January often arrives with a surge of motivation. There’s a sense of fresh possibility in the air, a collective pause before the year stretches out ahead of us. Many people feel inspired to recommit to their health, to move their bodies more, to feel stronger and more grounded. While this renewed energy can be a wonderful catalyst, it can also come with quiet pressure—the idea that if you start strong, you have to stay perfect. At The Pilates Room, we see this pattern every year. Clients arrive full of verve, but that enthusiasm can transform into frustration when life inevitably interrupts the plan. The truth is, the New Year motivation isn’t what sustains a practice over time.

Stepping into your own and taking up space is a powerful intention, especially for women who are very often taught to shrink themselves—physically, emotionally and energetically. It’s about owning your posture, your breath and your presence and recognizing that you deserve to move through this world as yourself. When women feel grounded in their bodies and connected to their strength, they naturally expand—showing up with clarity and a quiet power that doesn’t need permission. Pilates offers a way to reconnect with your body, build trust in your strength and move through the world with greater ease and self-assurance.

Because Pilates movements can be subtle and the benefits often develop gradually, many practitioners wonder how to know whether they’re truly improving. The good news is that progress in Pilates is absolutely measurable, even if it doesn’t always appear in the dramatic before-and-after snapshots we’re used to seeing in the fitness world. Tracking your progress can deepen your motivation, help refine your technique and provide powerful insight into how your body changes over weeks and months.

During pregnancy many women search for an exercise practice that feels gentle and grounding yet energizing enough to support them through each trimester. Pilates is a particularly good option, as it offers a blend of controlled movement, mindful breathing and core-centered stability that aligns beautifully with the unique physical changes of pregnancy

At The Pilates Room NYC, we believe that great Pilates is not just about perfect form or sculpted muscles—it’s about connection, confidence and growth. That’s why we’ve created a unique approach to our class offerings: We proudly provide sessions led by both highly experienced senior teachers, skilled junior instructors and dedicated apprentices. This mix isn’t just a practical choice—it’s a powerful part of our philosophy, and it brings real benefits to our clients, our instructors and our studio community.

There are many clear physical benefits of Pilates that could help you absolutely dominate your daily life, but have you ever considered the effects Pilates can have on the unseen, deep systems of the body? Because Pilates focuses on the mind-body connection, controlled movements and breathwork, it helps regulate and optimize your nervous system, making it a powerful practice for not just physical fitness but also mental clarity, emotional regulation and stress resilience. Read on to discover several surprising ways that Pilates boosts your nervous system.

Pilates requires practice and a good instructor who knows the pitfalls that beginners encounter and who can help them adapt and move through their practice seamlessly. Here are a few issues we’ve seen in our many years helping new practitioners adapt to Pilates movements: not engaging the core, holding the breath, holding tension in the neck and shoulder,  overarching or flattening the lower back and rushing through the movements.     

Sometimes dancers have a fraught relationship with Pilates. They may experience a sense of conflict or confusion when starting their Pilates practice, especially around the idea of the “right” way to move or position their bodies. If you look at the way dancers are often trained, it makes sense that there might be some incongruities between dance and Pilates.

We sat down with Alison Johnson, owner of The Pilates Room NYC, to discuss what client-centered Pilates is, why it’s important to remain flexible as an instructor and how deviating from the script may be just what the session calls for.  

In today's fitness world, "Pilates" has become a catch-all term applied to everything from dance-inspired cardio classes to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on reformers. While innovation and variety are not inherently misleading, the term "traditional Pilates" has a specific meaning—one rooted in the original method developed by Joseph Pilates.

Asking for feedback isn't just a courtesy—it's a core part of becoming a more effective, client-centered Pilates instructor. We respect and value our clients, and we celebrate their accomplishments alongside them. Building a strong relationship with a client involves learning to accept feedback without judgment.

Pilates was founded on six principles: concentration, control, centering, flow, precision and breath. Music can interfere with the subtlety of breath—the very foundation of your movement. In our studio, we’d prefer you to be able to concentrate on your inhales and exhales and feel the rise and fall of your chest. In a quiet space, you may begin to notice how your breath supports your spine, your core, your strength. That awareness is powerful.

When it comes to health and fitness, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. With a number of options available, it’s important to choose the type of exercise environment that aligns best with your goals and lifestyle. If you’re curious about Pilates, and you’re debating joining a gym or a Pilates studio—it’s important to know that they offer very different experiences.

There are a few key reasons that dance and Pilates go hand-in-hand. Pilates emphasizes the development of a strong core—essential for nearly every movement in dance; it teaches awareness of body alignment, which is vital for dancers to achieve graceful, efficient and injury-free movements and it helps to create more balanced strength throughout the entire body, including often-neglected muscles like the deep stabilizers of the core and back.