One of the main ways we become effective instructors is from practice – you can’t authentically teach what you haven’t tried yourself. But beyond training and subject knowledge, we also become better teachers by studying the art of teaching. It is a truism that there is no ONE best way to teach a subject(or an exercise) because different students learn in different ways. One way that we, as instructors, can better teach Pilates to as many different people as possible is to explore different styles and models of teaching. Obviously, a good education program is essential, but that is only the very start of your learning about how to effectively teach people to get the most benefit from Pilates. There are so many different exercises to learn, and so many different apparatus, and then there are various protocols for different conditions, etc, etc,. Even with hundreds of hours spent on studying, someone fresh from a teacher training program will still need years of experience to master the skill of comprehensively teaching Pilates to the general public. Unfortunately, new instructors often come right out of school and, using savings or loans from parents, open their own branded Pilates studio. They feel empowered by all the Pilates knowledge they’ve acquired and feel they only need to apply their business sense and go for it. Sometimes it even works for a while, especially if there is a demand for Pilates in the area. More often, the business starts to stagnate and many close after a short period. The problem is that just relying on what you’ve learned from one school leaves you very limited when it comes to the real world. Pilates is a very dynamic and evolving business. The people who are successful in it all know this and have accumulated lots of outside experience and adapted to new ways of presenting and selling.

Remember, the primary purpose people are training in Pilates is to improve their health and fitness. Pilates exercises, Pilates technique, Pilates equipment, and the Pilates system as a whole all have the goal to improve important aspects of physical health and mental conditioning. Knowing all the exercises in sequence on the Reformer for different levels is quite an accomplishment. However, it is a mistake to think teaching a routine by rote is the primary goal of your lesson plan for a client. It is understandable to get caught up teaching clients to master the routine considering how great it felt as a teacher in training to perform the advanced routine. However, the reality is there will be few clients for whom this workout will be appropriate or sufficient. In Pilates, using the mind to memorize a sequence and flow is, I believe, an important part of the training method. But we always need to keep in mind the individual needs of the client. As an instructor, we need to be attentive, adaptive and creative and be careful not to fall into patterned routines and directives that don’t always fit the particular needs of the client we are working with. Being able to get outside the box and having a deeper well of options to choose from to successfully teach people of all levels, comes from years of teaching with an open mind and a desire to continue learning and growing.

Without a doubt, one of the main things that has helped me become better as teacher has been working in studios with other instructors from all different backgrounds and watching and learning from them. Most teacher training programs require some practical observation, but the few weeks are not really enough, and usually you are watching teachers from your own school so you don’t necessarily learn much new. I have always felt a need to broaden my education and have attended many conferences and workshops from teachers all over the Pilates and mind/body spectrum. This was helpful to my progress as a teacher as it helped to open my mind to different perspectives. But actually working on a day-to-day basis next to other instructors with different styles, different backgrounds, and from different countries, and of different ages has influenced me in a very practical way that has been invaluable. When I find an instructor particularly interesting, I will take a private lesson from them, in addition to my regular lessons from my teacher. Working with many different clients with different challenges and conditions for many years will also teach you a lot about how people respond to the Pilates that you know. However, you will be less limited and more versatile if you’ve gathered more experience and knowledge in the field from other schools and instructors of varied backgrounds.

This includes working with apparatus from different manufacturers. I have found that each different manufacturer offers different qualities for the same apparatus. There is a learning curve with each one and it behooves you to practice with each. I personally prefer the Clinical Reformer from Balanced Body because in addition to being able to change gears, the moveable footbar offers greatest flexibility for clients of different heights. But I find benefits in other versions from other quality manufacturers as well. The important thing is to not get stuck on one kind or to think one style is the ultimate. Use your own judgement from experience with them. Try as many as you can and be objective on the quality of its parts, how it is made, and how it works, and think about how it may suit the different clients you may work with. Does it fit clients of all sizes and abilities? Does it make offering modifications easier? What can it do that other versions can’t? For smaller studios, having a limited choice is understandable. For larger studios, I think stocking a studio with only one version of an apparatus or only one manufacturer is a mistake in the same way as only having instructors with the same background.

In conclusion, I have worked in various studios now for over 16 years and have met hundreds of other Pilates instructors. I can’t thank them all enough for all that I have learned from them and been inspired by them. And this goes for the first generation teachers and the newbies as well. If you bring your passion to teach and to help others become fit and healthy, Pilates will reward you in kind. Remember that Pilates is practiced and taught all over the world and offers a wealth of benefits and experiences. So get out there and absorb all you can, and maybe, don’t be in such a hurry to open up your own studio.

The other day, a student of mine came up to me and told me she heard that it was best to change up your exercise routine every 10 days. I told her I had heard of periodization, where athletes in training would focus on one area of fitness such as speed, or endurance, or strength, for 3 months and switch to another area, and that Russian coaches had promoted this for improved performance. However, I had not heard of the 10-day rule before, so I asked where she had heard it. She said, “Tracy Anderson”. Ah, I said. As a former dancer myself, I understood her perspective to keep pushing yourself with new challenges. However, if you are practicing how to skillfully master your body, whether in dance, Pilates, yoga, or any intelligent system of exercise, with a goal of truly transforming the way you look, feel, and move, then it helps to sometimes keep repeating certain movements just to see if your training is making a difference. Sometimes, that means you need to practice some routines consistently over many years. “Training the body – whether to perform surgery, play baseball or do ballet – requires repetition. You can’t just think about it, you have to do it. Over and over.” – Erika Kinetz, NYTimes reporter in her review of Twyla Tharp’s book The Creative Habit. In her article, Ms. Kinetz explains the concept of how the repetition of a “ritualized set of physical exercises”, provides a time for reflective consciousness, which is to say a time to get in touch with the present (how does my body feel today as opposed to in previous days) and to re-investigate the movements anew. Hence, through repetition, we are not just training the body, but the mind as well. This is the definition of discipline – regular practice with attention. Many people ask me how I continue to teach the same basic Pilates exercises every day for so many years without getting bored. My answer is that they always feel new to me! 

I have had great satisfaction in seeing the few students who take the time to come back consistently to class, growing in their skill and development of their bodies. With no change in the exercises, they find that they now feel the work even more and get better results, not less, from the repetition. Others, who either found the work too challenging or were not committed, come back infrequently and think things are still the same and are bored. But, boredom is never a problem of the exercise, it is a problem of the mind. In my classes, there is always much to focus on. And it is precisely this focus that creates control and develops the body as nothing else can. You can tell you are in a real technique class by the way the instructor is getting you to focus, not on muscles, but on the way you are moving – with direction, quality, ease of effort, grace, and form. I always make students aware of the whole body so they can sense the oppositional forces, the length, the space, alignment, and control from head to toe. This is how repetition leads to better and better mastery. 

With this being said, I am not against learning new things. In fact, I probably challenge my students with more exercises outside of the traditional Pilates and yoga vocabulary than anyone. However, I don’t do it just to have them do new things. I do it to show then how to apply the same exact focus used in Pilates and yoga with any exercise. It is a continuation of the technique, applied to different movements. It is never really about the exercise, but again in how you do it. This is how I approach teaching my Yogilates and Barre Fusion classes. Within the vocabulary of the toning exercises, I integrate the focus on the whole body, proper alignment, centering, fluidity, and balanced development. Needless to say, doing Pilates and Barre Fusion is a natural combination, just like Pilates and Ballet. For me, the goal is still the same – efficient, quality exercises that teach you to move better, as well as look better. 

Take care, Jonathan