Private Pilates at Peak Performance suits you if you have a specific goal and want sessions built around it, one to one, from an assessment of how you move. That goal might be a race or a season in an endurance, team, combat, power or precision sport, or it might be general strength and mobility, managing scoliosis, training through pregnancy and after birth, or rebuilding capacity after an injury. It is likely to be the wrong choice if you want the energy of a group class, if the lowest price per session matters most, or if you have a new injury that a physiotherapist has not yet looked at.
Sessions are not purely Pilates. They combine Pilates principles with strength and conditioning principles, with more focus on control of movement, and the mix depends on your goal.
Who does it suit?
The studio runs six programmes, each built from what your sport or goal asks of your body.
Athletes
Pilates for Sport has five tracks: endurance (cycling, running, triathlon), team (football, basketball), combat (boxing, martial arts), power (weightlifting, powerlifting, HYROX) and precision (tennis, golf). An endurance athlete needs to hold form for hours as fatigue builds, a boxer has to produce and then stop rotation quickly, and a lifter needs a trunk that stays stiff under load. The programme is built against those demands and timed around your competition calendar. Fiona, a triathlete, describes working on her glutes “learning how to engage it, especially when I’m tired”, and says that in longer training weeks she feels “better able to hold my form even when I get more fatigued.” Mench Viduya-Dizon, a World Marathon Challenge finisher, wrote that the method “suits my purpose of addressing sport-specific concerns.”
General fitness
You do not need to compete. The pricing page answers this directly: “The programmes are built around what your body needs to do, whether that is a race, a weekly game, or simply moving well.” The General Fitness programme is progressive work for strength, mobility and balance. Sam Taylor, who works in tech and was new to reformer Pilates, wrote that the first few sessions “were all about assessment”.
Scoliosis
Programming here is individual and incorporates the Scolio-Pilates® approach. Albert, a powerlifter with scoliosis, came to manage his spine and to lift better: “I thought going to Pilates would help me just manage my spine a lot better, keep it healthy, keep it strong, which will then help me later on when I kinda lift in the gym.” Work on the trapeze table, ladder barrel and spine corrector can be set up for your own curve.
Pre and postnatal
This programme adapts to pregnancy and recovery, then builds the strength that looking after a baby asks for. V Oz, four months postpartum and also living with scoliosis, wrote that “from the first session she prepared a workout completely tailored to my needs” and that she feels “very safe doing Pilates with her.” Your obstetrician or midwife should clear you for exercise first.
Rehab and return to exercise
This programme complements rehabilitation. Your physiotherapist leads the treatment, and the studio works to their plan, using the Pilates equipment springs to load a joint or movement gradually as you rebuild capacity for the exercise you want to return to.
Tandem
Two people train with one coach, on programming built around a shared sport or goal. It costs less per person, but the programme has to work for both of you, so it suits partners or friends whose aims are close.
Is a session only Pilates?
No. A session uses Pilates methods for what they do well, such as controlled, precise movement against the resistance of the Pilates equipment springs, and adds strength and conditioning work where your goal needs it. The studio has a reformer, trapeze table (Cadillac), ladder barrel and stability chair, plus accessories for that strength and conditioning work. A runner might do single-leg step-ups on the stability chair to load one hip while the pelvis stays level. The exercise decides the equipment.
The programming follows the same steps for every client: an individual assessment, a comparison with the movement needs of your sport or goal, a programme, progressive loading and a reassessment, all planned around your training or race calendar. You also leave with exercises to practise between sessions.
Pilates here is complementary. It does not replace your strength programme, your sport practice, your coach or your physiotherapist. The studio aligns with your coach, gym trainer and physiotherapist on goals and programming. Fiona says they “even spoke to my coaches” and went with her to a bike fitting. Albert describes a session at his gym where Charibelle watched him lift “just so she understands what it is I’m trying to do and where I’m getting stuck.”
When is it not the right fit?
If you want a class atmosphere. Every session is private, or two people in tandem. If the company of a group is what keeps you exercising, a group studio will serve you better.
If the lowest price per session comes first. A private session is $160 ad hoc, $1,500 for a 10-session package (4 months’ validity) or $2,800 for 20 (6 months’ validity), after a $135 initial consultation. Tandem is $110 per person for a single session or $1,000 per person for 10. Group classes usually cost less per hour. If you want regular exercise with no particular goal, injury or condition to work around, that is often the better buy.
If you have an acute injury and have not seen a physiotherapist. A new, painful injury needs diagnosis first. See a physiotherapist, who leads, and once they are happy for you to load it the Rehab and Return to Exercise programme can work alongside their plan.
What does the research say about this kind of training?
There is little research on private Pilates as a service, so the useful studies are about the parts of it.
Supervision helps, in the group studied. Lacroix and colleagues pooled 11 studies of healthy adults aged 65 and over and found that supervised balance and resistance training improved balance and strength more than the same kind of training done unsupervised at home1. The number of studies was small, the participants were older adults, and none of it was Pilates, so it supports the value of a coach watching your work rather than proving the case for private sessions.
Limited, for scoliosis. A Cochrane review by Romano and colleagues found only two studies, with 154 adolescents, on scoliosis-specific exercises, and judged the evidence low to very low quality2. The authors concluded there was not enough high-quality evidence to recommend these exercises for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Exercise for scoliosis is reasonable for strength, comfort and confidence in training, but it is not a proven way to change the curve.
Well established, for pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises that, without obstetric or medical complications, physical activity in pregnancy is safe and desirable, with some changes to routines as the body changes3. Women who were already active can usually continue through pregnancy and after birth.
Practical application. Assessing first, adding load gradually and adjusting to the training calendar are standard training principles, not findings from Pilates trials. Whether they are worth the price of private sessions depends on how specific your goal is.
Where to start
Start with the initial consultation, $135 for new clients. In 55 minutes it assesses how you move, looks at your goals and builds the foundations of your individual programme. Buy the consultation on the pricing page, then book a time. How often you train is recommended at the consultation, based on your training load and goal.