What I Want Every New Student to Know Before Their First Class

There is a moment I have seen hundreds of times over thirty years of teaching.

A new student walks through the door, looks around at the equipment, and gets a slightly wide-eyed look. Sometimes they laugh nervously. Sometimes they say something like “I don’t even know why I’m here, I’m not flexible at all.” Sometimes they just quietly take it all in.

I love that moment. Because what comes after it — every single time — is something remarkable.

You do not need to be ready. You just need to show up.

This is the thing I most want you to know before you take your first class at Endurance Pilates and Yoga.

Pilates is not a reward for already being fit. It is not something you work up to. It is not for a certain body type, a certain age, or a certain level of experience. It is, at its core, a method designed to meet your body exactly where it is — and help it become more of what it is capable of.

Joseph Pilates developed this method originally as rehabilitation. It was built from the beginning for real human bodies with real limitations. Thirty years of teaching have shown me that the students who think they are the least ready are often the ones who need it most — and benefit from it most profoundly.

Your instructor is watching — in the best possible way.

In a large group fitness class, you can hide in the back row. At Endurance, that is not really how it works — and that is entirely intentional.

Our classes are small because that is the only way to teach Pilates properly. Your instructor will see you. They will notice when something feels hard, when you compensate, when one side of your body works differently than the other. They will offer a modification before you even have to ask.

This is not intimidating once you experience it. It is actually a relief. You are not on your own trying to keep up. You have someone in your corner who is genuinely paying attention.

It will feel different than you expect.

Most new students expect Pilates to feel like a gentle stretch class. Most new students are surprised.

Classical Pilates — the authentic method we teach at Endurance, on traditional Gratz equipment — is genuinely challenging. It works muscles you have probably never consciously used. It asks your body to coordinate, stabilize, and control movement in ways that are deceptively demanding.

You may not feel it during class. You will almost certainly feel it the next day.

That said — it never feels punishing. There is a difference between hard work and pain, and we take that difference seriously. Everything we do has a purpose. Nothing is random. And the challenge is always calibrated to you — not to the person on the reformer next to you.

You are allowed to not know what you are doing.

This sounds obvious, but I mean it sincerely. New students sometimes apologize for not knowing the exercises, for needing a modification, for moving slowly. Please do not apologize.

Not knowing is exactly where learning begins. I have been teaching for thirty years and I am still learning. The Pilates method is deep enough that no one — not even those of us who have dedicated our careers to it — ever fully exhausts it.

Your only job in your first class is to listen, breathe, and try. That is genuinely enough.

What you can expect to feel after a few weeks

I am not going to promise you a transformation in a single session. What I will tell you is what I have watched happen to students over and over again across three decades:

Within a few weeks of consistent practice, most students report standing taller without thinking about it. They notice they are breathing differently. They feel more stable — in their body and, often, in themselves. Things that hurt start to hurt less. Movement that felt effortful starts to feel more natural.

Joseph Pilates said: “In 10 sessions you will feel the difference. In 20 you will see the difference. And in 30 you will have a new body.”

In my experience, that is not an exaggeration.

A note from me personally

I founded Endurance Pilates and Yoga because I believe that intelligent, classical movement education should be accessible to everyone — not just athletes, not just dancers, not just people who already know what a reformer is.

Every single person who has ever walked through our door nervous and uncertain has been welcomed. That will never change.

If you have been thinking about trying Pilates and you keep finding reasons to wait — this is me telling you that you are ready now. Come as you are. We will take it from there.

— Julie Erickson, Founder Endurance Pilates and Yoga | South End, Boston endurancepilatesandyoga.com