Pilates in the Schools

The stats are jaw-dropping. In the past 20 years in the U.S., childhood obesity rates have doubled, and adolescent obesity rates have tripled. Obesity is the fastest-growing cause of disease and death. In short, our kids are suffering. They’re eating more and they’re moving less.

The Pilates Method Alliance is calling on its membership to invoke the spirit of Joe Pilates by launching “Pilates in the Schools,” a program to teach children healthy habits they can use for a lifetime. The program, which is led by Dawn-Marie Ickes, a PMA board member and co-owner of Core Conditioning studios in Calif., has a goal of producing a 15-minute daily physical activity curriculum that can complement any school’s physical education or health programs.

We teach children how to read and write, said Ickes at the PMA conference earlier this month, “but why aren’t we teaching them how to sit, how to manage their anxiety?”

Ickes conducted a pilot program with a fifth grade class in the Los Angeles area to test the idea of Pilates in the classroom and to collect data about its benefits. She led a 45-minutes class once a week for 12 weeks and tested the kids for core strength, hamstring length and balance before and after the program. Not surprisingly, the children made significant improvements. Additionally, they also reported they were able to manage stress better and improve their sports performance.

In order to develop a program that can be implemented across the country, the PMA first needs to collect much more data. Pilates teachers can help by volunteering to administer a pilot program in their area schools. Volunteers must be PMA certified and able to dedicate at...

6 Tips for Teaching Pilates to Kids and Teens

By Amy Leibrock

Whether you get involved with Pilates in the Schools or want to teach Pilates to kids at your local YMCA, getting children started in Pilates can be a rewarding and inspiring experience. Just ask Kim Carruthers. After 10 years teaching Pilates, she had a thriving studio, Physical Perfection , in Los Angeles and star clients like Tyra Banks and Patricia Arquette, but she was looking for something new to excite her, something, she says, “to bring the benefits of Pilates outside the walls of my studio.”

Carruthers found what she was looking for when she volunteered to teach Pilates to children who were financially less fortunate in 2005. It was so successful, both for the kids and for her, that now, on top of her fulltime studio, she teaches six classes per week to kids and teens through her Pilates in the ‘Hood program. Carruthers sees her students get fitter, but they also tell her it helps them focus on their schoolwork and relax when they’re stressed—and many practice at home or teach moves to their families. “Part of my goal is that later on in life, no matter what, this will be a foundation for them,” she says.

It sounds great, right? After all, wasn’t this also Joseph Pilates’ goal? For everyone to do Pilates? Yes, but if you’re ready to bring Pilates to the children and have never worked with kids, you might have some questions. Like, how do you explain the Powerhouse to a 7-year-old? Or how do you find the kids in the first place?

To answer these questions and more, we sought Carruthers’ advice. In this first part of our 2-part series, she shares her tips for teaching kids and teens. In Part 2, she’ll offer up ideas for starting a program in your own area .

1. Keep it fun!Teaching children is much different than teaching adults, says Carruthers. “With children you have to focus on helping them focus and understand the benefits of Pilates and at the same time make Pilates fun.” She noticed that kids really responded to exercises with animal names, so now she renames a lot of them. “We do a lot of happy things. We have exercises like the Happy Cat or the Pretty Cat.” And since you need a Reformer to do the Elephant, she teaches them a standing Roll Down, calling it an “elephant with a trunk.” Sometimes she lets the kids name the exercises. “It might be one name in one class, but in a different program, the kids call it something different.”

2. Trust your instinctsEven though children are different than adults, the fundamentals of teaching Pilates are still the same, says Carruthers. Just like with adults, some children are stronger, more fit or more flexible than others. “It’s the basic things that you’ve learned as an instructor—you use those same principles with children,” she says. Carruthers starts with a basic fitness test to assess what level h...

Pilates for Kids: Setting Up Your Own Program

By Amy Leibrock

In May, we shared Kim Carruthers’ tips on how to teach Pilates to children and teens . Now with back-to-school time upon us, we’re serving up some practical ideas and tips for setting up your own children’s Pilates program.

Photo courtesy Pilates Studio City If you want to start teaching Pilates to kids, getting involved with the Pilates Method Alliance’s Pilates in the Schools (PITS) program is one great option. The program’s goal is to “bring Pilates to children, teachers, and parents by providing affordable and accessible Pilates education programs to schools.” PITS encourages potential teachers to work with fifth and sixth graders in a school setting. The organization is working to collect data on the benefits of Pilates for kids, so you will need to perform before and after testing and stick to the program’s 10-week structure at first. To participate, you must be a member of the PMA and submit an application.

If the structure of the PITS program doesn’t fit your situation, you can also set up your own program for kids at a local school or community center. Following are six steps to take in either case, from teachers who have run programs themselves.

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