Does reformer Pilates build muscles?

Reformer Pilates, a dynamic form of exercise performed on the Reformer apparatus, has gained popularity for its ability to build lean muscle, enhance core stability and improve overall fitness. 

Unlike traditional Pilates, which primarily focuses on mat exercises, Reformer Pilates uses spring resistance to provide a full-body workout. 

This article explores how Reformer Pilates can build muscle, the mechanisms behind it, comparisons to traditional weight training, and its benefits and limitations in muscle building.

Muscles are built when the body is in the right physiological environment. This environment will place the muscles under enough stress to cause some minor muscle damage and create metabolic stress in the muscle. These stresses often caused from lifting weights or exercise will stimulate the body to release growth factors and hormones to help enhance protein synthesis. Other factors such as nutrition and rest are also important as they allow the body to recover and allow muscular growth or hypertrophy to take place. As the body adapts to the stresses placed upon it the work has to be increased in order to achieve the same physiological response. This is a process called progressive overload.

The Pilates reformer forces the muscles to work in three ways concentric, eccentric and stabilising contractions. The concentric muscle contractions is where the muscles are forced to work against the springs. The more springs that are attached the higher the resistance and the harder the work the muscles have to do. By adding more springs the resistance of the exercise increases, providing the overload onto the muscles. If this load is heavy enough it will cause stimulation the muscles to grow.

The eccentric component of the exercise is the controlled lengthening component of the exercise. Eccentric exercises have been shown to increase the amount of muscle damage during the exercise, which can often make you a little sore and has been shown to accelerate the amount of muscle growth you have.

The stabilising contractions occur when the body is working hard to maintain its correct posture and positioning during the exercises. The Pilates reformer exercises were designed to challenge the stability of the participant so this is where the reformer excels. By training the core muscles, like any other muscle they will grow with stimulation. As the abdominal exercises are designed to stay activated for long periods of time, this form of exercise is ideal for them. Studies have shown that stabilising exercises are enough to cause hypertrophy in the core muscles, especially when these subjects are also suffering from back pain or imbalances.

How reformer Pilates builds strength.

We have all seen videos of bodybuilders throwing around massive amounts of weight in the gym, squatting or leg pressing what looks like every single weight in the gymnasium. This form of intense training causes the muscles to work immensely hard to move the weights that stimulate changes to the muscles size and strength. The body builders will often lift these weights with such intensity that their form may start to suffer by the end. There is no way these sorts of loads can be replicated on a reformer.

A lot of people in the gym will train with machines instead of free weights. Because these machines allow the users to place extreme forces on a particular muscle or on a particular part of the movement. While this may be good to bring out a lagging body part, it does run the risk of creating a muscular imbalance. An imbalance is where a particular body part or muscle is strengthened more than the opposite or antagonist muscle. This imbalance then causes the body to be pulled into a bad or inefficient posture, that will often lead to aches in pains or increased risk of injury.

As the workout sets of Pilates exercises often go for up to or over a minute, the exercises are often more strength endurance exercises as opposed to pure strength. This kind of exercise is good for working the postural or type 1 muscle fibers. By building up these muscles you improve your posture, improve your core strength and find yourself able to hold better postures throughout the day. If you really want to lift heavy weights to build muscles, then reformer Pilates exercises will create a great base from where you can work from and have a reduced risk of injury.

In order to stimulate muscle growth you need to place increased stresses on the muscles that your muscles haven’t experienced recently. If your exercise over the last year has been limited to walking too and from the bus stop, or the occasional walk around the block, then reformer PIlates is well suited to help you to build muscle. If you are just getting into exercise then reformer Pilates will create a nice base level of strength and hypertrophy as well as building your core to prevent injuries that may occur if you were to go straight into the gym.

The benefits of reformer Pilates on building muscle is the targeting of the core muscles. By developing the core muscles, people will suffer from less low back pains and other injuries.

The reformer Pilates exercises require proper alignment and result in an improved posture, so while with the standard gym machines you can create massive muscular imbalances, which can cause ongoing issues. The reformer Pilates exercises actually correct these imbalances instead of making them worse.

Often when women start an exercise program, there is some concern that they may end up with ridiculously large muscles like they see on some female bodybuilders. While this physique is actually very difficult for the majority of females to achieve, the chances of achieving this body shape with reformer Pilates is virtually impossible.

Who can benefit from reformer Pilates?

The answer to this is a resounding yes, reformer Pilates can build muscle especially in those who are untrained, are recovering from sickness, injury or surgery. It can be great for building core muscles in those who have skipped too many core exercises in favour of working out chest or shoulders. The most important bit is the type of muscles reformer pilates builds. It builds long muscles that are strong throughout it’s entire length. It builds muscles that are balanced for improved posture and it build up the core to support the lower back and help prevent injuries.