1. What does a typical Thursday look like for you, starting from when you wake up – to heading to bed?

Ironically, Thursday is my day off. At the moment, it’s also my husband’s day off, so it usually involves spending time with him. BUT this is supposed to be about my career, not my marriage, so I’m going to talk about a typical Tuesday instead, because I’m writing this on a Tuesday, and I have my calendar in front of me.

I wake up at 7AM, usually because my cat is trying to walk on my head. I get up and shower, dress, eat, the normal morning stuff. Then I turn on my computer and get sucked into Facebook, e-mail, and all that other time-wasting addictive nonsense.

I leave the house at 9, hop on the TTC, and head into work, which is at The Performance Health Centre (http://www.tphc.ca), at King & Dufferin. First client, at 10AM, is Alice (and no, that’s not her real name). Alice and I are trying to correct some of the biomechanics of her hip. Due to weak hip flexors for many years, her body has come to rely on alternate muscles for picking her legs up. Although Alice has since developed stronger hip flexors, her body is still having some trouble remembering to use them. It’s a great example of why Pilates is a mind/body exercise – we might be increasing strength in the hip flexors, but what we’re REALLY trying to do is train her mind to use them instinctively. Alice also has weak anterior deltoids. This means that when she lifts her arm up in front of her, her neck starts doing the work instead of her shoulder. We’re trying to re-train her mind to do that, too.

Today, after Alice I had a demo with Leanne. Leanne is a soccer player who needs a low-impact strength training regime to improve her performance. She’s also got one of those pesky desk jobs, meaning her shoulders round forward and she’s developing a bit of an excessive curve in her upper back with the head jutting forward. Leanne has never done Pilates before, but the half-hour demo seems to sit well with her, as she books onto the schedule for regular, weekly sessions. Based on her level of focus, I’m betting she’ll start noticing results soon.

Up next is Paula, one of my favourite people to work with. Paula seriously cracks me up. Every time she learns a next exercise she gasps “OH WOW!!!” and proceeds to get really excited. It’s this kind of enthusiasm for Pilates that makes teaching a lot of fun. Paula and I are working on correcting some lateral curvature in her torso (in lay terms, that means that one side of her waist tends to work more than the other, which means it’s shorter and she leans a little to one side). We do some exercises to help her roll up right along the spine, and it starts to really take effect. She’s getting better every week.

After Paula I had a long break, so I went shopping for new clothes, because my husband is taking me out on a date on Thursday, and I’m vain. I headed back to work and re-wrote some copy for my website (http://www.pilatescore.net).

Next up is for Veronica, who won a package of 5 free half-hour Pilates sessions at the Fraser Street Festival two weeks ago. She was sick and missed out on her first session, so we re-booked, and now she’s missed her workout a second time. This is, unfortunately, something you have to get familiar with if you work in fitness. People seem to put their health at the bottom of the to-do list and you’ll have last-minute cancellations and no-shows every once in a while. If they’re not prizewinners, it’s important to have a 24 hour cancellation policy in place!

Last up are the four lovely ladies in my Tuesday night group class. We have multiple focuses in this class, one for each lady. We’re working on developing hip flexor strength so that the low back doesn’t flatten out in order to live a leg, arm work to balance out the body’s frame, and inner thigh work to relieve a tight IT band. The girls are all a lot of fun to work with and it’s a relaxed, friendly class.

2. What was your first job out of school?

Pilates at the MetroCentral YMCA. I taught a weekly group class for about 14 students (small for the Y, HUGE for Pilates). It was a lot of fun and I got really attached to some of the members there. I was very sad when they found a volunteer willing to teach in my time slot for free, and I had to move on. Thankfully, I had little problems finding work teaching elsewhere.

3. What are the 3 skills you require most to do your job well?

i. Ability to verbally express yourself. If you can’t talk a client through an exercise and you have to demonstrate it, you’re wasting their time. Their workout should not stop because you can’t express yourself.

ii. Marketing savvy. Yes, Pilates is on the rise and one of the more popular workouts today, but a lot of people don’t realize that you can’t really learn it from a video, or at least you can’t EFFECTIVELY learn it from a video. You have to get out there and educate people, and convince them as to why they need a trainer, and why they specifically need YOU as a trainer.

iii. Knowledge. I don’t just get clients to exercise because I say so. I try to always explain WHY I’ve chosen a particular exercise, or WHY working a muscle in this particular way is the most effective. The more the client knows, the more they’ll get out of their workout. Besides, if you’re constantly explaining, you keep both your Pilates exercises repertoire and general fitness knowledge fresh in your mind.

4. What do you love most about your career?

People. I LOVE people. People talk to their trainers. If you open up a bit about your own life, your clients will open up right back. They trust you with their body and their stories. You really just meet some incredible people out there in the field.

5. Do you have any warnings?

Sure. Just because someone is a Certified Pilates Instructor doesn’t really tell you much. I could take a weekend course, and get a piece of paper that says I’m certified. Does that mean I’m truly qualified to make programming decisions for clients? Hell no. I spent nine months in training, and a year out in the field, I work with a chiropractor and massage therapists, and Chinese medicine doctors and I spend most of my free time researching, and I STILL feel that I need more education. If you’re planning on becoming certified, do your future clients a favour and really spend the time to learn the material. If you’re looking for a teacher, make sure you research their credentials before trusting them with your health. 

Also, be prepared to be asked, ad nauseum, what the difference between yoga and Pilates is. I usually respond by asking what the difference between an acorn and an elephant is. They’re really not alike at all. Yoga is about stretching and flexibility and spirituality, and Pilates is about control, discipline, and couldn’t care less whether you meditate or not. 

6. If you could try a different career on for a year, what would it be?

Well, I took a break from a theatre degree in university to pursue Pilates, so I guess I would go back and see what my life would have been like if I’d actually followed that path. Somehow, I have a feeling I’d be less successful 😉