Social distancing your Pilates equipment
Laws differ from country to country but in the UK, Pilates Studios are under the guidance of UK Active.
At the time of writing (June 10th, 2020), two of the key pieces of advice are:
- The concentration of people in a Studio must be no more than 1 person per 3sqm. For apparatus studios this is of less concern as a reformer is usually around 2.4 x 0.7m and with even 30cm free on either side (60cm between 2 machines) this is over 3sqm per reformer. Furthermore a safe working space around a machine is usually considered to be 1m in each direction. In matwork studio, a mat is usually 1.8 x 0.6m = 1.08sqm so this is a bigger issue but this is more affected by the second key rule.
- Machines/People must be 2m apart. In the case of reformers this would already be achieved if there was a safe working space of 1m on each side of the reformer ie. 2m between reformers. In practice, many Studios have more like 1m between machines which would mean some reformers would have to repurposed or perhaps loaned to specific clients, who wished to be taught at home. When calculating the revised reformer capacity of a room it would be: Distance from wall to reformer 1 + reformer width eg. 70cm + 2m + reformer width (repeat for amount of reformers) + distance from reformer to wall 2. Note if the room is wide enough for 2 or more reformers it would be best to have all machines facing the same direction.
Rules need to be enforced for group classes to ensure that customers all mount and dismount their reformer on the same side to maintain the social distancing of the machines. At the same time planning ahead to reduce the amount of machine adjustment in Reformer classes is a good idea – consider pre-setting up machines for smaller users on one side of the room, average users in the middle and larger users at the other end.
If we can be of any assistance or you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this blog or would like to discuss requirements for your Pilates studio, please do not hesitate to contact us at sales@align-pilates.com.