Pilates boards, bar kits and home reformers · a buyer's guide
The purple board is a plank with a groove. Here is when that is enough.
A sliding pilates board gives you the lunges, rows and pikes of a reformer class on a folding plastic deck with two bands. For a lot of people that is the whole point. For others the bands are too light within a month, the knees hurt on the deck, or the leg-in-straps series they wanted was never on the menu. This guide starts with what you want the thing to do, then with your floor and your space, and only then with the boards, compared on what their listings publish.
A board slides and anchors bands on one folding deck. A bar kit or a pair of discs does one of those jobs for less. A folding reformer does the whole reformer repertoire and needs seven feet of floor.
The board most people mean, the bar kit with the heaviest bands, and the mat that goes under both. Picked on what the listings publish; the full comparisons are on the topic pages.
Product links on this page go to Amazon. If you buy through them, Slide Into Pilates earns a commission. How we pick and earn
Folding plastic board, glide pads in a track, two bands
JANUA Pilates Board, 5-in-1
JANUA JAN-PB-001
The purple board. A 42-inch polypropylene shell that folds in half, two glide pads running in a moulded track with an elastic cord that pulls them back, and resistance bands clipped to anchor points at the ends. A timer and a phone holder sit at the head end. It is the one board in the category with four figures of ratings, and the shell is sold under a dozen other names.
Size
42 × 16 × 1.5 in open; folds in half (listing)
Weight
9.8 lb (listing)
Weight limit
400 lb (listing)
Slide
Two glide pads in a track with elastic rebound
Bands
Latex bands with handles on fixed anchors; tension not stated
Three-piece steel bar, six latex bands, door anchor
ALongSong Pilates Bar Kit, six bands
ALongSong 17GE
A three-piece stainless bar wrapped in foam, six natural latex bands in pairs of 30, 40 and 50 lb that stack to 240 lb, two-in-one handles and foot loops, and a door anchor. The bands adjust in length, which is how it fits a range of heights.
Bands
6 latex bands: 2 × 30, 2 × 40, 2 × 50 lb; up to 240 lb stacked (listing)
Bar
Three-piece stainless steel, foam wrapped
In the box
Bar, 6 bands, 2 handles and pedals, door anchor, bag, manual
A 69 by 24 inch mat at 12 mm, twice a standard yoga mat, that folds into a 24 by 12 by 3 inch block to kneel on, step on or sit on. Three pounds, EVA foam, a patented fold. It is the mat people buy for the knee padding a board or discs need.
Size
69 × 24 in flat, 12 mm thick; 24 × 12 × 3 in folded
We compare what is published: deck size and material, weight and load limit, how the glide runs, what the bands are rated at, whether it folds and to what, what is in the box, and the warranty, against what a person doing two or three sessions a week on a living-room floor needs. Almost no board brand has a website, so most figures come from the retail listing and the card says so. We use a board and a bar kit at home and say what we haven't run. Nobody pays to be listed. How we earn
