It isn’t uncommon for the fitness industry to seem attractive to those seeking a career where they can invest in other’s self-improvement, improve quality of life, and in turn maintain their own health. With any career choice it is important to weigh your options, motives, and ability. Pilates is one of the most popular fitness trends in recent years and, because of this, a potential red flag is raised. For those looking to become certified as a Pilates instructor be prepared to dive deep into the history, terminology, and purpose behind the practice. This will allow you to rise above the fad and stick to the meat and potatoes of what Pilates truly represents. This raises your odds of having a successful career, and will cement your conviction in Pilates long before you throw making money into the mix.

As we all know, a trend comes and goes, but if you are dedicated to becoming a Pilates instructor you have to be willing to embrace and relay what you have learned even once the time comes when Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow have sold off their Pilates machines.

Since the early 1990’s Pilates has gained popularity with the pop culture devotees. This is good and bad. Not only does the exposure give a much needed exercise method a chance to make a dent in the disease and injury grasp that is ailing American’s and numerous other cultures, but it has also given credibility where it’s due, in a world where everyone needs a television endorsement to believe in an exercise regime. Pilates isn’t a miracle drug or six-week weight loss program, it’s a mindset, a layered doctoring of a certain set of beliefs that unite the body with the wholeness that holistic healing offers.

Questions to ask:

• What is your motivation?

Pilates most agrees with those that are willing to let it evolve and become a lifestyle for its clients, but more importantly for themselves. There are vast healing components found in Pilates that are applicable to spinal abnormalities, muscular imbalances, as well as serious conditions such as Parkinson’s’ Disease and intense injuries (such as a torn ACL.) This makes you a part of the healthcare world. It takes a soul that is sensitive to others, patient, and understanding to really help those that are struggling with health conditions.

Pilates certification and proper training is quite the investment. It is an investment that may be only paid back in equal parts funds to be balanced out by the personal reward of accomplishment. There is potential to make money in the Pilates industry but there is also a large majority of people who either teach as a supplemental part of their income or give themselves over to the career and work very hard at succeeding. There is more to be said o f a career in Pilates than just bringing home the bacon, you develop life long practices, mind control that can become all the return on your investment that you need.

If Pilates is just on your list as an option to rival that of personal training, or physical therapy, keep in mind that Pilates is not as popular as one-on-one session training, and is much more popular with group class environments so you have to be able to multi task and be attentive to a lot of people at once.

• Are you good at teaching?

Teaching goes far beyond just explaining something to another person, especially in Pilates. With Pilates, an explanation of the work itself will ultimately melt into the development of your client’s experience, which will then become a rhythm of understanding reaping result. The information that is shared and digested between a teacher and their student, whether it is in a class environment or with an individual solely, requires complete physical, emotional, and spiritual rapt attentiveness from their teacher. This is because Pilates takes on a life of its own when it is acted out through a rotating chamber of kinetics, visual, and vocal elucidation.

As a teacher, you will be the portal by which each of your students is introduced to their own holistic pathway of Pilates healing and wellness. This means that your full commitment to editing their form, understanding their goals, and applying proper programs design to each, will make you a better instructor and elevate your status from one who has learned Pilates to one who has the ability to contribute to the proper reeducation of those who hope to become skilled themselves.

• Are you a firm believer in the Pilates way of life?

This can be the defining factor between becoming a Pilates teacher and becoming a teacher of other health and fitness modalities. When Joseph Pilates introduced Pilates to the world he had high hopes of enabling people to overcome serious injuries and achieve whole body wellness. His beliefs had a backbone with that of mental and spiritual healing as well as the physical conditions.

Make sure that even if you are well versed in the methodologies of Pilates that you understand by which the entire mantra of Pilates was to be established. This requires research and development on your part, because the clients that will be seeking out Pilates as their form of exercise and rehabilitation will want to know that you understand their reasoning for taking Pilates. Even if you don’t believe in every aspect of the Pilates policy, it is necessary for the benefit of your students that you are educated in all facets of the belief system.

• Are you a self starter?

Being your own boss sounds so refreshing in a culture of deadlines and pencil pushing, doesn’t it? Day after day you would be surrounded by health-minded individuals, with the added liberty of being able to shoot out of the “office” to get in your own Pilates session or quick jog. Teaching Pilate may be as close to heaven on earth as you can get, it all depends on what your strengths and weakness are.

It’s easy to romanticize and new job opportunity, and we all do. Besides it would seem that such a career might even be the epitome of the American dream, one in which you are able to dictate your own schedule. What better way to get that flexibility and freedom back into your life than by being a Pilates instructor! It is true that on a general basis, a Pilates instructor can decide how many students, classes and continuing education courses to involve themselves in. However as there is with any two-sided coin, you must be aware of the flip side of any occupational situation before forging ahead. And yes, even a career in Pilates does have its downfalls, and works better for some than others.

One of the major qualifications that one must consider before signing on the dotted line of their Pilates certificate, is that to be successful and effective in the Pilates profession you have to be honest with yourself about your ability to be self-motivated. Some personalities thrive in environments where they are given tasks to complete and get a positive charge out of following through with those tasks. Pilates is not that kind of job. You and only you will be the one to generate any and all tasks.

Some people have problems with office type jobs, and can’t stand the caged in feeling of the day in day out regime. While it may seem that Pilates won’t ever become a boring routine, you must add a heaping spoonful of reality to your Pilates pudding. Everything becomes less exciting after you do it enough times. The plus side to Pilates is that there are spiritual groundings in the teachings of Pilates that will help you stay centered in your instruction and allow for self-rejuvenation. Because Pilates goals are unlike a job, where the goals of the manager or owner automatically become your goals, as a Pilates instructor you will be continuously motivated by the needs of your clients. Only if you continuously strive for more and more clients.

Take inventory of when you have been most happy in your career in the past, and when you have been most unhappy. Whether or not the same job descriptions you have had in the past are applicable to Pilates or not, there will be a common thread of what you excelled in as opposed to what fell short in.

The benefits of a career in Pilates does allow for a more flexible schedule, but if you don’t handle free time well, time management may just be the downfall of your Pilates career. Pilates also is a job that works for those types of people that don’t mind isolation. Most often it will be just you and a few clients in a classroom or you will be with a client one-on-one for an hour. While you may develop relationships with those clients, it will not act like a common social network as other 9-5 job sometimes do.

Without the padding of other co-workers you also need to ask yourself if you believe in your ability to create a steady stream of work without the instruction of others. Keeping yourself busy with clients means that you will have to either get hired at a studio and work your way up by taking on more and more classes or private sessions, or investing in your own equipment and studio. The latter is obviously the much higher risk for newcomers to the Pilates profession, and not recommended until you have extensive experience with understanding Pilates workload and demands.

• Are you interested in exercise science, physiology and body mechanics?

Pilates isn’t only understanding the mind-body connection or mastering its surplus of flexibility and relaxation techniques. There is quite an extensive association with Pilates to be found in the all-inclusive text that is our physical being. Understanding metabolism, how the body functions in healthy and unhealthy conditions, developing a sharp knowledge of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, and applying these facts to the Pilates methods are absolutely consequential to becoming a safe, effective and successful Pilates trainer.

All of the secrets of the body need to be sifted through and fully retained, because body mechanics and exercise science are vital to the practicality and functionality of Pilates training. Understanding the body isn’t just a knowing where certain body parts are and what they do. If that were the case, a passing grade in physiology might as well be one round of Milton Bradley’s board game Operation. Understanding the body and how it should move, what happens when it isn’t moving correctly and how to avoid injury, heal injury, and understand the chemical exchanges inside the body as well as educating yourself about certain medical conditions are a big part of becoming a Pilates instructor.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you understand why you are motivated to become a Pilates trainer and you find that it is entrenched in a true desire to help, heal, and educate others through the Pilates regime, then you are in a good place to continue whittling down your personal prerequisites for joining a Pilates training program.

If you find that you are constantly complimented on your patience and ability to thoroughly explain new things to others, than you can take another step in the right direction.

If you truly have explored all of the aspects of the Pilates way of life and find your self, if not embracing, than wholeheartedly respecting the ideology, than you can yet move ahead another step closer to becoming a Pilates instructor.

If you are a self-starter and have a knack for physiology and yearn to learn more about exercise science and health conditions, then you can pretty much assume that Pilates may just be the right occupation for you.