When you think about what an AFL midfielder, an Olympic sprinter, and a professional swimmer have in common, Reformer Pilates probably isn't the first answer. But for a growing number of elite athletes, it's become a non-negotiable part of the program — not as a substitute for their main training, but as the work that makes everything else perform better.
Here's how they're using it.
Building the strength that underpins everything else
Traditional training builds the big movers. Reformer Pilates builds what sits underneath them — the deep stabilising muscles that determine how efficiently force travels through the body. For elite athletes, that's the difference between a good season and a great one.
Spring-loaded resistance isolates and challenges those stabilisers with a precision that free weights and machines can't match. The result is better movement mechanics, more efficient power transfer, and a body that holds up under load.
The deep work on the reformer directly improves output everywhere else — it's foundational, not supplementary.
The sports where reformer has become standard practice
Across professional sport, Reformer Pilates has moved from fringe to fixture. Here's where it's showing up:
AFL
Rugby union & league
Olympic athletics
Swimming
Cycling
Tennis
Football
AFL clubs use it in-season for active recovery and to reduce soft tissue injuries during the heaviest training blocks. Olympic sprinters and jumpers use it to maintain hip mobility and correct imbalances that can develop under high-volume sprint work. Swimmers use it to build the rotational stability their stroke demands.
It's not a rest day. It's a training day that also functions as a recovery day.
Turning passive rest into active performance gain
One of the most significant ways elite athletes are using reformer is to replace passive recovery with something that actively moves the needle. Instead of a day off, they're using reformer sessions to flush soreness, restore range of motion, and prime the nervous system for what's next.
Low-impact doesn't mean low-effort. A focused reformer session challenges the body — just in a way that leaves athletes feeling sharper rather than depleted. For professionals managing heavy training loads, that distinction is everything.
Staying on the field — and off the physio table
For professional athletes, availability is performance. The ability to train consistently without interruption is worth more than any single session. Reformer Pilates addresses the imbalances and weaknesses that become injuries before they become injuries — building resilience into the joints and stabilisers that get the most load.
It's become a key tool for athletes returning from injury too, offering the ability to maintain conditioning and rebuild deep strength without stressing healing tissue.
The best athletes aren't just training harder. They're training in a way that lets them keep training.
The same benefits, without the elite price tag
You don't need a professional sports program to access what the pros are doing. On-demand Reformer Pilates at Zap Premium gives you the same method — self-serve, on demand, with hundreds of classes across a range of styles and duration — built around your schedule, not a timetable.