Yes, that’s correct guys and gals! Your Pilates private session is actually a personal training session! And you know what else? Pilates is hard! Yes, it’s a hard workout! And you will sweat! Whether you’re doing a group class or a private session, your workout at Pilates of Charleston will be challenging and will require some serious mental focus and concentration. Your 50 minute private session with your instructor is going to achieve the same strength and conditioning goals that one would achieve from a challenging personal training session at any gym or boutique fitness studio in the Charleston area.

Your Pilates session is not only going to challenge you on the Pilates equipment, but it will also include body weight training (using your own bodyweight as resistance), strength training and flexibility work, just like you would encounter with any good personal trainer. Your Pilates instructor will also infuse some cardio elements into your session as well, whether it’s by using the Jump Board or taking you through some general calisthenics off the equipment to elevate that heart rate and give you a well rounded session that’s full body and brings together cardio, strength training and conditioning, and flexibility. Remember any and almost all exercises designed on the Pilates equipment whether it be the Reformer, Cadillac or Stability Chair is resistance training. It’s also full body. So, in the 50 minutes that you spend in your private session at Pilates of Charleston, you will be building long, lean muscle by using the resistance from the equipment. It’s impossible to “bulk up” in Pilates because of this reason. Muscles get to fully lengthen and flex with or against resistance while maintaining stability throughout the rest of the body and this creates the long, lean muscle, versus traditional equipment at the gym or spin bikes that create a more bulky looking physique.

Personal training and Pilates both focus on functional strength. We need muscles in our body to actually do normal daily living, hence the body weight training and weight training and/or those additional red or blue springs on the reformer here in the studio that your instructor sometimes sneaks on. If you find your Pilates instructor teaching you movements that you might not necessarily associate with Pilates, remember that exercise science revolves not just around one form of fitness but around them all! Learning how to do the basic squat, dead lift, push up and sit up is perhaps fundamentally one of the most important aspects to train for functionality in our daily lives. Think about it…we squat and dead lift to pick up our groceries. We push up when we close the car door or push to rearrange furniture or push the dog away from jumping onto us. We sit up in bed in the morning; we sit up when we get off the sofa or the car seat, etc. Now listen, we have to perform these functional exercises with good form of course…and that’s where Pilates instructors come in quite handy due to their knowledge of the body and experience in teaching a wide range of modalities. We take pride in trying to educate our clients on correct form and concepts of anatomy, whether in one of our group classes or private sessions.

Pilates instructors undergo quite an extensive teacher training program in order to become certified Pilates instructors. This is not one of your average “get certified in a couple weekends” type certification. Instead, it’s a program that requires a large amount of classroom time as well as about 400 to 500 hours of observation, practice, and practice teaching hours that must be completed before exams. As a result, Pilates instructors end up having a strong background in anatomy, biomechanics, and postural analysis. This is absolutely imperative when training clients. And because of this knowledge we are in a way physical therpaists. So you can rest assured when you come to your personal training session at Pilates of Charleston, you are in well educated hands because you are being trained by Pilates instructors.

Here at Pilates of Charleston our goal is and will always be to give you a well-rounded Pilates session that covers all bases. So do not be surprised to encounter some serious workload in your Pilates private sessions at Pilates of Charleston. We are not trying to make your life a living hell for 50 minutes, although I am sure it can appear to seem like that from time to time, we are just using our education and skills as Pilates instructors to keep pushing you, your mind and body forward into a positive life changing direction!

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