What is Pilates good for?
Pilates is excellent for improving muscular endurance, stability, and control. It’s also a great form of injury prevention. By enhancing the mind-body connection, Pilates helps you concentrate and control your movements, which is why it was originally called "Contrology."
What’s the difference between Yoga and Pilates?
Yoga focuses on flexibility, breathwork, and mindfulness, often incorporating static poses and flowing sequences. Pilates, on the other hand, is more structured and centered on building core strength, stability, and controlled movement with repetition. While both improve flexibility and mobility, Pilates has a stronger emphasis on precise muscle engagement and alignment, making it highly effective for injury prevention and rehabilitation.
Is Pilates primarily stretching?
No. While Pilates includes mobility work, it’s not mainly about stretching. Pilates actively strengthens your deep stabilizing muscles, improves endurance, and enhances overall body control. It's better described as functional strength training for your little muscles that usually are not targeted with traditional weightlifting. Every movement requires intentional muscle engagement, and while Pilates exercises do stretch your muscles, they are dynamic stretches (stretching while muscles are worked or moving) rather than passive stretches.
Do you accept insurance?
Currently, we do not accept insurance. However, we plan on getting the medical licensing to provide superbills in the future that you can use to be reimbursed a portion of the costs.
Is an evaluation required before beginning services?
Yes. After a discovery call, we will conduct an in-person physical assessment to create a personalized workout plan that aligns with your needs and goals.
Why 90 minutes per session?
Most Pilates instructors stick to 50 minutes to an hour per session, but in my experience, this is not enough for most people. Especially when they are getting started. To get deeper work done, especially for people with chronic pain, it will take more time just as it took your body a long time in dysfunction before you finally got injured or felt the consequence of it. I do not rush you, and I finish when the work is done - which is usually around 90 minutes. Warming up your body and cooling it down after the exercises are just as important as the exercises themselves. This is something I learned from my own massage therapist and Rolfer. I also have come to agreement with other bodyworkers and also mental health therapists that an hourly session of bodywork or therapy is not enough for deeper work.
What ages do you work with?
We work with individuals of all ages, from children to seniors.
Do you know how to work with certain contraindications?
Yes, we are experienced in modifying exercises to accommodate various health conditions or contraindications.
What is the cancellation and rescheduling policy?
Your appointment time is set aside just for you, and a last-minute cancellation means someone else misses out on that spot. If you need to cancel or reschedule, please let us know by 5:00 PM the day before. We understand that things come up, so if you're sick or the weather is bad, same-day cancellations are okay, and we won’t charge a fee.
How will I be billed for services?
Workout plan packages must be prepaid, while individual sessions are paid at the time of service.
What forms of payment are accepted?
We accept Credit card, Zelle, Venmo, and cash.
How often do you recommend Pilates?
The frequency depends on your current fitness level, workout routine, and specific goals. During your evaluation, we’ll determine the best routine for you.
Common Myths about Pilates
Pilates is good for lengthening muscles
Muscles do not lengthen, as they have a fixed attachments and insertions into tendons on the bones. The reason why many Pilates practitioners and dancers look lean is due to a low body fat percentage and due to consistent exercise and movement. What Pilates does is improve flexibility and mobility.
Pilates is good for losing weight
Pilates can help, but it’s only one factor on top of many others such as diet, biology, and other forms of exercise you do outside the Pilates sessions. Weight loss is complex and there is no one size fits all. I offer consultations where we discuss your weight loss goals, and I can recommend steps to find the right fitness plan or the specialists who can help you.
Pilates was made by a dancer
Joseph Pilates was a German boxer and an acrobat who came up with this modality for injured prisoners of war in a British camp, so it has its origins in rehabilitation. However, his method became popular through ballet dancers who were many of his first clients and proteges, hence the association with dancing.
Pilates is a woman’s space
Pilates is popular with women, especially group classes. However, it benefits anyone of all fitness levels and ages. Many male athletes, such as football players and boxers, practice Pilates to gain an edge and extend their athletic careers, and many senior men do Pilates to maintain their functional fitness while preventing injuries in the future. Just like weight bearing exercises are beneficial for women and highly recommended for a healthy lifestyle, Pilates is highly recommended for men of all demographics. If you do not feel comfortable with joining group classes that are primarily made of women, that is valid and understandable. I suggest private sessions that are personalized to your own goals and focused on your needs, and you will get the most out of that time anyway.
Pilates corrects muscular imbalances
There is an idea that Pilates, or even conventional strengthening exercises, fixes or cures muscular imbalances. It does not. It only helps manage them. If you have muscular imbalances due to bad habits or a sedentary lifestyle, Pilates can compensate for them and manage them, but the true fix is a change in your lifestyle or fixing the bad habits. There can also be structural or genetic issues to why you have imbalances in the first place, which Pilates alone will not fix. This is where I advise you on how to further seek help during your consultation with me. Let me reassure you, however, that nobody has a perfect spine, and everyone has asymmetrical sides with a dominant side. We work with this all the time.
Pilates replaces weightlifting
Pilates targets your slow twitch muscles, which are the deep and intrinsic muscles inside your body that helps with endurance, stability, and control. Many conventional workouts do not target these muscles like Pilates does. Weightlifting, on the other hand, has a series of high-intensity movements with bursts of force that use your fast twitch muscles. For a well rounded fitness routine, you need both. I never recommend Pilates in place of weightlifting or vice versa. But if you are a beginner building a fitness foundation, you want something you can do every day, or you need injury prevention, then I recommend starting with Pilates as the base and building your strength with weight bearing exercises.