The Truth About Pilates with Alexa Idama

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 115.

Today I'm sitting down with Alexa, and we're talking all about the truth about Pilates.

Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up, coach? Thank you so much for pushing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and today I have a very special special guest, and I'm super excited to bring this episode to you because we recorded it so long ago. She probably thought I forgot, but I did not forget. Just my assistant has been so amazing on and just being on the ball of getting really incredible guests scheduled. And so we have been creating some amazing episodes and just pumping and then and bringing them to you on the schedule. Schedule. And Alexa is no exception to the rule. She is an incredible health and wellness professional. She has been in the industry for 18 years, starting off as a certified personal trainer, a yoga teacher, and group fitness instructor before she was introduced to Pilates by one of her colleagues. From her very first session, she was hooked. All the missing pieces she had not been able to find with other forms of movement finally came together, which we do talk about in the episode. Joint issues that she had been struggling, struggling with for years just all of a sudden were no longer a concern. Her body finally moved as a whole with more awareness, and so she became a certified Pilates teacher so she could share her passion and the benefits of Pilates with others. She believes that everybody is unique and strives to focus on the individual needs and what works best for them. Her goal is to help as many people as possible become the healthiest version of themselves in mind, body, and sp spirit. She's originally from Cameroon and now lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons. Apart from doing Pilates, she loves cooking healthy foods, hiking, and restoring and creating pieces made from wood. An incredible episode. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview.

What's up, Alexa? How are you doing today?

I'm doing awesome today. Really, really well.

Great. Thank you so much for being on the show. I am super excited to dive in today.

Well, I'm excited to be here as well. I was so happy when you reached out to me. I'm excited for all the stuff that we're going to be talking about today as well.

Cool. I'd love for you to just go ahead and dive in and share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

All right. Well, my name is Alexa, and I'm a Pilates teacher. So I guess the main thing I do is I serve people by guiding them into Pilates and on their Pilates journeys. I've recently stopped using the word teaching so much because I find that, you know, like, I can't really teach people to do Pilates. They teach themselves, and I guide them along that journey. I also feel like there's another side to what I do in the Pilates world in the sense that I am trying to spread the message of Pilates, you know, using the online universe and just trying to invite as many people into the space as possible. So not necessarily inviting them to come work out with me per se, but just inviting. Inviting them to come and try Pilates if they have not already had that on their radar. So I am, you know, I'm a Pilates teacher or Pilates guide, and I'm also a Pilates ambassador. So it's, you know, if you'd like to call it that.

Okay, I love that. So where are you based? How did you get there? What brought you to Pilates?

So I'm based. So in terms of base, I'm based in Atlanta. I live in the North Atlanta metro area, and that's where I teach from as well. In terms of what brought me to Pilates, I've been in the fitness industry now since 2003, which would make it. I'm trying to, like, do the math. Like, 18 years almost now. Around 18 years, yes. And I actually started out with everything but Pilates. So I have over the years. I started out as a step instructor in college. I know. And, you know, that was not a sustainable thing for me to do. My knees didn't really like that for a long time, and I kind of transitioned into other. Into other. Other areas. So I started out as a step instructor. I moved on to doing all other forms of group fitness. I was a personal trainer for a little while, and all those things were really hard on my body, because even when you're training clients, they expect you to demo a lot. You have to work out with. Some clients will only work out if you work out with them. So those things were really hard on my body, and at some Point my body just said no. I remember I was teaching insanity at the time in group fitness class and I did a star jump and when I landed, that was it. It was over. And it was almost like this. That was my whole life, like teaching these really high intensity, high impact formats, just going more and more and more. And I remember at the time thinking, oh my gosh, like, what am I going to do? Because I really don't want to get another. I don't want to go back to having a desk job. So I kind of pulled away for a little bit, got into yoga, which was really, really great. And I did that with the same, almost the same intensity as I had done all the other formats that I taught and taken part in over the years. And that was really great in the sense that I became more flexible. Some of the pain that I had from the hard formats went away. But what I was missing was stability around my joints. And probably one of the reasons why I got injured in the high intensity, high impact training formats was because I was just going hard and I wasn't going. I wasn't focused on stability around the joints. Yoga was great. But after a few years of doing that and still having joint pain, a friend of mine who was doing her Pilates teacher training invited me to be her body. I remember that very first session I did with her, she asked me to change the positioning of my feet into what's very commonly known as a Pilates V. And she had me do a majority of the exercises in that Pilates V. And. And I walked out of the session for the first time in a really long time without needles in my knees. And I kind of thought, why hasn't anybody else sold this to me? I've been asking around. I have paid for massages, I have paid for so many things. I have done all kinds of therapy to get rid of this pain. And in one session, I'm walking out of here. And she wasn't even like a fully trained instructor. She wasn't a fully trained teacher. And no one had ever told me to just externally rotate a little bit more. And I kind of thought I need to. I know so many people who are going through similar things and I need to bring them to. I need to learn more and I need to bring more people to this because I know that there's somebody out there like me who's going through this as well.

That.

That's where.

Here you go. That's amazing. Okay, so I'm just curious, like, in your opinion, since, you know, you did message that you did say that you really want to bring Pil, you know, as your message, Almost like this is your vehicle. What are some of the common misconceptions that people come in with when they're thinking or. Or considering Pilates?

One, that Pilates and yoga are the same. So, you know, like, I get a lot of people who say, well, I do yoga, so I don't need to do Pilates. And I feel like I was in that mindset for a really long time too. I just didn't know the difference. And I was like, well, I've only got time to do one, so I'm going to do yoga. It's a little bit cheaper, It's a little bit more accessible. There seems to be more of it around. And. Yeah, so I think a lot of people feel that Pilates and yoga are the same thing. And while they're kind of crossovers between the two, they are really, really different. I feel like the mindset in both is quite different as well. The outcomes definitely for me are different. The level of intensity might be the same or might be similar, but there's definitely two different mindsets behind the two formats. And I often compare it to basketball and football. They're both played on a field or court. They're both played in a square rectangular space. Both games have a ball that gets passed from one side to the other or passed between players. However, you would not be able to convince a football fan that they. Basketball is exactly the same game because they're not. You know, like, it's two different rules. Two different. Two different games with different rules, different things happening. It's just not the same experience watching a football game as they're both sport, but it's not the same experience. So it's the same thing with yoga and Pilates. They're two different things. Another misconception is, you know, I get people messaging me about this all the time and it kind of almost gets to me a little bit, you know, like, people say, oh, I need to do more stretching, so I'm going to do more Pilates. And, oh, I don't know. Like, while there is. There is a lengthening in Pilates, like there is a focus on finding more length. It is not stretching. It's a workout. And you should feel after doing Pilates that you should feel taller, but you should feel like you have just completed a workout. So that's another really common misconception. Another, you know, like, I don't know. I could. Go on, tell me to stop.

No, please. I Love this.

I've got too many misconceptions. There is also this misconception that you need to have, you know, like you need or you need to be flexible in order to do Pilates. And I compare that to the analogy that you need to be that you're too hungry to eat. Like somebody saying, I'm really, really hungry, so I need, you know, I'm too hungry. I don't want to be hungry anymore before I eat something. So it's like saying, I'm not flexible enough to do Pilates. It's like, well, you do Pilates to find more range of motion, and that ultimately makes you more flexible or makes you more open in your body. Same thing. If you're hungry, you go eat. You don't say, I'm too hungry to eat. And then, you know, one other one. In terms of accessibility, I feel like there's a lot of people who feel like they. They can't do Pilates because it's too expensive. And while it is true, if you want to work one on one with a teacher, which I do recommend, Pilates can get very expensive. However, it's not the only way to do Pilates, especially nowadays with the Internet, if you want to do Pilates, if it's something that you're like, man, I really love this format of exercise. There are so many free resources out there, but you do have to put in the work and go find them and put your own catalog together and maybe do a little bit of reading and learning that allows you to understand what the free stuff out there is trying to get you to do. So there's so much free information out there that you can use, you know. Yes. If you want to work one on one with a teacher, it's almost like having a personal trainer. And the price is roughly about the same as having a personal trainer, but you can go out and, you know, at least learn the mat, work on your own. That's definitely possible.

Yeah. So I'm curious. There are two different types. There's the Reformer Pilates and mat Polanies. What are some of the big differences? Do you specialize in one?

So that might be another misconception. That might be another. So, yes, and I've heard that too. And I feel like that misconception comes from the fact that people love Reformer Pilates so much that now you have studios offering just Reformer Pilates. Like, you go to studios and from a business mentality, there will be some studios that say, well, people don't love the mat, so we're Just not going to offer that. But the reality is, if you go back to when Joseph Pilates started, he actually started with mat work, and he built the rest of the system around his mat work. So Pilates is a system, and reformer and mat are part of that system. There are so many. The reformer is just a piece of equipment in the system that is used to help you learn some of the exercises or make some connections that certain people might, might have found that they didn't get just doing the mat work. And I don't know if I'm explaining this like, in a way that makes sense. You are. That might start going off in Pilates teacher jargon that makes no sense to anybody else. But in very basic terms, like I said, Joseph Pilates started with the map sequence, which is a sequence of exercises that you can do anywhere on any kind of soft, ish surface. And what he noticed over time when he was training clients is that some clients just would not understand what he was trying to get them to do. So he created, or he, you know, he made other pieces of equipment that would help you, for example, connect into your lats or the muscles of your back. And once you understood how to do that, then you could come back to the mat work. And if there was a client, for example, who couldn't do teaser and understand the back connection, all of a sudden they had an awareness of the fact that muscles were back there and that they could use them to do this teaser exercise, which is part of the mat work. But with that being said as well, he built the equipment because he realized that some people's bodies just don't respond to this exercise on the mat or on the, let's say, on the Cadillac. I'm going to take them over to the chair or the reformer, and their body is going to respond to a similar exercise and they'll still be able to build muscles in that area. In reality, Pilates is a whole system of equipment and exercises. In an ideal world, you would have access to all of them, and you would maybe spend one day doing mat work, another day doing reformer work, a third day doing chair and barrels. Or you could, you know, if you, for example, like when I do the reformer work, I do a particular exercise on the barrel because I just don't connect to it the same way on the reformer. But if I step a step aside and do it on the barrel, I'm like, oh, everything's there. So in an ideal world, people would have access to all these pieces of equipment. But unfortunately, it's not Always an ideal world. And I feel like whatever you have access to, if you only have access to the mat, then do the mat work. If you only have access to a mat and a reformer, do mat and reformer alternate the two or incorporate them together into one session. If you have access to barrels, add those in as well. So whatever you have access to, make the most of that and eventually the rest either comes or it doesn't. But yes, Pilates is a whole system. It's not Reformer Pilates or Mat Pilates or Cadillac Pilates. You should ideally, if you have access to the various pieces of equipment, be doing exercises on all of them.

Okay, I love that. So now we're going to probably. I'm going to bring up probably another misconception which I'd love for you to debunk, which is this idea, especially coming from the strength and conditioning world, is that we have this idea of, you know, we need to have progressive overload. And so when you are teaching something like the mat work, which is a sequence of exercises, I feel like a lot of people are going to come in with like, well, yeah, that's not a real workout though. You can't progress that there. You're just going to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. So I'm curious, like, what would you say to someone that's like, pilates is.

Not a real workout?

Try it. That would be my first. Come see me. Let's see what you say after that and try it. You know, hopefully you try it with a really well trained teacher. I've had bad Pilates experiences, so not every experience will give you that, you know, like that feeling that you just worked out, I'll be honest about that too. But if you happen to fall onto a good teacher who can, you know, like, who can actually guide you through the way things should feel, you should probably come out of that feeling like, that was the hardest workout you ever did because you work more. Every Pilates exercise is a full, full body exercise. And you typically tend to work more muscle in the Pilates exercises than most other forms of sport or exercise require you to. So, yes. So first I would say try it. But in terms of progress, even though you're doing the same thing over and over again, you become better and better at it. And I'll compare it to something that maybe more people understand a little better. So, for example, Michael Phelps, probably the first time he got in the pool, maybe he didn't just get in and he wasn't the fastest swimmer On Earth. He probably started with, I don't know, breaststroke or backstroke. I can't remember all the strokes that he's perfect, he's so good at. But whatever he is the master at now, he probably started out at and was just, maybe just making it across the pool. And he did that over and over and over and over again. And each time he gets in the pool, he's probably thinking, let me be a little bit better than I was last time. So it not necessarily that you're doing the same thing over and over, but you're doing it slightly differently. You are looking for more length, you're looking for more reach. As your muscles develop in Pilates, you're able to do the exercises differently than you could do them when you first started. I'll start with the most fundamental exercise in Pilates, which is like the hundred. It's very rare that somebody comes to me, and the first time they do the hundred, everything feels great. They're like, oh, my gosh, I love this exercise. And it's very rare that their form looks perfect. Most people who come in can barely lift the legs off the floor, pump the arms, and lift the head up at the same time. And over time, you're aiming to have this really elongated shape with your legs fairly low and your shoulders lifted and your core really engaged. And it takes a while for the body to be able to do that. I don't care how strong you are. We have top athletes come into the studios. We have football players come in and swimmers come in who are at the top of their top of their sport and still asking them to do that basic or fundamental Pilates exercise. By five breaths into it, they are sweating. They are asking how much longer you come into Pilates. And the first time you do an exercise, it is usually really intense and your body doesn't even know how to coordinate in it. After the hundredth or the 200th time that you've done it, you start to find, hey, I can do this, and I can breathe the whole way through. Then after 500 times of doing it, you feel like, oh, now I can, like, lift an extra inch higher. So there is still progress in Pilates. You don't. You don't come into it and do everything perfectly, and then that's it. And then you just keep repeating that perfect perfection that you came in with. You come in and it's usually really sloppy. And you end up, like, finding and fine tuning that over time.

Yeah, okay. I love that. I love that. So now I'm. I'M curious, like, who, who do you recommend Pilates for and who do you recommend? People you know, who should stay away from Pilates, if anyone.

I recommend Pilates for everyone. I feel like there's a benefit in Pilates for everyone now. Not every. And I believe that in the system that Joseph Pilates left Behind, there was 500 plus or 600 plus exercises, probably even more. Like, you know, he was such a brilliant inventor and creator, he probably left even more behind than that. But in what, in the exercises that Joseph Pilates left, it left us. Maybe not every exercise is for everybody, but there is enough there that everybody can do Pilates and benefit from it. And even if it's just once a week, I promise you, you'll start to see the difference. I'm always still amazed. Like, my clients always come in and the first session they're really struggling with stuff and maybe stuff. Other things in their are also problematic for them. Like maybe their posture is causing them problems or pain. And one of the reasons I love this, this doing this, or I love this job is because doesn't matter who the client is, after about five to 10 sessions, they always come in and say, oh my gosh, Alexa. So and so changed. And I no longer feel my lower back or my knees are not hurting the same anymore. I, you know, I was able to go for a walk for an hour without any pain in my knees. You know, so there's, there's this common saying that 10 sessions to feel the difference, 20 sessions. And usually other people start asking what you're doing differently, what is going on, something has changed, can't quite tell because you're still the same person, but something is not looking the same anymore. After 30 sessions, you walk around feeling like a completely different person or you feel like you have a new body. Not going to promise you Naomi Campbell's body, but, but in terms of, you know, somebody comes in with a serious injury that's been bothering them for the longest time, after 30 consecutive sessions or consistent sessions, very often they find that whatever they had going on, it's starting to correct itself or starting to heal, and they're able to be more free in their bodies and in their lives.

Now, how often do you recommend someone do Pilates per week or like, you know, per, you know, on a monthly basis even. And do you see that Pilates work synergistically with the strength and conditioning plan, or do you think it lives on its own?

So in terms of recommending how many times to do Pilates, as many times as you can typically, you know, if, if you, if you have a studio right next door like I do, if you can go in three to five times a week or six times a week, great. If you can only fit in one five minute session a week, do that five minute session. It will still have more benefits than not doing any Pilates. My clients typically see me once to three times a week. I think for most people that is a workable amount. And then you have a few that come last and a few that come more than that. And if you're coming less than three times a week, I recommend just doing some home practice as well. Even if it's just one exercise or just the breathing. Just doing something that allows you to connect mind and body in terms of working synergistically with other forms of exercise, such as strength training. Absolutely. We do Pilates because we want other things to get better. We want to have better mind body connections, we want to have more stable joints. We want to have more awareness of how to use muscles and what muscles are available for certain functions. So I feel anybody who is involved in other sports or in other types of activities should be doing Pilates because it makes those other activities better as well. So if your strength training is your thing, definitely add in Pilates and see how that changes your strength training, because it will. And that's why so many athletes do Pilates, because they realize that it keeps them injury free, it allows them to improve their game, it just allows them to become a better athlete in whatever sport they're involved. So definitely, definitely add it in if you can.

I love that. I'm curious, would you recommend to someone who's only doing Pilates, would you tell them to add additional activity or would you tell them Pilates is enough?

That also really depends on the body. I know people for whom Pilates is more than enough. There's so much in the system to do. You can do Pilates for hours and still not have done every single exercise in the system. So there's so much within the Pilates system that you can do. And it's enough for some people. Most people who do Pilates because they find that their bodies just work so much better after doing Pilates, you actually start to become more available to other things. I'll use myself as an example. When I started Pilates, I have a lot of lower back pain and I have scoliosis. And it was really bothering things, like even just going for a walk around the park. So I had stopped doing that because mentally I knew if I did that it was just going to be, I need a bath after and I need like, you know, massage and some self care. And I just didn't have the time to walk and do that. But doing Pilates has kind of eliminated so many of those pains and concerns that I had before that now I can add in, you know, like a daily walk. So I'm now doing something that I wasn't doing before. In addition, you know, like, the stability that Pilates has created in my body all of a sudden opens up up other forms of, you know, other forms of exercise that I was a little bit cautious with. My husband and I have recently started taking on things like club bells and mace bells. And that's been really exciting. I love that. So that's cool. Yeah. And it's fun. But I know that, you know, a few years ago I might have been like, oh, I can't do that because what if I step. What if I step to the right and I don't get back up? Or, you know, like, I kind of like, feel a little pain and I have to deal with that the rest of the week. So now that I'm strong enough, now that my body is internally, I know how to hold on to things. I also know when things don't feel right, I feel a little bit more confident to pick up a mace bell and swing it around. Recently picked that up and it's been a lot of fun. Hiking has been another thing that I started doing now that I know that I can and walk for over an hour without my lower back being inflamed. That's coming in. The reason why Pilates is so popular with dancers, for example, is because it's so good for injury prevention. So a lot of dancers will do Pilates in order to be better dancers. So Pilates goes hand in hand with other things and it opens up worlds. It opens up the ability to do more. So absolutely do Pilates and then go utilize your Pilates and whatever else you're doing in your life.

I really love that. And I realized when I asked that question, I'm like, I know that that's going to be context based, but I feel like so many people really approach things dogmatically, like, and will put things into their own context. Box of like, no, it has to be this, this or that. No, you can't do this. Like, what would it really look like.

And feel like if we could just.

Live in the space of. Of and Right.

Yes, yes. And just adding to that, Joseph Pilates was a boxer, so he was you know, the person who invented the system, you know, he didn't just do Pilates, he did all kinds of movement with boxing being one of. He was in the ring, you know, like, he would go box several times a week. So, yes, Pilates. And, you know, it's not. Nothing is just like, you know, like 100% all or nothing. In the studio I go. The studio I work at and I practice at, the owner really encourages, like, he has a big section of the studio which is dedicated to Pilates, but outside of that, you have strength training, you have personal training. He has a boxing coach that works at the studio and works with clients. You know, it's from him that I found out about things like club bells and mace bells. So, yeah, the studio, I feel like I love where I work because of the fact that it's. It opens up Pilates and more, not just Pilates.

I love it.

I love it. I love it. Okay, great. So the other thing, too, that I. That I noticed that you said, which I really think is important and worth in reiterating, is that it's given you the confidence to do other things. So many people live in, you know, fear of, like, what's going to happen, whether they are a trainer or they are a dancer or whatever it is, is that there's this, like, what if? Component. And having the resilience and feeling confident to try new things is, in my opinion, an undervalued tool.

Absolutely, Yes. I totally agree with that. And fear is definitely the biggest. The biggest. I'm trying to look for the right word now, but is the biggest obstacle to progress, just generally. So if you have something that's creating fear in you, it will definitely stop you from doing things that could be so positive. So do the things that help you get rid of your fear. Pilates can be one of them. I love it.

I love it. Okay, so now I'm curious, you know, and the reason why I also asked about, you know, the populations that you recommend Pilates for is specifically like, do you think, you know, what about mom, you know, postpartum moms who are dealing with diastasis or they are dealing with what else? You know, prolapse, things that are contextually based. Like, do you think Pilates is something that could help them?

Absolutely. Now, if you have specific things going on in your body, I know I mentioned earlier on, you should do. You know, you should do any part of Pilates that you have access to. However, when people have specific conditions, I do recommend working with a teacher. Like, I recommend working with somebody who can put their eyes on you and can, can see how your body is responding to the exercises and help you, help you based on that, avoid the exercises that are not beneficial and help you keep the exercises that are the most beneficial or guide you towards the exercises and the pieces of equipment that are most beneficial. I came to Pilates still recovering. I think once you have diastasis recti, it never really goes away 100%. You can heal it to a certain extent, but it doesn't disappear. You still have to be careful with your body because unless you sew those muscles back together, there's always a little bit of space or a little bit of, there's always a point where they can easily separate. So I've had people come to Pilates and say, oh, my condition got worse. And I usually, I'll ask like, you know, so you know, who was your teacher and what were they making you do? And 90% of the time there are people who just, you know, powered through the exercises, were just doing something that they saw somebody else doing, no understanding of whether it was correct for their body. And your body does not tell you something is wrong for you until it's injured. So until something goes wrong, you don't realize that your body is not actually responding positively to that exercise or you might not immediately know what a negative response feels like unless it feels like pain. And by the time we get to pain, it's usually a little bit too late. Then it's definitely past the point where then we start to get to fear. It's past the point where you can easily go back and correct things. I do recommend working with a coach or working with a team teacher if you have diastasis recta. But I came to Pilates with separation and my, my, my, my child was, I think he was 7 or 8 at the time. So it wasn't even like I just gave birth. It was like years after giving birth and personally thinking that my, everything was fine and that it was just a common condition after childbirth that people had a little bit of over like a little bit of bulging in the stomach. And I realized when I came to Pilates that no, actually I still had that bulge because I just had not really healed my, you know, my, my separation. So yeah, so absolutely come to Pilates, but do work with somebody who can put their eyes on you. I definitely recommend doing at least a few one on one sessions unless you have a friend who's going through exactly the same thing. And then both of you can kind of like train Together. And that's sometimes helpful too. Training with somebody else at the same. If you can observe a lot of times, even if a teacher tells us something, it doesn't necessarily resonate as well as when we see them telling the same thing to someone else and seeing what they're talking about in that person's body. If you have a friend who's going through the same thing, sign up for duets and have a teacher take both of you through exercises that are great for healing, separation or whatever condition it is. If you have a herniation in the lower back or, I don't know, knee injury or, you know, anything.

So I'd love for you to expand a little bit, if you wouldn't mind, on, you know, some of the differences because I feel like a lot of people just think like, oh no, I can go to class. So what are some of the differences between, you know, going to a Mac class or reformer class versus working with someone one on one and you know, what are some of, you know, what would make you a good candidate it for one on one and you know, and deciding between that or not.

Yeah. So big difference between the group classes and taking one on ones is just the individual focus. When a teacher is teaching to a group class, they're usually just putting out a pre planned sequence that they, that they came up with without even seeing the people in the class. So if you teach classical Pilates like I do, you're usually teaching the standard Joseph Pilates sequence and you just hope that everybody can do it. You might be able to throw out one or two options, but they're not necessarily the right options for the 30 people that you're teaching to. And you know, hopefully the people in class listen to their bodies and they come in and you know, like they skip the exercises that are not working for them. But majority of the time people do power through and they want to do what everybody else is doing or they don't want to be singled out as the person who's not doing an exercise or not doing it the same way as everyone. So you end up exercises the way everybody else is doing, whatever your eyes are seeing. And sometimes that's great for the body and other times it's not. And yeah, so I feel like group classes, Group classes can be very beneficial. The energy is usually really nice in a group setting. You can learn from doing Pilates with other people. You can by observing other people. It sometimes lights up or lights a light bulb. Oh, I wasn't doing it that way, but that's possible. So you end up. You end up learning something from being in the group setting and observing other people. But at the same time, if you have special needs or if you have special conditions, it's really good to be aware of what to do before going into a group setting. I have had people, you know, because group settings usually are a little bit cheaper than, than one on one sessions. So I will have people who look at it and they're like, well, I'm going to save some money by doing the group session. And they come in and because there isn't that individual focus or there isn't necessarily that reinforcement of, no, you only do this exercise because they're doing it. Please. There's not that reinforcement of doing the exercise that's right for you. I sometimes have people leaving the group session feeling like, oh, that wasn't really right for me, but it was just because we couldn't 100% focus on only the variations that are right for you. And there will be times too, when somebody comes to a group session and I do throw out all the recommended things that are right for their body and they choose not to do them because the other people in the group are not doing them, and then it still ends up not being right for their body. That's the downside of group sessions. And hopefully, if you're listening to this, it automatically makes sense what the advantages are of a private session. You end up learning what is right for you. The teacher shouldn't just take you through a generic sequence, unless, of course, you are super strong and have all the exercises in the generic sequence are perfect for you. But generally the teacher will say, hey, I observed this, so this is what we're going to do for you. Or if this exercise comes up, then you do this exercise. That is, you do this exercise this way because this is the right way for you to do it in your body. And I will typically recommend to people new to Pilates to do five private sessions. And once you've done those five, you know, like, if you have a fairly good understanding of how your body's functioning, join in with the group sessions. After five sessions, we'll sometimes see if you need more private sessions because I do have clients who are dealing with so many traumas in their bodies that we need more than five sessions to really, you know, get to the point where you're able to come into a group session and move at the pace of the group.

Mm, okay. I love that. That is so good. I mean, I just, I feel like, you know, you know, we Were talking about misconceptions earlier is that people don't realize that they can do other things besides just go to class.

Class, yes, yes. And there's so many, you know, if class is your only option, take the class. If you have the option to do small groups, if you have the option to do one on ones, definitely try at least a few of those before joining a larger group.

Yeah, okay. And that was kind of my other question is what is like a good size? And I know that that's context specific, but what are typically like, you know, the rooms that you should look for.

So in the studio I teach in, the maximum group size is five people right now. And I believe Joseph Pilates, when he invented the system, I want to say his maximum was either three or five. So typically Pilates is not something that's taught in mass to large groups. I know. Yes. And I'm talking about Joseph Pilates and I know that he did have these summer sessions where he would have people, you know, like he would teach 30 people the math, the mat work. But that wasn't his standard setting. That was just once in a while. You know, it's fun, it's fun to have the energy of a really large group. But if you're going to do this several times a week, you know, do go into a smaller group, at least one of those so that you can have some one on one attention. And that's how, I mean I started out that way where you know, when I started getting really serious about Pilates, I would take maybe one private session a week. And then you know, just because cost, you know, you know, it's, it is, you do have to have a lot of money to be doing that, you know, more than one personal training session a week. But I would try to do one personal training session or one private session and then I would go into group classes after that. And the group classes range anywhere from like 15 to like you know, $35 or maybe $40 depending on the state that you live in. But in Georgia you can get group classes for as little as $15, which I think is really, really reasonable when it comes to any kind of like fitness.

I'm also, I'm also curious. You know, you, you mentioned that you, you are based in Atlanta, but are you also expanding and doing online? Like how are you, how are you using the online components of your practice?

So I share a lot, I share a lot via social media. Outside of my, my small groups and my one on one training, I, I am not a huge fan of, of the generic apps. Like I said, you know, Pilates is really, it's like an individual practice and I have not yet found a way to make it individual for everybody via let's say a generic training platform. I do have a few videos out there. Like I have a little bit on YouTube. I kind of, during the, during the quarantine I, you know, I had a little bit more time to record some videos and I put up, you know, I put up some generic stuff like the fundamental sequence that usually most people can practice and a couple of, you know, like wrist free sequences and short Pilates sequences that people had asked me for. So I put up some of that on YouTube. I work with, with, I work with people outside of my platforms too. Like I just did a contract with sleep.com where they wanted a video Pilates for better sleep. Like what exercises are nice to do before going to bed that are Pilates based. So I do have a couple of videos like that out there as well on other platforms. But when it comes to training, I, at this point, you know, I, who knows, next year might change. I might figure out a way to like have this perfect scenario on my own platform. But I think at the moment I prefer to stick to the one on ones. I prefer to stick to more individualized training where people come see me. And I'm very, very happy to recommend a studio to you in your area. If people live somewhere, I would rather they found a teacher close to them that could observe them and could work with them one on one versus just trying, just trying to sell them something and then it doesn't work for their body and they don't return to me anyway because it didn't work for them.

Yeah, sure. What about people that you know, are wanting to add Pilates to their personal training practice? Like how would, what would you recommend? You know, what are the certifications? What are the best ways to incorporate Pilates into their practice?

So if you are trying to get certified, I know that there are several, there are several big training schools. I actually started out with a. So my very first certification, I don't know if I can really qualify. This was with afa. I not sure if I would recommend it. It was just a really generic math certification. And when I look back to that time, it really wasn't in depth enough to let me go out there and be a, be a good, good guide or good teacher. Years after that I went with peak Pilates which is, which is a really nice way to get started if you just want to have A general overview of the main pieces of equipment and you want to have a good understanding of like the mat work and the Reformer. Peak is not a bad way to go. And they're, they're a national school, I believe they're in most areas. There's other schools like Balanced Body that provide training too. Balanced Body is a little bit more contemporary. They're a little bit, bit outside of the classical world, which is kind of where I live. I was very lucky. So I started out with Peak, and about halfway through the peak training, I kind of thought, something is missing for me here. I was missing that personal mentorship coming out of the yoga world. I really wanted somebody who was consistently there to ask questions to, you know, if something wasn't working out for me, like, you know, to have them explain how it would work for me and not just get like a generic. These are the Pilates exercises and this is what you can teach. And at the time, I started searching for other options in terms of training and luckily I found the person I work with now, Joel Crosby. He's actually really close to where I live. I had driven past the studio what must have been a thousand times and kind of looked at it, but never really thought about going in. And after doing a search for Pilates certifications and teacher years closer to, you know, like where I lived, rather than doing a search for who the best national providers were, I found Joel and yeah, kind of started working with him. And it was like eye opening to have a personal relationship with someone who is really dedicated to Pilates. So if you can find somebody who is really passionate and dedicated to Pilates, even if they're not like a, a national brand, I would recommend that as your first option. If you don't have anyone, then, you know, working with an organization like Peak is really great or Balanced Body. It's really great to get certified through them. They run, they run programs worldwide and nationally. But yes, if you can get, if you can have an apprenticeship, I definitely recommend that. And that's what I'm kind of on. That's what I kind of do now. I work with Joel Crosby. If you're in Atlanta, definitely, definitely attend his training. It's probably one of the best out there. And there are other trainers like him around the world. You just have to kind of look for them. You can always send me a message and I will check to see who is in the network and let you know who the closest person in your area is. But yeah, there's a network of individual teachers that are not necessarily affiliated to a national brand or to a national organization who are really, really good. Okay.

I love it. So this has been amazing and I definitely want to be very mindful of your time. So for those of you who want to connect more with you, who can. Where can I send them so you.

Can find me across like all social media platforms? I'm on YouTube, I'm on Instagram. I'm not quite as active on Facebook, but I'm still there. You can find me across almost all social media platforms at Low impact from fit where I kind of share. I share a lot of Pilates. I share some non Pilates things as well. So my main focus is Pilates, but I do enjoy other forms of fitness too. So I share that a lot on Instagram. And you can find me there for sure. Yeah, I think. I think that's the best. That's the best way. Just either Instagram or one of the other social media platforms if you prefer.

I love it. So thank you so much, Alexa, for your time. I really appreciate it.

It.

No, it was great being on here. Thank you so much. I had a great time.

Great.

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