Reformer Pilates Mistakes Beginners Make (and the Fixes)
- Jul 14
- 6 min read
TL;DR: The most common reformer pilates mistakes beginners make are small and easy to fix: rushing the movement so momentum does the work, holding your breath, using the wrong spring tension, gripping through the neck and shoulders, over-tucking the pelvis, chasing the burn instead of control, and not telling your instructor about your body. None of them mean you are bad at it. They are the normal first-few-weeks learning curve, and a good teacher fixes most of them in your first class.
Nobody is smooth on a reformer in their first week, and the people who look like naturals are usually just making fewer of the same beginner mistakes as everyone else. We have coached first-timers onto the reformers at our Bondi studio for over 15 years, on a floor of 27 Allegro 2 machines, and the same handful of reformer pilates mistakes come up class after class. The good news is that every one of them is a quick fix once you can see it. Here is what they are, why they happen, and exactly how to correct each one.
What are the most common reformer pilates mistakes?
The most common beginner mistakes all come from the same place: using momentum, tension or speed to get through a movement instead of controlled muscle. The reformer rewards slow, precise, breath-led movement, and beginners instinctively do the opposite because that is how most other exercise works. Fix that one instinct and the specific mistakes below mostly solve themselves. A 2025 randomised controlled trial in Scientific Reports found two to three reformer sessions a week improved strength, endurance and body composition over eight weeks, but those gains come from control, not from how hard you yank the carriage. Quality of movement is the whole point.
Mistake 1: Moving too fast and letting momentum do the work
Rushing is the single most common reformer mistake, and the carriage will tell on you. If it slams into the stopper at the end of the rail instead of gliding back, momentum moved it, not your muscles. The slow return phase of every exercise, where you resist the springs pulling the carriage home, is where most of the actual strength work happens, and speeding through it skips the best part of the rep. The fix: halve your pace, especially on the way back, and aim to make the carriage move silently. Slower feels harder because it is harder, which is the point.
Mistake 2: Holding your breath
Beginners concentrating hard almost always hold their breath, and it quietly sabotages the workout. Holding your breath builds tension, cuts oxygen to the working muscles and makes everything feel more exhausting than it should. Pilates pairs each movement with a breath for a reason: the exhale helps you engage your deep core and brace at the hardest point of the exercise. The fix: do not overthink the textbook pattern at first, just keep breathing, and as a rule exhale on the effort, the moment you push or pull against the springs. If you notice you have been holding it, you are not alone, most of the class is too.
Mistake 3: Using the wrong spring tension
Getting the springs wrong goes both ways, and both blunt the exercise. Too little resistance and there is nothing to control or work against, so the movement turns into a glide. Too much and you recruit the wrong muscles, lose your form and risk straining something, because you are fighting a load your stabilisers cannot yet manage. Counterintuitively, some exercises are harder on lighter springs, because there is less to help you control the carriage. The fix: do not guess. Tell your teacher it is one of your first classes and let them set your springs, then learn what each setting feels like so you can set your own as you progress.
Mistake 4: Gripping through the neck and shoulders
Watch a nervous beginner and you will see their shoulders creep up toward their ears. The reformer demands core work, and beginners who cannot yet find their deep core borrow effort from the neck, jaw and shoulders instead. It leaves you sore in all the wrong places and teaches your body the wrong pattern. The fix: before each exercise, drop your shoulders down and back, soften your jaw, and let your ribs settle. If your neck is the most tired thing after class, that is the signal, not a badge. Tell your teacher and they will give you a cue to move the work back into your centre.
Mistake 5: Over-tucking the pelvis
This one comes straight from misreading a good cue. Teachers say "scoop the abdominals" and "lengthen the tailbone," and eager beginners over-tuck, flattening the lower back hard into the carriage. That eliminates the natural curve of your spine, shortens it, and shifts load onto structures that are not built to carry it. The fix is neutral pelvis: a small, natural gap under your lower back, ribs knitting down without gripping. Think long and supported rather than crushed flat. If you are not sure you have found it, ask, because neutral spine is the foundation that nearly every other reformer exercise is built on.
Mistake 6: Chasing the burn instead of control
Many beginners arrive thinking a workout only counts if it leaves them shaking and drenched, so they crank the springs and rush to chase that feeling. Reformer does not work like that. Writing in The Conversation, exercise scientists describe pilates as a low-impact method built on controlled, precise movement rather than maximum exertion, and most classes are not meant to be aerobic. The deep, steady fatigue of a muscle worked slowly through its full range is the result you are after. The fix: judge a class by how controlled and precise it felt, not by how wrecked you are. Control is the harder, more honest version of intensity.
Mistake 7: Not telling your instructor about your body
The reformer is exceptional at working around an injury, a pregnancy, a dodgy knee or a tight lower back, but only if your teacher knows it is there. The most avoidable beginner mistake is staying quiet and pushing through a movement that was never going to suit your body that day. The fix: arrive a few minutes early and mention anything relevant, an old injury, a recent surgery, a pregnancy, a sore area. Every exercise on the reformer can be modified, and a quick word at the start is what lets your teacher tailor the class to you instead of to the average.
The mistake underneath all the others: impatience
Most beginner mistakes are really one mistake wearing different costumes, which is expecting to be good at it immediately. Reformer is a skill, and the coordination of breath, core and controlled movement takes a few weeks to click, not a few minutes. Joseph Pilates put the timeline plainly: "In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 you'll see the difference, and in 30 you'll have a whole new body." Beginners who accept that curve relax, stop forcing, and improve faster than the ones grinding to nail it on day one. Show up consistently, let the technique build, and the rest of this list quietly takes care of itself.
While you are getting set up, the other easy win is turning up in the right gear. We cover that fully in what to wear to reformer pilates, but the short version is fitted clothing and grip socks.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to get good at reformer pilates?
Most people feel noticeably more coordinated by their third or fourth class, and genuinely comfortable within four to six weeks of going two to three times a week. The breath-and-control timing is the slow part. Once it clicks, the exercises stop feeling like a puzzle and start feeling like a workout.
Is it normal to be bad at reformer pilates at first?
Completely normal. Everyone wobbles, mistimes the springs and forgets to breathe in their first few classes, including people who are fit in other ways. Reformer is a coordination skill as much as a strength one, so the early clumsiness is the learning curve, not a sign it is not for you.
Can you hurt yourself on a reformer?
It is very low risk in a supervised class, but you can strain something by using too much spring, rushing, or pushing through a movement that does not suit an existing injury. The protection is simple: let your teacher set your springs early on, move slowly, and tell them about any injuries before class.
How many classes until reformer pilates gets easier?
For most beginners, things ease up noticeably around classes four to six. That is usually when breathing stops being something you have to think about and your core starts doing the work your neck and shoulders were borrowing. Consistency matters more than intensity here.
What should beginners avoid in reformer pilates?
Avoid rushing, holding your breath, loading the springs too heavy to look strong, and staying silent about injuries. Avoid judging the class by how exhausted you feel rather than how controlled you were. None of these are hard to fix once you know to watch for them.
Come and make the fixable mistakes with us
Every one of these mistakes is normal, and every one of them is something a good teacher catches and corrects in your first class. That is exactly what an Essentials Reformer class at our Bondi studio is for: small groups, hands-on cues, and springs set for your body while you learn the ropes.
Try it on the 21-day unlimited trial, make the beginner mistakes in a room full of people there to help, and feel how fast they fix. Start your 21-day unlimited trial.
