If you’ve spent any time on the pilates section of our website (or anyone else’s), you’ve probably seen the same three words repeated a dozen times each: reformer, clinical, mat. They’re all pilates. They all use the same principles of breath, control and spinal alignment. And most studios will happily let you book any of them on day one without asking whether it’s the right starting point for your body.
We do it differently. When a new client walks into Sum Of Us in Prahran, the first question we ask isn’t “Which class do you want?” — it’s “What’s going on with your body, and what are you actually trying to get out of this?” Because the honest truth is that the three class types suit three different people, three different goals, and three different stages of life. Pick the right one and you’ll love pilates. Pick the wrong one and you’ll tell everyone you tried it and it wasn’t for you.
Here’s the straight answer — written by the physio team who runs the classes, not by a marketing department.
A reformer is a spring-loaded sliding carriage. You push, pull, and stabilise against the springs in every plane of movement — standing, kneeling, seated, lying on your back. The resistance is adjustable, the range of motion is bigger than you can get on a mat, and the class moves fast enough that you’ll feel your legs shake within the first ten minutes.
Reformer is the right class if you want:
Our reformer classes run in small groups of four to six people. That’s the sweet spot where you get genuine social energy — the music’s up, people are pushing through something together — but the instructor still sees every rep. We teach reformer as a real workout, not as a spa activity. You will sweat.
Reformer is probably not the right starting point if:
Clinical pilates is pilates delivered by a physiotherapist, usually one-on-one or in a very small group (two to three people, all working on their own programs at the same time). The whole session is programmed around what your body needs — not what the group is doing.
This is the class to book if you’ve got a niggle, an injury, or a condition you want addressed at the same time as you’re building strength. That covers a lot of people in Prahran: the runner with a dodgy knee, the new mum with pelvic floor concerns, the desk worker with chronic lower back pain, the weekend tennis player with a shoulder that’s never been the same since last summer. The physio leading your session can see your medical history, watch how you move, and build a program that rebuilds the thing that’s broken while strengthening everything else around it.
Clinical pilates is the right choice if:
It’s worth saying out loud: clinical pilates is claimable on most private health extras (under physiotherapy, not under pilates). Group reformer and mat classes aren’t. If your insurance is going to cover some of it, clinical is how you get that benefit — check with your insurer before your first session if you want numbers confirmed.
Mat pilates is floor-based, bodyweight-focused, and the most traditional form of the method. It’s where most of the foundational exercises were invented — the ones you’ll still find yourself doing on the reformer months later, but without the machine.
Our Dynamic Mat classes are deliberately not “gentle” — we want you leaving sore — but they are lower-stakes than reformer. You’re working with gravity and small props (light weights, resistance bands, small balls) rather than spring tension. That makes it easier to learn the fundamentals: breath, spinal control, how your core actually fires, how to move from your hips rather than your lower back.
Mat is a great starting point if:
Plenty of our regulars do a mix — two reformer classes a week for strength, one mat class for form work and mobility. Done consistently, that combination is hard to beat.
Still on the fence? Here’s the flow chart we use with new clients at reception:
If you want a more nuanced answer based on your specific situation, we built a 60-second pilates quiz that runs you through five questions and points you to the class most likely to suit you, with the next-best option as a backup. It’s free, doesn’t need your email, and you can retake it as many times as you like.
Whichever one you pick, three things are true at our Prahran studio:
If you already know which one suits you:
Still unsure? Take the 60-second quiz and we’ll give you a straight answer.
If you’d rather just talk it through, call the studio on (03) 9510 6311 or walk in — 602 High Street, Prahran. We’d rather spend five minutes helping you pick the right class than have you show up to the wrong one.
