Places per hour, not machines
Equipment is bought by the unit and sold by the hour. What matters is how many people you can teach at once with room to move around them.
Equipping a Pilates studio: from the floor plan to the reformer in place
Choosing a Pilates Reformer is the easy part. The decisions that actually determine whether a studio works are made earlier — on the floor plan, in the lease, and in how many places you can teach at once. FitLink works through those with you and sources the equipment.
Where it goes wrong
Most Pilates studios are decided before the equipment is
By the time a reformer is ordered, the room is already fixed: its ceiling height, its ventilation, its floor, the width of the door it has to come through. Those are the things that decide how many places you can sell per hour, and they are much harder to change afterwards than a brand of apparatus is.
The room before the apparatus
Ceiling height, ventilation, floor loading and access decide what can go in. They are worth checking before a lease is signed, not after.
What wears out first
Springs, straps, upholstery and small equipment go long before the frames do. A studio's running cost is in the parts, not the purchase.
The apparatus
What a Pilates studio needs
The families a studio is built from, whichever manufacturer it ends up buying:
| Apparatus | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Reformer | The centre of almost every studio: carriage, springs and footbar, for the majority of the repertoire. |
| Trapeze table | Also called the Cadillac. A frame for assisted and suspended work, and the piece that needs the most room. |
| Chair | Compact and demanding, strong for stability and unilateral work. The apparatus that fits where nothing else does. |
| Barrel | Spine corrector, ladder barrel and arcs, for extension, mobility and support. |
| Mat and small equipment | Rings, balls, bands and boxes. Low cost, high turnover, and the part members handle most. |
Apparatus families, not a product list. Which of them your teaching format actually needs — and how many — is what we work out with you.
Space
How much room a Pilates Reformer really needs
A reformer's own dimensions are the smallest part of the answer. Around each one you need room at the head and the foot for the repertoire, room for the instructor to walk between places, and room for people to get on and off without queuing. A plan that counts only the machines produces a studio that cannot be taught in. We take your dimensions — including recesses, columns and the way doors open — and work the places out on the drawing.
Before the lease
Check what the room is allowed to be
This is the one that costs people months. A space being empty and the right size does not mean you may run a studio in it: use classification is a planning matter, and changing it takes time and permission. Ceiling height and ventilation matter more for a reformer studio than for a mat studio, and access routes decide whether apparatus can be carried in at all. The binding answer comes from the relevant authority, not from a supplier — ours included. Ask before you sign, not after.
Working with FitLink
What we actually do
We are not a single manufacturer's sales channel. We work out what the space can hold, bring the apparatus that suits the teaching, and stay in the project until it opens.
- Places worked out on your floor plan, before anything is ordered
- Apparatus selected for your format and your clientele, across brands
- Design and layout treated as part of the decision, not decoration
- Quotation with specification, delivery and warranty terms in writing
- One contact from the first drawing through to the opening
Space, cost and opening a studio
More than the machine measures. Plan for movement space at the head and foot, a walking route for the instructor and room to get on and off. The number that matters is places per hour, and it comes from the drawing rather than from a catalogue.
Reformers carry most of the repertoire, so that is usually the first decision. A chair fits where nothing else will, a barrel covers extension work and a trapeze table extends the range most but takes the most room. Mat and small equipment is cheap to buy and wears out fastest.
Not automatically. Whether a space may be used for this is a planning question, and changing its classification takes time and permission. Ceiling height, ventilation and access also decide what can go in. Check with the relevant authority before you sign a lease.
It depends on the number of places, the apparatus mix and the specification. The figures circulating online are mostly franchise and software-vendor estimates in dollars, and we will not repeat them as if they applied to you. We obtain real pricing for your plan and put it in writing.
Sometimes it is sensible, and sometimes it is how a studio inherits worn springs and upholstery it then has to replace. What matters is the condition of the wearing parts and whether they can still be sourced for that model.
No. We work across manufacturers and the right answer depends on your format, your space and your budget. If the honest recommendation is fewer machines of better quality, that is what you will get.
Yes — layout, lighting and materials shape how a studio is perceived and how it works day to day. We keep those decisions in the same conversation as the equipment, because deciding them separately is how apparatus ends up blocking the circulation planned for it.
No. Adding places, replacing worn apparatus or reworking a layout that never quite worked are the more common briefs, and the constraints are tighter because you are trading while you do it.
Send us the floor plan
Tell us the dimensions, the ceiling height and how you want to teach. You will get a layout with places worked out and a written quotation.