Your first session at Peak Performance Private Pilates is an initial consultation: 55 minutes, one to one, at 9 One North Gateway, #01-39, One North Residences Shops, Singapore 138643. It is not a class to keep up with. The time goes on understanding what you are working towards, assessing how you move and setting out the foundations of your individual programme. It costs $135, it is booked by appointment, and the training sessions that follow are built from what it finds.
You do not need any Pilates experience beforehand. Some people arrive with a race date, some with a sport they want to keep playing, and some simply want to move and feel stronger.
Where is the studio and how do I book?
The studio is in One North Residences Shops at 9 One North Gateway, unit #01-39, a few minutes from the MRT. Public parking is available in the basement of One North Residences, with the entrance along Slim Barracks Rise.
Every session is by appointment only. Sessions are booked ahead rather than dropped in on, which is what lets them fit around your training week and your work rather than a fixed class timetable. For a first visit, purchase the initial consultation through the pricing page, then return to the booking page and choose a time. If nothing in the calendar suits, or you would rather not book online, message the studio on WhatsApp at +65 8972 1062 and a slot will be found with you.
Sessions are private throughout. You can train one to one, or bring a training partner for tandem sessions at a lower rate per person, with programming built around a goal you share.
What happens in the initial consultation?
The consultation covers three things: your goals, how you move and the foundations of the programme that follows. How long each part takes depends on you.
Your goals and your training
The conversation starts with you rather than with Pilates: what you train for, what your week looks like, what has held you back and what you want to be able to do. If you are working towards an event, your training or race calendar matters here, because the programme is planned around it. Albert, a powerlifter who trains at the studio, described his start this way: “She started with asking what’s my fitness goals or athletic goals. It wasn’t about Pilates at all, it was about me and what was holding me back from achieving what I wanted to achieve.”
How you move
The assessment looks at how you move, and that is then compared with what your sport or goal asks of your body. Sam Taylor, who came to the studio sporty but new to reformer Pilates, wrote in her review that the first few sessions “were all about assessment”, looking at her posture, movement patterns and areas of weakness, and that those findings stayed a focus afterwards. The assessment is there to decide what to work on. It is not a pass-or-fail test, and it is not a diagnosis.
The foundations of your programme
By the end you should have a clear idea of what the programme will focus on and why. The studio also recommends how often to train at this point, based on your training load and your goal, rather than selling you a number of sessions up front.
Arriving and what to wear
Every session runs 55 minutes. Arrive five minutes early, because sessions run to the booked schedule and are not extended beyond it. Comfortable clothes you can train in are enough. If you have an injury, a condition or a recent operation, or you are pregnant or postnatal, it is worth mentioning it when you book so the session can be planned around it.
What happens after the first session?
Each session from then on follows your programme, with full access to the studio and its equipment. The studio runs on Merrithew equipment: reformer, trapeze table (Cadillac), ladder barrel and stability chair, plus accessories for strength and conditioning work. The exercise decides the equipment. Single-leg work might sit on the stability chair, supported spinal work on the trapeze table, and upper-back extension over a barrel.
Sessions are not purely Pilates. They combine Pilates principles with strength and conditioning principles, and mix in strength and conditioning work depending on your specific goal, with more focus on control of movement. The programme is progressively loaded: as a movement becomes reliable, the challenge rises through the resistance of the Pilates equipment springs, external load, range, speed, or a move from two legs to one.
The work is reassessed as you go, around your training or race calendar, so the emphasis can shift with your season or as your goal changes. You are also given Skill Reinforcement Exercises to take away, so some of the work carries on between studio sessions.
Can an assessment tell you whether you will get injured?
Not reliably, and it is worth knowing what an assessment can and cannot do before you start.
Well established. Training needs to progress to keep producing adaptation. The American College of Sports Medicine’s position stand on resistance training sets out progression through load, volume, exercise selection and frequency, and stresses that recommendations should be applied in the context of the individual’s goals, physical capacity and training status1. That is the reason the programme starts from an assessment and is reassessed as it goes.
Weak at predicting injury. Movement screens have not proved good at predicting who will get hurt. Moran and colleagues reviewed 24 prospective studies of the Functional Movement Screen and found only a small association between low scores and later injury in male military personnel, evidence against using it to predict injury in football, and limited or conflicting evidence in other groups, including runners and college athletes. They concluded that the composite score should not be used as an injury prediction tool2. Bahr’s critical review explains why: even where a test is statistically linked to injury, high-risk and low-risk athletes overlap so much that no screening test yet has adequate predictive accuracy, and no study has shown that screening and then targeting the athletes it flags works better than giving everyone the same programme3.
Practical application. An assessment is useful for deciding where to start, which movements to load first and what to watch as the programme progresses. It does not give you an injury risk score, and it does not replace a medical or physiotherapy assessment of pain or injury.
Will the studio work with my coach or physio?
Yes. Pilates at Peak Performance is complementary to your other training, not a replacement for your sport practice, your strength training, your coaching or your physiotherapy. The studio aligns with your sport coach, gym trainer and physiotherapist on goals, focus areas and programming, with regular updates as your training evolves. Fiona, a triathlete, described the studio speaking to her coaches and going with her to a bike fitting to see which muscle groups she could work on in the studio. If you are under a physio’s care, it helps to bring their name or any guidance they have given you to the consultation.
Where to start
Purchase the initial consultation ($135) through the pricing page, then book a time on the booking page, or message the studio on WhatsApp at +65 8972 1062 if you would like help finding a slot. Arrive five minutes early in comfortable training clothes, and come ready to talk about what you are working towards.