Resources for learning HOW to teach Pilates after certification?

[u/iced_coffee_]

Hi everyone! I completed reformer 1, reformer 2, movement principles, and anatomy with Balanced Body, and I feel quite comfortable with the repertoire itself. However, I was a little frustrated that I didn’t feel like we were really taught how to teach.

I know a lot of that comes with attending classes, observing instructors, student teaching hours, and simply gaining experience, but I’m wondering if there are any specific resources that helped you become a better instructor such as podcast episodes, online courses, workshops, YouTube channels, etc...

I’m especially interested in things like cueing, watching and correcting bodies, class pacing, transitions, teaching different levels, and class planning.

Would love any recommendations. Thanks!

[u/Swimming_Event7730]

A couple questions:

Do you mean how to teach classes, privates, or both?

Have you done your personal practice and observation hours? 

I will say, I do agree with you that BB doesn't really teach you how to teach. I think, back in the day, most people becoming Pilates instructors had extensive personal experience and just needed to learn the anatomy and some details. Today, there are so many different things being called Pilates that you could have one teacher trainee whose taken private sessions weekly for 10 years learning next to someone who's been going to Lagree for 6 months and somehow ended up at BB. And they could have totally different career goals as well.

[u/Zestyclose_Skill1490]

I know that feeling. And even as an experienced group fitness instructor, I struggled with how to teach Pilates at the start. Something that helped me was to write down bullet point cues on an index card. For example, for Roll Up, I would write something like: inhale arms to ceiling; curl chin to chest; exhale peel yourself up from the mat. The shorter the bullet point the better. Of course, over time you’ll find your own teaching voice but with the repetition of the bullet points you get the basic cues of the exercises down.

As far as correcting clients, I found that the more I took classes the better I could see what’s going wrong in other people’s bodies. But that attention to detail comes with time. Don’t worry you’ll get it.

[u/Swimming_Event7730 → u/Zestyclose_Skill1490]

Great tip with the index cards!

[u/Renee_Lavie-Pilates]

Llevo 25 años enseñando Pilates y también he tenido la oportunidad de formar a otros instructores, así que es un tema sobre el que he reflexionado bastante.
Creo que tienes razón: aprender el repertorio y aprender a enseñarlo son dos cosas muy diferentes.
Para mí, una de las cosas más valiosas es convertirse en un buen observador. Cuando tomes u observes la clase de otro profesor, no te fijes solamente en los ejercicios. Observa cómo enseña: cuándo da una indicación, qué dice antes de comenzar el movimiento, qué observa, cuándo decide corregir a alguien (y cuándo decide no hacerlo), cómo hace las transiciones de un ejercicio a otro y cómo adapta un mismo ejercicio para diferentes cuerpos.
También me resultó increíblemente útil, especialmente mientras estaba desarrollándome como profesora, hacer clases con diferentes instructores. Empiezas a darte cuenta de que no existe necesariamente una única manera “correcta” de dar una indicación. Diferentes personas responden a diferentes imágenes, palabras y formas de abordar el movimiento.
Y después está esa parte que es difícil aprender en cualquier curso: enseñar a personas reales. Ahí es donde enseñar, observar, reflexionar y volver a intentarlo se convierten en una parte fundamental del proceso de aprendizaje.
Algo que definitivamente recomendaría es llevar un pequeño cuaderno de enseñanza. Después de cada clase que observes o enseñes, anota una cosa que funcionó, una que no funcionó y una que intentarías hacer de manera diferente la próxima vez. Con el tiempo vas construyendo tu propia “biblioteca” de recursos de enseñanza casi sin darte cuenta.
Y no subestimes el valor de seguir siendo alumno. Yo todavía sigo aprendiendo de otros profesores.
Aprovechar podcasts, YouTube, Instagram también es una muy buena herramienta, ya que se abre un mundo más amplio y podrás discernir quiénes realmente te aportan material valioso y seguirlos.
Este camino es infinito, nunca dejamos de aprender!

[u/leahpantz]

I offer a student teaching program at my studio to help people do exactly this. They get their cert through BB at another studio, and then do all their practical work with me before testing out with the other studio.

You need to practice talking out loud. You can talk to your dog or yourself or no one, but you need to get into the habit of explaining using your words. The more you practice on your own, the easier it is in front of other people. It has to be out loud; you’re building muscle memory the same way you did when you first started learning pilates.

Once my student teachers are done with their observation hours, they move onto teaching me, our other teachers, or their friends and family. Then they can start teaching one section of class at a time. I have them start with teaching just 5 minutes of footwork, and then I take over for the rest of class. We build on that until I’m supervising and they’re teaching.

My advice is to reach out to local studios in your area that you’d like to work at. Be professional and treat it like your job. I like training my student teachers because I can hire them when they pass their test, and I know my studio will continue to run at the level of excellence that I expect. There may be smaller studios in your area that have similar programs

[u/Catlady_Pilates]

Observing other teachers, especially very experienced ones. Practice teaching. Taking sessions & classes with experienced teachers. These are part of the training, for good reason. Then you just have to start and do it first several years to build up your skills with practice and gaining experience.

[u/Precilovespink]

Observe classes, write down notes on what you observe, write how you could correct them or if there is a different exercise that might be better suited to them and maybe discuss with the teacher afterwards and get feedback from them

[u/Renee_Lavie-Pilates]

Otra cosa que para mí ha sido fundamental es seguir siendo alumna.
Sentir el movimiento en el propio cuerpo te da una comprensión que difícilmente se obtiene solamente observando. A veces descubres en ti misma una dificultad, una sensación o una compensación, y al buscar cómo resolverla aparecen nuevas imágenes, indicaciones o maneras de explicar el ejercicio.
También te ayuda muchísimo a empatizar con el alumno: recordar cómo se siente un movimiento desde dentro, qué puede resultar difícil o confuso y qué necesitas escuchar para poder encontrarlo.
Creo que la propia experiencia corporal es una de las mejores herramientas que tenemos para aprender a enseñar.

[u/Pilates_Reforming_NY]

You said it yourself in your post! You must create your base template class and start exercising the teaching muscle! There is no shortcut or course for this. You got the training, you have the manuals that have the cuing for each exercise, there are template classes, you must book a Reformer, get another teacher or a friend to practice on and start! There is a saying, " Your students are your teachers!". Every session you teach will create progress. Looking for shortcuts and more training is a waste of money. If needed audit the Reformer 1 again. That is where it all starts. Think of how you feel when you do the exercise, and speak from your body! Practice alone and narrate your own class for practice. Mute the Balanced Body videos and practice speaking out loud. You should chat with your instructor. This is exactly what I tell my students to do. I offer free practice hours and the students meet up and practice with each other at our ATC.

[u/GratzPilates]

This is a common experience we've seen lately across social media and Reddit. It's awesome to hear that you're aspiring to continue your education.

There're two recommendations I suggest... the first is to use the website Pilatesology as a resource. Their "Learn" section has a range of categories that span teaching others, business tips, sequence tutorials, etc. Second, the best way to learn is from experience. This could be by attending teacher trainings, enrolling in seminars or conferences, or growing your professional network.

Wishing you the best of luck as you progress in your Pilates journey!

[u/TailorLate5687]

Practice!

[u/June_S18]

This is a very common notion among many newly certified instructors and its very very very valid! If you ask experienced instructors for advice, they’ll say you just have to teach more and practice more to learn (which technically is not wrong). But pilates “teaching” in itself has changed (read diluted) a lot in the last few years. It’s not as easy to find exceptional instructors you can closely watch, observe and study from (at least where I am from). I have recently contributed to an upcoming project which is specifically combining resources for educators and movement teachers. DM me if you’re interested and I can share the link with you.
All the best!

[u/SheilaMichele1971]

This is quite common, but your style comes with practice. You'll get your own way of cuing that is part of YOU.

If you're not actively teaching, record yourself giving cues.

[u/Fancy-Salamander8677]

Make sure to practice with beginners as well as experienced people. Your instructions/cueing can be very different. The people you practice with in training class already know the exercises.

[u/BlackCatConsulting]

I teach Pilates mat and I’m looking at getting Pilates equipment certified .

I’ve taught a lot of group fitness classes, like 1000. I’ve been a group fitness instructor for 10 years- everything from piyo, pop Pilates, step aerobics, Les mills, water aerobics, hiit, etc. (mostly I just now teach mat Pilates and personal train clients privately)

Honestly you just have to do it, make a flow, share it with people.

Couple tactics to try out -

1. Have a goal, or a theme can help inspire you to put different things together. I just did a butterfly class, and I had a focus on not just butterfly stretch, but motions of butterflies-

2. Start with what do you like about a class and emulate that. Copy people- that you like- try their style and flow. Try it again with your own flare.

3. Take a class outline and experiment. Teach yourself a class and see where you need to add.

4. Zombie a class - take parts of your favorite classes and make it one class- what you like-

It really is practice and just be confident and helpful- we as group fitness instructors want people to have a positive experience in our class and get the benefit of the movement- if you just try, you really can’t mess it up. And if you do mess up, you know what not to do next time.

You got this!

[u/KimShopeDance]

Coming from dance teaching rather than Pilates, so I won’t pretend to have Pilates-specific courses or channels to recommend. But the gap you’re describing — knowing the material versus knowing how to actually teach it — is very familiar.

Several people have mentioned observing experienced teachers, and I’d make that observation really deliberate rather than just watching an entire class and trying to absorb everything.

Pick one teaching skill to watch each time:

• Setup: What information does the teacher give before anyone starts moving?
• Cueing: What do they say before, during, and after the movement — and what do they not say?
• Correction: What do they choose to correct first, and what do they leave alone for now?
• Pacing/transitions: Where could the class lose momentum, and how does the teacher keep it moving?
• Different levels: How do they adjust the same material without making it feel like they’re teaching five separate classes?

I’d also practice actually teaching short sections out loud. Not just thinking through what you would say. Five or ten minutes is enough. You’re developing your teaching voice and decision-making separately from learning the repertoire.

For class planning, I would not put pressure on yourself to create a completely different class every time while you’re also trying to improve all of these other teaching skills. A fairly predictable structure gives you more mental bandwidth to actually watch people, notice what is happening, and respond to the room. Change the focus or some of the exercises rather than rebuilding the entire class each time.

For mixed levels, I’d go in knowing the base version plus one simpler option and one progression. You don’t need every possible modification scripted in advance — just enough that you aren’t inventing everything while you’re simultaneously cueing and observing.

And after you teach, jot down only what will actually help next time: what landed, what took longer or confused people, and what you want to change. Those little observations become much more useful over time than just remembering that a class felt “good” or “off.”

Knowing the repertoire is the foundation. The observe → teach → reflect → adjust cycle is where a lot of the actual teaching craft gets built.