Verve Magazine recently profiled Reform Fitness.
It’s a naive fallacy that pilates is an upbeat riff on yoga. A peppy, hybrid fusion of stretching and dance-like movement accompanied by hype phrasing around core strength as back pain relief.
This misconception renders the flexibly-challenged null and void, benched alongside the uncoordinated. The truth is, while the hype phrasing has its relevance, pilates is for everyone. It’s because of this that Reform has illustriously integrated itself into the New Zealand community, and in 2024, shows no signs of slowing. A once novel addition to Newmarket and Mount Maunganui (2015), Reform is appearing in the streets and feeds of New Zealanders, a now trusted identity in the movement market.
Offering a dynamic style of Reformer pilates, Reform toughens up the best elements of classical reformer by adding light-to-medium weight training. Developing real strength, balance, coordination, and better overall conditioning, it sets clients up to age strongly and get longevity from their efforts. Renowned for its low impact, the work is not forsaken. Humbling even for advanced practitioners, the classes are designed for mixed-level groups to find their individual work rate and build from there.
While it might seem this phenom has crept up on you, it’s most certainly vying for your attention now—a community must-have as necessary as the local gym and cafe.
There are currently 16 Reform studios franchised across the country, individually operated by a diverse range of owners from different backgrounds. Verve Magazine spoke to some of the women behind these different studios, including Parnell’s own Sam Ivil.
Sam Ivil—Owner of Silverdale and Parnell Studios
What do you love about being a business owner?
There are many aspects of being a business owner that are rewarding and fulfilling!
I love the people aspect of being a business owner. Supporting our team of trainers is super rewarding; I love being able to empower a range of personalities all with their own passions and goals.
Being a business owner has helped me to grow as a person in many ways. It is a continuous learning process and I have been able to develop a range of new skills including the fun stuff like meeting and engaging with our wonderful clients and keeping a studio looking beautiful, to the not-so-fun but important stuff like accounting and payroll!
The lifestyle, whilst it can be hectic, provides great flexibility and autonomy in managing my work-life balance. I am still able to look after my 17-month-old at home and feel very lucky to be able to do so.
Finally, I love that the Reform studios are owned by a network of amazing, strong leaders, many of them female. We are a very supportive group, always only one phone call away if we ever need advice, want to throw around new ideas, or just to catch up over a wine.
Owning a business definitely comes with its challenges but also offers a unique opportunity to make a positive impact on people’s health and wellbeing which is really the cherry on top of the cake. Reform is pretty special, and I am stoked to be on this wild ride.
This article was first published in Verve Magazine. Click here to read the full story.
