Ah, pilates – the only form of exercise that you repeatedly underestimate. A 45-minute class might seem like the better, more relaxed option when compared to a run, cycle or strength training session but most of the time, it burns. A lot.

And despite its 100-year history, it seems like pilates has undergone a brutal transformation recently – becoming ever harder and more complex. You’ve got your traditional mat and reformer pilates,which focus on slow, small movements; sweaty HIIT pilates; rowformer pilates; and now Lagree’s megaformer classes – dubbed ‘pilates on steroids’. Not content with lengthening and strengthening, these hybrid pilates sessions are focused on introducing strength, endurance, cardio, balance, core and flexibility into every single move.  

Lagree is just the latest brand to jump onboard the pilates bandwagon, after FS8 introduced strength-reformer hybrid classes and Strong Pilates decided that the reformer needed a rowing element. Each of these brands focuses on targeting multiple muscle groups simultaneously while also making transitions between moves quicker and smoother so you’re constantly working.

It’s as though we realised during the pandemic that lots of HIIT training wasn’t necessarily doing our bodies any good, so we switched to something lower-impact like pilates. Now that things are a little less turbulent, we appear to be trying to merge the two – chasing sweaty endorphins while sculpting and strengthening.

But is there any need to make pilates harder? Are more brutal forms of the exercise better for us… or would we better off heading back to a classical class – as set out by Joseph Pilates all those years ago? 

As previously mentioned, pilates is a 100-year-old practice that originates from 1920s New York. Joseph Pilates and his wife, Clara, developed the concept by focusing on body conditioning and strengthening while helping people recover from injury. The pair based the exercises on three principles: breath, whole-body health and whole-body commitment through the mind, body, and spirit. Today, that’s been split into the six pillars of pilates:

1. Breath
2. Concentration
3. Centring
4. Control
5. Precision
6. Flow

Fast forward 70-odd years from its humble origins, and pilates really started to explode in the 1990s when it became the mainstream low-impact, full-body workout that we know and love today. Over a century later, everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Serena Williams swears by planking and toe-tapping for a stronger, more flexible body. 

Pilates works. Do you want to build a strong core? Pilates. Need a rehab tool to get you back to your usual sport? Pilates. Need to calm the mind while moving the body? Pilates. So why then is the fitness industry so keen to mess with something that isn’t broke?

“The most important benefit of mat pilates is accessibility,” says pilates instructor Ana Stefan, also known as The Aligned Body Coach. “You can bring your mat practice anywhere at any time.”

Stefan also points out that its accessibility makes it much more cost-effective. If the cost of living crisis has put studio classes out of budget for now, there is nothing stopping you from grabbing a mat and following a pilates video online.  

However, reformer pilates – with all its strings and pulleys – has become arguably more popular than its mat sibling. Some believe that it gives a better burn while others like it for taking the pressure off the body. And because few of us can afford to have a reformer bed at home (or have the space), studios are able to charge way more for classes. It’s not unusual to be charged £20 for an hour at a fancy reformer studio, compared with your local community hall’s £5 mat session.

Of course, there are real benefits to doing reformer pilates. “Reformer pilates facilitates strength building and provides variable resistance levels to cater to different fitness levels,” explains Stefan. “The reformer machine helps balance muscle development and ensures proper alignment during exercises.”

Stefan also explains that as research develops, pilates instructors and the fitness world are transforming the original practice to keep up. One 2021 study showed that eight weeks of reformer pilates had the ability to significantly raise levels of HDL (good cholesterol) and lower blood sugar levels. But there is little evidence to suggest that you can’t get the same results from sticking with your mat over a reformer machine. 

The main benefit of reformer is that it’s easier to scale up. The stronger you get, the higher the resistance can go – and it’s that challenge aspect that makes it more appealing. Stefan adds that using a machine “provides support and resistance”, rendering certain exercises more difficult, while the machine’s handles and attachments give you “limitless combinations of exercises”.

That, however, isn’t enough for some.

“Lagree fitness surpasses traditional reformer pilates by offering a full-body, high-intensity workout that combines strength training, cardio and stability work,” says Mona Halawi, co-founder of MAD Lagree Fitness.

This new method claims to fill any strength gaps that reformer pilates typically misses out on.

“While normal reformer pilates offers its own unique benefits, Lagree incorporates cardiovascular conditioning, muscle endurance training, HIIT principles and ongoing variety,” says Halawi. “These contribute to a more dynamic and comprehensive workout experience for individuals seeking a challenging exercise method.” 

Harder, more exciting and thoroughly well-rounded sessions sound like the perfect solution for time-poor people who want to work out once or twice a week and be done with it. In the 2022 PureGym UK Fitness report, 36% felt that they didn’t have enough time to work out, so it’s easy to see why someone might plump for a super-intense pilates session that incorporates all aspects of fitness into one trembling hour.

But Stefan isn’t convinced that this obsession with making things harder is going to overtake the classic, mat-based pilates.

“Pilates, when done correctly, has a really nice ‘burn’ feeling to it anyway, and it leaves you feeling taller and with more harmony in the mind and body,” she says.

There’s also the fact that overly stressful workouts aren’t really an antidote to a stressful life – they tend to make matters worse. You might enjoy the odd manic class but, there could come a point when you’re forced to regress back to the low-impact, original method that’s been so beneficial to so many people over the years.

Even the most basic pilates burns – do we really need to chase an even more unpleasant sensation? 

Images: Getty