I’ve been consistently going to reformer Pilates classes for a year, and I think it’s one of the best ways to develop muscle, joint stability, balance and coordination. It’s also helped to keep my long-standing knee issues at bay.
The downside is that reformer Pilates is expensive, and home reformer machines cost thousands of dollars.
That’s why I was interested to see that wellness brand BetterMe offers a mini reformer for a fraction of the price, at $198.
What is the mini reformer?
BetterMe’s mini Pilates reformer is a foldable board that’s just shorter than a yoga mat with movable pads and handles for your hands and feet.
It comes with long resistance bands that you can attach to the board for upper-body exercises, as well as a small foam mat to rest your knees on during prone exercises.
My experience trying the BetterMe mini reformer
I love studio reformer Pilates classes, but because they’re so expensive, I never do more than one a week. I was hoping the mini reformer might provide an alternative way to work on stability, balance and core strength at home.
I downloaded the BetterMe app (subscription required), which has a range of mini reformer workouts. The first one I did was a full-body routine.
This workout started with one of my favourite exercises—hamstring curls—to challenge my lower-body strength and stability, then progressed onto exercises like glute bridges and lunges, with the feet placed on the sliders.
Next, it was upper-body exercises. This involved sitting on the reformer and using the resistance band for exercises like side pulls and chest flyes. This engaged my upper body, however it never felt like a a significant challenge.
(Image credit: Future / Alice Porter)
It revealed one issue I had with the mini reformer—you can’t adjust the resistance, like you can on traditional reformers, to add load. This limits its ability to provide a progressive challenge and build strength. You can also do exercises like these ones with a regular long resistance band—you don’t necessarily need the mini reformer.
Another exercise I tried as part of the workout series was slow mountain climbers, using the sliders for your feet. This added an extra challenge compared to regular mountain climbers, in the same way a traditional reformer would.
You can also use the mini reformer to do ab rollout exercises, which I really enjoyed when they came up in workouts. They involve getting into a half plank position with the arms placed on the sliders, then sliding the hands forward and back. This is a really challenging core exercise that you can’t do without equipment.
The workouts often ended with stretches and I found that the mini reformer helped me move deeper into stretches and made mobility work more enjoyable.
My verdict on the Pilates mini reformer
(Image credit: Future / Alice Porter)
The mini reformer did mimic a lot of the benefits of the Pilates reformer, particularly in the way it added a stability challenge to lower-body exercises, as well as enhancing the effectiveness of core exercises.
My main issue is that you can’t adjust the intensity, which means it can be difficult to progressively overload your workouts without adding lots of reps, which quickly becomes too time-consuming.
This was a particular issue with the upper-body exercises, which I didn’t find that challenging with the amount of resistance available. I did hold the resistance band lower down, which added more of a challenge, but there’s no difference between doing this on the mini reformer and with a regular long resistance band.
Even with that limitation, I enjoyed using the mini reformer and it made my home workouts a lot more interesting. Plus, it was a great alternative on the days I couldn’t make it to studio reformer Pilates classes.
Even though it wasn’t as effective as a traditional reformer, I still think it’s a fantastic way to work out for beginners, especially people looking for an affordable option.
If you’re looking for something even more affordable, Pilates sliders offer similar benefits to the mini reformer and cost less than $30.
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