Pilates Intel Online Newsletter for the Pilates Teaching Community

We are back at it again today with an online debate about a popular Pilates topic, breathing techniques, and my esteemed “debatteur du jour” is Amit Younger of pilatesod.com. I find breathing techniques useless and counterproductive, and in extreme cases life threatening.  On the other hand, Amit loves them.  Amit […]

I am always shocked when I teach at a conference or hear people talking about the history of Joseph Pilates.  There is still so much misinformation about the man and his life.  The Internet promotes these falsehoods with many articles that have not been updated.  In fact, while writing this […]

Pilates is a funny business to be in. A man created a program of exercise about a hundred years ago, and opened a studio space to teach it in NYC. But from what I’ve read over the years, it sounds like Joseph Pilates was generally more focused on the creating, […]

We Pilates instructors are skilled educators and motivators, who inspire people to engage in healthy lifestyle choices. We want all of our classes and sessions to flow from one movement to the next, and make everyone feel better and more energized by the end. So what do we Pilates teachers […]

When I was nominated to the position of committee head for the Authentic Pilates Union’s (APU) Charity Committee in autumn 2013 I felt as though my long time interest in Pilates and philanthropy had come seeking me. For many years I have felt that Pilates has a lot to offer […]

1)  Move the spine towards neutral 2)  Add length to the spine 3)  Add strengthening techniques.   At it’s core, it’s really that simple.   Getting Started You cannot continue to train muscles in the same-old posture if you want to create change. You know that’s true for postures like […]

We Pilates practitioners have certainly heard about that camp, that finds that using Gratz original equipment is superior, and even necessary to do Pilates correctly. Anyone subscribed for some time knows that I always welcome a difference in opinion.  As for me, I do not agree with this point of […]

We’re running a sale! Save 10% off. No, 20% off! Or how about $15 off? Check out our June specials. We’re sending you a come-back-to-us offer. We’re offering a special deal. And your first class is free! Discounts. They can be a valuable marketing tool or a destructive disaster. It […]

This piece is about my website Pilates On Demand (PilatesOD.com), but I equally want it to be a platform for discussion on the question of home practice as well as a few other topics the relate to our profession. I very much invite you all to comment on the below […]

Another fine article published at Pilates Intel. Teaching the Subtleties of Body Awareness & the Brain by Anne Bishop Body awareness is the ability to pay attention to and maintain perception of your body. It is the capacity to feel your body in movement and in stillness. Focusing on the […]

“It is the mind which shapes the body”. Friedrich von Schiller I had the pleasure of being invited to teach in Germany some years back. On my last day at work in New York City before departing, I asked a German Pilates instructor on my team how to translate a word I […]

It has been said that a business is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Although you may vividly remember the struggles of building and sustaining a successful business, your buyer may only see what appears to be some used equipment and a simplistic business model. It […]

Karena Thek is the author of OsteoPilates, Increase Bone Density, Reduce Fracture Risk, Look and Feel Great! (2003, Career Press) Is Pilates safe for osteoporosis?  It can be.  If taught with appropriate modifications, Pilates is safe for those with low bone density. In fact, not only is Pilates safe, but […]

We live in a lop-sided world.  The way we carry our bags, our books and our babies creates muscle imbalances and a dominant side of the body.  Add to that, one-sided sports like tennis, golf or baseball and we have intensified these misalignments and created asymmetrical patterns that affect all […]

I want to start by sharing a lovely compliment I received from a Facebook post by Joanne Elphinston. “We are so pleased to meet Brett, an insightful Pilates teacher based in Stockholm. One of his aims for Pilates Intel is to question and challenge the teaching and practice of Pilates […]

A short while back I had the good fortune of visiting the workshop of Fredrik and Elisabet Prag in their rural home outside of Stockholm.  Fredrik and Elisabet are both Pilates instructors, passionate about the classical technique.  They are also craftspersons; they design and build Pilates apparatus.  The purpose of my visit was to […]

As far back as I can remember, I hated the idea of selling. Having to convince someone to buy something? No thanks. It seemed so unpleasant. It didn’t look like a particularly noble profession, and it definitely wasn’t anything I wanted to do. Growing up, anything that involved a sales […]

Hi to Pilates Intel readers! Brett has kindly asked me to share a little about myself, and some of my experiences working with Pilates teachers. I’d be delighted – I really enjoy working with Pilates teachers, who I have found to be dedicatedly working to improve people’s lives from a […]

Right around now is the time I like the least in my business. In fact, I dread it… Good guess, but no, it’s not the tax season (even though that’s a whole other chapter). No, right now, I am about 5 weeks away from my next retreat and one week […]

Here are two guys that I can guess many of you are aware of, they being Michael Fritzke and Ton Voogt. For those of you who don’t know them, they are both classically trained in the Pilates method and creators of the TRIADBALLTM. They spend an estimated 75% of their […]

Not long ago I had the great pleasure of meeting the intelligent and enthusiastic Jennifer Kries via a Skype date.  Despite it not being in-person, it was one of those rare pleasures where one experiences a true meeting of the minds, but we’ll go into greater detail about that a […]

The scapular region can be a particularly challenging area to work with. It must be simultaneously stable and mobile, a tricky balance to strike when so many people have very little sense of connection to this area. A very specific biomechanical misunderstanding about function in this area has led to […]

It’s funny how things can be so much the exact same AND completely different all at the same time. I’ve totally tasted the Kool Aide now, and while I can’t say that my mantra is Trust The Method, I am getting a completely different workout. It takes less to do […]

“If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30 you are old; if it is completely flexible at 60, you are young” – Joseph Pilates. The point Joe was making is clear, the flexibility of your spine determines your age more than the number of birthdays you’ve had. Keeping your spine […]

1)  Move the spine towards neutral 2)  Add length to the spine 3)  Add strengthening techniques.   At it’s core, it’s really that simple.   Getting Started You cannot continue to train muscles in the same-old posture if you want to create change. You know that’s true for postures like […]

About me: (nutshell version, you can thank me later) I’ve been an artist, comic, actress, dancer (not the long lithe willowy ballerina type- think more the shorter athletic gymnastic jazz type) and of all things (don’t laugh, I’m old) mime. I am still a hairdresser, was a mortgage loan officer, […]

Remembering Julian Littleford – by Lolita San Miguel Dance, New York City, Pilates, Carola Trier.  This quartet of common experience was the medium that first joined Julian and me. Both of us had been professional dancers in New York City, Julian having been a principal dancer with the famous Martha […]

What role does the mind play when you exercise? Heard the phrase, “get out of your head, and get into your body?” Thought about how to actually do that and why you would even want to? I heard that phrase many times, but never really gave it serious thought. That is, until […]

The Keeper of the Flame – by Jennifer Kries     Powerhouse.  Force of nature.  Magician.  Mischievous Flirt.  Star.  Healer.  The Keeper of the Flame. Romana was all of these things, and more. Romana was bigger than any space she occupied. Her being could not be contained by any four […]

  If you look up ‘work/life balance’ you get a stream of hits including the words, ‘beat burnout’,          ‘reclaim control’, ‘family’ and ‘income equality’ in the header. It would seem this is a subject that has been looked into, you might even say researched and a lot. If you consider that […]

So today I would like to take up breathing, a subject as we all know that is central the Pilates technique.  Joseph Pilates himself wrote extensively about posterior lateral breathing, taking the air into the lower back part of the lungs, with the idea to widen the chest area in […]