By Lauren Charlip

Recently, we got word of big new developments at the PhysicalMind Institute. We put in a call to PMI founder Joan Breibart, to find out just what was afoot.

PhysicalMind, which has offices and a learning space in downtown Manhattan, but has never had a large, central working studio space, will be opening a studio headquarters on Manhattan’s Upper East Side in the coming weeks (near 80^th Street and Lexington Avenue). Breibart has also announced a reorganized staff, and is in the process of making changes to the PMI teacher training curriculum.

“It’s a reorientation,” Breibart says. “We are forming this team and opening this new place because we’re looking ahead at the clients we’ll have in the next five to 10 years.” Breibart tells us she’s factored in the explosive growth that Pilates has experienced in the last decade, along with the hard reality that many Americans are more unfit than ever. “You have an overweight, aging population, and that’s very different from when Joe Pilates was around,” she says. “You also have a population with a lot of injuries. You have people who are full-time computer users [with problems from the ergonomics], and kids who spend so much time texting and playing video games.” All of this, she says, indicates a new direction for the Pilates work that PhysicalMind instructors will be doing with clients in the coming years.