Despite the somewhat medieval name, the Pilates reformer is actually an amazingly elegant machine. The reformer provides finely tuned exercise resistance that allows one to work very precisely to develop good alignment,
core strength, and
flexibility.
There are many styles of reformers. The reformer pictured here is a classic Pilates reformer made by Peak Pilates. Some reformers are wood and some are metal. There might be leather straps or ropes, and the reformer may be on legs or not. Nevertheless, the basic parts and their functions will be the same.
You will feel much more comfortable at your first reformer class if you take a moment to look over the reformer and get a sense how it works.
Fascia is the "New Muscle" I went to a workshop all about this. A fascia is a connective tissue that surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, and nerves, binding those structures together in much the same manner as plastic wrap can be used to hold the contents of sandwiches together. It consists of several layers: a superficial fascia, a deep fascia, and a subserous (or visceral) fascia and extends uninterrupted from the head to the tip of the toes. Like ligaments, aponeuroses, and tendons, fasciae are dense regular connective tissues, containing closely packed bundles of collagen fibers oriented in a wavy pattern parallel to the direction of pull. Fasciae are consequently flexible structures able to resist great unidirectional tension forces until the wavy pattern of fibers has been straightened out by the pulling force. These collagen fibers are produced by the fibroblasts located within the fascia.
