Beyond the burn: 5 signs your Reformer Pilates routine is doing more harm than good

Forget hot yoga, move aside padel, and take a hike, Hyrox, because 2026 was the year that Reformer Pilates studios popped up in every town centre and on every high street. No longer only accessible for an elite few, custom-made Reformer studios are now everywhere, and Reformer has earned its reputation as a powerhouse for building strength, mobility, and mental clarity.

However, when high-intensity exercise culture overtakes classic Pilates principles, the line between effective training and physical breakdown can quickly blur. Nikkii Behrens is the founder of Rare Street Pilates, and has been practising Reformer for more than ten years. She warns that pursuing constant soreness, chasing sweat as a metric of success, or using workouts as self-punishment directly undermines the discipline’s core purpose. 

Behrens says that true progress in Pilates lies in precision, controlled alignment, and sustainable recovery, not sheer exhaustion. Mastering basic foundations and honouring your body’s daily capacity ultimately yields far greater longevity and strength than pushing through painful momentum.

Constant soreness and using workouts as self-punishment undermines the Pilates' core purpose.

So if you’re aching after a workout, not seeing the results you expected, or beginning to dread every session, something is going wrong. And Behrens says that if not performed properly, Reformer can lead to serious injury. Here are her five red flags to look out for as warning signs that your Reformer routine is doing more harm than good.

1. You’re constantly sore, exhausted or dreading your next class

‘Some muscular fatigue is completely normal with exercise, particularly when you’re progressing or trying something new, but ongoing soreness and exhaustion don't mean you are “working better”. If you’re never fully recovering between sessions, your body may be signaling that the overall training load is too high. Recovery is part of getting stronger, so don't overdo it. If you find you are really dreading the next session, maybe consider the class you are doing, the level it is at and whether this is the right thing for you.’ 

2. You feel like every class has to be harder than the last.

‘There’s a tendency in fitness to equate progress with heavier weights, harder exercises and simply doing more. In Pilates, progression should mean better control, greater precision, improved range of motion and the ability to execute an exercise beautifully. 

‘Sometimes making a movement slower and more controlled is far more challenging – and beneficial – than adding another spring.’

Nikki says making sure movement feels slow and controlled is often more challenging.

3. You're experiencing pain rather than muscular discomfort 

Behrens says there is an important distinction between feeling your muscles work and feeling pain, and it should not be ignored. ‘Repeated discomfort in the lower back, neck, shoulders, hips or knees shouldn’t be accepted as part of reformer training,’ she says. ‘It can indicate poor technique, inappropriate resistance or an exercise that isn’t right for your body at that moment. A good instructor should be able to modify the movement rather than encourage you to push through pain.’

4. You’re ignoring what your body needs that day

‘Your capacity to exercise isn’t identical every time you walk into the studio. Sleep, stress, recovery, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum recovery and perimenopause or menopause can all influence how you feel and what your body needs. You need to listen to all these factors, not just see a reminder on an app that it's time for a class and push through. This doesn’t mean women should fear challenging themselves but rather learn when to push through and when adjusting intensity is a smarter form of training.’

5. Exercise has started to feel like punishment

‘This is perhaps the biggest red flag. If you’re choosing classes because you feel guilty about what you’ve eaten, panicking when you miss a session, or judging a workout purely by calories burned, sweat or how destroyed you feel afterwards, it’s worth reassessing your relationship with exercise.

‘Movement should be something that contributes to your health, strength and longevity rather than another way to punish your body.’

Movement should contribute to your health and strength, not punish your body.

What you’re getting wrong about reformer training

Behrens says, ‘One of the biggest misconceptions is that a good reformer class should leave you drenched in sweat or barely able to walk the next day. Sweat is primarily your body’s cooling mechanism; it isn’t a measure of how effective a workout was and the same applies to soreness, which isn’t a reliable scorecard for progress.

‘People can become obsessed with making exercises look more advanced before they have mastered the foundations. Pilates is about control and quality of movement, and a beautifully executed basic exercise can be much more valuable than an advanced variation performed with poor alignment and momentum.’

She says she encourages clients not to view Pilates as their entire movement prescription.

‘Reformer Pilates can be fantastic for strength, control, mobility and stability, but ideally it sits within a broader lifestyle that includes walking or cardiovascular exercise and, depending on the individual and their goals, additional resistance and weight-bearing exercise,’ says Behrens.

‘Ultimately, the goal shouldn’t be to finish every class feeling destroyed and I certainly want my clients and students to leave feeling like they’ve challenged their body intelligently. The best training isn’t necessarily the training that takes the most out of you – it’s the training your body can adapt to, recover from and keep doing consistently.’