Step aside hot yoga, padel and Hyrox: 2026 has belonged to Reformer Pilates. Purpose-built studios have rapidly appeared on high streets and in town centres across the country, taking the once-exclusive workout into the mainstream. The Reformer’s appeal is easy to understand, offering a powerful blend of strength training, improved mobility and much-needed mental focus.
But as the wider fitness world embraces ever-more intense workouts, there is a risk that the original principles of Pilates can get lost. Nikkii Behrens, founder of Rare Street Pilates and a Reformer practitioner for more than a decade, says the difference between productive exercise and pushing the body towards burnout is becoming increasingly blurred. In her view, treating sweat, soreness or self-punishment as signs of a successful session goes against what Pilates is meant to achieve.
According to Behrens, meaningful Pilates progress comes from careful technique, controlled movement, proper alignment and adequate recovery — not from leaving every class completely depleted. Building a strong foundation and responding to how your body feels on any given day can deliver more lasting strength and resilience than forcing yourself through pain.
Relentless soreness and viewing exercise as punishment run counter to the core purpose of Pilates.
If you are regularly aching after class, failing to see the changes you hoped for, or starting to dread stepping into the studio, it may be time to reassess your routine. Behrens warns that poor Reformer Pilates technique can result in serious injury. These are her five key warning signs that your workout may be causing more harm than benefit.
‘A degree of muscle fatigue is entirely normal, especially when you are advancing your training or learning a new movement. But persistent soreness and exhaustion are not proof that you are “working better”. If your body is not recovering properly between sessions, it may be telling you that your overall training load is too much. Recovery is an essential part of becoming stronger, so avoid overdoing it. And if you truly dread the next class, consider the type of session, its level and whether it is actually the right fit for you.’
2. You believe every session needs to be tougher than the one before.
‘Fitness culture often suggests that improvement means lifting heavier, choosing harder exercises or simply doing more. In Pilates, however, progression should be measured through greater control, more precise technique, improved mobility and the ability to perform each movement well.
‘In many cases, slowing a movement down and controlling it properly can be far more demanding — and far more beneficial — than simply adding another spring.’
Nikki says making sure movement feels slow and controlled is often more challenging.
3. You’re experiencing pain rather than muscular discomfort
Behrens says there is an important distinction between feeling your muscles work and feeling pain, and it should not be ignored. ‘Repeated discomfort in the lower back, neck, shoulders, hips or knees shouldn’t be accepted as part of reformer training,’ she says. ‘It can indicate poor technique, inappropriate resistance or an exercise that isn’t right for your body at that moment. A good instructor should be able to modify the movement rather than encourage you to push through pain.’
4. You’re ignoring what your body needs that day
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‘Your capacity to exercise isn’t identical every time you walk into the studio. Sleep, stress, recovery, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum recovery and perimenopause or menopause can all influence how you feel and what your body needs. You need to listen to all these factors, not just see a reminder on an app that it’s time for a class and push through. This doesn’t mean women should fear challenging themselves but rather learn when to push through and when adjusting intensity is a smarter form of training.’
5. Exercise has started to feel like punishment
‘This is perhaps the biggest red flag. If you’re choosing classes because you feel guilty about what you’ve eaten, panicking when you miss a session, or judging a workout purely by calories burned, sweat or how destroyed you feel afterwards, it’s worth reassessing your relationship with exercise.
‘Movement should be something that contributes to your health, strength and longevity rather than another way to punish your body.’
Movement should contribute to your health and strength, not punish your body.
What you’re getting wrong about reformer training
Behrens says, ‘One of the biggest misconceptions is that a good reformer class should leave you drenched in sweat or barely able to walk the next day. Sweat is primarily your body’s cooling mechanism; it isn’t a measure of how effective a workout was and the same applies to soreness, which isn’t a reliable scorecard for progress.
‘People can become obsessed with making exercises look more advanced before they have mastered the foundations. Pilates is about control and quality of movement, and a beautifully executed basic exercise can be much more valuable than an advanced variation performed with poor alignment and momentum.’
She says she encourages clients not to view Pilates as their entire movement prescription.
‘Reformer Pilates can be fantastic for strength, control, mobility and stability, but ideally it sits within a broader lifestyle that includes walking or cardiovascular exercise and, depending on the individual and their goals, additional resistance and weight-bearing exercise,’ says Behrens.
‘Ultimately, the goal shouldn’t be to finish every class feeling destroyed and I certainly want my clients and students to leave feeling like they’ve challenged their body intelligently. The best training isn’t necessarily the training that takes the most out of you – it’s the training your body can adapt to, recover from and keep doing consistently.’