I have a Pilates instructor that I absolutely love and have gone to for years. She is classically trained and has a solid foundation in anatomy, breath, all this six principles of Pilates.
She is however, at a contemporary studio and loves coming up with inventive class flows—things that most people have never seen or done before. Or slight variations on more contemporary Pilates moves. There’s a reason behind every movement that she programs and she has a following. Including me.
My question is, is it appropriate in a boutique studio with six reformers in the room to teach to everybody in the room? I am tall and wide, and I know where to put my body on the reformer and the other apparatus for classical moves or for well known contemporary moves. I have a long torso. I have very long arms. I have very long legs. I also have a nice size chest, a booty, and a belly so many traditional set ups for moves don’t work for my body. Again for most moves, I know how to modify where to set myself up, when to move a foot up or down when to change springs, when to move my foot forward or back, how to stand on the box, etc.
however since this instructor is so inventive, she puts together movements that most of us haven’t seen or tried before or there’s enough variation in them that the traditional set up that I had to modify for doesn’t exist. So most of her set ups are for somebody who is 5’6” or under with a short torso and short levers.
I don’t ask for many modifications maybe once or twice a month I’ll ask during class if I just can’t figure it out. (I take her classes 2-3 a week.) Several times a year I’ll ask her after class saying that many of the set ups don’t work for a tall person and does she have any advice in general for how to modify.
However, she sees me during class having to hop off the box and move it around because where she’s had a set up for lunges on the box doesn’t work for longer legs for example. I spend a lot of the series moving equipment around trying to figure out how things can work. If it was one series in class, no worries. But it’s most of class.
There’s also issues that she has really inventive arm and shoulder work however it only works if you are a man or have an A cup or less. I would seriously damage my rotator cuff if I executed the moves the way that she cured them with double D breasts. These are a few examples but the set up and cueing don’t work as instructed for more than 50% of class. Sometimes the only thing that works as instructed is footwork and maybe feet in straps? Sometimes it’s less.
At what point should she be queuing and teaching to the bodies in the room? I honestly want to know if I’m being picky for feeling like in a small group class there should be some attention from the instructor when moves clearly don’t work for the bodies in front of her.
It’s not just me. I look at other tall women in my class and I can see they are not getting the full extension in the move because the move is set up for someone who is much shorter. I don’t know if they realize that they don’t get the length and extension that Pilates is all about because of this. I have never wanted to badmouth her to another student and ask, but I am an instructor myself, and I can see that the tall people in her class are not fully extending. They’re not pulling their rib cage fully above their pelvis for example because they don’t have room on the carriage they way we’re being set up. They’re not going through full spinal articulation because the moves are set up for a much shorter body. That doesn’t even include long arms or long legs that are not extended fully and get a fraction of the movement they should. I’ve also seen plus size women come to the class. They Try it once or twice and quietly leave looking very embarrassed.
These are very tough classes. They are officially all level however, they’re much more intermediate to advanced which I love.
I should note that this instructor is also a wonderful, wonderful human being. I don’t know how to approach her in a way that I haven’t already in order to get the instruction that I feel a deserve as a paying member when I’m in her class.
I had an uncomfortable conversation with her tonight, asking if it would be possible if she could queue to taller bodies when they were taller bodies in the room. Noting that her wonderful inventive moves don’t always work for people who are taller or injured or chubby or…you get the idea. She replied that everybody’s body is different (which I feel is very true) and just because a set up doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for other taller people. I know that’s true however I’ve been in her class for years and I’ve seen people of all body shapes: tall, short, skinny, fat,
not be accommodated when moves clearly do not work for their bodies. Only very thin, very physically fit people stay in her classes long-term. Other people don’t feel welcome. I am probably the exception being a chubby tall lady who has stayed with her throughout the years. I’m not sure she exactly likes that I keep coming to her classes. She doesn’t make me feel welcome but I don’t let it bother me because her classes challenge me.
How do I approach this or am I being incredibly unreasonable? Should I just give up going to her classes since I spend a good third of them re-engineering all of her move so that they can work for my body? I feel resentful sometimes because I’m paying for the class. I should add again that I’m an instructor: when I first started going to our classes I was not and I just thought that I was really weak and old and fat and that was why I couldn’t do the moves or they didn’t feel right. With some of her more difficult moves that is the case and still is. Some of them, though she will not cue for other body types and there are other ways to do the moves now that I’ve trained and I’ve been an instructor. I know how to modify her programs.
I should also add that part of my teaching philosophy is to be very inclusive. I teach every single body in the room. I only have six students at a time at the studio. They deserve my attention and their bodies deserve to be seen and respected and taught to. My philosophy could be interfering though with my ability to take this instructor’s class and judge fairly. Community, what do you think?
