Pilates Technique Thursday: Staying Fresh in One-to-One Teaching

Detailed session notes reflect mindful teaching, ensuring every Pilates class remains purposeful and fresh.

Teaching one-to-one Pilates sessions demands constant focus. When you work with the same client twice a week, the routine can easily become repetitive for both teacher and client. The challenge is to keep your teaching sharp, your mind alert, and your client inspired.

Here are some ways to stay fresh and focused in your teaching.

1. Revisit the Basics Regularly: Even experienced clients benefit from returning to fundamental exercises. It gives both of you a clear reference point for progress. Review posture, breath, and alignment at least once every few weeks. The goal is not to regress but to refine.

2. Change the Environment: A simple shift in where or how you teach can reset focus. Move to a different area of the studio, change apparatus order, or switch from the Reformer to the Mat for part of the session. The change of environment stimulates attention and breaks habitual movement patterns.

3. Rotate Your Own Practice: You cannot teach with freshness if your own practice is stale. Keep taking classes, learn from different teachers, and revisit your own embodiment. Experiencing new cues and sensations in your own body will naturally translate into new inspiration for your clients.

4. Set a Short-Term Focus for Each Block: Instead of planning every session as a stand-alone, work in four or six-session blocks. Give each block a focus: rotation, balance, spinal articulation, or breath integration. It provides direction for you and variety for your client.

5. Reassess Goals Together: Clients change over time. Their bodies, needs, and motivations shift. Spend five minutes every month talking about what they want to work on next. It shows care, and it keeps both of you mentally engaged with purpose.

6. Keep Notes After Each Session: Write down what worked, what didn’t, and what you noticed. A quick reflection helps you plan the next session with intention. Over time, this record becomes an invaluable guide to progress and variety.

7. Use New Cues, Not New Tricks: Staying fresh doesn’t mean constantly inventing new exercises. Often, a different cue or focus point can make a familiar movement feel completely new. Shift the attention from the external movement to an internal focus, or vice versa.

8. Rest and Recover: Teaching one-to-one is intense. It demands your full energy and attention. Build time between clients, even five minutes, to reset. Close your eyes, breathe, and let go of the previous session before starting the next.

Fresh teaching comes from a fresh mind. A teacher who keeps learning, observing, and caring will never teach the same class twice, even if the exercise looks the same.