Entries in News/Research (75)
Pilates Pro Newsfeed
Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates (and Pilates-related) news from around the Web. Enjoy!
At PHIT in the Hartford Courant
- Here’s a feel-good story for a pre-holiday weekend. In Sharing Their Own Special Space, from the Hartford Courant, Pilates instructor Susannah Israel goes every day to the place she got married: her Pilates studio, PHIT. “This building is part of our romance,” Susannah told the Courant. “I’m literally in the room [where] we took our vows. It has such a good karma.”
- The New York Times ran a few pieces of interest for Pilates and fitness professionals recently: The Best Exercises for Healthy Bones, on exercise and bone density, Why Exercise Makes You Less Anxious, and this piece on a burgeoning competitive yoga movement, Is the Spirit of Competition in the Soul of Yoga? Yikes!
- Pilates: A Thinking Way of Moving, is an examination of Joe’s original principles, from exercise physiologist Angie Ferguson in The Fort Myers, Fla., News-Press.
- Metro International newspapers featured Viveca Jensen’s Piloxing, including three exercises with photos.
- Researchers confirmed Texting Can Be a Pain in the Neck and Shoulders, WebMD reports.
- Yahoo’s Shine recommended a 15-minute a.m. round of Pilates in Why Exercising in the Morning Will Change Your Life, with six suggested moves to start the day.
- And for a little pre-Thanksgiving fun, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got an inside look at how the Radio City Rockettes stay fit during their high-kicking holiday season.
Lauren Charlip
in Facebook, News/Research, Piloxing, bones, osteoporosis
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Pilates Method Alliance Teacher Training Summit Report
By Lauren Charlip
Pilates-Pro.com was unable to attend the Pilates Method Alliance’s Teacher Training Summit in Dallas on November 7-8, and we’ve been eager for information about the event. This week the PMA released a report on the meeting that’s now available here. We also spoke to PMA Executive Director Elizabeth Anderson and summit attendees for a closer look at the outcome.
The summit, which drew nearly 80 teacher trainers and program administrators from a range of Pilates backgrounds, was organized to “try to build consensus about how to move forward as an industry in terms of professionalizing,” Anderson said. At issue, according to the PMA, is the use of the word “certification” and the need to differentiate between the completion of a comprehensive teacher-training program and an industry-wide third-party credential. Currently, the word “certification” is used to denote both.
After many hours of group discussion, all but a handful of attendees left the summit agreeing to cease usage of the word “certification” to signify completion of their training programs, and signed a public commitment to change the terminology they’re using by July 1, 2010. Several well-known Pilates brands signed on, including Balanced Body, BASI Pilates, Fletcher Pilates, Polestar Pilates Education, Power Pilates and The Pilates Center of Boulder. Read the full list here, on the PMA report.
In 2005, the PMA launched an industry-wide third-party comprehensive Pilates certification exam (which, to date, is the only industry-wide exam). As a third party, the PMA has no commercial relationship to the exam candidate or the training provider. This independence distinguishes a third-party credentialed certification from a “diploma” or a “certificate” earned at the end of a teacher training program, much like passing a state bar exam is different than graduating from a law school. Many people believe that adopting a third-party credentialing process is important for the Pilates industry as it professionalizes, and believe that professionalization is important because of the level of growth Pilates has experienced in recent years.
The PMA suggests in the report that schools replace the word “certification” with either “diploma,” “assessment-based certificate” (ABC) or “graduate.” “We recommend people do it in the name of self-regulation, so that the Pilates industry can get in line with ways that other professions behave and operate that are much more established than us,” Anderson said.
Lauren Charlip
in Balanced Body, Career Development, Education, Elizabeth Anderson, NCCA, News/Research, Nora St. John, PMA, assessment-based certificate, certification, professionalization
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Pilates Ranks High in 2010 Fitness Forecast
The American College of Sports Medicine released a fitness trends forecast for 2010 last week, and based on its list of projected top 10 trends, the outlook is great for Pilates instructors next year.
Pilates itself was ranked No. 9 as a standalone category, and two more of the ACSM’s top 10 trends have a direct connection to the work of Pilates professionals; core training and functional fitness were ranked No. 5 and No. 9 respectively. The ACSM’s No. 1 trend was ‘Educated and experienced fitness professionals,’ making this the third year in a row that trend tops the list. Other strongly Pilates-related trends on the list were personal training and strength training, though a Pilates connection could easily be drawn to any of the top 10 items.
The top trends were assembled from the results of a worldwide survey with nearly 1,500 respondents. Surveyors gave 37 potential trends as choices and then ranked returns, formulating a report on the top 20 that was initially published in the November/December issue of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal®
The full top 10 list, with descriptions, is available after the jump.
Lauren Charlip
in American College of Sports Medicine, Career Development, News/Research, core training, fitness trends, functional fitness
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PMA Announces Launch of Regional Chapters
The Pilates Method Alliance announced plans earlier this week to create regional and local chapters, a response to member requests in recent years. A new PMA Chapters Committee has been established, headed up by PMA member and certified teacher Andrea Jeanfreau, who brings 17 years of corporate organizational experience to the initiative.
PMA Executive Director Elizabeth Anderson said that regional chapters will create a better communication vehicle for the PMA and its membership, and an opportunity for board members to visit and have direct contact with the Pilates community. “We want to feel that there’s a lot of back and forth. We’re interested in getting direct and accurate feedback from membership about what they want from the PMA and how they’d like to contribute and what they’d like the organization to do,” she said.
The announcement was made in an e-mail blast that went out on Tuesday (which, in an uncanny coincidence, was released just about the same time we published a story on The Growth of Pilates Collectives). At the moment, Anderson says, they’re still working on structure and documentation for regional use, and putting together the affiliate agreement.
“We’ve had over 100 emails since Tuesday, from all over the country and all over the world,” Anderson told us yesterday. Internationally, Anderson said, the PMA has received inquiries from Italy, the U.K., Germany and Mexico, among other countries.
Jeanfreau, who is based in New Orleans, will be launching the pilot PMA regional chapter. She’s considering forming a Gulf Coast chapter encompassing in Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia.
This is a big week for the PMA, which is also convening a Teacher Training Summit in Dallas on Nov. 7-8 in lieu of its regular annual conference.
The full text of the announcement, including contact information, is after the jump.
Lauren Charlip
in News/Research, PMA, Pilates Method Alliance
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Pilates Pro Newsfeed
Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates (and Pilates-related) news from around the Web. Enjoy!
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- The state of Missouri is enforcing a four percent tax on yoga and Pilates classes, effective this month. Click here and here to read more about what’s at issue.
- BASI Pilates™ launched Pilates Interactive™, an online instructional tool for Pilates instructors and studio managers.
- The Chicago Tribune reports that exercise balls in the classroom sharpen attention and improve posture. “You’d be surprised how many kids really need to move while learning,” said one fourth grade teacher.
- Advice for movement teachers: How to handle when a client has a crush on you.
- Useful reflections from instructor Anne Samoilov, Five Lessons I Learned My First Year Teaching Pilates…and a shout out to Pilates-Pro.com. Thanks, Anne!
- More on the health benefits of stretching: In a study called “Poor trunk flexibility is associated with arterial stiffening” in the American Journal of Physiology, researchers linked the flexibility of arteries with how well people 40 and older did on a sit-and-reach-past-their-toes test.
- Sorry, but we couldn’t resist this one: The latest celeb to add to the who’s who of Pilates practitioners…David Beckham! Who knew we had Joe to thank for those gams?
Lauren Charlip
in BASI, News/Research, client, exercise ball, flexibility, tax
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The Growth of Pilates Collectives
By Nicole Rogers
It’s been a little more than a year since Pilates-Pro.com reported on a Pilates collective forming in the San Francisco Bay Area in August 2008, but in that short span, something seems to have taken hold. Other regional collectives have surfaced across the country, and the Bay Area group—which quickly ballooned to the state level—is now taking its program national. These collectives were inspired by a desire to build Pilates community spirit or a local Pilates network, and some, on a more pragmatic level, organized for a shared business advantage. For all, the rewards of sharing information, comparing notes and pooling resources are only beginning. There is, after all, strength in numbers.
We were able to catch up with a few of these groups to bring you this update on grassroots-style Pilates organizing. Read on to find out what the various Pilates collectives are up to now.
Support for the Business of Pilates
The Bay Area Pilates Collective, now known as the United Pilates Collective, was one of the first to materialize. It started in 2008 when Tracey Sylvester and Nancy Myers, owners of EHS Pilates in San Francisco, thought to hold a mixer for Pilates studios in the Bay Area. “We invited trainers and studio owners within a 25 mile radius to chat about business, and it was immediately obvious that there was a need in the community for this kind of support network,” Sylvester says. She and Myers, as business owners, saw a need for studio owners and independent contractors to share information, such as where to find a lawyer who understood the Pilates business or where to get good liability insurance.
Lauren Charlip
in Arizona Pilates Alliance, Business Ideas, Career Development, Collectives, Kyria Sabin, Michelle Fama, Monterey Bay Pilates Collective, Nancy Myers, News/Research, Tracey Sylvester, United Pilates Collective
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A New Pilates World Record
A new record for the world’s largest Pilates class was confirmed last week, and it goes to…Spain! The official tally was 862 people, who came together for a May Pilates Day master class in Madrid, in conjunction with the Pilates Method Alliance.
Though Teaser reps had long been completed, the Spanish Pilates-for-health organization Fundación Pilates, which organized the event, finally earned official bragging rights last week, a near six-month wait. Guinness World Records awarded the class its stamp of approval on Oct. 21.
The record-breaker mat session ran for 40 minutes and was led by Mabel Cabrera, head of the teacher training program at Pilates Wellness & Energy® a Spanish Pilates studio chain. It was a part of a longer set of Pilates Day programming held in Madrid on May 9 that focused on bringing Pilates “to the street,” and spreading awareness of its health benefits. It seems that was successful—though 862 people participated in the mat class, more than 1,000 were on hand for the day’s events, which included demos, sessions for children, testimonials and some impressive choreography from the Wellness & Energy staff.
“It was very exciting to be at that Pilates Day event, knowing that they were going for a Guinness World Record,” said PMA executive director Elizabeth Anderson, who flew to Madrid to be on hand for the festivities. “The participation of the Madrileños was fantastic—whole families appeared ready for a really dynamic day, and they got one.”
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Lauren Charlip
in Madrid, News/Research, Pilates Day, mat work, world record
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Pilates Pro Newsfeed
Widmer and clients in the Press-Gazette
Our semi-regular rundown of Pilates news from around the Web. Enjoy!
- On her 22nd attempt, Green Bay, Wisconsin’s Abby Widmer finally found the financing to open her own Pilates studio. “I almost felt like I’d hit a dead end, but I still tried to get my name out…then lucky number 22 pulled through for me,” she told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. She broke even for her first month on day two. Kudos to Abby!
- The Age, Melbourne, Australia’s daily newspaper, ran this excellent piece on Pilates and back pain—a great discussion of what can go wrong in unskilled hands. Here’s the subhead: “Building core strength has been hailed as a way to prevent back pain—but beware….”
- There’s just no cheating when it comes to breathing, Washington Post fitness writer Vicky Hallett reminds us. The Providence Journal is running her fantastic exploration of breath in exercise which details what happens when people tune in to their breathing.
- Read about how one Danish study showed that exercise fights chemotherapy fatigue here, on Web MD.
- It’s official: women’s gyms are a fitness industry trend. Here’s a quick nationwide roundup.
- Teen Vogue caught up with re:Ab’s Brooke Siler, who dished advice.
- Paws-ilates: Yes, that’s Pilates with your dog. Now on video…it was only a matter of time! View the gory details here.
Lauren Charlip
in Breathing, Business Ideas, News/Research, Pilates for dogs, back pain, breath, chemotherapy, women's gyms
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Pilates Pro Newsfeed
The latest Pilates news from around the Web. Enjoy!
“Surviving breast cancer comes down to the three Ps,” Fletcher client Catherine Kennedy (above) told the Malibu Times. “Preparation, prayer and Pilates. JoAnn changed my life.”
- Malibu Pilates instructor and breast cancer survivor JoAnn Fletcher donates 100 percent of proceeds from her Pilates for Pink classes, making her the top BCRF donor on the West Coast. Congratulations, JoAnn!
- Remember Vic Hart? He launched new Pilates equipment line Root Manufacturing—the first to utilize eco-friendly bamboo—in September, and was featured in his local Colorado paper, the Longmont Times Call.
- Here’s a nice overview of Pilates breath.
- Las Vegas is chock full of injured perfomers. Could Sin City be a Pilates goldmine?
- Naval combat veteran Jon Belanger, owner of Jonny Pilates, who teaches a regular Sunday-morning-in-the-park class, was featured in San Diego’s Uptown News.
- Confirmed: Michelle Obama does Pilates. At 4:30 a.m. no less.
- The YMCA is getting in on the Pilates game: A Boston area YMCA is opening its own Pilates and Yoga studio. Is this a nationwide trend?
Lauren Charlip
in JoAnn Fletcher, Las Vegas, News/Research, Root Manufacturing, San Diego, Vic Hart, breast cancer, breath
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Pilates Pro Newsfeed
Ickes and her daughter at BurbankLeader.com
Our semi-regular roundup of Pilates news from around the Web.
- California’s Burbank Leader caught up with Dawn-Marie Ickes, who’s going international with her Pilates for children workshop. A physical therapist and PMA board member, Ickes initially launched a program to teach Pilates in area elementary schools. Resources grew thin but she didn’t get discouraged; she created the workshop.
- Former competitors the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and IDEA Health and Fitness Association announced a new, long-term partnership last month. They’ve kicked things off with some co-branded video-on-demand continuing education courses (CECs).
- re:AB’s Brook Siler ranted about uncomfortable airline seats in the Huffington Post and offered up easy stretches to combat stiffness.
- Scottsdale, Ariz., studio owner Miranda Armenta, of MIRA Pilates challenged two people to a 60-day Pilates regimen. She wanted to see what came after Joe Pilates’ old adage, “In 10 sessions, you will feel the difference, in 20, you will see the difference, and in 30, you will be on your way to having a whole new body.” Click here to see the results.
- BOSU® tapped Erika Quest, owner of Studio Q in Laguna Beach, Calif., as its 2010 ‘Pilates Specialist.’ She’ll be developing content and exercises for a workshop and DVD.
- What better way to honor your city than with a Pilates calendar? New Orleans studio owner Alyce Morgan Wise teamed up with documentary photographer Alice “Dallas” McNamara to shoot ‘Spontaneous Zest and Pleasure: A Pilates Calendar,’ featuring shots of Pilates moves performed in some of NOLA’s most colorful and unexpected spots.
Lauren Charlip
in ACE, BOSU, Dawn-Marie Ickes, IDEA, News/Research, Pilates for children, Pilates for kids, Pilates in the Schools
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