Is there such thing as a Pilates Method?

I saw a post on Instagram the other day that rubbed me the wrong way. A local reformer pilates studio posted a comment on their account saying there is no such thing as a pilates “method” and if a studio advertises a pilates method they have an “ego”.

This is inherently not true.

Having practiced pilates for the past 15 years starting with classical Ramona Pilates trained instructors in New York City, to taking classes in some of the most exclusive pilates studios all over the world with some of the best pilates instructors in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tel Aviv and beyond, I can absolutely vouch for the fact that these instructors have a cult following for a reason- and that reason is that they have developed their method of teaching.

What sets a pilates studio apart is the quality of the teaching and the way the instructors are training the bodies in the room. The only marker of real results from taking a class is the results you are seeing in your body. Have you ever wondered why you keep taking classes at the same studio and are not seeing results (even though you are following a healthy diet, sleeping and your hormones are balanced)? It’s because there is NO method to the instruction being provided to you.

Joseph Pilates created a manual for classical pilates technique. That technique requires the student to repeat the same routine of movements, breathing patterns and exercises. Unfortunately, there comes a time when your mind and body have perfected that methodology and your brain is no longer stimulated in this repetitive movement pattern and neither is your body. That is why you plateau and stop seeing the changes you once lusted after.

The very core of a good pilates studio is the method to their instruction. It isn’t in that the instructors are reinventing the movements, it is in the very reason that these instructors pour hours of their time into research, practice and applying their strategies to the bodies they are working with day in and day out. This is why I stress the importance of practicing everything in my body and in the bodies of our instructors, in order for us to learn whether the movement patterns we are offering to our clients serve a purpose. We then question the purpose they serve.

Any one can come up with a complicated routine that feels hard. But we ask ourselves why is this hard and what is it doing to our body? The method lies exactly in asking ourselves these questions, in the hours we spend time practicing, learning and applying what we learn.

It would take a disheartened, unaware and seemingly uninterested party to blatantly slap on a statement like having a method means having an ego. It is not ego to have spent years practicing and continuing to improve upon what you have learned and continue to change people’s bodies, curing injuries, aiding in postpartum recovery and ensuring we avoid new injuries from forming.

That’s not ego, that called being a professional in your field of study. Which we at Miami Pilates, take very seriously.