The first question almost everyone asks when they climb onto a reformer is some version of “wait — do more springs mean harder?” And the honest answer is: not always. That’s why I want pilates spring resistance explained properly before you take another class, because the springs are the single most misunderstood part of the machine. They aren’t dumbbells. They’re a conversation between your body and the carriage, and once you understand what they’re actually doing, the whole apparatus starts to make sense.
I teach reformer here along the Wasatch Front, and I’ve watched hundreds of first-timers reach for the red spring because red looks serious. Sometimes that’s right. Sometimes it’s the thing standing between them and actually feeling their deep core. Let’s take the guesswork out of it.
Springs Are Assistance and Resistance at the Same Time
Here’s the 40-second version, the one I give at the start of every beginner class:
Pilates reformer springs create variable resistance — the tension increases the further the carriage travels from the spring’s anchor. Depending on which direction you’re moving and where the load sits, that spring can make an exercise harder or easier. Heavier springs stabilize the carriage and support your body. Lighter springs remove that support and force your own deep muscles to control the movement.
Read that second half again, because it’s the part that flips most people’s assumptions. On footwork, more spring is more work — you’re pushing against it. On a kneeling arm series or a long-stretch plank, more spring is more help, because the spring is holding the carriage steady for you. Same spring. Opposite job.
This is the genius of the equipment Joseph Pilates built in the 1920s. He originally rigged bed springs to hospital cots to help bedridden patients move — resistance and support from the same source. A hundred years later we’re still using that principle, just with prettier upholstery.
What the Spring Colors Actually Mean
First thing to know: there is no universal standard. Spring colors vary by manufacturer. A red on one brand of reformer is not a red on another. If you’ve trained somewhere else and walk into a new studio confused because “red used to feel heavier,” you’re not imagining it.
That said, most contemporary reformers follow a rough logic:
| Spring type | Typical load | Common uses |
|---|---|---|
| Heavy (often red) | Full tension | Footwork, leg press, bridging, stabilized plank work |
| Medium (often blue or green) | Moderate | Arm series, side-lying legwork, most transitional work |
| Light (often yellow or half-spring) | Low tension | Abdominal work, shoulder rehab-style patterning, precision drills |
| No spring / one light spring | Minimal to none | Advanced control work, teasers, long stretch variations |
Notice that the light-spring row is where a lot of the genuinely difficult work lives. The teaser on one light spring is harder than the teaser on three. Fewer springs, less support, more of you.
Why Heavier Isn’t Braver
The culture around fitness in Utah tends to reward load. We ski hard, we hike hard, we like a number we can beat. So I understand the instinct to add spring. But here’s the pattern I see over and over on the floor: when the spring is too heavy for someone’s current control, the body recruits whatever’s loudest. Usually that’s the hip flexors, the neck, the outer abdominals, the upper traps.
You end up strong in the pattern you already had. The reformer becomes a leg press with a nicer view.
Lighten the spring and something interesting happens. The carriage stops carrying you. Suddenly the movement requires your transverse abdominis, your pelvic floor, your deep hip rotators — the slow, unglamorous stabilizers that don’t announce themselves. It feels like less. It’s often more.
Shoulder-breathers, in my experience teaching, almost always want the heavier spring, because the heavy spring lets them muscle through. The correction isn’t cueing them harder. It’s taking a spring off.
Understanding Spring Tension in Real Time
Springs are not linear like a stack of plates. A reformer spring is a coil under progressive extension — the further you stretch it, the more force it returns. This is why the last four inches of a footwork press feel meaningfully different from the first four, and why the return phase is where most people lose control.
I tell people: the spring will always try to snap the carriage home. Your job is to argue with it politely the entire way back. That eccentric phase — the slow, controlled return — is where a huge amount of the strength and joint resilience actually gets built. Rushing it is the single most common technical error I correct.
Three things I watch for when I’m deciding whether someone’s spring load is right:
- Can they control the return? If the carriage clanks home, the spring is too heavy or the tempo is too fast.
- Where does the effort show up? Effort in the neck and jaw means the load has outrun the control.
- Does the breath survive? Breath-holding is a load signal before it’s a fitness signal.
None of those have anything to do with the number of springs. They have to do with whether the body can organize itself around the load it’s been given.
How Spring Choice Changes by Body, Not Just by Exercise
Two people doing identical footwork may need different springs, and not because one is fitter. Limb length matters. A taller person moves the carriage further, so the spring builds more tension through their range. Joint history matters — a knee that’s been reconstructed often wants a slightly heavier spring in the beginning, because heavier means more stability in the carriage and less wobble to control.
Pregnancy, postpartum recovery, hypermobility, a cranky lumbar spine, a shoulder that dislocated in high school — every one of those changes the calculus. This is genuinely why I’d rather teach small groups than large ones. I need to see your knee track before I can tell you what to put on the bar.
If you’re brand new and want to know what walking in actually looks like before you choose anything, I wrote a full walkthrough here: your first reformer Pilates class in Utah. And you can look at the class formats to get a sense of how differently a Foundations session and a Burn session use the springs.
Reformer Springs Versus Weights and Bands
A dumbbell gives you constant load shaped by gravity. It’s heaviest where your leverage is worst, and it only ever pulls one direction — down. That’s useful and I have nothing against it.
A resistance band gives you variable load like a spring, but with far less predictability and no carriage to move through space.
The reformer spring is different from both because of the platform it’s attached to. The carriage rolls. That means the spring loads you and destabilizes you simultaneously, in a specific plane, while your body has to decide moment to moment how to stay organized. You get strength and coordination in the same rep. For people who sit at a desk in Lehi or Draper all week and then try to ski Little Cottonwood on Saturday, that combination is exactly the gap that needs filling.
A Practical Way to Think About Spring Load
When you’re in class and unsure, run this sequence in your head:
- Which direction is the work? Pushing the carriage away against the spring = spring adds difficulty. Holding the carriage still or resisting its pull home = spring adds support.
- What’s the goal of the exercise? Strength and power want more load. Control, precision, and core recruitment usually want less.
- Can you do it beautifully? If the answer is no, change the spring before you change your ambition.
And then — ask your instructor. Genuinely. I’d much rather adjust your springs mid-exercise than watch you white-knuckle a load that isn’t serving you. There’s no prize for suffering quietly in the back row.
Where the Honesty Goes
Springs aren’t magic, and I’ll say plainly that the reformer isn’t the only route to a strong, resilient body. Barbells work. Hiking works. A well-programmed mat practice works. What the reformer does uniquely well is give you graded, adjustable load in positions the floor can’t offer — supine, side-lying, kneeling, standing on a moving surface — which makes it unusually good for rebuilding after injury and unusually good at exposing compensation patterns you didn’t know you had.
That’s the whole case. Not that it’s superior. That it’s specific.
So when you next set up your carriage, remember the core of pilates spring resistance explained: the springs are a tool for calibrating how much of the work belongs to the machine and how much belongs to you. Fewer springs doesn’t mean easier, more springs doesn’t mean braver, and the right answer changes exercise to exercise and body to body. If you’re in Salt Lake City, Sandy, Cottonwood or anywhere along the Wasatch Front and you want help finding your load, get in touch and we’ll figure out where you should start.
— Bianca
Do more springs always mean a harder Pilates workout?
No. When you’re pushing the carriage away from the springs — like in footwork or leg press — more spring means more resistance and more work. But in exercises where the spring is holding the carriage steady beneath you, such as kneeling arm work or plank variations, more spring means more support and an easier exercise. Direction of load is what determines difficulty, not spring count.
What do the different Pilates spring colors mean?
Spring colors indicate tension level, but they are not standardized across reformer manufacturers. On many contemporary machines red is heaviest, blue or green is moderate, and yellow is lightest — but another brand may use an entirely different scheme. Always confirm with your instructor rather than assuming a color carries over from a different studio.
Why does my instructor take springs off for abdominal work?
Because removing spring removes support. With less tension holding the carriage in place, your deep abdominals, pelvic floor and stabilizing muscles have to do the controlling instead. Lighter springs make many core exercises significantly more demanding, even though the load number looks smaller.
How do I know if my spring setting is too heavy?
Watch three things: whether you can return the carriage slowly and silently, where you feel the effort, and whether your breath stays steady. A carriage that clanks home, tension gripping in the neck or jaw, or breath-holding all suggest the load has outpaced your current control. Lighten it and the quality of the movement usually improves immediately.
Is reformer spring resistance better than lifting weights?
It isn’t better — it’s different. Weights provide constant gravity-based load, while reformer springs provide variable resistance on a moving carriage, which trains strength and stability at the same time. Many people benefit from both. The reformer is particularly useful for graded loading during injury recovery and for revealing compensation patterns that a fixed surface hides.
BIANCA — FOUNDER, ALCHEMIZE PILATES
I’m a certified reformer Pilates instructor and the founder of Alchemize Pilates in Utah. I teach small-group reformer classes, one-on-one privates and online programs for people along the Wasatch Front who want to move well for the long haul — not just for the season.
Curious where to begin? See the class formats or reach out and ask about openings.
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