What Is a Pilates Tower and Who Needs One?

A tower brings the vertical spring work of a Cadillac into a much smaller footprint. Buyers weighing their first serious machine ask about towers constantly, yet the word covers several different pieces of equipment. This guide defines the tower, sorts the formats and gives real heights from our range.

What is a Pilates tower?

A Pilates tower is essentially half a Cadillac, mounted at the head end of a reformer or against a wall. Two uprights carry a push-through bar, a roll down bar and hooks for arm springs and leg springs. It lets the body work against resistance from above and behind, not just along the rails.

What each part of a tower does

• Push-through bar: a hinged bar that can be sprung from above or below. When it is sprung from below, a safety strap holds it secure.
• Roll down bar: a bar sprung from the uprights that supports rolling the spine down and back up in sequence.
• Arm springs: shorter springs with handles for seated or lying arm work.
• Leg springs: longer springs with foot loops for lying leg series.

Spring sets vary by maker. Elina towers usually carry eight springs, short and long, each in light or medium. Peak's Artistry TWS tower uses six: two push-through, two leg and two arm. The Peak MVe tower uses five.

What forms does a tower come in?

Towers come in three forms: fitted to a reformer, mounted on a wall or added later as an upgrade. The fitted version offers the widest choice and shares the reformer's footprint. Wall units need no reformer at all. Upgrades attach to a reformer you already own through prepared mounting points.

• Fitted to a reformer: Elina Master Instructor, Mentor, Club, Lignum, Nubium and HL with tower. The BASI Reformer with Tower. Peak Pilates Artistry TWS and FWS plus the MVe Reformer and Tower.
• Wall units: the BASI Wall Unit and the Elina Wall Unit with its mat bed and removable stainless steel tower.
• Upgrades: the BASI Tower Only Upgrade and Compact Tower Only Upgrade fit BASI frames. Peak also offers a tower conversion for the MVe.

How tall is a reformer with a tower?

In our range, reformers with a tower stand between about 70 and 89 inches tall. Elina's HL line shows the spread well, since the same tower sits on four bed heights: 70.47 in on the HL 1 up to 88.58 in on the HL 4. Peak's Artistry TWS tower is 73 in high.

The Elina Master Instructor Reformer with Tower reaches 79.92 in. Its aluminium uprights are hexagonal and numbered on both sides, so an instructor can note a client's exact spring and bar positions and set them up the same way next time. The BASI Reformer with Tower stands 74.9 in.

Who needs a tower?

A tower suits anyone who wants Cadillac-style spring work without a full Cadillac. Studios teaching the classical repertoire use it for push-through and roll down series. Instructors working one to one gain variety within a single station. Home users with a tall enough room get the widest repertoire from one footprint.

You may not need one if your teaching is mostly group reformer classes on stacked machines, since a tower usually stops a reformer stacking. Elina's HL tower models are the exception, stacking horizontally with the tower still fitted.

Compare standalone and add-on options in tower systems, then see complete stations in reformers with tower.