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.

By Lauren Charlip

Not only is Pilates for Pink a way to raise money for a great cause, but it has given two Los Angeles studio owners—with studios mere blocks away from each other—a reason to come together and put a new spin on the program.      

Maria Leone and Shari Berkowitz both own studios with teacher-training programs, a rare occurence in any neighborhood. Leone owns Bodyline, a PhysicalMind Institute certification studio, and Berkowitz owns The Vertical Workshop, and directs Power Pilates’ West Coast teacher-training program. Together they’re putting on programming for Pilates teachers that will raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation through Pilates for Pink this Sunday, October 18.

Each will be teaching a professionals-only mat class at Bodyline (which will also sponsor its own Pilates for Pink class for clients). Leone, ruminating on how she’d make her third year as a Pilates for Pink host different, came up with the idea of having a guest teacher.

For the DVD Standing Pilates, The PhysicalmMind Institute has developed an entire routine of classical Pilates mat exercises modified for the standing position. The idea of spending an entire class standing is smart, and it certainly improves balance and control. Some of these exercises make a lot of sense for people who have a hard time lifting their heads off of the floor in a traditional mat class. Gravity plays a completely different role when standing as opposed to lying flat on your back. Try this DVD’s version of the Hundred and you’ll get the “connection” without lifting your head against gravity.