My Body My Pilates is bringing world-class Pilates Instructor Training courses to Japan, and Helen Zhang, founder of My Body My Pilates and certified by Balance Body USA in Master Pilates training will be leading the Pilates Instructor training program.
Since setting up the studio in 2017, Helen and her team of Pilates instructors have been bringing consistently high quality Pilates classes to clients. People have benefited from Pilates, even noticing the change after just one session, and so many have gone on to make Pilates their natural way of life. Simply because they have experienced it for themselves that as their bodies got physically healthier, they got happier and could go on to live their lives fully doing what they love.
Learning from the best
It was clear for Helen that the next step up was to bring world-class Pilates Instructor Training courses to Japan. And if we want to give the best, we learn from the best. She set off for California and trained with Nora St. John, MS NCPT, Education Program Director of Balanced Body Inc.
This was an amazing opportunity to be trained by one of the world's leading Pilates experts, and Nora herself is a walking treasure, having been trained by the very people who were taught by Joseph Pilates himself. You may have heard of what people call the Pilates Elders, or First Generation Pilates instructors. We are talking about people like Romana Kryzanowska, Carola Trier, Eve Gentry, Ron Fletcher, Kathleen Stanford Grant, and Lolita San Miguel, all who are in the Pilates lineage who came directly after Joseph Pilates.
Having the opportunity to train with someone like Nora meant that Helen was getting as close as anyone could get to the origin of Pilates. Nora has a very rich and full experience of Pilates which she passes down on to the next generation of Pilates Instructors. Every single one of Joseph Pilates´ disciples received Joseph Pilates´ teachings and infused them with their own understanding, experiences and skills. Each generation actually gets more fertile because they take the original concept of Pilates and take it even further.
Watch Nora's interview here:
Efficient exercises that are coherent and flow
Nora's experience of Pilates allowed her to create her Balanced Body education system that allows Pilates Instructors to pick it up quickly, and ensures efficiency in acquiring the exercises.
Helen has taken her training with Nora and created her own Pilates Instructor Training Course that is based on Nora's approach. As always, starting with a strong foundation in the basics is key. When that is solid, everything else that is built upon it will flow. The exercises are gradual and respectful of the body's natural way of moving. The exercises lead up to a whole body movement where all the parts come together and it all makes sense.
Nora creates ´families´ of exercises where there is coherence and a natural logic to how one sequence is connected to the next. Helen uses this approach in her Pilates Instructor Training Course as well.
In-depth & comprehensive training
Those who are passionate about Pilates and who are really enthusiastic about going much deeper into the practice of it will find it richly rewarding to undergo Helen's Pilates Instructor Training Course. It's not about simply passing on one set of exercises from beginner to advanced to another person and then expecting them to go and ´teach´ it.
Experience a Complete Pilates Course
Those who know Helen personally will know she either goes the full mile and beyond or she doesn't do it at all. She has created a comprehensive training course that includes Movement Principles, Mat Pilates, Reformer Pilates, Apparatus Pilates, 3D Anatomy and Comprehensive Pilates. This ensures that anyone who goes through and completes the course is fully equipped to handle just about any type of Pilates class.
Understand Different Pilates Apparatus
Pilates goes beyond the Mat and Reformer. There are so many different apparatus in Pilates and they were all designed to serve a need. A good Pilates Instructor can create and put together a series of exercises across different apparatus to help a client achieve their health goals in the most efficient and safest way possible. This increases the range of exercises possible and there are so many variations and combinations nobody can ever get bored with Pilates and claim to say they've done it all! Pilates stays fresh and exciting this way.
Acquire Sound Knowledge
Including subjects such as Movement Principles and 3D Anatomy means that these future Pilates Instructors will know the clients´ bodies inside out and outside in. Without a sound knowledge of this, we cannot fully guide a client's body to progress because there is no understanding of how the body is moving and why it is behaving in a particular way.
Inclusive Pilates
Helen's training includes modules where even people with special needs are taken into account. Helen firmly believes that Pilates is for everyone. As a Pilates Instructor, the challenge is to be able to take any human body in front of them, assess their needs, plan the exercises required to achieve their goals and adapt as the body progresses.
Part of a Pilates community
When one is starting out as a new Pilates Instructor, or perhaps you are furthering your training or even switching careers from another discipline, it can feel a little destabilising as we try to find our way. Helen has done just about everything, from doing Pilates to getting trained in Pilates to setting up her own studio and now training instructors. She knows well enough the concerns and worries people may have through their career. That is why in her Pilates Instructor Training course, she has included private mentoring sessions with the instructors-in-training. This can help them ease out any concerns and help guide them to do what they do best.
My Body My Pilates has always been a strong Pilates community where people from all backgrounds, nationalities and languages come together for the same single purpose of practising Pilates for a healthy body and a happy life. This is the same environment Helen is creating for educators-in-training with her. There is a supportive environment for them to fully grow and develop.
At the end of the day, as Pilates Instructors, we all want the same thing for our clients - that our skills, experience and expertise can give them the freedom of movement that is pain-free and and the confidence to fully live their lives.
Our clients often comment how much taller they feel even after just one session. It's almost like getting a bit of self-confidence back, or which they did not even know they had. Helen is doing the same for those who want to go deeper into their Pilates knowledge and join the Pilates Instructor Training Course. It can give instructors-to-be a sense of confidence, knowing the knowledge they are receiving comes from a respected lineage of high quality instructors over the generations, and that they are the ones to continue sharing their skills and knowledge with future generations to come.
At My Body My Pilates, we mean it when we say we are bringing world-class Pilates Instructor Training Courses to people. That is how much we respect Pilates and what we do, and as a community that genuinely cares for the well-being and health of our clients, we want to give instructors the best as well.
TOKYO PILATES Studio
Our Pilates studio is at 3 丁目5ー11元麻布 1/F Pilates Studio, Block C Majes Motoazabu Gardens, 港区 Tokyo 106-0046.
Contact My Body My Pilates to discuss your Pilates exercises.