This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
May is National Pilates month and Club Pilates in Longmont, located at 700 Ken Pratt Blvd, Suite 101, is celebrating with several events.
The weekend of May 11-13 Club Pilates in Longmont will celebrate Mother's Day with $10 drop in fees for classes. On May 20, they will teach a mat Pilates class at the Tasty Weasel at 10:30 a.m. called Pilates and Pints.
Kelly Hendricks, owner of Club Pilates Longmont, sat down with the Longmont Observer to talk about her studio.
So what is Pilates and how is different than Yoga? Hendricks compares the two by stating, "Pilates, the whole system is to fluidly move, just like we do in everyday life. We are always moving and we don’t think about it. So in Pilates it is to take those day-to-day movements and to really work on those small muscles that support our spine, that support our biceps, support our big muscles, that’s our go to muscles in our everyday life. It’s to support those muscles with the things we do in here so that you are less prone to injury, that you are more flexible, that you are more balanced."
Some of the benefits that Pilates offers include, strength, flexibility, coordination and balance. "One of the great things about Pilates that you don’t get in a lot of other modalities is that we work out your feet. Think about your feet, how important they are, it’s what supports you every single day. You don’t realize the importance of your feet until something hurts or something is wrong," states Hendricks.
Hendricks mentions that many people have several misconceptions about Pilates. Some of the ones she lists include: "Pilates is easy, or Pilates is like yoga, Pilates is just stretching, oh I have to be flexible in order to do it which is a benefit you get from doing a Pilates practice."
She mentions that those things are not true, that by practicing Pilates you will find flexibility and gain strength and feel better about yourself and the way your body moves. She quoted Joseph Pilates as saying, "In 10 sessions you feel the difference, in 20 sessions you’ll see the difference, in 30 sessions you’ll have a whole new body."
Hendricks, herself, has only been doing Pilates for the last two years. It all began because her husband decided that he wanted to open a fitness studio in Longmont. "I thought he was crazy but I was along for the ride."
The couple decided to go on a date where they would take a fitness class and then go to dinner. Friends of their's, who own a Club Pilates in Wisconsin, mentioned that the couple should look into Pilates. "We couldn’t find anything in Longmont that fit our needs, a class we could join last minute, that was within our price range, so we never ended up going on this date because we couldn’t find anything in Longmont that kinda fit our needs," says Hendricks.
The couple then explored options for a Pilates class in Denver. After one class Hendricks fell in love. "It was different than I was used to, in the fitness world, I was in the gym all the time doing weights and going to a class until my body hurt, so fatigued that you can’t really do anything after. This was completely different than that, and it totally interested me."
This date inspired the couple to open a Club Pilates in Longmont, "It’s where we live, it’s our home, where we have friends, it’s our community, it’s where we felt safe to open a business where we had a network of people already," said Hendricks.
Hendricks goes on to say, "The dream was always to be somehow self-employed in the fitness world. After owning the studio for two years it is almost more of a dream now than it was then because now that you see it as a reality you dream of it being the best that it can be, you dream of it helping more people. If anything my dream just started when our doors opened."
"When I first came to Club Pilates and heard the slogan, “Do Pilates, Do Life,” and keep in mind I didn’t really do Pilates at this time, so I thought this slogan was kind of silly, well that’s cheesy, now that I have done Pilates for two years it’s not cheesy to me anymore because it is my life. I understand what it means now to do Pilates and to do life because I am better at my life now because I do my Pilates practice. I live it, I now live that slogan. I am now very passionate about that slogan. It’s just funny how I just did a 360 about it, until you feel something or experience something it’s hard to understand," says Hendricks.
Hendricks has many stories of people from all walks of life who have joined her studio and embraced this concept as well. She mentioned a woman, who was recovering from breast cancer surgery and who had won free classes in a raffle, was skeptical when she walked in. Long after her free classes have run out, she is still attending several classes a week and, according to Hendricks, is feeling good about her body.
One of the things that Hendricks finds the most inspiring about her Pilates studio is, "That we have an amazing team, that it’s amazing to see how our team kinda comes together and doesn’t stop learning and learning from each other. They have all come from different walks of life and have this commonality of Pilates and the passion to want to share it with other people, to make other people feel better. Not only is our team amazing but also the community and the members supporting each other and being a little competitive with each other, but not really, but being supportive of everyone’s journey."
Hendricks now owns two additional Club Pilates studios, one in Boulder and a recent opening in Lafayette.
To learn more about Club Pilates, Hendricks encourages people to contact her via email, the website, call ((720) 442-8385), text or just walk in.
