I tried the at-home reformer Pilates machine worth £1,900 – are criticisms from Pilates experts legitimate?

Independent

18-07-2025

Setting up the reformer machine
Believers will say I manifested this beautiful reformer machine that arrived on my doorstep but I have to be honest, its arrival wasn't as magical as I'd expected. For starters, it came out of the delivery truck on a huge wooden palette and was placed outside my front door. I am strong, but I'm also quite a small person – I wear a petite gym legging – so there was no way I was getting the huge box containing the machine off that palette and into my home by myself. I had to call for backup.
I also needed backup when it came to building the machine. It's heavy and though it folds and is on wheels, the main body of the machine is too large for a person of my size to set up and move alone. Watching the set-up video on the Fold app, I wondered if the woman demonstrating was some kind of lithe giant with the strength of an ant, seamlessly folding and moving the carriage. I struggled and needed help from a stronger, larger person with every set-up and every breakdown 10 weeks of use. I'm guessing that as you get used to the machine and you grow stronger, the set-up becomes easier, but this is pure speculation.
Once the machine was unfolded and set up, with pieces screwed in and straps adjusted to suit the length of my arms and legs, I did enjoy using it. However, I had to allow time to set up and pack away the reformer on top of my workout time – something I never have to do when visiting a studio.
Using the machine
The machine itself is a sleek feat of engineering – cool branding, plush cushioning on the carriage, quality fixtures and fittings and very nice matching accessories. It's a status symbol, no doubt about it. I felt as though I was living and breathing my vision board while I was using it, and that was a good feeling.
Reformer pilates can seem confusing to anyone who isn't used to the mechanisms. The idea is that you use your own weight combined with the resistance of springs to push and pull yourself forward and backwards while balancing on top of a sliding chassis. You might do this standing, kneeling or lying down, depending on which muscle group you're working and the movements should be slow and controlled.
If you've never tried any of this in a studio before, I wouldn't recommend trying it for the first time on an at-home machine. There's a knack to maintaining speed and posture that you could try to hone solo, but ideally, you'd have a trained professional to guide you at least the first handful of times to avoid injury.
One thing I will say about this particular home reformer machine is this – it may be a huge piece of kit taking up far more space than a simple resistance band, however, it does fold away very neatly. I stored mine down the side of the dining table and then in the conservatory where it sat quite happily not taking up too much space at all.
Once unfolded and set up, it is a bit of a beast and takes a little assembly with easy-to-screw-on bits and pieces that can't be folded down with it, so you'll have to factor in how much space it will take up during a workout and consider whether you'll have room to use it.
The Fold app
The app is a vital piece of the kit, containing instructional videos on how to use the machine, virtual classes targeted to different muscle groups, and a community of other users who you can interact with. The app was actually one of my favourite parts of using the Fold and given that I didn't have an instructor to correct my form or offer guidance, I found myself leaning heavily on the video workouts and online coaches to check my position on the carriage.
Inside the app, you'll find classes and sessions of varying lengths that focus on arms or abs, for example. I enjoyed these sessions and they were essential to my experience. Without them, I was more or less just trying to remember what I had learned in classes and experimenting with the mechanisms of the machine.
You'll need to be able to see your phone, iPad or whatever you're using the app on while you're using the reformer so bear this in mind when you set it up. The first time I used it I had my phone on the floor facing up and kept having to bend my neck to look down at it – not ideal. Make sure you can have your phone in plain sight with the app open to follow along.
When you buy the reformer you'll get three months of the Fold app included, but after this, you'll have to pay for a subscription, which might put some people off given you've already shelled out for the bed. You can buy another three months' access to the app for £30 though, so the deal is pretty good as this is basically the cost of a single class in a studio.