Know Thy Instructor

Certification.


Certification is a word that stirs up all sorts of controversey in the Pilates Community.


The main reason it is very easy to call a program a certification. Almost all programs operate on the notion that if they hand a student a piece of paper at the end of the workshop, it can be called a certification.

Unfortunately, if that's all it takes, asking your instructor the simple question, "Are you certified?" will warrant a "yes." This could mean that your instructor has only been to a two day workshop which is just about enough time to cover and execute an exercise once. There is little to no coverage of contraindications, so if you have an issue, look out, you could be in danger.

What should you look for? If you want to be confident that you are in capable hands, look for someone who has completed a comprehensive certification with a minimum of 500 hours.

How would you find this out? Ask your instructor where they studied Pilates and keep a dialogue going about what it was like for them. If you have an instructor that is passionate about their work, you will likely end up with more information than you asked for.

One other thing to watch for: "I studied with." If an instructor uses replaces "I was certified by" with "I studied with" that usually means that an instructor took the program but skipped the final test. Certainly, taking a 500 hour certification is better than a weekend workshop, but I would question why that person never took the test. It's like skipping finals. Would you want a doctor who had not taken his board exam or an attorney who has not taken the Bar exam?

First things first

Well, my lovelies. I created this blog almost a year ago, and this is my first post. I kept putting it off because I had a lot of things I wanted to write about, but I have never felt that I had enough time to transform my thoughts into the brilliant posts that I envisioned in my mind. I still don't have enough time, but as long as I give weight to that excuse, I'll never write anything! I suupose that every blogger shares this curse.

So hello there! Welcome to my outlet to all things Pilates. I hope you find it entertaining and informative.