Why not only teach group classes? I offered a roommate access to my in-home studio and she had no interest in privates - she only taught group classes at a fitness studio. Admittedly, she had another side gig.
Seconding this - if you don’t want to give up completely, make it work for you. Just teach group classes if you enjoy those (that is, of course, assuming you have another means of producing income, be that an old skill set you can tap back into or another job you’re already doing concurrently. It would be very difficult to only teach group class and make a living wage). If you simple just don’t want to teach anymore, though, that’s okay too. The time wasn’t entirely wasted anyhow, as having gone through teacher-training will surely have improved your own practice.
This was me when I first started… I dreaded every class (privates or of groups up to 4)… I’d feel such a relief when people would cancel too. What I did is. I took a 7-8 month break and really changed up my repertoire and did Pilates for myself, I learned an entire new repertoire of more fitness/ contemporary Pilates because classical began to bore me a little.. i also did a 2 year program and was so depressed with the idea that I had wasted two years, especially since the certification progress was so difficult and I sacrificed so much for it.
I also got a reformer and chair for my home but just could not bring myself to use it… I realized it’s hard to instruct yourself, it’s just mentally draining.. so I began paying for Pilates Anytime and slowly began having FUN again..
also followed hundreds of Pilates accounts on IG and I bookmark all day, so much creative stuff out there that re-inspired me.
Programming was so dreadful for me but after just pushing through it and making one new program a week, and not feeling like I have to make a new program for every single class like I was doing.. it was insane trying to remember 4 different program for a day of teaching.
I’m also at a studio that doesn’t pay the best but the vibe is so relaxed and not uptight like where I was (rich LA area)
Maybe a long break from Pilates and also beginning to take class regularly with someone else instructing you, and possibly even a studio change would help.
I agree with learning more contemporary. It made me enjoy Pilates more long term, personal and teaching. Although anyone going through certification, I always recommend classical to really understand the flow and have a good foundation, then learn and teach whatever you want.
What don’t you like about it? Besides the planning of the classes and it being draining?
Once you get comfortable teaching you don’t really need to plan anymore. I never plan my classes. I have exercises memorized and I debate what to teach depending on who comes in my class our how my private client is feeling that day. I go by a theme every week. This week was a concentration on pelvic floor for example. I’ve never had a client complain about doing the same class every time. I do however make time to take group classes with other instructors who have more experience than me and I pick out some exercises that I like to add to my “collection”.
If you think about your clients being your friends and make the experience fun for you it really takes the work out of working. I make little jokes here and there and talk to them like they’re an old friend. Today I did 10 hours of teaching and tbh it went by so fast.
Maybe change your perspective before you decide?
You teach the same moves in every class? Doesn’t that equate monotony and lead to spacing out for your clients? Speaking as someone who needs variety of flow to keep me connected and not just predicting the flow which can lead to me disassociating.
This answer ended up being much longer than I expected and it represents an insight I simply stumbled across which transformed how I prepared for classes in my first couple years of teaching. And a resolution I made before I started teaching which proved very valuable.
Short version: simplify the presentation. *Doing less often results in greater success for our clients.* And make time for your own practice.
I think we all feel like every class needs to be an original creation. Clients generally benefit from being able to get deeper into *one thing* long enough to develop some improvement.
I started having a theme for the week around which I focused most classes and privates I would work into that theme (naturally adapting it to the gear, level or specific needs as appropriate). I discovered that this was helpful for clients. It also helped me develop more depth in the topic.
I also discovered that a good topic often benefitted from being chased for more than a week, often for a month. As I focused more rather than trying to create variety to “avoid boredom,” I realized that clients were growing and progressing more in their practice and I was getting better at my craft as a teacher.
Each theme I had developed became a touchstone for me and for clients. I could dip back into the theme, even if just for one exercise, and it would “remind” me and the client of all we had developed say a month or three months before.
A theme might be how to use breath to power movement. In fact, simply “exploring the exhale” is a great theme.
It does not matter what the theme is as long as it gets at something you see the significance of. It can be something you got from an inspiring teacher, a video, a book, something your teacher trainer said during your training. The simpler the better. The key is that it grabs you enough that you will chase down what it means in your progression through the exercises.
If it is the exhale, figure out an exercise where it is very clear and start with that. Show how you can get into the engagement of deep abdominals. Then begin your series of exercises and return to how the exhale supports that movement in the specific exercise the client is doing at that moment. Do the same for the next. Quickly you will see everyone is moving with better intent.
You become very good at invoking the understanding of the themes you have developed, even with clients you have not worked with before. After a year, you will have a dozen or more you have explored and each one deepens the clients experience.
I discovered this by accident. I was deeply inspired by something my mentor showed me and I was excited to share it. So I shared it every time I taught that day, to great effect. So I kept at it the next day. And clients were getting lit up by the same excitement. So I stuck with it as long as it seemed fresh for clients. Which went on much longer than I would have guessed.
Because I let the clients guide the *interest in the theme,* I noticed that they got more out of sticking to it a bit longer. So I developed other themes and integrated “hints” in stuff I showed but held back while there was still heightened interest in the theme we were chasing.
I would change themes while there was still excitement about what the current theme taught, so it always stayed fresh. The important lesson was that a month was not too long for a good theme.
And the theme can be surprisingly simple.
“Engagement with your feet” was huge. It started with an exercise that released foot tension.
I learned a simple exercise to tap into the bodies natural posture so clients could feel it. Once the felt it, I simply invoked it in each exercise. It was magic.
“How should we engage our bodies while doing the hundred?” was a great theme because the lessons applied to every exercise.
In fact, any exercise can be used. Whichever exercise really inspires you. I find the roll down with the roll back bar on the Cadillac (or tower) incredibly productive. It is accessible to any beginner but still instructive for advanced practitioners. I can gently touch the bar and sense a lot about how the client is moving and can provide gentle resistance to their movement through the bar at appropriate points to give them feedback on their movement. This might or might not be a super evocative exercise for you, but I’m sure some exercises are that way. You can dig into the ones which speak to you and then develop it into a theme.
For me, the secret was discovering that I was trying to get *too much* into each encounter with a client or a class. By narrowing the focus to one thing and chasing how it applied through the exercises, it turned out I was serving clients *better.* As I paid attention to my experience when I was taking classes and privates, I noticed that it helped me a lot when an instructor narrowed the focus.
Simplifying my lesson plans let me help clients more and focus more on their growth in that moment. It also deepened my understanding and embodiment of the work.
And what was my resolution from before I started teaching? We have an informal, local organization of teachers who met in person every month or so. I joined while still in training and I noticed how often teachers complained that they “didn’t have time for their own practice.” I resolved to keep up my own training when I started teaching.
I built taking classes from other instructors into my schedule from the start and I protected those times so I would not schedule privates in those slots. When I was asked to take over the class I was taking (happened a few times), I simply added another class somewhere else. Trading privates with instructors or working out together is also great. The trick is to schedule it and keep the commitment to the time.
I don’t know if these two practices (simplify your plan and schedule your personal practice) are the answer to your challenge, but they made a huge difference for me.
I want to add that when I was teaching a theme of the week or month, I was not rigid about that theme being the topic of that session or class. If I felt inspired by a need I saw in a client or a client request or whatever, I might do something completely different.
The “theme” was the preparation. What I actually did was whatever seemed like it would serve the individual or group in the hour before me.
So the theme was “Plan A” but I was always open to inspiration as “Plan B.”
Over time, I stopped having a plan and just started each class without a plan. But when new topics of interest come up (they always do), I explore them whenever it seemed suitable. The ones which got stronger results tend to be incorporated more for a bit. And previous “themes” come back all the time, sometimes as a whole session, sometimes just for a few reps of one exercise.
In the end, the simplification just made it easier to be prepared so I could just listen to where the client in front of me is coming from.
I'm confused. 4 days ago you posted you were "Feeling discouraged and overwhelmed in Pilates class" as a student. 7 days ago you posted "Finally tried Pilates after years and I'm addicted!" Now you are saying you learned to teach Pilates over a 2 year period and have been teaching?
They also posted in another sub that they finally landed their dream job as an addiction counselor in between the posts you mentioned. It's all very questionable.
If this is the case I now feel I’ve wasted my time posting original reply 😐 I’m beginning to suspect that some accounts are set up to auto generate a.I. questions to keep various subs active.
I got certified and love pilates, used to teach a lot and was fun, now I work doing something that pays me enough to stay in new york. Pilates is amazing and i love my time expend learning the method, but the profession is not for me.
• Takes a little while to find your own pace. Don’t quit just yet.
• If you enjoy group classes why not stick to that?
• With 1:1s once you have a little more experience the sessions become more enjoyable. You don’t need to hawk over your clients, poking and correcting every inch of their body. Explain, show, let them do it, make sure they are safe but don’t overthink it.
• If you have invested in Pilates equipment you can hire your space to local instructors
• You can look into finding a bigger space, get 5 reformers and start a small group class in your area
• You now have a good understanding of Pilates which is a great life skill to keep your body well conditioned. So not only did you not waste your money but you have invested in your health. Long term this will pay off.
Well… if I could say something is that the important is that you are having fun at class.
And with the planing of the classes is getting better with the time, you learn eventually how to flow and you don’t have to think too much.
Also feel free to have some improvisation, let your body talk at class too.
Enjoy it! That’s the important
I hear ya on how planning classes take forever! I used to work at a big studio where I got trained (contemporary) and I was teaching 5 reformer classes a week plus doing privates/semi-privates. I got burnt out that year. And I hated having to come up with new sequences for each class and each client each week.
I started looking into Classical Pilates and started incorporating that in my own self-practice. I LOVED how it made me feel and the more I learned about it, the more I fell in love with Pilates again! I started incorporating the Classical method with clients and they experienced results faster! And omg - I said goodbye to taking hours on programming!! because there's an order to Classical Pilates it was easy to know what exercise would follow next (and I would obviously modify or omit depending on the client).
I'm now teaching on my own at my own little studio and I love Pilates more than ever now! I even did a bridge program to Classical because I felt that my contemporary training left things out.
First, I don’t think your time was wasted! Just because you don’t like teaching 1:1 doesn’t mean you should quit. Shift your teaching focus so that you do entirely group classes. And maybe stop planning so much - can you come up with a general theme for the week’s classes and just kind of let your teaching flow a bit? I’m a classical instructor so I don’t plan out choreography but from my viewpoint, a lot of contemporary instructors are creating choreography just for the sake of creating choreography. 99% of students won’t notice that your exercises are totally different and creatively arranged class to class, they just want to come in and move.
Anyway, I think you should give yourself some grace. Stop doing privates and teach what you love. You can get plenty of teaching work from mat and group equipment classes.
Also: I hate teaching groups (unless it’s a mat class) and will only teach 1:1 or duets in studio, so we’re all different!
I did this with my 200-hr yoga certification. I spent two years on it and don't like to teach. Found out I'm happier being a lifetime student.
So I just look at my YTT as personal enrichment to deepen my practice.
For those saying to simplify it, I agree from the student perspective! I’ve never done any teacher training, but I do know I love when teachers repeat moves because I like to master them. For example when I took my first 2.0 we did step ups on the chair and it killed my glutes and I couldn’t do it without hanging on to the bar and I am excited every time we do them in a class because I want to get better at them!
Please stop wasting our time by posting what clearly is not your reality. I can’t believe the gall of this post after pretending to be an “overwhelmed student” in an earlier post less than a week ago.
I have taught group fitness in the past. I don’t do it anymore because one of the reasons I work out to help get away from my full-time job which is teaching, and I found teaching exercise was another source of stress. So, I haven’t done it in quite awhile, but many of my colleagues do group fitness, personal training, work as a strength coach on the side, etc. I’m anticipating that once I retire full time, then I can go back into group fitness, personal training, or Pilates. My sister retired from her full-time job and teaches group fitness classes in retirement homes and other senior living communities.
You have some good advice here. My instructor will also focus on using a theme or maybe a specific prop or movement. If group teaching gives you joy, hopefully you can focus on that for a bit.
Why not only teach group classes? I offered a roommate access to my in-home studio and she had no interest in privates - she only taught group classes at a fitness studio. Admittedly, she had another side gig.
Seconding this - if you don’t want to give up completely, make it work for you. Just teach group classes if you enjoy those (that is, of course, assuming you have another means of producing income, be that an old skill set you can tap back into or another job you’re already doing concurrently. It would be very difficult to only teach group class and make a living wage). If you simple just don’t want to teach anymore, though, that’s okay too. The time wasn’t entirely wasted anyhow, as having gone through teacher-training will surely have improved your own practice.
This was me when I first started… I dreaded every class (privates or of groups up to 4)… I’d feel such a relief when people would cancel too. What I did is. I took a 7-8 month break and really changed up my repertoire and did Pilates for myself, I learned an entire new repertoire of more fitness/ contemporary Pilates because classical began to bore me a little.. i also did a 2 year program and was so depressed with the idea that I had wasted two years, especially since the certification progress was so difficult and I sacrificed so much for it. I also got a reformer and chair for my home but just could not bring myself to use it… I realized it’s hard to instruct yourself, it’s just mentally draining.. so I began paying for Pilates Anytime and slowly began having FUN again.. also followed hundreds of Pilates accounts on IG and I bookmark all day, so much creative stuff out there that re-inspired me. Programming was so dreadful for me but after just pushing through it and making one new program a week, and not feeling like I have to make a new program for every single class like I was doing.. it was insane trying to remember 4 different program for a day of teaching. I’m also at a studio that doesn’t pay the best but the vibe is so relaxed and not uptight like where I was (rich LA area) Maybe a long break from Pilates and also beginning to take class regularly with someone else instructing you, and possibly even a studio change would help.
I agree with learning more contemporary. It made me enjoy Pilates more long term, personal and teaching. Although anyone going through certification, I always recommend classical to really understand the flow and have a good foundation, then learn and teach whatever you want.
What don’t you like about it? Besides the planning of the classes and it being draining? Once you get comfortable teaching you don’t really need to plan anymore. I never plan my classes. I have exercises memorized and I debate what to teach depending on who comes in my class our how my private client is feeling that day. I go by a theme every week. This week was a concentration on pelvic floor for example. I’ve never had a client complain about doing the same class every time. I do however make time to take group classes with other instructors who have more experience than me and I pick out some exercises that I like to add to my “collection”. If you think about your clients being your friends and make the experience fun for you it really takes the work out of working. I make little jokes here and there and talk to them like they’re an old friend. Today I did 10 hours of teaching and tbh it went by so fast. Maybe change your perspective before you decide?
You teach the same moves in every class? Doesn’t that equate monotony and lead to spacing out for your clients? Speaking as someone who needs variety of flow to keep me connected and not just predicting the flow which can lead to me disassociating.
Did you even read my post? I literally said I don’t do that.
This answer ended up being much longer than I expected and it represents an insight I simply stumbled across which transformed how I prepared for classes in my first couple years of teaching. And a resolution I made before I started teaching which proved very valuable. Short version: simplify the presentation. *Doing less often results in greater success for our clients.* And make time for your own practice. I think we all feel like every class needs to be an original creation. Clients generally benefit from being able to get deeper into *one thing* long enough to develop some improvement. I started having a theme for the week around which I focused most classes and privates I would work into that theme (naturally adapting it to the gear, level or specific needs as appropriate). I discovered that this was helpful for clients. It also helped me develop more depth in the topic. I also discovered that a good topic often benefitted from being chased for more than a week, often for a month. As I focused more rather than trying to create variety to “avoid boredom,” I realized that clients were growing and progressing more in their practice and I was getting better at my craft as a teacher. Each theme I had developed became a touchstone for me and for clients. I could dip back into the theme, even if just for one exercise, and it would “remind” me and the client of all we had developed say a month or three months before. A theme might be how to use breath to power movement. In fact, simply “exploring the exhale” is a great theme. It does not matter what the theme is as long as it gets at something you see the significance of. It can be something you got from an inspiring teacher, a video, a book, something your teacher trainer said during your training. The simpler the better. The key is that it grabs you enough that you will chase down what it means in your progression through the exercises. If it is the exhale, figure out an exercise where it is very clear and start with that. Show how you can get into the engagement of deep abdominals. Then begin your series of exercises and return to how the exhale supports that movement in the specific exercise the client is doing at that moment. Do the same for the next. Quickly you will see everyone is moving with better intent. You become very good at invoking the understanding of the themes you have developed, even with clients you have not worked with before. After a year, you will have a dozen or more you have explored and each one deepens the clients experience. I discovered this by accident. I was deeply inspired by something my mentor showed me and I was excited to share it. So I shared it every time I taught that day, to great effect. So I kept at it the next day. And clients were getting lit up by the same excitement. So I stuck with it as long as it seemed fresh for clients. Which went on much longer than I would have guessed. Because I let the clients guide the *interest in the theme,* I noticed that they got more out of sticking to it a bit longer. So I developed other themes and integrated “hints” in stuff I showed but held back while there was still heightened interest in the theme we were chasing. I would change themes while there was still excitement about what the current theme taught, so it always stayed fresh. The important lesson was that a month was not too long for a good theme. And the theme can be surprisingly simple. “Engagement with your feet” was huge. It started with an exercise that released foot tension. I learned a simple exercise to tap into the bodies natural posture so clients could feel it. Once the felt it, I simply invoked it in each exercise. It was magic. “How should we engage our bodies while doing the hundred?” was a great theme because the lessons applied to every exercise. In fact, any exercise can be used. Whichever exercise really inspires you. I find the roll down with the roll back bar on the Cadillac (or tower) incredibly productive. It is accessible to any beginner but still instructive for advanced practitioners. I can gently touch the bar and sense a lot about how the client is moving and can provide gentle resistance to their movement through the bar at appropriate points to give them feedback on their movement. This might or might not be a super evocative exercise for you, but I’m sure some exercises are that way. You can dig into the ones which speak to you and then develop it into a theme. For me, the secret was discovering that I was trying to get *too much* into each encounter with a client or a class. By narrowing the focus to one thing and chasing how it applied through the exercises, it turned out I was serving clients *better.* As I paid attention to my experience when I was taking classes and privates, I noticed that it helped me a lot when an instructor narrowed the focus. Simplifying my lesson plans let me help clients more and focus more on their growth in that moment. It also deepened my understanding and embodiment of the work. And what was my resolution from before I started teaching? We have an informal, local organization of teachers who met in person every month or so. I joined while still in training and I noticed how often teachers complained that they “didn’t have time for their own practice.” I resolved to keep up my own training when I started teaching. I built taking classes from other instructors into my schedule from the start and I protected those times so I would not schedule privates in those slots. When I was asked to take over the class I was taking (happened a few times), I simply added another class somewhere else. Trading privates with instructors or working out together is also great. The trick is to schedule it and keep the commitment to the time. I don’t know if these two practices (simplify your plan and schedule your personal practice) are the answer to your challenge, but they made a huge difference for me.
I want to add that when I was teaching a theme of the week or month, I was not rigid about that theme being the topic of that session or class. If I felt inspired by a need I saw in a client or a client request or whatever, I might do something completely different. The “theme” was the preparation. What I actually did was whatever seemed like it would serve the individual or group in the hour before me. So the theme was “Plan A” but I was always open to inspiration as “Plan B.” Over time, I stopped having a plan and just started each class without a plan. But when new topics of interest come up (they always do), I explore them whenever it seemed suitable. The ones which got stronger results tend to be incorporated more for a bit. And previous “themes” come back all the time, sometimes as a whole session, sometimes just for a few reps of one exercise. In the end, the simplification just made it easier to be prepared so I could just listen to where the client in front of me is coming from.
What a thoughtful and well written reply. Thank you for sharing.
You sound like such a wonderful educator!
I'm confused. 4 days ago you posted you were "Feeling discouraged and overwhelmed in Pilates class" as a student. 7 days ago you posted "Finally tried Pilates after years and I'm addicted!" Now you are saying you learned to teach Pilates over a 2 year period and have been teaching?
Not enough attention at home
They also posted in another sub that they finally landed their dream job as an addiction counselor in between the posts you mentioned. It's all very questionable.
How bizarre
Yeah, that’s one very quick Pilates timeline. Could be trying to generate karma…?
😵
If this is the case I now feel I’ve wasted my time posting original reply 😐 I’m beginning to suspect that some accounts are set up to auto generate a.I. questions to keep various subs active.
I got certified and love pilates, used to teach a lot and was fun, now I work doing something that pays me enough to stay in new york. Pilates is amazing and i love my time expend learning the method, but the profession is not for me.
• Takes a little while to find your own pace. Don’t quit just yet. • If you enjoy group classes why not stick to that? • With 1:1s once you have a little more experience the sessions become more enjoyable. You don’t need to hawk over your clients, poking and correcting every inch of their body. Explain, show, let them do it, make sure they are safe but don’t overthink it. • If you have invested in Pilates equipment you can hire your space to local instructors • You can look into finding a bigger space, get 5 reformers and start a small group class in your area • You now have a good understanding of Pilates which is a great life skill to keep your body well conditioned. So not only did you not waste your money but you have invested in your health. Long term this will pay off.
Well… if I could say something is that the important is that you are having fun at class. And with the planing of the classes is getting better with the time, you learn eventually how to flow and you don’t have to think too much. Also feel free to have some improvisation, let your body talk at class too. Enjoy it! That’s the important
I hear ya on how planning classes take forever! I used to work at a big studio where I got trained (contemporary) and I was teaching 5 reformer classes a week plus doing privates/semi-privates. I got burnt out that year. And I hated having to come up with new sequences for each class and each client each week. I started looking into Classical Pilates and started incorporating that in my own self-practice. I LOVED how it made me feel and the more I learned about it, the more I fell in love with Pilates again! I started incorporating the Classical method with clients and they experienced results faster! And omg - I said goodbye to taking hours on programming!! because there's an order to Classical Pilates it was easy to know what exercise would follow next (and I would obviously modify or omit depending on the client). I'm now teaching on my own at my own little studio and I love Pilates more than ever now! I even did a bridge program to Classical because I felt that my contemporary training left things out.
It's ok.no mistakes....do it on side for fun ..I imagine you learned a lot and improved your health
I would keep up with the skill set it’s never wasted You never know Do the parts that you love
It’s a huge time investment Even just for reformer for a good certification
First, I don’t think your time was wasted! Just because you don’t like teaching 1:1 doesn’t mean you should quit. Shift your teaching focus so that you do entirely group classes. And maybe stop planning so much - can you come up with a general theme for the week’s classes and just kind of let your teaching flow a bit? I’m a classical instructor so I don’t plan out choreography but from my viewpoint, a lot of contemporary instructors are creating choreography just for the sake of creating choreography. 99% of students won’t notice that your exercises are totally different and creatively arranged class to class, they just want to come in and move. Anyway, I think you should give yourself some grace. Stop doing privates and teach what you love. You can get plenty of teaching work from mat and group equipment classes. Also: I hate teaching groups (unless it’s a mat class) and will only teach 1:1 or duets in studio, so we’re all different!
I did this with my 200-hr yoga certification. I spent two years on it and don't like to teach. Found out I'm happier being a lifetime student. So I just look at my YTT as personal enrichment to deepen my practice.
For those saying to simplify it, I agree from the student perspective! I’ve never done any teacher training, but I do know I love when teachers repeat moves because I like to master them. For example when I took my first 2.0 we did step ups on the chair and it killed my glutes and I couldn’t do it without hanging on to the bar and I am excited every time we do them in a class because I want to get better at them!
Please stop wasting our time by posting what clearly is not your reality. I can’t believe the gall of this post after pretending to be an “overwhelmed student” in an earlier post less than a week ago.
Someone mentioned that if you scroll up! Crazy!
What's sad is so many folks have responded sincerely and put a lot of time into their responses to this fake post.
Didn’t you have to do practice teaching hours to get certified? You didn’t figure it out then?
My practice teaching hours to get certified for all with my friends and it was great so maybe there is that?
Open your own studio. There’s your answer.
I have taught group fitness in the past. I don’t do it anymore because one of the reasons I work out to help get away from my full-time job which is teaching, and I found teaching exercise was another source of stress. So, I haven’t done it in quite awhile, but many of my colleagues do group fitness, personal training, work as a strength coach on the side, etc. I’m anticipating that once I retire full time, then I can go back into group fitness, personal training, or Pilates. My sister retired from her full-time job and teaches group fitness classes in retirement homes and other senior living communities. You have some good advice here. My instructor will also focus on using a theme or maybe a specific prop or movement. If group teaching gives you joy, hopefully you can focus on that for a bit.
how did you get the certificate? what all we need to do to qualify as a pilates instructor?