Social Workout

Pilates Teacher Training

Pilates Teacher Training With Brooke Siler

The world of Pilates is like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, except one or two degrees is better, and Joseph Pilates is Kevin Bacon. Pilates guru Brooke Siler is one degree away. Meaning she trained with Joseph Pilates' protege Romana Kryzanowka. So if you train with Brooke, you're only two degrees away. There's that, and there's also the fact that Brooke is a true Pilates athlete with a lot of cool things to say about transformation, lots of cool videos and books, and then there's her studio, re:AB which is a hub for the Pilates nation. 

So, should you be interested, her next teacher training program kicks off this December, with applications due November 1, 2010. All the details after the jump.

New York

Spirit Guides

Ten Minutes to Soothe and Strengthen Your Back

Million Minute Month Spirit Guide Brooke Siler is back with more every-minute-counts encouragement. Today's installment, at-home Pilates moves to ease your aching back ~ the Eds.

Back pain anyone? Nothing feels worse than being disciplined enough to work out and still having pain. But I have good news for you—you're not stuck with it. Back pain is often correlative with a weak abdominal structure, therefore work done to strengthen the core is usually immediately helpful. Counterbalancing your body habits with opposite motion helps, too. So does releasing tension in the major muscle groups of the back and hips. And what do you know? Pilates does all that and more. Spend a few minutes with these four Pilates exercises, and you'll be on your way to banishing back pain.

Spirit Guides

Brooke Siler's Two Minute Transformations

Introducing Million Minute Month Spirit Guide Brooke Siler. Founder of re:AB Pilates and the author of Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge, she's all about the small changes that really add up. In this month of minutes, take a few to check in with Brooke's body-awareness raising exercises. Give her two minutes, she gives you Pilates posture. Her five favorite assignments ("I give these as homework to all my students, including the celebs") after the jump.

My Body

Brooke Siler on Pilates Consciousness and Slowing Down

Brooke Siler is the founder of re:AB Pilates and the author of The Pilates Body and Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge.

I was working at a very small gym in the West Village back in '91, and one day a woman brought the Pilates equipment into the front space of this gym, and I got to watch her training there. I couldn’t afford the private sessions, so I started taking the mat classes, and I couldn’t do them. And I thought, what? I was very fit, what was there I couldn’t do? I’ve always loved the gym. I have four brothers. I was very athletic. I was shocked that I was not flexible enough and strong enough from my core to really perform the moves well. That to me was frustrating and exciting at the same time. It was really just a matter of minutes before I decided I had to know everything about this.

Insiders

Elizabeth Ordway Speaks

Elizabeth Ordway, Hollywood personal trainer to the stars, stopped by Social Workout HQ yesterday morning, fresh from a Pilates master class at Re:AB on Bleeker Street. Elizabeth's home gym is Private Fitness in West Hollywood, otherwise known as the "Gym on Nemo," where one might spot Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, or any number of Hollywood studio rainmakers. She comes to New York, "literally, just to work out," and stay in touch with the fitness and Pilates scene here. I grilled her for the inside dope on classes and teachers in New York and L.A., and, of course, on Madonna and Tracy Anderson whose Tribeca studio she just toured....

On NYC vs. L.A.: The best fitness trainers in L.A. have come from New York. I think the best Pilates teachers are in New York. Pilates started here. East Coast Pilates is a workout. There are routines. There's a flow. West Coast is physical therapy. Most West Coast teachers have to re-certify under classical Pilates to teach in New York.

In New York, I go to Re:AB. Brooke Siler is great. She's the author of Pilates Body, which is still the best Pilates book out there. I also go to Grasshopper Pilates. And I try to make it to see Brett Hoebel. He does capoeira and trains the Victoria Secret models. My favorite Pilates teacher in New York, though, is George Manles. He's in his 80s and worked with Joseph Pilates himself. But George can be very inappropriate. He lives on the Upper West side. We work out and then go to dinner. When you're looking for a teacher, try and see how many generations they are away from Romana or Pilates himself. It's only 100 years old, so you can do that. I also wanted to go do yoga with Dharma Mittra on this visit, but I ran out of time.

On the San Francisco: I did Pilates at Ellie Herman in San Francisco. (There's an Ellie Herman in Brooklyn too.)  And also at Mercury Fitness. In San Francisco, they work people out, but they've lost the technique.