What Pilates Studio is right for you?
I would love to have each and everyone of you in my Pilate studio here in Papillion, Gretna Nebraska area. The key to success is to find a place that resets your central nervous system along with your body. A place that feels like a sanctuary from your daily grind. Pilates is an escape, a reset and a practice. Your perfect Studio environment sets you up for success.
What kind of Pilates studio fits your personality?
The correct answer for you may not be the best answer for your best friend, colleague or spouse. Finding the right Pilates environment depends entirely on what motivates you, or, what sustains you. While large group settings can feel energetic and motivating for some, private sessions offer a calm, focused sanctuary where the Pilates routine adapts entirely to your pace.
There are three ways to do Pilates and all three options have equal weight and merit. The one you find most comfortable for a long term practice may depend, age, personality type and lifestyle. No one person is the same.
I am going to go through all your options because with personal experience I find the same patterns over and over. I want to share this experience with you to help you on your journey. No matter where you are, a veteran or just starting out there is a place and space for you!
The Large Franchise Group Pilates Setting
This is a wonderful opportunity for a lot of people. Large group sessions make the price more affordable. Affordability gives more people opportunity to experience Pilates. In a group setting the pace is set by the instructor. An experienced instructor will read the room and tailor the session to the bodies in front of them. Maybe you love the louder music, and the projecting voice and maybe you have craved going to a boot camp or a YMCA group class in the past. This might be what you are looking for. There are a variety in instructors, classes, and it is a more affordable option.
NOTE FOR MY EXTROVERTS:
If you are looking for an affordable Pilates Studio to connect with people, this could be an excellent opportunity, but sometimes it isn't. Let me explain. Most of your Franchise studios have very little space for people to come and go and get to know each other. You have about 4-5 minutes to get off your reformer and clean up. Then the next shift of people come in for the next session. If your main purpose is to find an instant connection, that may take awhile. I find that your most social people in this setting are going to be your 11:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. retirees. They have time to chat outside of the lobby. They want to get to know each other and they are not so quickly coming and going. Your earlier sessions are working professionals who leave and are out the door to the next thing. Your evening people have worked all day and they are toast by the time they come in and don't have much left to say. They want to get their workout in and go to bed.
I would suggest a group mat Pilates session at one of your larger health clubs if affordability and long lasting friendships are what you are trying to build. People talk in the hallway, see each other again in the locker room and their bonds form a lot quicker than in your tight cramped franchise studio. Or, try those later morning and early afternoon sessions for a better chance at connection if reformer and price are best for you.
NOTE FOR MY INTROVERTS:
This is still a great choice especially for price. If you are new to Pilates and your are searching around please consider buying a session or two over a huge unlimited package and investigate how you feel after a few sessions. I would say that about any studio big or small.
While you are on the reformer check in with yourself. Are you feeling uplifted and recharged or, are you leaving feeling irritated by all the noise and people? How you feel later in your body not just physically but mentally is a great indicator of what works for you. So check in with yourself.
I am a very happy extroverted- introvert who LOVES people. And the Meyer's Briggs will confirm all of my Introverted tendencies. Most people who know me would say, yep, Jessica is an extrovert. You would probably never know it unless I shared with you Personally my need to recharge.
Group classes do work for me but only when I am recharged or have had a day of solitude. If I go into a franchise Pilates Studio, and I am mentally or socially drained, my Pilates session might feel more like a distraction over a reset to me. Instead of feeling recharged and reset, I feel like a crabby overdo-er who needs a nap. What happens if I keep feeling this way? I quit going and most likely I waste my sessions or my membership? Has that ever happened to you? If it has or it keeps happening with your fitness goals than you might be someone who needs a space to recharge.
What would the ideal Group session look like from an instructor with lots of experience?
I drive a little farther, pay a small amount more, by the class. I take group sessions from an established studio who has around 5 reformers. I would still prefer a private session because I feel like I get more value for my time and money. When a private is not an option, I drive across town to one of my favorite instructors who only teaches group early on Tuesdays. I enjoy a smaller setting because my instructor can correct my form better. I don't feel so crowded in my space. The music isn't so loud and intruding.
The Private Studio
The private studio is a fantastic opportunity for people who can splurge on the investment. Or, who can make the time fit. Private Pilates sessions are tailored to the person.
A private session is like having a Pilates Concierge. I have heard it explained a lot of ways from my clients who have started in the group Pilates world and then moved over the the private session space. One of my clients on Saturday said, Pilates is the Mercedes of working out. I couldn't help but laugh because I always thought it was the Cadillac of working out. Pick your luxury vehicle!
THE BRIDGE PILATES STUDIO AMENITIES:
The private session is music that is specific to you. It is a towel that is handed to you if you start sweating. It is handing you a cappuccino or latte and a smile when you walk through the door. Or, the bubbly of your choice when you walk in.
The straps you use that belong only to you and they provided to you by the studio and you don't have to share your hand germs with anyone else.
The instructor sanitizes everything.
THE STRUCTURE:
The session starts with breathwork and alignment. In your first free session I ask questions and I move you to see what is going on in your body. My trained eye looks for the strengths, injuries, occupational hazards, structural and muscular imbalances, and range of motion. I am trained to take the most immobile person, or the truest athlete and build them up and keep moving into more challenging territory.
I use Pilates, based on my observations to build up balance, lengthen, stabilize supporting muscles so the big muscles can do the job they were meant to originally do. And, I do that in a safe way without injury. Over time you find your neutral spine and proper alignment. And when you go home you stand taller, mover better and with more confidence. Over time you find a flow that will start taking you on a journey like a Kata flow takes ninja warrior on a journey. The flows become more advanced. They are tailored to your experience and they are rewarding.
Pilates is not place where you take a few sessions and you conquer it. You continue to build onto what your body learned the week before. The reward continues each week as you find strength in new ways that a squat or bicep curl can never take you.
It is a practice of mind body control that spill joy over into every area of your life if you create space for it. For most of my clients it is a secret weapon to help them sustain their balance between being a CEO and having 4 children. A private session also resets your mind and your nervous system.
The joy of a private session with a comprehensive instructor is that we get to take you as far as you want to go with it. From basic footwork all the way to Arabesque and Snake if your body will allow. The Pilates escape is all yours and we get help you find your specific goals and challenges. And then we celebrate with you and cheer you on.
NOTE FOR MY EXTROVERT:
This is a great option if you already have social avenues like a family and a busy job. Most of the extroverts in my private studio are CEO's or People in the public world who want great instruction but their privacy is important and they wanting to keep it that way without explanation. Or, people who have physical limitations, like back pain, and knee injuries.
If you are an extravert that works in an outgoing environment and privacy or physical challenges are not a concern, I would seek out a mid sized studio with group sessions. A private studio might be good for a few sessions to find your form and neutral spine and breathwork. It is also a great way to close out the world and find your mind body connection. However, if you are feeling bored, and unmotivated after a few private sessions, I would keep looking for a space that connects with you.
NOTE FOR MY INTROVERT:
If you are still reading along you might enjoy one on one training.
Do want someone you can trust? Have you quit exercising because your because your job, kids, life wear you out? Do you feel achy all the time because your adrenals are burnt? Or, is it something else? Are you a giver to everyone around you but forget to give back to yourself?
The private studio might be your option to find your practice. And stick with it.