As both a comprehensively certified Pilates instructor and a personal trainer, there are a few fitness “hills” I will happily die on.
Here’s one of them:
Not every exercise belongs on every apparatus. And progression doesn’t always mean making a spring heavier.
At Fit All Year Round, our approach to Pilates and strength training is intentional. We don’t add movements to a class simply because we can do them on a Reformer, with a dumbbell, or on a cable machine.
Instead, we ask: What are we actually trying to accomplish with this exercise?
Then we choose the environment, equipment, resistance, and position that allow us to train that goal well.
A Perfect Example: The Overhead Press
There are exercises within the Pilates Reformer repertoire that help build capacity for movement patterns we use in everyday life. But sometimes the setup of an exercise starts becoming the limiting factor rather than the movement itself.
That’s when it may make more sense to take that movement pattern into our Strength Space.
Consider a prone overhead pressing movement on the Reformer.
For some people, this position works beautifully. For others, lying on their stomach causes back discomfort or simply isn’t appropriate for their body or current stage of life.
A client with osteoporosis or osteopenia may require more thoughtful exercise selection and positioning. A pregnant client eventually cannot comfortably or appropriately lie on her belly. Add heavier spring resistance, a box, straps, and even slippery workout clothes into the equation, and sometimes the setup itself can make an otherwise great movement feel unnecessarily clunky.
There is so much more that goes into exercise selection than simply asking, “Can we do this on the Reformer?”
Same Movement Pattern. Different Tools. Different Opportunities.
At Fit All Year Round, you may see us teach an overhead pressing pattern lying prone on the Reformer. You may also see us perform an overhead press seated or standing with dumbbells in the Strength Space.
Neither is automatically better.
By changing the setup, position, and resistance, we can emphasize different qualities: shoulder strength, overhead capacity, core control, stability, appropriate loading, movement confidence, and progressive strength over time.
That’s the point of having different tools available to us.
We don’t need to force one piece of equipment to do everything.
Use Each Apparatus for What It Does Best
The Reformer gives us incredible opportunities for feedback, control, mobility, stability, alignment, coordination, and movement exploration.
Dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, benches, and racks give us incredible opportunities to progressively load fundamental strength patterns and build strength over time.
There is overlap between Pilates and strength training—and we love that overlap—but they are not interchangeable.
Adding a dumbbell to a Pilates exercise doesn’t automatically turn it into strength training. And taking a traditional strength movement onto a Reformer doesn’t automatically make it a better or more advanced exercise.
Sometimes progression means more load. Sometimes it means better control. Sometimes it means changing the position. And sometimes the best progression is choosing an entirely different tool.
Your Stage of Life Matters, Too
Good programming also has to consider the person performing the exercise.
Pregnancy, osteoporosis or osteopenia, injuries, pain, training experience, mobility, strength, confidence, and individual goals can all influence which variation makes the most sense.
We always encourage our clients to listen to their bodies and modify when needed. For clients navigating pain, osteoporosis, pregnancy, or other circumstances that require more individualized exercise selection, private sessions can also provide an opportunity to learn what their body needs before applying those lessons in a group environment.
This is part of what we mean when we talk about intentional programming at Fit All Year Round.
Pilates Can Stay Pilates. Strength Can Stay Strength.
We built Fit All Year Round around the belief that Pilates and strength training are incredibly powerful partners—but neither needs to become the other.
Our programming across both Fit All Year Round spaces is intentional so that Pilates can stay Pilates, strength training can stay strength training, and your body can receive the benefits of both.
It doesn’t mean one version of an exercise is “bad” and another is “good.”
It means we understand what each tool does well enough to know when to use it—and when not to.
The goal isn’t to make every exercise fit every modality.
The goal is to choose the right tool for the job, the right amount of challenge for the person in front of us, and the best way to load your body for the stage of life you’re in.
That is training with intention.
That is how we help you build a body that isn’t just prepared for your next workout, but for the life you want to keep living.
Movement for life, not for a moment. 🤍
Fit All Year Round offers Reformer Pilates, strength training, and personal training in Belmont, Massachusetts.
