Issue #486
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Teaching Pilates in the Big Reformer Room
by Matthew Ryan Carney
As large-group reformer classes continue to grow in popularity, Pilates instructors need a better framework for how to teach them well. The format has already reached popular culture and is living large in the modern fitness landscape.
For the Pilates community, we need to define what good Pilates looks like in a big reformer studio.
If Pilates instructors do not help shape that standard, others will shape it for us. Quick certifications and generic gym fitness models are already influencing the future of reformer teaching.
How do we better prepare highly-trained, passionate instructors to lead large-group reformer classes? After all, as I noted in my previous article— it is fun, challenging, and rewarding to teach these large groups.
If good Pilates practice can be defined by adherence to the Principles, then good reformer instruction can be defined by the quality of observation, organization, progression, communication, and movement experience the teacher creates for the bodies in front of them— whether that is one person, six, twenty-five, or one hundred.
In truth, every group instructor already knows this. Even in a small class of three or four, we are already adapting, demonstrating, and using broader coaching language. Large-group reformer does not invent these realities; the scale simply makes them impossible to ignore.
For me, learning to teach large reformer classes required a real shift in style. Some of my old instincts still helped, but others had to change. I had to become more visually clear. I had to simplify. I had to lead more gently, with less authority and more trust in the class.
Here are some more tips that I have learned from my year teaching
Pilates in large-group reformer studios.
Teach to the Middle 80 Percent
One of the biggest adjustments in a large class is quickly reading, then teaching, the room you actually have. You cannot build the experience around the most advanced participants, and you cannot build it around the least experienced people either.
Matthew Carney is a Balanced Body– and STOTT-certified Pilates instructor who trained in New York and California. He is the former owner of a Pilates studio in his hometown of Austin, Texas, and has spent his career teaching across private, small-group, and large-group exercise formats.
He is the author of What Is Pilates?, available on Amazon Kindle, and the inventor of Booya Bands – premium clip-on resistance bands, designed for Pilates professionals. They are available at www.booyafit.com.
Matthew is passionate about Pilates as a form of self-expression, and strives to lead more accessible, inclusive, and valuable classes. He currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia.
Feel free to message him at PilateswithMatthew@gmail.com.