Pilates Reformer and surf: why it changes everything

Yoga and surfing have gone together for years. What gets explained less often: why Pilates Reformer adds a dimension yoga alone doesn't cover. And why AMANAR equipped the house with 4 professional Pilates Reformers.

What yoga does well

Flexibility, static balance, body awareness, breathing. A regular Vinyasa or Hatha practice improves your surfing visibly within two or three weeks. The surf conditioning literature backs it up: mobility and core work done on the mat accelerate progress in the water.

What yoga doesn't do

Surfing demands eccentric strength (resisting while a muscle lengthens) and stabilisation of the deep muscular chains. Yoga works mostly isometrically. The result: surfers who only do yoga often finish an intensive week with tired shoulders and a tired lower back.

What Pilates Reformer adds

The Reformer creates progressive resistance through springs. It reproduces the movements of surfing — paddling, the pop-up, stabilising through a ride — under controlled resistance. It is functional conditioning, not a medical treatment or a course of rehabilitation.

• Strengthens the hip rotators — essential for the bottom turn
• Stabilises the shoulder blades — reduces paddling pain
• Deep core work — improves balance on the board
• Thoracic mobility — key for rotation and manoeuvres

The yoga styles at AMANAR

We offer several styles depending on your goals: Vinyasa (dynamic, ideal before surfing), Hatha (balanced, for all levels), Yin (deep and slow, perfect after an intense session), and Restorative (recovery, recommended at the end of a stay or after a minor injury).

The combination we recommend

A combination that works well across a week: a Reformer session on a day you also surf, taken when your body is fresh rather than after a long session. How soon it shows on the board is individual — some people feel steadier within a few sessions, others later, and the week's timetable is posted at the house.

What exactly is a Reformer?

Forget the image of a gym mat: the Reformer is a machine — a sliding carriage mounted on springs, with straps and a footbar. Spring resistance adjusts finely, which lets you work the same movement in a gentle version (mobility, recovery) or a demanding one (strength, control). It's the conditioning tool of choice for sports that demand strength within instability — dance, skiing… and surfing.

The four direct transfers to the water

The take-off: going from lying flat to standing in one second requires a core that transmits force — exactly what the Reformer builds, spring by spring. Paddling: shoulders absorb hundreds of movements per session; eccentric work on the machine is a standard way of building shoulder endurance. Balance: the moving carriage reproduces the instability of a board — your proprioception works through every exercise without you thinking about it. The lower back: the prolonged arch of paddling tires the lumbar spine; deep strengthening work is what the Reformer is built for.

What a session with us looks like

Sessions run in small groups — at most 4 people, one per machine. The slots for the week are posted at the house and can shift with the season. Typical structure: opening mobility (hips and thoracic spine — the two areas surfing locks up), a strength block centred on core and shoulders, then balance work to close. No prerequisites: the machine adapts to the body, not the other way round.

The sequencing we recommend across a week

If you want to build a week around it: space the sessions out rather than stacking them, leave the first day to the ocean, and on flat days take a longer session instead of the surf. What a week gives you is the work itself — corrections, repetition, a movement pattern practised under resistance. How much of it carries into the water, and how fast, is not something anyone can promise you in advance.

Two Reformer sessions are included in the Wellness package over seven days. Any further session is an extra, and residents on the Surf or Nomad package can book a drop-in when one of the 4 machines is free.

The three classic preparation mistakes

One: long static stretches right before a session — the sports literature is clear that they temporarily reduce power; save them for the evening and warm up dynamically instead. Two: betting everything on push-ups — paddling is a pulling movement as much as a pushing one, and a weak back tires before the chest does. Three: ignoring the hips — their mobility decides where your feet land on the take-off, and it's the area a sedentary life locks up most. The Reformer works precisely those three blind spots — which is why it improves people who "already do sport".