To teach Pilates when my DH says it's pointless

[namechangerstranger]

I want to become a Pilates instructor but is it actually worth it? Is there any instructors running classes on here ? How much do you charge per class? I was thinking £10 a class ?

I'm on SE in commuter belt, so some other instructors established but in theory plenty of clients.

My DH says it's not worth it. I'd only be able to do weekends due to his irregular work hours.

£18 a hour to lie on a mat and stretch?

I hope you are not going to let your husband decide what career you can or cannot pursue for the rest of your life! Make it a medium term ambition, do your training, research other classes, learn about the business side of things. Your children will be in school before long and you will meet loads of parents (for which read potential new customers!) at the school gates. Many people starting a new career as self employed make hardly anything to start.

Let’s not pile in and be snobby - it’s Pilates not Quantum Biology. I suspect the OP does a Pilates class and likes it, but hasn’t heard the term “fitness Pilates” before. I’m not sure I have and I’ve been doing classes (inc advanced) for nearly 10 years. I’d love to do it myself but I have the world’s tightest ligaments so it’s a non-starter... nobody wants an instructor that can’t even do a roll-down without bending her knees!

I belong to a very well known gym which has nationwide branches and a famous owner.

The potential new employees are interviewed in the foyer amongst gym members drinking coffee (I know, I know!).

A few weeks ago I overheard an interview for a young woman to teach Pilates classes. They were going to pay her by the hour and it was minimum wage.

I would expect a Pilates instructor- or a yoga teacher to be committed to her craft.

She or he should have many years of personal practice and exercise at an advanced level before considering training.

Op is Pilates something you feel passionate about?

I am not sure that weekend only will work for your clients. I do 2 classes a week plus a pure stretch class. It has made a huge difference to my flexibility. Just week ends would have me looking for someone who is able to support me better.
Classes are included in my gym membership but would be £8 for an hour. 16 Max per class.
Shocked at the comments of up to 50 per class, one of the Pilates associations specified a much lower maximum class size. Instructors need to be able to supervise and adjust the pupils's positions.
Do you do Pilates at all at the moment?

"I’m in London admittedly but yoga here is at least £14 a class. Mat Pilates £17 and equipment Pilates upwards of £30 a session. So £10 seems reasonable."

I'm at those prices. All the fitness classes I do where I live (rural South Yorkshire) are £5 for an hour. I currently do Pilates and HIIT, but I see other stuff advertised and none of the classes are over £5.

@lonicera - it might ve like comparing apples and oranges though. A colleague pays £300 a term for hot yoga in London mainly because of the location but gets top of the range equipment, a fully qualified instructor with years of experience, free hot and cold drinks, sports massage, social club / use of offices, 1-2-1, and lunches / light dinners.

Let’s not pile in and be snobby - it’s Pilates not Quantum Biology.

Yes, but we are awash with wannabe and mediocre fitness instructors.

The ones that succeed are the ones that take their vocation seriously at a personal level.

Lets' be honest with the OP.
If she thinks she just has to get the class to do a few stretches and walk around then her attitude will become apparent very quickly.

I think there are several different organisations that teach pilates instructors. I agree that £10 is fairly expensive but blocks of classes are usually a bit cheaper.
Am disgusted at the gym paying minimum wage. Also horrified at 50 in a class. Generally I’ve found in gyms that there is no close supervision of people’s position which is not good.

I think it’s worth training as over time you could build up classes but you would need to teach during the week.

Have you researched availability of venues at the weekend? Village halls & similar near us are quite hard to come buy as they are already booked out by other venues.
Also, how far off School are your DC? You will obviously have less time with them during the week then so may not want to spend your weekends working (if income levels permit you to make this decision). Additionally, will your DH be happy doing all the birthday parties & weekend activities with your DC?

HollyHuaCha

I’m a member of that one too, they pay their staff terriblely don’t they. I think a lot of their instructors do it to try to get private clients on the side.

Hello all thanks for the opinions and prices.

Yes - I've done Pilates classes twice a week for 7 years, but I can only go now once at the weekend. I've never done reformer, however I'm not looking to teach that.

But shockingly I've never been to a fitness Pilates class, I can only guess that's the 'fast' Pilates type style. I'd been looking to teach the slow style traditional style

It costs a lot of money to train, but yes could be an investment once DC both in pre-school.

I wouldn't wish my DC on a baby sitter during the evening .. witching HOURS they do not sleep easily

I'm looking into training noted Body Control thAnks

Is your Dh really saying 'it's pointless' or has he said 'it's pointless paying to train and then trying to set up a business one hour a week' which tbh I would tend to agree with. Did you work before the kids? Could you get back into a small amount if work and use that to save for classes and training, with a view to setting up a business in this when the kids are school age?

OP - I do reformer pilates twice a week - it's a one to one masterclass, or sometimes two to one. I've been doing it for four years. It's £40 per session so not cheap (London), but my body is in better condition now than pre -DC. I'm now at advanced level and considering teacher training which takes about a year including various residential weekends, supervised classes and the academic requirement for that year in terms of the essays is the equivalent of 2 A levels. It's a fairly major commitment.
I think a lot of group classes are maybe run by people who are self-declared Pilates teachers and I think people are being ripped off in this respect. If I qualify, I would invest in some reformers and teach from my home.

I pay £8.50 per class in the Home Counties. My instructor teaches two classes back to back on a weeknight at my venue (a community hall) and various others elsewhere. She always has a waiting list - the hall can comfortably take about 20. I would say there’s a lot of demand round here and I think lots would be interested in a weekend class.

One tip - my instructor makes people pay upfront for 8 week blocks at a time - otherwise it’s a nightmare trying to sort out pay as you go each week and you never know exactly how many you’ll have.

Fitness Pilates is a brand name - it’s a 3 day course which is aimed at people who are already fitness instructors, so already have good anatomy & physiology knowledge and teaching experience. As it’s only 3 days (might even be 2 days now), you don’t go into so much depth but to be honest for most of the moves you don’t need to. There’s a lot of bollocks surrounding Pilates, like it’s some ancient art form that can only be done if you have been doing it for 100 years, when in fact it’s just largely lying on the floor doing leg raises. Fitness Pilates is perfect for the average gym goer, and people with no injuries etc. I have been teaching it for 13 years and get a lot of runners, triathletes etc come along who just want to get more flexible and improve core strength.

‘Pure’ Pilates is much more time consuming to learn to teach and will cost upwards of £1,500. This is better if you want to teach people with health issues, bad backs, and so on as it’s far more in depth and you’ll have more scope to teach people with postural issues and so on. A lot of it is just bollocks though, like I said, and you’re paying a lot of money to make someone high up the training team a lot of money! However, if you’re not already working in Fitness then this is the better route to go down, and you can charge a premium as you will have better all-round Pilates knowledge than the 3 day course people.

Hope that helps?!

You can only work out if it could be 'worth it' financially by costing it all out and doing a business plan. There will be a lot of upfront costs, so if you can only teach a few classes a week, it will take you a long time to make that money back.

Pilates teacher I know charges £8/hr for a class of max 12 people, £40 for a 1-2-1 session (at her home - where she has a reformer in a spare bedroom).

She does it term-time only (kids are at boarding school so no issues with evening work but I don't think she does weekend classes) and people pay for a half term in advance (5-8 weeks usually)- you have to have a 1-2-1 session before joining a class and there is always a waiting list. She does a range of classes for different abilities and definitely caters for those with issues relating to their mobility.

I've always thought it was an excellent way to earn a good amount of money around situation of having children at a weekly boarding school and wanting to be free for all of their holidays.

Also keep in mind 1-2-1 classses. I’ve had people at my house and gone to their house and paid £30-£40 for an hour. It’s maybe something you could do at home as the children get older.

There was no studio also just in a conservatory or living room!

For classes I’d roughly pay £8 a class in the SE.

@Vashna thank you

Can you suggest some training companies please ?

Looking online I can't find many courses. Some like body control look great but the course fee is so vast I wouldn't be able to pay over 2k

The studio I go to does Pilates teacher training, might be worth looking into: YMCA

There seem to be 2 main types of pilates teacher, not withstanding the various 'schools' like Stott, Body Control etc.

• Pilates teachers who are already fitness instructors and run classes at pre-existing gyms. Their training tends to be very brief (too brief, going by the results I've seen), and I'm not sure how much they earn. Classes are much bigger.

• Dedicated pilates teachers working independently or from a dedicated pilates studio, who undergo years of training and frequent ongoing development. Where I live they charge about £13 for an hour's mat class and £17 for an equipment class. £55 for a 1:1. Of course, from that they need to pay for studio time, insurance etc. Classes are smaller, so usually 4-6 people.

@Pollaidh great info cheers