Pilates training – does PMA matter?
I am familiar with NCCA accreditation with respect to group-ex and personal training certifications. However, I’m not familiar with the pilates segment of the fitness industry. If you’re a pilates instructor, can you please tell me how important PMA accreditation is to you and to your ability to get work?
Thanks!
So, I finished my first reformer training with 25 hours of in-person education, 20-hours of private instruction, a written exam and a practical exam. For the moves we were taught, I feel very comfortable with the movements, the cues, the corrections, and my ability to teach them. I would like to find out more about the PMA in the future, but I’ve been hired to teach beginning pilates and private sessions and feel quite well prepared.
For me I’m pretty unhappy with PMA. they don’t formally verify the credentialing of the teaching organizations by reviewing the consistency of their training material etc. not impressed.
Also the level of inconsistent information with exercise terminology and stabilization and alignment cues are all over the place. By the time you take the credentialing teaching programs exam and then PMA’s exam it’s just all different information.
And my background is physical therapy and personal training massage therapist and yoga for many years. Pilates should be put into the Personal Trainer activities. And now they have large classes on the reformers. So all the intense queuing alignment and breathing goals are pretty much out the window.
My answer is my own opinion and it might differ from what other people feel. Personally, I think that whatever you choose as your Pilates teacher training education matters more than anything. If your teacher training school is not PSAP certified then any other certification doesn’t seem to have high enough standards. If the standards for Pilates teachers are not upheld to ultra high standards, it affects the entire industry of this career path so PMA Is just simply trying to set the standard. Yes it is important.