WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE IN TEACHER TRAINING?

Does it matter how your Pilates instructor learned how to perform and teach the exercises? You bet it does. Your concern for your own safety should be directly proportional to the amount you research your instructor’s background and training. Don’t be shy! You absolutely, positively have the right to inquire about your teacher’s education. Don’t know what to ask? To help you structure your inquiry, here’s some background on what’s going on in the world of Pilates teacher certification.

Pilates became popular in mainstream America very rapidly and a low-end, quickie teacher training industry sprung to life virtually overnight to fill the need for instructors. The fitness industry generally caters to the “in” thing and many gyms hire Pilates instructors who have had very little training to teach classes for as many as 30 clients at a time. With the profit machines treating it like a short-term trend with little or no understanding of the breadth and power of the work, there are many Pilates teacher “certifications” that take all of a weekend or two to complete. Many such “certifications” have absolutely no requirements of prior experience with Pilates or any other movement or fitness discipline.

The result is that legions of fast-track “certified” instructors flood the market and teach something, but it’s definitely not Pilates.

The quickie teacher certifications, the knock-off equipment, the QVC specials . . . hopefully all that will pass as quickly as it came and before we know it, the trend-treatment of Pilates will have gone the way of the many other fitness trends that plow through our culture, leaving some of us injured, many of us disillusioned and most of us still looking for safe and effective core strength training.

Don’t be fooled! Pilates is not a fad. It’s not a recent trend. The work in its authentic form is almost 100 years old years old and it has, unquestionably, withstood the test of time.

Is someone receiving a weekend certification going to teach you this work? Is someone who hasn’t worked these marvelous exercises into their own body going to teach you Pilates? How is someone who hasn’t received adequate training going to teach you? How is someone who can’t do it or doesn’t do it regularly going to teach you how to do it? The answer is simple: they won’t and they can’t. A sad and obvious truth: certify to teach Pilates in a hurry and your clients pay the price.

If you want to learn Pilates, whether you want the healthy body, the long and lean look, the mind/body connection or all of the above, don’t settle for a knock-off. You deserve to learn the real thing from teachers well-trained in the authentic work.


Our Training:

At Pilates Powerhouse NW™, our instructors have taken a very difficult path to teacher certification. For our primary Pilates education, we completed a rigorous year-long training program which included a 600 hour apprenticeship and intensive study with Joseph Pilates’ long-time student, Master Teacher Romana Kryzanowska. Romana worked for many years with Joe, was certified as an Instructor by him and since his death in 1967, she’s continued training clients and instructors in his authentic work. Of all First Generation and Master Pilates teachers worldwide, Romana has the longest history of training successive generations of instructors in the most formalized setting.

As a prerequisite for admission into Romana’s teacher training and certification program, we were required to have extensive experience practicing Pilates and we had to be able to correctly perform the exercises at an advanced level. We were dedicated clients long before we were teachers in training.

There are two main teachers at PPNW. Rebecca Leone is the senior teacher and owner of the studio. Heidi Byrnes is a highly accomplished teacher, she is Rebecca’s teaching partner, her right hand man and her foil. Heidi has worked at PPNW since November 2001 but Rebecca and Heidi were in the same Pilates teacher training program and have been doing the work together in one form or another since 1999. In addition to our various other individual achievements, both of us passed - with flying colors - the Pilates Method Alliance National Standards Exam and enjoy a lifetime designation of Gold Certified because we passed the test prior to the publication of the study guide.

Beyond our primary training, PPNW teachers continue our education by either coursework in compatible disciplines (anatomy, Feldencrais, stability ball, foam roller, etc.) or with other First Generation Teachers and Master Teachers in other historic Pilates schools. In June 2005, Rebecca completed the University of Washington Sports Medicine and Human Performance program, a one-year certification that has been invaluable to her teaching. We hope to send Heidi to UW for the same program in the fall of 2007.

Also, Rebecca is a national teacher-of-teachers, conducting workshops at the Pilates Method Alliance international education conferences, Pilates Style educational conferences as well as at other venues throughout the country. She has presented at National Figure Skating conferences for both recreational and competitive coaches and judges and produced an instructional Pilates Mat DVD for figure skaters called Pilates on Ice (PilatesOnIce.com). Rebecca has written Q&A pieces for PilatesStyle magazine, an article for Pilates Pro, an online magazine. Rebecca was asked to serve on the Board of Directors of the Pilates Method Alliance, took a 2-year seat in November 2006.

Our training is well beyond what most studios offer and of course, our clients are all the better for it.


Where your session never ends.

Our mission is to use this work to help you improve your health, to make your life happier and l-o-n-g-e-r and to help you achieve your full potential physically and mentally. Pilates is not a discreet exercise experience; it’s a philosophy of deep meaning, simplicity and near super-human strength all embodied in the most elegant, safe and complete method of movement ever created. Joe Pilates himself delineated this purpose, this goal, this mission – he wrote about it in his books. At PPNW, we live in his spirit and think of him as our ever watchful and quite demanding boss. We teach this work to improve your life, to strengthen and stretch your body, to refine the way you live in your body, to help you achieve your fitness goals and to expand the way you think – about everything.

The unique aspect of our method of teaching at PPNW is a combination of 3 important elements: 1) our thorough and ever-evolving understanding of this work, 2) our unbridled passion and deep love for what this work has meant to us personally and 3) our dynamic teaching style. When you work with us, we’ll teach you the connection between the safe and natural forms of movement in Pilates and how they apply to the way you use your body in your everyday life. We call that Applied Pilates™ and it’s the biggest contributing factor to our clients’ success in really getting the most benefit possible from their investment in learning this work. Many PPNW clients were taught for years at other studios and never made the connections or gained the understanding they got after just a few sessions with us.



Instructor questions.

So, do you still need some advice about what to ask your Pilates instructor? Let’s start with . . . How long have you done Pilates? How many sessions have you had? Where did you train? What teacher training/certification/ school did you attend? How long (hours/months/years) was your teacher training? What if any were the prerequisites for acceptance into your teacher training program? With whom did you have to assess/audition for acceptance into the program? Who were your teachers? What is their training? Did any of them ever train with Joe Pilates? If so, for how long? What written and/or practical tests did you have to take to pass your certification? How many hours/years of experience do you have working one-on-one with clients? How much did it cost for you to certify? How many exercises did you learn to teach? Are you trained to teach on all pieces of Pilates equipment? Do you know the difference between the authentic method and the various Pilates-based methods? Do you know about other types of Pilates certifications? What are your continuing education requirements? Have you passed the National Standards Exam? Is your ability to teach subject to continued review by your certifying institution? What is your personal history of movement? What is your personal experience in teaching something other than Pilates?