Education Tips for Pilates Teachers: Part 2

Beth in purple top working on the computer

Written by Beth Sandlin

June 10, 2021

As a Pilates teacher there’s a balance between education and taking action because you can quickly spend your resources on continuing training programs and be stuck in the learning mode.

In Part 1 of this Series, we reviewed 3 types of Continuing Education buckets:

  1. TRADITIONAL: What most Pilates training and continuing education focus on, the mechanics of movement, anatomy, the exercises, etc.
  2. BUSINESS: Ensuring you have the knowledge, resources and systems in place to financially thrive being a Pilates Instructor.
  3. HUMAN CENTERED: Learning and applying mindset strategies, human development and learning styles to support how you teach Pilates.

For more information on these categories, read Part 1!

Now that you have an understanding of the types of continuing education you can pursue, let’s get into Part 2: Assessing the training that’s right for you, right now, beginning with a brief assessment

Where have you been putting your resources (time, energy and money) for your Continuing Education?

Let’s go deeper: 

TIME: What are you spending your time on with continuing education? Is it all in one area? I’m all for a speciality, (hello Trauma Informed) yet nothing works in a silo. More on this later!

Say that you’re spending your time focusing only on one aspect of training (traditional, business or human centered), it may be time to find a different type of training to round out your skills as a Pilates practitioner.

ENERGY: Are you exhausted by work, certain situations or spend a lot of mind energy on client concerns, business or otherwise. When your energy is pulled to a problem (and especially repeatedly so) this is a sign that you may want to learn new skills to get out of this pattern. AND the trick is not to fall into the trap of believing the only skills you need to develop as a Pilates teacher pertain to the movement of Pilates. (That was covered in part 1).

Your energy may also be pulled in a positive way towards a craving for more knowledge in a certain area, such as fascia, working with a specific population or focusing on a specific skill. 

MONEY: I could say invest inside of money, but as mentioned above, you invest your time and energy as well. So I’ll give it to you with no fluff. Where is your money going for continuing education? Is it focused on the movement of Pilates or is it diversified? I bring this up because there are a lot of free resources available. This isn’t a bad thing, (we’ll cover that in Part 3 more). However, for a well-rounded continuing education program, it’s going to cost not only your time but money as well. Here’s an example from a recent training program I completed. 

Over the past year we have been made more aware of the work our society and the Pilates Industry needs to do to be more Inclusive and Anti-Racist. And during this time, and prior, I invested my time and energy into learning through many different avenues of continuing education.

But there was something missing, I needed to invest not only my time but take a course and invest money into an anti-racism course (a human centered training). Although I do feel this was a need, and is a need for many Pilates teachers and organizations, I also wanted to pursue education in this work. I know that there is historical and racial trauma, so this was an important training to do being dedicated to a Trauma Informed Approach. 

With this, it took me over a year to find a course which I felt good about investing all of my resources to. The course was a deep dive into Anti-Racism work and was lead from a Trauma Informed framework. (And I really don’t think that you can get far with Anti-Racism work or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work without this.)

I, along with many others, were lead by an amazing facilitator for a 6-week journey of virtual in-person learning and additional learning beyond the “classroom”. 

Did my work stop after the course ended? NOPE. I am still in the process of applying the information.

And that’s really what investing your resources is all about, learning so you can apply and take that next step. 

Let’s circle back to the question posed earlier and add on to it.

Where have you been putting your resources (time, energy and money) and what types of Continuing Education (Traditional, Business or Human Centered) have you been investing in?

Taking the opportunity to do a brief audit, can help you assess the next steps for your continuing education. Ideally it’s diversified with the types of courses you take while being guided by where you are putting resources to. 

And the thing is you don’t necessarily need to know the exact course you are going to take when you answer this question. That’s getting too far ahead. For example with the Anti-Racism course, I knew I wanted to take a Human Centered training in this area but i didn’t know the exact course I was going to take.

Sometimes writing this down will lead to clarity. This shifts your awareness and you’ll become more aware of opportunities now or in the future for continuing education opportunities. 

So now that you have Part 1 and Part 2 down, move onto Part 3: Continuing Education, does it always have to be formal training?

Skip to content