After a month of home practice, a single in-person private lesson with a certified instructor is extraordinarily useful. You’ve accumulated enough body memory that a trained eye can give specific, relevant corrections. Not “this is how you do footwork” but “your right hip is dropping in footwork — here’s why and here’s the cue that fixes it.”
Learn your spring settings by feel, not formula. Every body is different, and the “standard” spring settings are starting points. After a month, you should have a sense of which settings feel right for you for each exercise family. Write them down. That list is more valuable than any class.
You’re not a beginner anymore at session twelve. You have a practice — which is a much more interesting thing to be.
Ready to invest in your setup? See our Pilates reformer gear guide for which machines are worth buying, the props that actually add to your sessions, and the fold-up vs. traditional question answered clearly.