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Reformer, Cadillac, Chair: the design, evolution and engineering of the equipment that defines the practice.
Before it became the apparatus that defines any group class, it was a hospital bed with springs tied to the foot end. We trace the patent, the workshops, and the modifications — from Gratz to Balanced Body — that turned that wartime gesture into a multi-billion-dollar industry.
It began as a reinforced table strapped with springs, built for the bodies the Reformer couldn't fix. Seventy years later it's the most photographed apparatus in any Pilates studio — and probably the least understood.