Many of us teaching Pilates, yoga and fitness classes rarely have the luxury of choice or control when it comes to those attending our sessions. In an ideal world, we would have separate classes or courses for beginner, intermediate and advanced clients, but if we work for studios and leisure centres, it’s about filling the class. For those of us who are self-employed, we often serve the local community and therefore don’t have the client pool to offer too much diversity in terms of levels.
This conundrum is further magnified when we consider special populations – for example, pre/postnatal and seniors – as well as being able to safely accommodate those with injuries and health conditions. How often have you attended a class where the teacher asks if anyone has any issues and upon hearing that yes, osteoporosis, they have advised the client to “take it easy, stop if there’s any pain”. Good advice, but not very specific or safe.
As instructors, we have a duty of care to our clients to understand the most common health conditions and injuries if we are to accept those suffering with them to attend our classes. If we want to go the extra mile – and we should – we need to know which exercises are suitable, which aren’t and how we can adapt them.
With this knowledge, not only can we keep ourselves and our clients safe, but we can actively improve their quality of life by helping them to recover or manage their issue. It also opens up a new avenue of opportunity as this will widen our client base and give us the expertise to work with other healthcare professionals and therapists.
My new course, Orthopaedics: Pilates Adaptations for Common Conditions & Injuries is now available, leading to a Clinical Pilates CPD Certificate. The knowledge you will gain will give you and your clients the confidence to work together and make a real difference.
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BODY SOUL WELL 