How to Become a Pilates Instructor

The U.S. BLS has found that positions relating to the fitness industry are growing significantly, with instructors growing at a rate of 14% year over year. This means there is a lot of growth with regard to people who are practicing Pilates and people who are looking for qualified Pilates instructors.

If you already love Pilates and you have practiced it in the past, or you are brand new and just looking for a way to replace your desk job with something that has more mobility, the first place to start is to get certified. 

Now, obviously, if you’ve never taken a pilates class and you don’t know what it is, maybe you should go to your local gym and try it out first just to see if it’s something you actually like. I would actually recommend that you continue to take different Pilates classes while enrolled in your certification course because it will expose you to different teaching methods while you are completing your certification requirements.

How to Get Certified

So, how do you actually get a certification? Is it even required?

To be clear, there is no law that requires a Pilates instructor be certified. If you have been practicing Pilates on your own for several years, you might be able to get a job as an instructor. However, you’ll have significantly better job opportunities if you have proper training and a credential to prove it.

That said, there are lots of online and in-person pilates training courses that are accredited, and once you find a course and complete their requirements, you’ll have a certification that you can then use to prove you are a qualified instructor.

Tips:

1. Consider accreditation from your programs
2. Consider what type of program you want, like mat, reformer, or comprehensive programs
3. Consider the requirements, teaching hours, and focus of the respective certifications
4. Consider the program length, style, and cost

My top picks for pilates certification programs are:

1. ISSA
2. Peak Pilates
3. Balanced Body
4. BASI 

Bottomline:

ISSA is my top pick because, though it is a basic Pilates program and designed primarily for beginners, it is the most affordable, has flexible self-paced designs without any in-person requirements, and you can find continuing education certificates that give you support for Pilates specialties.

Peak Pilates Instructor Certification

Cost:

Average $600 per module, but between $2,000 and $5,000 for the comprehensive certifications

Difficulty: 

So hard. Their comprehensive cert has over 500 hours of requirements. Psh. 

Expiration:

Every 2 years, you have to pay for continuing education credits to keep it current

Peak Pilates Instructor Certification is a good starting point, with a modular program that focuses on the basics. So if you don’t know anything about Pilates but you really want to get started with it or add it to your repertoire, this isn’t a bad option to have in your back pocket. 

However, it’s going to stay in your back pocket for a long time, as the comprehensive certification designed to give you what you need to teach individual and group classes is a 500-hour program with exercises and mat work. 

I’ll go ahead and say that again, 500 hours. 

That’s 21, 24-hour days for those of you who aren’t good at math, or, if you are only able to study after work, a few hours per day, that will take you 6 months. 

But it gets more complicated. 

This program is set up with three levels of modular education that is scheduled from Friday evening through Sunday, so you have to attend all of those modules, submit your logged hours, and complete the assessments. You have to log all of your program hours and receive passing scores for every assessment, but since they are only offered on the weekends, and it’s 500 hours, you are giving up your Fridays through Sundays for the next year.

Level one, for example, is 20 hours of pilates training per module, and it requires things like CPR and first aid certification. Within the first level, there are four modules, each of which require 20 hours of material. 

And remember, kids, there are three levels. I’m tired just thinking about it. 

Ok, so what does all this crazy weekend fun cost you? Individual levels are an average of $650 each, and depending on whether you pick the basic or comprehensive program, you can expect to spend between $2,000 and $5,000. 

This matters because, according to data from last year, the average Pilates instructor makes $34 to $40 per hour. So let’s pretend you are on the higher end of that making $40 per hour, that means you have to work $125 hours not including lost income from taxes, to make up for the cost of your certification and if you are just starting out at a local gym, only teaching one or two nights per week, it’s going to be a long time before you make up those costs. 

Balanced Body

Cost: 

Crazy expensive. Like, over $10,000 for comprehensive certs. 

Difficulty: 

Not very difficult; easy online portal and at-home instruction. 

Expiration: 

Every 2 years, Recertification requires continuing education credits, CPR certification, proof of documented hours, and an official application submission to their office. 

Balanced Body is another program, but be warned, this one has “Karen’s-husbands-checkbook” written all over it. 

When you look at their website, you will see all of the modules listed above. So, a single module like “Mat and Reformer” may only cost you $500, but if you want an actual comprehensive program that gives you the best options for full-time career goals, you are going to spend around $12,000 for the program.

Like, the down payment on a single-family home or a new car.

Why does it cost this much?

Let’s dive in: So, if you look at the “Anatomy” course, the class itself costs over $1,000, but the comprehensive certification package is over $10,000 because the comprehensive certification includes all levels of apparatus, like the Reformer versus mat training only. 

Add to that the supplemental costs for anatomy workshops, course materials, and textbooks that are somehow not included in your mortgage down payment, separate testing fees for your final exam or test-out sessions, AND the mandatory in-studio practice hours. 

Even if you had Karen’s husband’s checkbook ready and waiting, good luck finding the educational courses in your area.

I tried finding some near me for the Anatomy in Three Dimensions instructor training, as well as the Mat and Reformer training, and no matter how I altered it, I didn’t get any results. Navigating the education finder above was such a pain, I’d rather decipher a letter from the IRS. 

BASI Pilates Teacher Training and Pilates Program

Cost: 

Between $1,200 and $5,000

Difficulty: 

Can be done online or in person. Testing is made up of 4 random exercises for you to do and perform, but you fail if you can’t; each re-test is around $150. 

Expiration: 

No expiration, you never need to recertify. 

The BASI Pilates Teacher Training and Pilates Program is a popular optional. Why? It was designed by a very prominent Pilates instructor who also created the equipment that is used for that particular method of Pilates instruction, Rael Isacowitz. The program has been around for over 30 years, and the website looks like it was designed 30 years ago to prove it. It almost looks like a Montessori Preschool design, and I half expect there to be brightly colored pastel handprint images decorating each page. 

The website doesn’t seem to give you a lot of actionable information to see pricing, schedules, or sign-up details. It’s the same structure for the online certifications as well as the in-person Pilates courses at their Newport Beach location, but that information is all jumbled. Honestly, I didn’t know whether I was looking up information for an in-person certification or an online certification, whether there were specific start dates, or the cost. Very confusing. 

However, if you have some experience and there’s no possible way that you will fail out of the exercises you have to do for your final exam, it’s worth considering simply because the certification never expires, so you don’t have to pay for recertification. 

Although, admittedly, a lot of people fail the final exam several times over, and each retake is $150, so you end up paying what you would for several years’ worth of recertifications from another organization. 

This program doesn’t seem to garner a lot of love from previous students either, mostly because it is set up in a weird way, almost like a cult that doesn’t want new members; the people who are in the know are already in the know, but everyone else is sort of looked down upon. 

ISSA Pilates Instructor Certification

Cost: 

Around $640 with options for monthly installments

Difficulty: 

Not very difficult; easy online portal and at-home instruction. 

Expiration: 

Every 2 years, recertification requires continuing education credits and a possible fee

You can try the ISSA Pilates Instructor Certification if you don’t have someone else’s checkbook there to help you, and you don’t want to give up a year of your weekends, or you just want good quality as a beginner. 

So, the ISSA website has everything you actually need to know, right away. No weird marketing fluff or origin story like BASI had. You get a quick breakdown of exactly how much it costs with payment programs.

From there, you can look at what all the details are for the course training, education requirements, what you get with that cost, how the final test works, and everything else you need.

ISSA costs around $650 for the basic pilates instructor certification. These certifications expire every two years, and they require ongoing education to sustain that certification. However, because ISSA specializes in all manner of fitness certifications beyond Pilates instruction, you can access all of your continuing education through the ISSA, and then you don’t have to pay the recertification fee every two years. Plus, they have package deals that reduce the cost of getting multiple certifications at once, and every time you complete a certification, you generally get a discount on your next one.

All of their instructor programs are set up very similarly: you enroll, then you have self-paced study, you take chapter quizzes at the end of each chapter after reading and watching the respective videos, and then you take your open-book, untimed final exam when you are ready.

Now, this is a very basic certification; it doesn’t have the same comprehensive offerings as some of the others on this list, but it also doesn’t cost the same as some of the others for that very reason. So if you are more focused on a career offering things like Pilates and yoga instruction, you could get certifications for both from ISSA, but if you are looking for specializations instead, like working in recovery or with seniors, ISSA offers specialty certs for those too, unlike the other programs. 

The last thing I like about them is with some of their programs, you get a job placement guarantee once you complete your certification. So if you are worried about finding a gym or local organization where you can teach, completing programs with this organization and signing up for the job placement option means they will help you find a job, and you have a money-back guarantee if you aren’t working within one year.

Final Steps

Once you have your certification, you’ll have to figure out:

1. Whether you want to start teaching part-time or full
2. Where you want to teach
3. Whether you need insurance

Even as a new teacher, you might decide that you want to work as an independent instructor, providing classes at local gyms or starting your own pilates studio. 

With your basic certification, it’s important to remember that you might want to specialize based on your area and the demographics within it, like Pilates for women who are pregnant or have just given birth, versus Pilates for seniors, versus Pilates for athletes. If you opt for a specialty, you’ll likely want to invest in other certifications or ongoing education to support that specialty. 

Final note: All Pilates instructor certifications have an expiration date, so be advised that the program you choose may have additional requirements and costs to recertify. 

Summing Up

Overall, there are a lot of good programs out there. I think Peak Pilates Instructor is ideal for people who are focused on obtaining comprehensive, multi-level certifications, but the instruction requirements are absurdly long. With ISSA, though, if you have any experience, you’ll find that the program meets you where you are with self-paced, online study and an open-book final exam. After that, you get support in starting your career, which doesn’t come from the other options.