Hi, future Pilates instructors! Emily here, PPF co-founder and Head of Instructor Education.
It can be quite daunting registering for an intensive Pilates course and never having met the trainer who you are going to spend long days with! Therefore, we thought we would introduce ourselves first, so you get to know a bit about us as well as a rare insight into a Pilates instructor training course!
Emma
A little bit about me and why I love Pilates:
I first tried Pilates as a university student, for an assignment that required me to profile a physical activity I had never participated in. I continued to dip into it over the years, but I started focusing on it a little more when I fell pregnant with my first child. I was living in Sydney at the time and decided to complete my Matwork training down there. I had a real focus on pre & post-natal Pilates, as that was the world I was very much in at the time! When my family finally moved back to Brisbane, I completed Reformer training with Emily at PPF and have been working at PPF ever since. I love Pilates; to me it is a moving meditation. If I am focused on my alignment, moving with my breath and engaging my core, it is possible to cast aside all those intrusive thoughts about that thing I should have done, or what I need from Woollies on the way home. It is a form of exercise where I can work hard and absolutely feel a burn, but it is without impact or someone shouting at me to push harder!! Lastly, I love that Pilates complements every other activity I do - providing support for long bushwalks, the occasional jog and sitting on the ground with ease to play with little people.
Why I love being a Teacher Trainer:
I love being a Teacher Trainer as I get to share my passion for Pilates with others who share the same love! I enjoy breaking down a movement pattern and the muscle engagement behind it in a logical and clear way, so that I can see student's make their own connections and have their own independent understanding (as opposed to a rote learning of an exercise). I also love getting to relate all of this to the studio scenario - what is actually realistic when you are instructing a class - so student's can gain some insight into how they might go forward in exercise prescription.
What make PPF instructor training stand out:
I think the team of teacher trainers makes PPF instructor training stand out. We all instruct classes each week, bringing current knowledge and experience into the courses. We also come from a variety of backgrounds and have a range of teaching styles. I believe this helps students feel comfortable in their own skin, as they observe that there is not one set way to be an Instructor.
Jac
A little bit about me:
I am from the UK and moved to Australia almost 10 years ago after living in London and working as a Manager in Retail on Oxford Street. In Australia I worked as a Multi-State Manager in Cosmetics and wanted to embrace a different lifestyle which still utilised my previous skills of training however in a new way which is why I made the decision to leave one career and start another and haven't looked back.
I got into Pilates 9 years ago when I moved to Australia, I loved that it allowed stillness in my busy life. I can't do yoga as my mind is crazy active, yet the focus I need for Pilates ensuring I am engaging the correct muscles and making sure I have good technique stills my mind and gives me the quiet time I need mentally whilst my body is still moving - wanky I know but it's the truth!
What traits of a student stand out in the instructor training?
My favourite thing about becoming an instructor trainer is seeing those 'aha' moments in people's training when cues, corrections or exercises suddenly make sense to them and they feel it in a new way or understand the reasoning behind it.
What qualities do you see in a PPF trained instructor?
For me, from a recruiting perspective what I see in a PPF trained instructor is the confidence in teaching, they can not only articulate the exercise effectively giving the full body set up and breathing patterns but their verbal and physical corrections of clients are concise to maximise the workout whilst allowing their personality to shine through, no two PPF trained instructors are the same in the best possible way.
What is your favourite thing about being an instructor trainer?
I really like inquisitive students when they want to know the why behind a movement or setup. To me that tells me that they are understanding on a deeper level and how the movement effects the body as a whole.
Simone
A little bit about me:
I got into Mat Pilates years ago when I was living on the Gold Coast. Then, when I moved to Brisbane, I was introduced to Reformer Pilates by my physio. I started doing clinical Pilates twice a week, and then started going to a Pilates studio. I wasn't into sports or exercise growing up. I was the one at school who would come up with any excuse to get out of P.E. class, but finding Pilates changed all that for me. It gave me the confidence to move my body and not feel embarrassed. Now, I exercise because it's fun! I love doing Reformer, but I also love Barre, going for a swim and even going to the gym.
I had a couple careers before finding Pilates. I was a family lawyer for a few years, but it wasn't for me, so then I moved into teaching, which I always wanted to do. I taught English as a Second Language for around 6 years, and enjoyed being able to share my love for language with my students. It was fulfilling to help them learn and become more confident with English. Working as a teacher taught me a lot too - people learn in all different ways, and as a teacher, you have to be able to adapt and change the way you teach to include everyone.
During my last couple of years as an English teacher, I started to instruct Pilates. I fell in love with instructing so much that I gave up my job as an English teacher and moved to instructing Pilates full time.
What do you love about Pilates.
There are so many things I love about Pilates, but I'll try to narrow it down to three main things:
1. Pilates combines a good balance of strength, muscle tone and flexibility/mobility.
2. Practicing Pilates encourages you to focus on your body in a mindful way. This awareness creates more understanding of your body, how it moves, where you hold tension and what makes you feel your very best.
3. It's so much fun!
What made you choose to become a Pilates instructor.
It was a really easy decision to become a Pilates instructor. I love teaching and I love Pilates, and I wanted to help other people move their bodies with confidence.
What is your favourite thing about being an instructor trainer?
I was lucky enough to work with our most recent cohort of Mat PIlates students. I was mostly involved in marking their practical assessments and giving them feedback around this. What I enjoyed the most was seeing how excited (and maybe a little nervous) the students were, but mostly how eager they were to learn and understand all they could about instructing.
Chloe
A little bit about me:
I am a retired lawyer with 3 adult children and although Ihad been practising Pilates for many years, I didn’t start teaching Pilates until I retired from my day job. I was initially drawn to Pilates as a client in my early 30’s after having 3 children and decades of lower back pain. Up until that point of time, my usual form of exercise was gym-based cardio and weights with the attitude of ‘go hard or go home’. Unfortunately, I often ‘went home’ with increased back pain. I tried Pilates during a stage where I was looking to recover from an acute strain of my lower back, and I immediately fell in love. I love the way a class flows from one movement to another; I love being able to isolate a muscle group to ensure that they are working and strengthening; I love understanding that your core and abdominal muscles are key in everything you do. I still like to work hard when I exercise (just ask my clients) but now it is with a better understanding of what I can achieve and how to achieve it without compromising on form and technique and injuring myself. More than 20 years later and I am still finding new ways to challenge myself and I am still very much in love with Pilates.
Why I love being a Teacher Trainer:
The one thing I love about being a teacher trainer is the people. I love meeting the new trainees for the first time and getting to know what is driving them to do the course and what they are looking to achieve. The first few days of the course are always filled with enthusiasm but there is also an undercurrent of nerves and tension from the trainees. There is nothing more satisfying than watching this dissipate over the duration of the course and seeing these confident, engaged and passionate future instructors emerge. There is always an added bonus whenever any of the trainees come to do their apprentice teaching in my classes, and I have the opportunity to see how much growth there has been in their practice. I love this but more importantly, I love the exhilaration on their faces when they finish their set as they also realise that they can do it!
Emily
A bit about me: I created the Premium Pilates and Fitness teacher training courses back in 2015-2016. During my years of teaching Pilates, clients would fall in love with the discipline and ask me how they could become an instructor. I felt a strong desire to teach and share my knowledge and passion for the fitness regime that has changed my life, both mentally and physically. I took all the skills I had learnt from many Pilates training courses and workshops to create the Premium Pilates and Fitness way of teaching!
What skills (other than the ability to teach Pilates) do you hope students take away from the courses?
I hope my students improve their confidence, public speaking skills, communication strategies, problem solving and planning skills, and ability to relate, encourage and motivate others. A major part of my courses involve learning how to modify exercises for discomfort, injuries and pregnancy and postnatal bodies, therefore, my students learn to think on their feet, to adapt quickly, to be flexible and to understand how the body works in movement. The PPF courses will challenge you to go out of your comfort zone, but will also provide you with skills to further connect with your clients.
What are the avenues for Pilates students when they complete the PPF courses?
There's so many directions they can take! Past students of mine have set up their own Pilates studios, some work full time in an office and instruct Pilates on the side as their passion projects, other students of mine work full time in the Pilates industry, splitting their hours between instructing, marketing and administration. Other students of mine purely used the Pilates training to improve their own Pilates practice, as they love Pilates and wanted a deeper understanding the discipline.
What is one of your favourite things about the courses you created?
I love that so many of my students become friends during and after the courses! There is such a sense of camaraderie in the courses; the students support each other during every assessment, they cheer each other on and there is no ego whatsoever. When I created these courses I wanted to create a like minded community of Pilates instructors who would encourage each other and continue learning together and this has organically happened.
Why are we seeing more and more people turn to careers in health & fitness?
The fitness industry is expanding more every single day, as people around the world learn to make their mental health and physical wellbeing a priority, particularly during a pandemic! I think due to covid, people have realised that life is short and that they want to spend it doing what they love and are passionate about. For so many people their passion involves moving their bodies, helping and inspiring others, connecting with people and staying mentally and physically healthy. As a Pilates instructor and/or fitness instructor, your passion is your job.
Any last words you would like to leave us with?
You'll never regret starting Pilates, whether it be adding it to your exercise routine or participating in a course. So many of our clients and students say to us that they 'wish they had found Pilates earlier in life'. Pilates is more accessible now that it has ever been before; what are you waiting for!?
