From Student to Austin Pilates Teacher: Finding Freedom in Movement

Taking a private Pilates session at Pilates Unlimited in Dallas, Texas.

We usually try new things when we’re looking for a solution to a problem. For me, practicing Pilates solved a physical hurdle: moving while in pain. But becoming an Austin Pilates teacher solved a lifestyle problem: recovering from my soul-crushing reality that was sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day doing PR and marketing.

My Pilates student journey took off in a mat Pilates class at Ballet Austin, and my teacher training journey began when a studio called Pilates South Austin opened near my southwest Austin neighborhood. Pilates had become my “rest of my life” exercises to manage back pain. After a few months of classes and private sessions at Pilates South Austin*, a mentor looked at me and said, “Have you thought about teacher training? I think you’d make a good teacher.”

My Journey Through Austin Pilates Studios and Beyond

I put my first toe into teacher training in 2014, and let’s be honest: deciding to study a new subject as an adult is both energizing and a total freefall. The process re-educated me on what it actually takes to achieve a goal: saying no to some things and saying yes to yourself.

Pilates teacher training is more than learning Pilates history, how to name and teach exercises and their intention, or memorizing muscles and mechanics of shoulders, spine, hips and knees. Teacher training is also a journey through your own body; I logged hundreds of hours of personal practice (now thousands). It included 350 hours of classes at Pilates South Austin and other local Austin studios including Ballet Austin and Todd Pilates, supplemented by online deep dives with favorite instructors on Pilates Anytime.

I’m also a self-proclaimed “Pilates tourist.”  Whether I’m in Amsterdam (Body Vita), San Diego (Pilates of San Diego), New York (Mind Your Body, Pilates on 5th**), Dallas (Pilates Unlimited), or Dayton, Ohio (Club Pilates), I love visiting new studios and meeting new teachers. Practicing with others makes me stronger as both a student and a teacher. 

My Austin Pilates pals also keep me moving, and together we have roamed studios including Align West and East, Ritual Moves, Body Harmony, Bodybar and more. I also road-tripped to Bastrop County to visit my teacher training friends at Studio P, on Highway 71 in Bastrop. I recently took a mat Pilates class with Moontower Pilates in central Austin, and I enjoy working with a private teacher at Body Harmony ATX in Cedar Park, one of Austin’s northwest suburbs. Being a part of a Pilates community means getting out and doing more Pilates.

More Than a Workout: A Language for Your Body

Our bodies are constantly talking to us. They tell us when they’re uncomfortable, but we don’t always have the vocabulary to listen. Learning, practicing and teaching Pilates changed that for me.

One of the best parts of being a Pilates instructor is helping people take their practice out of the studio and into the real world. When you keep coming to Pilates class, your Pilates-inspired “ah-ha” moments begin to emerge in daily life, for example:

• Are you commuting up and down MoPac?  Whether you’re driving to the Domain or San Marcos, you become more aware of your posture, leg position and how your head, neck and shoulders connect with your car seat.

• Brushing your teeth or pouring your coffee? Ever notice that your shoulder creeps up to your earlobe? After a few months of Pilates, you will. Relax your shoulders and use your arm and back instead of your neck for these simple daily tasks.

• Typing on your laptop or phone: You might decide voice to text is your best friend. Or raising your monitor and lowering your keyboard. When we get our shoulders out of our earlobes, they will want to stay there when we’re doing these repetitive work/life activities like typing.

• Carrying groceries, putting them away on lower shelves and refrigerator drawers – we become aware that our core strength distributes the load.

• Walking your dog? Some students decide they want their arms to swing freely and trade in their retractable leashes for a waist belt and leash.

  
  

Why Pilates Helps Us Feel Better and Stronger

Like walking or swimming, Pilates exercises are simple (not necessarily easy), versatile ways to move your body to feel better. On the surface, they are bodyweight exercises that explore our relationship to gravity: we flex, extend, rotate. We stabilize; we mobilize. It’s a method with its own grammar that connects movements of our spine with our arms and legs.

That's why there's not "one PIlates exercise" you should do every day. (Though I might suggest six you could do every day.) Because Pilates is full body, it's why I don't teach "booty burn" exercises or "abs and arms." Doing Pilates means learning full body exercises and becoming aware of the relationship between our limbs and our core. Once we know, it's hard to miss -- and that awareness is what improves how we move throughout our day.

I love having these Pilates exercises, these "tools" to communicate with my body. A Pilates workout -- on mat, reformer, chair or whatever -- can rev us up or calm us down; it can be an inward meditation or an outward expansion. The best part? Pilates really is completely portable. You don't have to use equipment to do Pilates. Once you learn how to move, it's all yours for free, forever. I take Pilates everywhere I go.

That's what I’m here to teach you, whether you live in Austin (or beyond) and you want to feel better in your body.

*The studio known as Pilates South Austin closed in December 2022, and I am forever grateful to its owners for supporting my journey with enthusiasm and patience.

**I am glad that I visited Pilates on 5th in 2019 and was sad to hear it closed during COVID.