Half my clients play padel. I used to play it myself, and honestly I would love to get back to it. I struggle with time, like most people do, but the intention is there. One day.
In the meantime, I spend a lot of time watching what padel does to bodies. And what I see, week after week in the studio here in Almancil, is a very consistent pattern. The same areas under strain. The same imbalances. The same people who come in feeling beat up after a match and leave feeling genuinely better after an hour on the Reformer.
So I wanted to write this post for every padel player in the Algarve who has ever wondered whether Reformer Pilates is worth adding to their week. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is below, and there is some proper science in it, because I think you deserve more than just "it's great for your core."
What Padel Actually Demands From Your Body
Padel is a brilliant sport. It is social, it is fast, and it is genuinely good for you in a lot of ways. But it is also quite brutal on certain parts of the body, and the research backs this up.
A 2024 study published in the Journal of Ultrasound looked at musculoskeletal injuries across padel players and found an injury rate of 3 per 1,000 hours of training and 8 per 1,000 matches. The most commonly affected areas were the elbow, shoulder, knee, calf, and Achilles tendon. The same research described how the overhead shots in padel, the smash, the bandeja, the vibora, require explosive combinations of trunk rotation and flexion, with the abdominal muscles acting as a "spring mechanism" that stores and then releases energy through the upper body.
In plain English: padel puts enormous demand on your rotational core, your shoulder stability, and your ability to absorb force through your legs. And if any of those areas are weak or unbalanced, the body finds a way to compensate. Those compensations are where injuries live.
The Shoulder Problem I See All the Time
The shoulder is probably the thing I notice most in padel players who come to the studio. The overhead shots in padel require repeated abduction and external rotation of the shoulder, often above 90 degrees. Do that hundreds of times in a match, week after week, and the rotator cuff and the surrounding stabilising muscles take a real beating.
What I see in the studio is often a dominant side that is both stronger and tighter, and a non-dominant side that has been quietly neglected. The shoulder blade on the hitting side tends to sit differently. The upper traps are overworked. The deep stabilisers of the shoulder are underworked. And the whole thing is held together by tension rather than genuine strength.
The Reformer is extraordinary for this. The arm springs and the footbar work the shoulder in multiple planes, building the kind of deep rotator cuff strength and scapular control that protects the joint. Research on core stability training in racket sport athletes consistently shows that when you address the stabilising muscles properly, shoulder mechanics improve. The joint moves better because it is supported better.
Your Core Is Not What You Think It Is
When most people hear "core," they think abs. Crunches. A six-pack. That is not what I mean, and it is not what the research means either.
Your core is the entire cylinder of muscles that surrounds your spine and pelvis: the deep abdominals, the pelvic floor, the multifidus along the spine, the diaphragm. These muscles do not produce big movements. They create stability. They are the foundation that every other movement in your body is built on.
In padel, the trunk acts as what the research calls a "functional bridge" between the lower and upper body. The power in your smash does not come from your arm. It comes from the ground, travels up through your legs, is amplified by your rotating trunk, and is then transferred to your arm and racket. If the bridge is weak or unstable, energy leaks out at every stage. Your shots lose power. Your body compensates by overloading the shoulder or elbow. And eventually, something hurts.
A 2025 cross-sectional study on professional padel players found that dynamic core stability was directly associated with injury prevention and performance. Players with stronger, more stable cores were less likely to get hurt and moved more efficiently on court. This is not a surprise to anyone who has spent time teaching movement. But it is good to have the data.
The Reformer builds this kind of core in a way that almost nothing else does. The spring resistance means the body has to stabilise constantly, not just during the "working" part of an exercise, but throughout the whole movement. You cannot cheat it. The machine tells you immediately when your core has switched off, because something else starts working too hard to compensate.
The Rotation Issue
Padel is a rotational sport. Almost every shot involves some degree of trunk rotation, and the more powerful shots involve a lot of it. The problem is that rotation needs to come from the right places: the thoracic spine, the hips, the whole kinetic chain working together.
What often happens instead is that people rotate from the lower back, or from the neck, because the thoracic spine has become stiff and the hips have become tight. The body finds the path of least resistance. And the lower back, which is not designed to be the primary source of rotation, ends up absorbing forces it was never built for.
I see this in the studio constantly. People who play a lot of padel often have beautiful rotation in one direction and almost none in the other. The dominant side has been trained. The non-dominant side has been ignored. And the spine has adapted to this asymmetry in ways that are not always comfortable.
The Reformer addresses this directly. We work rotation in both directions, with control, with the spine in a supported position, building mobility and strength through the full range. The Tower, which we also use in the studio, is particularly good for this. The push-through bar allows for spinal decompression and mobilisation that genuinely changes how the spine moves. Clients who play padel regularly tell me they feel more fluid on court after a few weeks of consistent Reformer work. That is not a coincidence.
The Legs and the Landing
Padel involves a lot of jumping, a lot of rapid direction changes, and a lot of explosive push-offs from the legs. The research identifies the knee, calf, and Achilles tendon as common injury sites, and the biomechanics explain why. Every jump involves an eccentric load on landing, meaning the muscles are contracting while they are being lengthened, which is the highest-risk type of muscular work.
Eccentric strength is exactly what the Reformer builds. The spring resistance on the carriage means that controlling the return phase of every exercise requires genuine eccentric work from the legs. The footwork series, the leg press, the running, all of these build the kind of controlled deceleration strength that protects the knee and Achilles during those explosive moments on court.
I also notice that padel players tend to have tight hip flexors and relatively weak glutes, which is a combination that puts extra strain on the knee. The Reformer addresses both: the hip flexors get lengthened in exercises like the lunge and the arabesque, and the glutes get genuinely challenged in ways that squats and leg presses in the gym often do not reach.
One Hour a Week
I am not going to tell you to give up padel and do Pilates instead. That is not the point. The point is that one hour a week on the Reformer can make every hour you spend on the padel court feel better, safer, and more effective.
I know this because I see it. Clients who play padel two or three times a week and come to the studio once a week consistently tell me the same things. Their shoulder feels less tight. Their back is not complaining after a match the way it used to. They feel more balanced. They recover faster.
And I know it from my own experience of the sport. When I was playing regularly, the sessions where I had been consistent with my Reformer work were the sessions where I felt most in control of my body on court. The ones where I had let it slip were the sessions where I felt like I was fighting myself.
If you play padel in the Algarve, whether you are based in Quinta do Lago, Vale do Lobo, Vilamoura, or anywhere else in the area, come and try a class. The studio is in Almancil, five minutes from most of you. Classes are small, a maximum of eight people, and I will be watching every movement on every Reformer.
Your body will thank you. And so will your game.
Victoria x
FAQ
Is Reformer Pilates good for padel players?
Yes. Padel places high demands on rotational core strength, shoulder stability, and leg power. Reformer Pilates builds all three in a controlled, balanced way. Research on racket sport athletes consistently shows that core stability training reduces injury risk and improves movement efficiency on court.
What padel injuries can Reformer Pilates help prevent?
The most common padel injuries involve the shoulder, elbow, knee, calf, and Achilles tendon. Reformer Pilates builds the deep stabilising muscles around the shoulder and spine, improves rotational mobility through the thoracic spine and hips, and develops the eccentric leg strength that protects the knee and Achilles during jumping and direction changes.
Where can I do Reformer Pilates near the padel courts in the Algarve?
Reformer Pilates Algarve is based in Almancil, in the heart of the Algarve, and is easily accessible from Quinta do Lago, Vale do Lobo, Vilamoura, and Loulé. Classes are small (maximum eight people) and run throughout the week.
How often should a padel player do Reformer Pilates?
Once a week is enough to notice a real difference. Most padel players who come to the studio attend one class per week alongside their regular game and consistently report improvements in how their body feels on court and how quickly they recover after matches.
Will Reformer Pilates improve my padel game?
Indirectly, yes. Reformer Pilates will not teach you padel technique. But it will improve the quality of your movement, your rotational power, your shoulder stability, and your body's ability to absorb and generate force. All of those things translate directly to better, more consistent performance on court.
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