How to Get Better at Pilates Faster: 9 Things I Tell Every Client
If you’ve been wondering how to get better at Pilates faster, I want you to know something first: the fact that you’re asking means you’re already on the right track. Curiosity is the engine of progress. I’ve been teaching reformer Pilates in Utah — from my studio near the Cottonwood corridor to clients who drive down from Park City — for over ten years. In that time, I’ve watched hundreds of bodies transform. And the ones who accelerate the fastest all share a handful of habits that have nothing to do with talent or flexibility. They have to do with intention.
This post is everything I wish I could sit down and tell you over coffee. No gimmicks. No “one weird trick.” Just what actually works.
The Real Answer to How to Get Better at Pilates Faster
That last sentence is key. Pilates is not like lifting weights where you can simply add more load and call it growth. Joseph Pilates developed his method — originally called “Contrology” — in the 1920s because he believed physical fitness required the complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. He wasn’t wrong. The research backs it up: motor learning studies show that quality repetitions with focused attention create new neural pathways far more effectively than mindless reps.
In my studio, I see this every single week. The client who shows up twice a week with full attention outpaces the client who comes four times but zones out through half the class.
9 Strategies to Accelerate Your Pilates Progress
Here are the nine things I tell every client who wants to see meaningful, lasting improvement — whether they’re brand new to the reformer or they’ve been practicing for years.
- Commit to two to three sessions per week. Once a week maintains. Twice a week builds. Three times a week transforms. Joseph Pilates himself said: “In 10 sessions you’ll feel the difference, in 20 sessions you’ll see the difference, and in 30 sessions you’ll have a whole new body.” That timeline assumes consistency. If you’re spacing sessions ten days apart, you’re essentially restarting every time. Check out our class schedule and find a rhythm that fits your week — then protect it.
- Breathe like you mean it. Lateral thoracic breathing isn’t just a Pilates quirk. It stabilizes your core, oxygenates your muscles, and connects your brain to the movement. I spend the first five minutes of every session cueing breath, and the clients who internalize this pattern early are the ones who progress fastest. Exhale on exertion. Inhale to prepare. Simple, but not easy.
- Slow down — drastically. Speed is where form goes to die. Every time you rush through footwork or fly through a hundred, you’re borrowing from momentum and stealing from your muscles. I constantly cue my clients to take two extra counts on the eccentric (lengthening) phase. The shake you feel? That’s your deep stabilizers waking up. That’s where the growth happens.
- Ask your instructor questions. Lots of them. I love when clients ask “Why?” Why are we doing this variation? Why does this spring feel different? Why is one side harder? Those questions open a feedback loop between teacher and student that accelerates learning exponentially. Your instructor can’t read your mind. They can read your movement, but they need your words too.
- Practice body awareness off the reformer. Stand in line at Harmons. Notice your weight distribution. Are you dumping into one hip? Sit at your desk in Lehi. Are your shoulders by your ears? The awareness you build in a Pilates session is meant to travel with you. The clients who carry it into daily life are the ones whose posture, balance, and strength shift dramatically — even between sessions.
- Stop comparing your practice to someone else’s. I see this constantly, and it breaks my heart a little every time. The woman on the reformer next to you who seems effortlessly graceful? She’s been at this for three years and she’s dealing with her own set of challenges you can’t see. Comparison kills curiosity. And curiosity is what keeps you improving.
- Use the right spring resistance — not the hardest one. More resistance doesn’t always mean more progress. In Pilates, lighter springs can actually be more challenging because they demand more core control and stabilization. If your instructor suggests dropping a spring, trust them. They’re not making it easier. They’re making it smarter.
- Cross-train wisely. I’ll be honest: Pilates doesn’t live in a vacuum. Walking, hiking the Wasatch trails, swimming, yoga — all of these support your Pilates practice. What I’d caution against is high-volume training that creates chronic tightness or overuse patterns. If your hamstrings are so tight from running that you can’t find a neutral pelvis on the reformer, we’ve got a problem to solve together.
- Track your progress beyond the mirror. Write down what you notice after each session. “My teaser felt more controlled today.” “I finally found my obliques in rotation.” “The short spine felt less scary.” These small notes add up to a map of your transformation. Six months from now, you’ll read them and be stunned at how far you’ve come.
Why Reformer Pilates Specifically Helps You Improve Faster
I teach on the reformer for a reason. The spring-loaded carriage creates variable resistance that challenges your muscles through the entire range of motion — something mat work alone can’t replicate as effectively. The reformer also gives you immediate tactile feedback. If you’re compensating, the carriage tells you. If you’re aligned, the movement feels almost effortless.
For clients along the Wasatch Front — whether you’re in Sandy, Draper, or Utah County — reformer Pilates offers a unique combination of strength training, flexibility work, and neuromuscular re-education in a single session. That efficiency is why people who train on the reformer often see results faster than those who work exclusively on the mat.
That said, mat Pilates is powerful in its own right. If you’re traveling or can’t make it to the studio, even fifteen minutes of focused mat work — bridging, the hundred, single leg stretch — will keep your neural pathways sharp.
The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything
Here’s what I’ve learned after more than a decade of teaching: the clients who improve fastest aren’t the most athletic. They’re the most present.
They don’t come to class thinking about their email. They don’t check the clock during footwork. They settle into the reformer like it’s the one hour of the day that belongs entirely to them — because it is.
Pilates was built on the principle that the mind leads the body. Joseph Pilates called it “the complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit.” When you practice with that kind of full-body attention, every single repetition counts. You’re not just strengthening muscles — you’re rewiring movement patterns, building proprioception, improving kinesthetic awareness, and developing the kind of deep core stability that reshapes how you move through the world.
I had a client — a nurse who works long shifts at a Salt Lake City hospital — who came to me convinced she was “bad at Pilates.” She was stiff. She was frustrated. She couldn’t find her transverse abdominis to save her life. I asked her to commit to eight weeks of twice-a-week sessions with one simple rule: no judgment, just curiosity. By week six, she was holding a plank on the reformer with tears in her eyes — not from pain, but from the shock of feeling strong.
That’s what presence does. That’s what consistency does.
How to Get Better at Pilates Faster: Your Next Step
If you’ve read this far, you already have everything you need to start accelerating your progress. Let me distill it down:
- Show up consistently — two to three times per week
- Breathe with intention
- Slow down and feel the work
- Communicate with your instructor
- Carry your awareness beyond the studio walls
- Be patient and fiercely kind to yourself
If you’re in Utah and looking for a studio that teaches this way — with precision, honesty, and real attention to your body — I’d love to see you at Alchemize Pilates. Browse our reformer class offerings or go ahead and book your session. Whether you’re in your first month or your fifth year, every session is a chance to go deeper.
The question of how to get better at Pilates faster has a beautifully simple answer: show up, tune in, and trust the process. Your body already knows how to do this. We’re just helping it remember.
— Bianca
Frequently Asked Questions
For noticeable results, aim for two to three reformer Pilates sessions per week. This frequency allows your neuromuscular system to build on what you learned in each prior session. Once per week will help you maintain, but twice or more per week is where real progress accelerates. Consistency matters far more than doing long, infrequent sessions.
Most clients begin to feel meaningful changes — improved posture, better core engagement, increased body awareness — within six to eight weeks of consistent practice. Visible changes in muscle tone and flexibility typically emerge around the three-month mark. However, Pilates is a lifelong practice. Even advanced practitioners continue discovering deeper layers of control and connection for years.
The reformer provides variable spring resistance and tactile feedback that can accelerate learning, especially for beginners who struggle to find their deep stabilizers on the mat. The carriage movement helps you feel when you’re compensating or misaligned. That said, mat Pilates develops incredible strength and body control using only gravity and your own body weight. Ideally, both complement each other.
Absolutely. Even ten to fifteen minutes of focused mat exercises — bridging, the hundred, single leg circles, spine stretch — can reinforce what you learn in the studio. The key is quality over quantity. Practice the cues your instructor gives you, especially around breath and alignment. Home practice between sessions is one of the fastest ways to solidify new movement patterns.
Plateaus are normal and often a sign that your body is integrating at a deeper level. Sometimes what feels like stagnation is actually your nervous system consolidating new patterns. Other times, it means you need a change — different spring tensions, new exercise variations, or more specific instructor feedback. Talk to your teacher. And consider tracking small wins in a journal — progress in Pilates is often subtle before it becomes dramatic.
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