The boom in reformer pilates has created a “wild west” of studios where poor regulation has resulted in inexperienced teachers and a rise in injuries, professional standards bodies have warned.
Pilates is not formally or legally regulated, and as its popularity has surged, industry experts say, so too has the growth of packed reformer-based classes often led by instructors with limited training.
Reformer pilates is a low-impact, full-body workout performed on a machine using a sliding carriage, springs, straps and a foot bar to provide controlled resistance. Its advocates say it strengthens, stretches and stabilises muscles in ways mat-based pilates cannot.
A reformer class in London can cost between £20 and £37 for a single drop-in session, and experts say some businesses are taking advantage of the trend – offering sessions under the pilates name, without adhering to traditional methods.
This has caused a growing divide within the industry, with traditional instructors criticising the diluted versions while newer studios argue they are simply making the practice more accessible to a wider audience.
Videos on platforms such as TikTok show pilates accidents, with footage of people falling from reformer machines frequently going viral.
Advocates of reformer pilates say it has benefits that mat-based pilates cannot match. Photograph: Galina Zhigalova/Getty Images
Last year, Kirsty Morgan, a 30-year-old pilates teacher from Essex, spent seven hours in A&E after a tower – a vertical metal frame attached to a reformer machine or a wall – came out of place during a demonstration and fell on her head.
“I bought it off a lady, with no instructions, and she said the tower just slots in and out,” Morgan said. “I thought: surely this screws in? Turns out it did screw in underneath.”
In hospital, Morgan required a tetanus shot and four layers of stitches in her hairline. She was told that if the 20kg metal tower had fallen on her temple she could have died.
Kirsty Morgan, a pilates teacher from Essex.
Philippa Wheeler, a solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, said the firm was investigating a claim against a well-known retailer in relation to a reformer pilates machine sold in their stores.
“Reformer pilates has become extremely popular over the last few years,” she said. “However, it is important that the growth of reformer pilates goes hand in hand with the safety of those taking part.
“Studios should not cut corners when it comes to training their teachers, purchasing their equipment and maintaining that equipment. Unsafe reformer machines, or poor guidance on how to use them, could cause life-changing injuries.”
In 2019, Maya Meron, an acclaimed violinist, was injured at a London pilates studio when a Coreformer – a proprietary reformer machine – collapsed, breaking her left elbow and causing abdominal injuries that ended her performing career. She sued the studio and the court ruled largely in her favour.
Pilates was developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates, who combined elements of yoga, gymnastics and modern rehabilitation techniques into an exercise method he called “contrology”.
Originally designed to improve core strength, posture, and overall body awareness, it gained popularity in the 1920s when Pilates moved from Germany to New York and taught his method to dancers and performers.
“Someone could open a pilates studio tomorrow with little or no formal training,” said Michael King, a founding member of the Society for the Pilates Method (SPM), who chairs a pilates steering group for EMD UK, the national governing body for group exercise.
“While some of us work hard to maintain high standards, there are also businesses operating alongside us where instructors may lack sufficient training,” he added. “This can lead to unsafe practice.”
King said large health club chains sometimes ran reformer classes with 20 or 25 machines in one room and only one instructor. “From a safety perspective, that is deeply concerning,” he added.
Anyone in the UK can call themselves a pilates instructor without formal training. However, reputable studios and industry bodies expect instructors to have recognised certification, often covering mat work and anatomy.
The SPM is calling for “quality assurance” so that members of the public can feel confident in the studios they visit. King said: “At present, the sector can feel like the wild west.”
Sarah-Jane Walls, a qualified podiatrist and pilates teacher based in Glasgow, said she had seen “trauma injuries” and people falling off machines doing “something unsafe”.
“Other injuries we see include neck pain caused by over-recruitment of the neck muscles instead of using the deep core, along with poor head positioning and lack of proper abdominal preparation,” she said.
Leigh Robinson, the director of the SPM, said: “Traditionally, within the UK market, there has been a Level 3 pilates standard [qualification] focused on mat work, which has been in place since 2005. I was part of the working group that helped to create it.
“However, the pilates landscape has changed considerably. Pilates is now very much ‘the thing to do’, and over that time more shortcuts have been taken. Many teacher training courses now take place almost entirely online [and] many operators no longer ask for Level 3.
“Because reformer classes are so popular, many clubs are running in-house programmes to train instructors to deliver large classes. What they are often taught is simply how to deliver a set sequence of exercises.”
The Pilates Teacher Association said: “Behind the reformer studio boom and glossy marketing of ‘pilates’ lies an unconsciously uninformed qualification system increasingly driven by commercial interests.”
