Why Pilates instructors should touch their clients...

As a Pilates instructor I use touch on a daily basis as a way to help clients move better, learn new movements and to just remind them what muscles to use or not use. I do it so often that I usually don’t even think about it.

I had a moment the other day ago that reminded me how simply powerful touch can be. Ironically this moment happened in the middle of an instructor training workshop day where I had just been talking to new trainees about using touch as cueing in their Pilates teaching!

My moment started with an unexpected problem with a class that was supposed to be happening at the studio during the same time period I was teaching a workshop in our instructor training program. We had clients waiting for class but no instructor. As a studio owner I can tell you that sometimes this happens. I can also tell you that the perfectionist in me hates it when my business comes across as unprofessional, and we don’t deliver to our clients the best experience possible. As soon as I realized the problem I went to work on trying to solve it in the most appropriate way possible, checking in with another instructor to sub, apologizing to the clients and trying to make everything right.

Somewhere in the middle of that one of my clients who was taking the workshop came over and simply put her hand on my shoulder. I obviously wasn’t hiding my frustration of the moment! For that 2 seconds that she did that I could feel my shoulders relax, I had an immediate sense of awareness of my stress level and was able to take a second or two and remind myself that it was really no big deal. Nobody was hurt, everyone was being very understanding and it was simply a mistake that we would get through. All that from a simple touch.

When I’m teaching new Pilates instructors I see and feel their fear of touching someone that maybe they don’t know quite that well. We spend a fair amount of time going over appropriate cues, asking permission and how to cue so it doesn’t feel awkward. I encourage them to practice with their practice teaching clients so they get comfortable with touch because so many times it is the most effective cue and is far more effective than just using your words. When done properly it can put someone at ease, help them engage the correct muscles and make the exercise more effective for them.