19/10/2026
Pilates….. what is it?
A lot of people get recommended to do pilates by health professionals, friends and family but how do you know where to go or what is proper pilates and what is a watered down, vague representation of Pilates?
Rant loading……..😈
A huge pet peeve of many who have been in the Pilates industry for awhile is the rise of performative Pilates and the reason for this is because we care about our clients! We have trained for years ( and will continue to do so) in order to be able to deliver the best instruction and education to our clients to give them the best experience and keep them safe!! We don’t do short cuts with our education.
The performative instructor has done a fast tracked qualification and doesn’t put the time into further learning. They can put a “fun” class together but due to not having the deeper understanding of the exercises, they can’t modify them to suit the person in front of them, often leading to injuries. This doesn’t mean a performative instructor can’t become a wonderful instructor with time and learning, we would certainly embrace them.
I cringe everytime a client mentions being hurt in a Pilates class as they were instructed to lift 10kg bars above their head during a standing series with no other options- that’s not Pilates!!!!
Pilates is a method to rebalance and strengthen the body whilst bringing awareness to how we move. Every exercise has a purpose ( and instructors need to know what that is!) and can be regressed back or progressed forward depending on the individual client.
A good Pilates instructor:
⭐️Can individualize exercises for each
client
⭐️They walk the room to ensure every client understands the exercise
⭐️ They give plenty of corrections and are hands on!
