The class before yours ran over. Two people arrive five minutes late. Or you simply teach a 45-minute format, where a twelve-minute warm-up would be a quarter of the session.
The usual response is to rush the warm-up. The better one is to build it differently.
Short version: You shorten a warm-up by removing transitions, not by speeding it up. Six exercises, one spring setting, all of it lying down — that covers the same four phases as the long version and fits into five minutes. What you cut is spring changes and position changes, not repetitions.
Why speeding up is the wrong lever
Press the same twelve exercises into five minutes and two things happen: the group never arrives, and you see nothing. Both cost you more time later than you saved.
The real time sink is somewhere else anyway. In a group of ten, every spring change costs one to two minutes — the announcement, the changeover, the questions, until everyone is lying down again. Two changes in a warm-up is easily three minutes. That is your saving, and it costs you no exercises at all.
"A short warm-up is not a fast warm-up. It is one with fewer interruptions."
The four jobs stay the same
However long it runs, a warm-up has to do four things. Arrive and breathe. Warm the legs and hips. Mobilise the spine. Connect the shoulder girdle. Drop one and you will notice in the main work — usually at the moment you happen to be looking elsewhere.
The full version with twelve exercises across four clearly separated phases is in reformer Pilates warm-up exercises. The short version here does the same four jobs, just more densely.
The 5-minute warm-up, exercise by exercise
One medium spring from start to finish. Everything supine. No standing up, no rebuilding.
| # | Exercise | Time | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Supine breathing, hands on the ribs | 30 sec. | Arriving |
| 2 | Footwork, parallel | 45 sec. | Legs, diagnostics |
| 3 | Footwork, heels | 45 sec. | Back of the legs |
| 4 | Bridging with the carriage | 60 sec. | Spine, glutes |
| 5 | Supine spine twist | 60 sec. | Rotation |
| 6 | Arms in straps, arm circles | 60 sec. | Shoulder girdle |
Five minutes, one spring change — between 5 and 6, and even that disappears if your machines already have the straps in hand.
What to cue on each one
1. Breathing. Hands on the side of the lower ribs. "Push your hands out to the side as you breathe in." Three or four breaths, no more. Why that sentence works better than "breathe into your sides" is covered in the German guide to cueing the breath.
2 and 3. Footwork. Two positions are enough: parallel and heels. This is your diagnostic window — knee tracking, pelvic position, who is holding their breath. Give exactly one cue and then just watch. More ways to vary this block are in footwork variations.
4. Bridging. The carriage adds light resistance on the roll-down and demands pelvic stability at the same time. Segmental, no pushing away through the heels.
5. Spine twist. Knees in tabletop, arms long, knees slowly to one side and back. Rotation belongs before any main section that rotates — and almost all of them do.
6. Arms in straps. Small circles both directions. The shoulder girdle is the part short warm-ups drop most often, and the one most likely to compensate later.
When five minutes is not enough
Three cases where you want the long version and should cut the main work instead:
- A new group. In a first class the warm-up is your only source of information. Take the time.
- Very mixed levels. With beginners and advanced clients in one room you need the minutes to place both — more on that in mastering mixed-level classes.
- Early mornings. At seven the spine needs longer than at six in the evening. That is not a claim about training science, it is an observation every instructor with early classes shares.
The actual point
A short warm-up is not an emergency plan. It is the version you need anyway once you teach 45-minute formats — and it shows you how much of your class time currently goes into transitions rather than movement.
For what to do with the minutes you win back, class plan length and timing works through the blocks for 45, 50 and 60 minutes. And the guide to teaching reformer Pilates places the warm-up in the whole.
If rebuilding this from scratch every week costs you more time than it saves: ready-made reformer classes with the warm-up and main section already timed to fit together — bought once or as a bundle, yours for good — are waiting under Plans.
Want class plans with the warm-up already timed?
Pilates Plans gives you ready-made reformer concepts with time blocks, spring settings and cues.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a reformer warm up be?
Eight to twelve minutes in a 60-minute class, five to eight in a 45-minute one. What matters is not the length but whether all four jobs get done: arriving, warming legs and hips, mobilising the spine, connecting the shoulder girdle. Skip one and you will notice it in the main work.
Can you skip the warm up in Pilates?
Skip it, no. Shorten it, yes. Without a warm-up you lose the most useful information of the day — you cannot see whose knees are cranky or who cannot hold a stable pelvis. Five minutes with a clear structure does more for you than twelve minutes without one.
Which exercises belong in a short warm up?
Six are enough: supine breathing, footwork in two foot positions, bridging, a supine rotation and arms in straps. That covers legs, spine and shoulder girdle — and needs exactly one spring change.
How do I save time in the warm up without rushing?
Do not go faster, remove transitions. In a group of ten the time goes into spring changes and position changes, not into the exercises themselves. Build the warm-up so everything happens on one spring setting and lying down, and you save two to three minutes without dropping a single rep.
