I know as a Pilates teacher that Pilates workshops and Pilates continuing Education are vital to Pilates teaching. Do you agree? Do you find it hard though to find Pilates workshops in your area that you can get to? What about bringing a special Pilates workshop to your own studio? Sound a bit challenging? Maybe that perfect Pilates workshop that is just what your Pilates studio needs as if designed just for you and your Pilates teachers! Do Pilates workshops you attend inspire you? Recharge you? How do you know for your Pilates teaching that your money is well spent with your Pilates workshop you attend?

It seems like today it is easy to just go online and watch a video and then teach what you saw. Yet, for me the hands-on, in the workshop and feeling the work is the only way I can truly learn and feel the work for myself to then teach! I am one of those pilates teachers that came into the teaching world before the online extravaganza that is our world now. I actually had to travel to take workshops since at that time none came to Houston. For me I need that community, support, sharing experiences and getting on the apparatus and feeling the connection to have those lightbulb moments, to be the student again. This is why every year even if I don’t need the Continuing Education I am at workshops.

As a young teacher, it was hard as I felt that I didn’t know much, I was searching for more and more to grow my teaching skills, my mind, and confidence. As I said earlier in those days I had to travel, go to another studio, or hope that my studio owner brought some in for me to attend. This was before the PMA and so a lot of big conferences, and trust me there was only a few, really didn’t have Pilates workshops they were more fitness based in terms of group classes in gyms. Now, you can go online and do workshops and watch videos all at home! Don’t get me wrong, I love to do the online workshop and study and learn at home but, the true experience for me as a teacher is those live in-person experiences.

Think about it! As a client or student of pilates watching a video and doing the mat or apparatus is it the same as when you are with a teacher who is cueing you in that moment? Leading your body through the hour and seeing what is going on and pushing you or reigning you in when needed? For me, the answer is no. I remember when I was going through my Teacher Training program and my teacher said “One of the best pieces of advice I can give you is to be the client each week. Have a booked and set time each week for your session with a teacher. Be the student and get your workout.” That is a whole other conversation that we will go into in another blog later. The point is that we have to feel the work as a student to teach. I take that into my workshops.

For me when I bring my workshops to other studios or in my own studio it is full participation with the students that have come to learn. Everyone brings their experiences with the work, their own clients and bodies. We move, we observe each other and give thoughts and the beauty of that is that it is a true shared experience and movement that has many moments of aha or opening the mind to a new path for the teacher.

We as teachers come from many different schools and some teach Traditional, contemporary, classical or whatever you want to call but, our goals are the same. Be good teachers, help our clients, keep our clients moving forward and seeing changes for them, staying passionate and not getting burned out, connecting to our Pilates community. What better way than in a setting together of learning seeing where we can go together. Want a workshop? Let’s go workshop shopping here!

XOXO Hilary Opheim