Speed kills. You’ll hear it a dozen times this long weekend. On the radio driving down to the coast. On the highway signs. In the back of your mind every time someone overtakes you.
But here’s the part most people don’t think about. Statistically, the most dangerous leg of the trip isn’t getting there. It’s the drive home. You’re tired, you’re in a hurry, you stop paying attention. The return is where things go wrong.
I’ve been thinking about that word. Return. Because something similar happens on a reformer, and it’s been bugging me for a while.
More and more studios are offering “Fitness Reformer” or “HIIT Reformer” or “Cardio Pilates.” Fast transitions, high reps, loud music, sweat pouring. It looks intense. It looks like a workout. And honestly, I get the appeal. But the research is pretty clear about what gets lost when you speed Pilates up. And it’s the same thing that gets lost on the drive home. Attention. Control. The part that actually matters.
When you push the reformer carriage out, that’s the push. Most people think that’s the exercise. But the real work happens on the way back. When the springs pull the carriage home and your muscles have to resist it, control it, slow it down. That’s the braking phase. And it’s where most of the good stuff actually happens.
The research on this is extensive (I’ve linked some below if you’re interested). Slow, controlled eccentric loading, the kind that happens on every single return of the carriage, builds stronger tendons, denser bones, and better quality muscle. Not bigger muscle. Better. More resilient, more functional, more useful for the things you actually need your body to do.
One study found a 2.9% increase in hip bone mineral density in just 12 weeks from eccentric strength training in postmenopausal women. The group doing conventional training? No significant change. The difference was the slow, controlled load. That’s it.
All of that happens on the return phase. The slow part. The controlled part. The part that disappears when you speed things up.
In a HIIT reformer class, the tempo is fast. You’re keeping up with the beat. The carriage is moving quickly. And that return phase, the one that builds your tendons and bones and muscle quality, gets cut short. You’re bouncing on springs, not controlling them.
You still sweat. You still feel like you worked hard. But the thing that actually changes your body at a structural level? Gone.
This is the part that really got me.
Studies show that when you focus on the specific muscle you’re using during resistance exercise, activation of that muscle increases by 20 to 25%. A quarter more work from the same movement, just by paying attention. And at moderate loads, the kind you’d use on a reformer, that effect is at its strongest.
But it only works if your brain can actually hear what your body is telling it.
Turns out loud music shifts your attention from what you feel to what you hear. Your movement becomes beat-driven instead of body-driven. One study found that music during exercise increased enjoyment but decreased body awareness. People felt great and had no idea what their muscles were actually doing. Another showed that loud background noise directly impairs your ability to sense where your joints are in space. Proprioception literally gets worse.
Think about that next time you’re in a class where the music is louder than the instructor. If you’re moving to the beat instead of moving to what you feel, you’re leaving the best part of the exercise on the table.
There’s one more thing, and it’s the simplest.
In a fast-paced fitness reformer class with 18 or 20 people, the instructor is calling from the front. They’re cueing the beat, managing the energy, keeping the room moving. They can’t see that your left hip is dropping. They can’t tell that you’re gripping your neck on every roll-up. They can’t adjust your spring to match where you are today.
Pilates was designed for small groups and individual attention. The correction, the moment someone sees what you can’t feel yet and helps you find it, that’s the difference between exercise that changes your body and exercise that just tires you out.
Six reps with perfect control will always beat 30 reps with momentum. Always.
The reformer was designed as a rehabilitation and precision tool. The springs create resistance that demands control. The method we teach is built around six principles: breath, concentration, control, centering, precision, and flow. None of those include “go faster” or “turn the music up.”
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a hard workout. I love a hard workout. But if you’re calling it Pilates, the method should actually be in the room. Not just the equipment.
This long weekend, somewhere between the hot cross buns and the family obligations, you’ll probably have a quiet moment. Maybe on the drive home. Maybe on the couch after the kids have crashed. Notice what it feels like to slow down. To actually feel something instead of rushing past it.
That’s what good Pilates does. It asks you to pay attention to the return. The slow part. The part most people skip.
Turns out that’s where everything that matters happens. On the reformer and on the road.
Happy Easter. Drive safe. See you next week.
Mel
P.S. Eat the chocolate. Just do it slowly and with full concentration. Joseph Pilates would approve. Probably.
