How Suite It Is

With the overwhelming success of the Contrology Reformer, designed in close partnership with Jay Grimes and Karen Frischmann, Balanced Body is expanding their line of authentic apparatus.

- Amanda Altman

IN 2018, WHEN BALANCED BODY LAUNCHED THE CONTROLOGY REFORMER, a replica of the Reformer Donald Gratz engineered for Jay Grimes back in the day, it took the Pilates world by surprise. After all, we’re talking about Balanced Body, the apparatus manufacturer revered for putting a more modern spin on the Pilates equipment, not for preserving the status quo.

Needless to say, Balanced Body CEO and founder Ken Endelman was motivated to deliver on Grimes’ wish to recreate the Reformer Grimes viewed as the best vehicle for executing the exercise methodology of Joseph Pilates. On why doing so was of paramount importance to Grimes, and something he had been waiting years to see come to fruition, he says, “Joe designed the exercises with each piece of equipment. Therefore, even small changes to the equipment can negatively affect the integrity of the exercises.”

Following the reveal of the Contrology Reformer, and witnessing its original elements firsthand—such as the long-neck springs, which Karen Frischmann was instrumental in reviving, the thin, dense carriage and the lower footbar position—Pilates teachers and students understood what Grimes, who studied under Joe himself, had been referring to. So much so that there was a call for more Contrology, and naturally Balanced Body turned to Grimes for guidance. “It is important for me to help manufacturers produce equipment that assists teachers in getting results while supporting them to teach Pilates the way Joe intended it,” says Grimes.