For those of you who may not know Lolita San Miguel, is a first generation Pilates Elder and one of two persons officially certified by Joseph and Clara Pilates to teach The Method,

And the above heading is a direct quote from her, and is the topic of a letter written by Susan Pepper of Swissbody Pilates Academy.

Recently  Susan and I spoke  on this very topic – that students / instructors are not training with Pilates daily and in some instances are not upkeeping their skills by attending further workshops / courses. The end result is instructors who are not developing their own internal stamina, not developing the technique within their own bodies and as a result end up having very little understanding of this wonderful method and its expansive range

Below is a letter Susan has published and has kindly allowed me to reproduce for you. During our converstation Susan told me of the huge reaction received regarding its content mostly from like minded professionals who agree and understand that Pilates is not fitness but a method a system that we must nurture within our selves and within our profession in order to encourage  the public to become our clients and participate in this wonderful system – this expression of all that is strong and healthy

Joyce The PROGRESSIVE Pilates Academy @ BODYFIRM Studios

Dear Pilates Colleagues,

Happy New Year to you all!

This time last year we were all wondering how the financial crisis would affect us. It seems that most of us survived and some of us came to the end of 2009 with the same growth in income as any other year. What is the secret of the success of those who continue to grow their client base? What are they doing that keeps new clients coming but, most importantly, what encourages the old clients to come back year after year?

I was watching a film on television recently and this was part of the dialogue:

« Do you do Pilates? »

« No, what’s that »

« Oh it’s expensive stretching »

If your Pilates training was a good one, this probably made you laugh. I did, but then I got extremely worried. Is this how people see Pilates? What are the teachers teaching? Is this what we want people to think of this wonderful physical training?

Another comment that I heard from a recently trained Pilates teacher stands out in my mind:

« I would like to follow courses for advanced Pilates exercises on the equipment where you don’t have to be an acrobat to be able to do the exercises »

What do teachers want?

Do we want to teach Pilates (the exercises taught by Joseph Pilates) or do we want to teach « expensive stretching »?

It’s easy to teach expensive stretching.

It takes time, years of personal training, teaching experience and continual training to understand the Method so as to teach Pilates!

There is no harm in breaking down the exercises so that they are more accessible to all, or adapting the exercises for specific client needs. This is part of « adapting the method to the client and not the client to the method ».

The risk is that Pilates teachers no longer do or know the original exercises. They don’t know how to train healthy, fit bodies into even healthier and fitter bodies. We’re not talking acrobats, just fit and strong people who want to challenge their minds and muscles. Achieving the hardest Pilates exercises can be seen as the measure of extreme well being.

Have you ever asked yourself why there are so few men in Pilates studios? Why the average age of most Pilates clients is between 35 and 40?

Lolita San Miguel wrote: “One of the biggest dangers in Pilates are teachers who don’t have teachers”

So if we love our job and want to encourage new clients (young and old, men and women) to come to us and stay with us year after year what can we do about it? CONTINUE TO STUDY!!! Train your own body (Lolita San Miguel says daily), do classes with other teachers regularly, go to continual education courses with experienced teachers and yes, learn the advanced equipment work and no, it is not only for acrobats. Once you learn where the strength comes from to do these exercises and how to do them properly, you will open new horizons for yourselves and your clients and we will no longer hear comments like: « Oh, Pilates is expensive stretching ».

Let us all stand together to uphold the quality of the Pilates Method. In this way we will all have work forever.

With love and passion

Susan Pepper