My first time at teacher-less pilates: ‘There is a soothing quality to the digital instructor’s voice, like an early childhood educator or a cult leader’

There is no human instructor at Michael Sun’s reformer pilates class, but it is more affordable than a typical session. Is the trade-off worth it?

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It is a weekday afternoon and I am at a pilates studio on Sydney’s north shore, face contorted and limbs asunder, staring down my impending demise. An abhorrently cheerful voice radiates from a screen at the front of the room: “You got this!” I grunt in response.

If you reside anywhere within 30km of a Lululemon, you might be familiar with the epidemic known as reformer pilates: an exercise where lithe people in matching sets mount a machine halfway between a bondage device and a medieval pillory to spend the better part of an hour performing increasingly excruciating positions in springs and straps.

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