Workshop Retreats

I am excited to welcome you to my Pilates studio in Los Angeles. My Pilates Workshops are full of deep diving and coming together as a community with fellow Pilates teachers and those wanting to dig deeper into their Pilates practice. These workshops are really like Pilates Retreats at Hilary Opheim Pilates and are full participation style workshops. Learning and sharing experiences and following the experience together.

Each Pilates workshop is not only is full of sharing the passion for the work of Mr. Pilates in my studio in Los Angeles but can also be brought to your studio for full weekend workshops.

Check out Upcoming Events for Retreats

Are you interested in your own PRIVATE workshop? or have a group of teachers that are wanting one? Contact for creating your own workshop on what you are wanting and on your schedule virtual or live in LA.

CEC’s included.

Understanding the Connections to all Pilates work

This workshop is all about a deep understanding of Joseph Pilates work from the Hundred and all the connections leading from that exercise to all the work. Seeing and feeling the building blocks that get you to where your body can maintain the purpose of the exercise.

Going back to the Traditional work and understanding how the Mat and Reformer continue to the Cadillac and other apparatus and why you would give an exercise to that client at that moment.

This workshop utilizes the whole studio and is full participation and movement as I want everyone to feel the work, guide each other and really understand the full scope of Joseph Pilates work. Manual and handouts are included for each participant.

How to "modify" Traditional Pilates for your client using Precautions and Contraindications

Traditional Pilates provides a full-body workout for all clients. That said, some clients may have health conditions that we as Teachers need to navigate around. We need to be aware of and familiar with the Precautions and Contraindications as we teach and keep clients safe but, getting them as functionally moving as their body will take them.

In this workshop, participants will learn about these contraindications and learn how to break down or build the Traditional Pilates exercises to fit these clients’ needs and still challenge them and get them stronger. Learn and understand why you would omit certain exercises and how to assess that client that day. Using all the apparatus as well as mat this workshop will give you the tools as well as give you the understanding to be confident and safe with clients.

This workshop shows how by breaking down the exercises, the purpose is still there and the challenge of the work continues for the client. Teachers teaching contemporary, classical, or any style will see how to keep their clients safe and moving! Includes manual and handouts.

Cueing for clients that gets them more connected in mind and body

Teaching is full of trying to get our clients to connect to the work, their mind, and their body. As someone told me once Pilates is like learning a new language for our clients, I also think as teachers it is the same in terms of relaying that to our clients. I want my clients to feel and understand the full body as they move through each exercise and not one body part. So how can we cue for that? How can we keep it simple and clear?

This workshop shows how to teach and not use those cues we sometimes can get stuck on "scoop", "use those abs or your powerhouse" , "squeeze your glutes " and so on. Give your clients the power to figure out what is needed by the use of the springs apparatus, an of course your cues.

Like all my workshops this is full-on participation and feeling the work. Participants can feel the cues and how it is applied for themselves. See how a little tactile as well and then letting the client connect changes everything for them. You will see how easy and fun it makes teaching. We will also go over those exercises that seem to give the most issues for us as Teachers and any that participants want to work on. Manual included

Using the mat to assess and where to go from there

Joseph Pilates used the mat and Reformer to really assess what was going for the client. It is probably the think I love most about Pilates, seeing what "pops" up with my clients session each week.  This workshop shows how to see what “speaks or shouts” the loudest in terms of what is going on in the body in front of you. How do you take what you see in terms of the clients body and improve that pattern that you see? Learn how the exercises on the Mat can transfer in a different way to the other apparatus and help the connection and movement for your client. Then seeing how things changed for them back at the mat.

This workshop is like all of my workshops with full participation and seeing what we see in our fellow participants and working together to see what options are best for what we see. Utilizing the full studio we see how the different apparatus can help connect or work the body to get the results we are looking for in terms of what pattern we are seeing with that client.

Seeing all the connections for the body with the different springs, orientations of gravity and movement is full of those light bulb moments for us teachers and our clients! Manual included.

How to Modify Traditional Pilates for your clients

Sometimes we have healthy and strong clients that we still need to figure out how to get them to the exercise or understanding of the movement in a way that they are working the full body as it was intended for movement, to not "cheat" to get there.  Getting the "power thru" out of it and get the small and honest movement to build to where they can be.

This workshop is about the true building blocks of the Traditional Method by Joseph Pilates. Knowing when and how to take your client to exercises that they may need or want to accomplish. This workshop shows how to build that connection and understanding for the movement and how the clients will still be working hard even with the building blocks to get there. In this workshop you will see the original purpose of the exercise and how to "modify" so that it remains for you and the client. Manual included.

The Assessment in the work and how to correct

In this workshop we go through the full session of our work with clients. From the moment they walk into our studio that day to assessing on the Mat to moving to the Reformer. Following the patterns and issues to see do they get better or do we need to continue on this path and on to the other apparatus to "correct". That is the question that then pops up for many teachers, how do I correct? This is something I stress with my Teacher training Program so that is how this workshop came to be for me.

We want to give our clients that full movement potential for their body but, we don't want to tell them "this is wrong", "your hip is really out of balance" , "what is going on with your shoulder?" In this workshop retreat you will see how to take your client for that hour and make them confident, challenged, and focused on the full body while you are "fixing" or "correcting" the pattern or issue you see in their movement.

Using positive, supportive and clear cueing you will see how easy it is to teach, inspire and "fix" for your clients giving them a full body workout that will have them bringing those towels with them every session. Manual included.

From Contemporary to Traditional Pilates, How to get the Internal shower in your Pilates workout

Whatever Pilates you teach this workshop is an opening of a door that will lead your Pilates on a journey that is like no other. Taking the Traditional work and delving deeply into each exercise with the purpose, the connections and the tactiles you can give for those clients to get them to feel that "internal shower" that Joseph Pilates wrote about will take your teaching to a whole new level.

This workshop includes the full Mat and Reformer as well as some of the Corrective apparatus and smaller as we move together seeing where we end up.

Lots of movement and participation as always in my workshop as we go through springs, set ups, tactile cues, connections of the work and more. Manual included.

Open to all Pilates teachers who have completed over 450 hours of Teacher Training.

Hips and Shoulders: Expanding Movement and Mobility

This Weekend Retreat is all about Hips and Shoulders! Looking at common issues our clients have how do you as a Teacher guide them to give them more movement, more functional movement for their body? How do you get them more mobile? What if they need to be more stable to get more movement that is safer and better for those joints?

Using the full studio and some mat work we will spend the weekend exploring all these issues and the why and how of each exercise for this client.

This workshop is full participation and deep-diving into the work of not only Mr. Pilates but, also Kathy Grant to help find full movement for the Pilates Method.

16 CEC’s will be given for this workshop for participants