What is it like to be a Pilates instructor? It’s actually a great career, one that is constantly challenging, constantly changing, and incredibly rewarding.
Training to Be a Pilates Instructor
The training necessary to become a Pilates instructor is intense. Most personal training certifications are in the 16-hour range, but to be a fully-certified Pilates instructor requires a 500-hour course and takes most people 18 to 24 months to complete. You’ve got to love the discipline and be prepared to train and study hard. You’ll be spending a lot of weekends in seminars and a lot of time on your own practicing, and then practice-teaching on your friends and anyone else willing to lie down on a mat for you. Expect to spend around $4,000 to become fully trained.
Finding a Job as a Pilates Instructor
That part is easy … Pilates instructors are in demand! As a studio owner I am always looking for good help and Pilates instructors usually get paid better wages than personal trainers. We should, after all, since we’ve done so much more training. A full-time job for instructors is considered to be 25 – 30 hours per week with clients in a studio and you can easily make over $50,000. Not too shabby, eh?
When You Start
At first, you’ll likely be working nights and weekends. It’s just a fact of life; the good shifts tend to be taken by the more experienced instructors. As you work at a studio over time, shifts will open up and you’ll be able to wiggle your schedule around to what you like best. I personally love to work mornings; the clients are very consistent about coming and I’m done by 1:00 in the afternoon, which is perfect for spending time with my son after he comes home from school.
Be prepared to learn a lot when you first start working with clients too. What the text book says isn’t what will happen in front of you and practicing on other limber Pilates instructors in class isn’t quite the same as that sweet older woman with a shoulder issue. You’ll find yourself adapting your knowledge to work with each client. One set of cues might work great with one person and horribly with another. You’ll develop a range of cues to work with people whether it’s aural, tactile, or visual by demonstrating moves. Everyone learns differently and you’ll need to figure out quickly how your clients process information best.
Pilates Instructors Are Very Friendly
We are inherently a social bunch. We geek out over anatomy, but we love to talk about movies, local goings on, and the latest health news. We also see many of our clients twice a week, so we tend to really know a lot about them. We go through their ups and downs and become part of their lives. This is all fine, but remember, there is a line that you have to think about crossing. We are customer service providers at the end of the day and that doesn’t necessarily mean we become our clients’ friends. Don’t expect to get any dinner party invitations, but be grateful if you get a holiday gift. In the 15 years that I’ve been a trainer, I’ve become good friends with three people … I have crossed the line, but only rarely and always at the initiation of the client.
If you’re curious about becoming a Pilates instructor, leave a question below and I’ll do my best to answer it. I do recommend that you spend time researching the different training programs and deciding which one is the best fit for you. If you are a Pilates instructor, I’d love to hear your tips for new instructors.
Cheers,
Lisa
Twitter
As a Pilates client, this post really sparked my interest, if only to understand the perspective of my wonderful instructors. Several questions (if you’re willing to indulge more than one):
1. Could you elaborate on holiday gifts from clients to instructors? (How common; any specific suggestions?)
2. Do instructors spend time outside of class preparing a “lesson plan” or are they able to wing it in a more impromptu way depending on who is in a class and how things are going?
3. Is the pay for an instructor commission-based depending on the number of people in a group class or does it tend to be a set rate per hour? In other words, is an instructor with a consistently full class paid more than an instructor who has a not-full class (perhaps in part due to a less popular timeslot)? Is the pay different for group classes versus private sessions?
Great post today, great blog in general, and thanks for any insights about these issues!
Hi Kari,
Happy to answer your questions. For the first one, holiday gifts tend to be anything from something simple and homemade such as cookies all the way up to restaurant gift certificate. We tend to get a lot of cute socks, and for my studio anyway, a lot of Peet’s gift certificates (the coffee shop up the street we all go to). I did read once that you should give a gift equivalent to the cost of one session … but most of my clients don’t follow that. I’m always grateful for any gift I receive, it validates for me that I’m doing right by my client, a vote of confidence if you will. :-)
For the second question, it varies by instructor. I have a weird ability to remember prior sessions with clients, it’s a gift that I’m grateful for. So I don’t do lesson planning but I definitely work on goals with clients over time and push them along for their ability for that day. The one drawback of a lesson plan is that it doesn’t account for a day when a client is really excelling or when a client needs a calmer workout. So I like to read the client and adjust accordingly. When I go to a training though (we have to do continuing education every year) I always come back with “tricks” for my clients. New props or moves to try out and they always like them. Or at least they groan more.
For the third, a lot of places pay a flat fee and a lot of places pay percentages. I’m actually in the process of switching over to a percentage base pay so that instructors have a little responsibility to help keep their schedules and their classes full. So they get a little bonus if they stayed consistently busy. I figure as an owner my job is to give them clients and their job is to keep the clients. :-)
Hope that makes sense, ask me any other questions you have.
Lisa
1.) How much of an expert do you need to be to begin a Pilates Comprehensive Program?
2.) Most programs are very expensive ($4000) as you mentioned. Would you recommend this for someone who is looking at only a part-time career in Pilates?
Hi Rebecca, most of my instructors are part-time and do other things in their spare time. It’s a very high paying job for a part-time gig even though there is an initial investment you’ll likely be hired immediately upon graduating school and start in the $30 an hour or so range (at least in Boston) and can go up to the $40 range. (This will vary greatly by region, so check locally where you are.) As for beginning a program, if you have no prior experience you’ll likely be required to take an anatomy weekend workshop so when the trainers start throwing around the big words you know what the heck they’re talking about. We don’t do a smattering anatomy, we go deep, you’ll need to know what the four muscles of the quad are, the point of origin and point of attachment of muscles, how the muscles work in the body, etc. But don’t worry that’s all learnable … if you decide to do it, let me know. And feel free to ask any other questions you have. :-)
Lisa,
Thank you for all of the information. I honestly think I’ve found my calling. I’m 26 years old living with two chronic illnesses and taking care of myself is my full time job. If I didn’t do that I’d quickly fall apart. That means eating right, exercising, sticking to my pain management routines, and knowing my limits. Physical exercise is very important to those of us with chronic illnesses but at the same time extremely difficult. I’m often in a significant amount of joint pain, dizzy, and suffering with all sorts of other symptoms. Pilates is one of the few workouts that I can do and I am so grateful. There is a real chance there for people like me to get active and regain some control over their lives. I’d like to help them while helping myself. It just seems like the perfect fit! Are there any specific programs or training I’d need to do so that I would be better suited to helping people with limitations? There are so many programs out there, & it can get a bit confusing! Any advice, words of wisdom or encouragement would be so very much appreciated.
Thank you. :-)