Pilates after 50: the safest strength training there is, and why

After fifty, the advice is unanimous: keep your strength, keep your balance, protect your bones. The problem is that most strength training involves impact, floors or free weights, and each of those is where a fifty-five-year-old knee or back says no. The reformer is the exception, and it is why the average age in a reformer class is older than in a gym.

Why the machine is kind

You are at bench height, not on the floor. The springs take load off a joint as easily as they add it. The straps move a shoulder or hip through its full range with the weight supported. And the carriage gives instant feedback — if you push unevenly, it tells you — so the teacher can correct a habit before it becomes a pain.

What improves, in order

• Balance, within a few classes. Standing on a moving carriage wakes up ankles and hips fast.
• Back and hip comfort, within a month: daily life stops involving a wince.
• Strength, over a season: getting off the floor, carrying bags, stairs.
• Bone. Loaded, weight-bearing movement is what bones respond to, and springs make it safe to load.

What to tell the teacher

Everything. A replaced hip, a fused vertebra, osteoporosis, a shoulder that does not go overhead. None of these stops you; all of them change which exercise you do while the room does another, and the teacher only knows if you say. Classes here are ten people at most, which is small enough for that to work. the guide to reformer pilates in Koh Samui is a good read before a first visit, and a private session is the calm way to learn the machine before joining a class from the timetable.

Try a reformer class in Koh Samui

Isla is a ten-reformer studio in Chaweng, a few minutes from the beach, with small classes taught in English. If it is your first time here the intro offer is ฿1,800 for three classes; a single class is ฿900. Pick one from the timetable, or see the packs and prices first.