How a Pilates Reformer Can Improve Mobility

Mobility refers to the active control of a joint, meaning the movement around a joint that combines strength, flexibility, and control. Strength may give you power, but strength alone doesn’t give you all you need to perform all the bending, twisting, and reaching you do daily.

Regardless of whether you identify as an athlete or beginner, a young and experienced Pilates practitioner or a senior who just discovered how amazing Pilates can be, a Pilates reformer by Frame Fitness can improve your mobility, enhancing everyday movements and improving athletic performance.

A Pilates Reformer Improves Mobility

Not just a buzzword for athletes and those dedicated to fitness, everyone can benefit from including mobility training consistently into their workouts. Experts agree that the best way to improve mobility through exercise comes from using a Pilates reformer.

A Pilates reformer offers a complete workout, with mobility not just included but highlighted with each routine. Anyone can use a Pilates reformer regardless of body type, fitness level, and experience. If you incorporate Pilates reformer workouts into your exercise regimen, you can begin benefiting from the mobility-building benefits Pilates has to offer.

Mobility training requires dynamic movements not static movement like stretching. Dynamic movements refer to movements of your joints that incorporate a range of motion. While other workouts use dynamic movement, Pilates offers a unique experience especially when paired with a Pilates reformer.

A Pilates reformer concentrates on full body alignment, enhancing a wide range of controlled motion at your joints while also balancing opposing muscles. Unlike just lifting or static stretching, a Pilates reformer requires your body to multitask dynamically by moving against resistance, while exercising flexibility and control.

Those new to Pilates often overlook the concept of control. What looks like small, simple—maybe even insignificant movements—turns out to be a challenging flow that works muscles you may never knew you had. Rather than concentrating on one muscle group at a time, a Pilates reformer requires you to challenge several at one time with control throughout the full range of motion.

A Pilates reformer applies the adage: Work smarter not harder. A reformer works multiple muscles simultaneously with flexibility and stability to create a dynamic experience that works your muscles and stability like no other workout. By using the sleek-designed Pilates reformer by Frame Fitness, you can have a upscale piece of exercise equipment that targets strength, mobility, and flexibility in one intuitive machine.

How to Incorporate Mobility Training with a Pilates Reformer

No matter your age or physical ability, mobility training with a Pilates reformer can be even simpler when you use the Frame reformer by Frame Fitness. The Frame reformer offers subscription access to a variety of workouts that meet you at your experience and ability levels.

Mobility training can be an effective piece of everyone’s workout regimen when you use a Pilates reformer. Dial in to your Frame Fitness subscription and try out these ideas for incorporating mobility training into your workouts:

• For die-hard Pilates practitioners: Because mobility makes up a major component of every Pilates workout, you’re already on the right track to enhancing your mobility. Turn up the challenge by safely increasing the resistance whenever possible to further challenge your strength and control of movement. The Frame Fitness Pilates reformer makes adjusting resistance straightforward and simple with its understated yet stylish push-button feature.
• For beginners: Explore any beginner Pilates workout and feel the challenge to your muscles as you practice each move. As you continue, you can track your progress when you take advantage of the Frame Reformer workout subscription. Not only can you see what you’ve accomplished, but also you can feel the difference in your enhanced mobility in everyday activities.
• For athletes: Because athletes need daily sport-specific training, you can use the Frame reformer to add Pilates mobility workouts to your daily routine. Find a workout that meets your training needs by browsing the workouts through the Frame Fitness subscription. On days you have a tight timeline or a double workout, use a Pilates reformer workout to warm up for training.
• For seniors: Like beginners, you can find the perfect workout that meets your ability level and experience by browsing for a workout at just the right level for you. Take advantage of the easy-to-use push-button resistance on the Framer reformer to take a beginner workout to a whole new level for you. Working out consistently at least a few times a week on your Pilates reformer can produce major gains in your mobility.
• For rehab: Whether you’re rehabbing an injury or coming back from surgery, a Pilates reformer can keep best manage your mobility by working as many muscles as safely possible without affecting your injury. Especially good when coming back from knee injuries or surgery, a Pilates reformer allows you to work leg muscles and improve mobility while allowing your body to heal.

No matter where you fall in your fitness journey, mobility enhances everyone’s daily life activities as well as increasing athletic performance. Get the most out of your Frame reformer by subscribing to the workouts. You can track your progress from a variety of workouts and stream each workout to your Frame reformer and get an in-studio experience in the comfort of your home.

Why Mobility Training Is Important

Mobility training helps your joints learn to bear weight in positions outside of their regular comfort zone. Mobility training makes your muscles more comfortable in positions that push beyond your daily movements, allowing for rigors of training and preventing injury.

Mobility often gets used interchangeably with flexibility or stability, but flexibility refers to a component of mobility. Flexibility describes how your muscles lengthen, which requires just passive control of a joint. Mobility, on the other hand, requires a combination of strength and flexibility all while maintaining control of your movement.

A Pilates reformer emphasizes body awareness and alignment, forcing you to think actively to engage muscles and exercise control throughout the range of motion for each movement. That may sound like a lot of thinking, but a Pilates reformer takes the guesswork out of the movements. By streaming workouts directly to the Frame reformer, you can engage in an in-studio experience at home that helps make the movements become natural.

For example, consider your posture. When you correct your posture, you align your body, but that takes control, which requires strength and flexibility. You focus on how to properly align your body into position for good posture. The process actively engages your mind forcing you to engage your muscles and control. However, a Pilates reformer, when used regularly builds this awareness, strength, and control, improving your posture by building the strength and control needed to hold that good posture in a more natural way instead of making it something you must actively correct.

Keep in mind that all joints require both stability and mobility, but some the amount required depends on the joint. Lower back and knees need more stability than mobility and other joints like the hips require a greater range of mobility than stability.

Regardless of whether you believe yourself a beginner with fitness or an advanced athlete, working your mobility on a Pilates reformer can provide the following benefits:

• Prepare your body for the stress of training
• Improve your technique and range of motion in both everyday and athletic movements
• Increase the effectiveness of your warm-up when using Pilates as a mobility warm-up
• Decrease your risk of injury as your body gets more comfortable with movement beyond its normal range
• Lessen your risk of injury from overcompensating—having reduced mobility in one joint can make others overcompensate, which can risk injury to those joints, but the more mobility in one joint, the less you risk injuring others due to overcompensation
• Face fewer plateaus when training
• Reduce your risk of developing chronic injuries, such as lower back pain
• Increased heart health as the dynamic movements in Pilates mobility training keeps your heart rate up as opposed to simple static stretching

Using a Pilates reformer includes many benefits to your health and well-being, but when it comes to mobility, a Pilates reformer makes efficient use of your time. You can use the upscale Frame reformer to enhance your sport and your daily movements in one mobility-building machine.

This one piece of equipment, used consistently, can efficiently and effectively work your strength, flexibility, and control, increasing your mobility and decreasing your risk of injury while enhancing your everyday activities and your athletic performance.