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 invested in a professional Pilates Reformer.

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. This is functional muscular re-education.

• 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

Our recommendation for fast progress over the week: Pilates Reformer in the morning, before the surf session. The improvement in stability on the board shows from the second session onwards.

This isn't a correlation — it's what our instructor Leila has observed week after week for two years.

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 makes them durable and protects them from the tendinitis surfers know well. 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; the Reformer's deep strengthening is the best insurance against day-three pain.

What a session with us looks like

The programme runs 50-minute sessions in small groups, scheduled in the morning before the surf or late afternoon for recovery. 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

Our recommendation for fast progress: Reformer on the mornings of days 2, 4 and 6 — never the first day (let your body meet the ocean first), and never two days running early in the stay. On flat days, a longer session replaces the surf. By the end of the week the difference is felt in the water: the take-off comes faster, the shoulders hold for a full session, and your back stops demanding the hammam — though you'll go anyway.

The Reformer is included in the Wellness package, and available to other residents on request. Properly equipped studios remain rare in Morocco — worth making the most of it while you're here.

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".