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!
Using this thread as a resource in case anyone else comes to read about the PMA and its validity / necessity along a career path.
One gym where I work just did a weekend training for its personal trainers on how to use the reformer as a tool in their personal training. So they’re not calling what they’re doing “pilates” and they’re not teaching “pilates classes,” but the will say, “we’re going to do three exercises on the reformer as part of our session today, to accomplish ____________.” As a certified personal trainer, I like this a lot. Knowing how to use the reformer as a tool to accomplish a specific fitness task can be useful, just as any other tool in the gym.
That said, I’m still taking private sessions at a wonderful Stott school in my area with the intention of getting further educated in the coming year.
Also, since my first post, I’ve taken my next 25 hour training module with another 20 hours of practice teaching before incorporating those skills into my classes. And I pay for reformer / chair classes with a friend of mine who has her 500-hour Stott certification.
The more I take, I do appreciate the way pilates is laid out as a system, and I’ll eventually do a full PMA course. At the same time, the reformer is a tool, like any other tool in a personal trainer’s toolbox. A tool that can be learned and built into a personal trainer’s programming.
For the first time, a few weeks ago, I met a pilates instructor who openly scorned my education to my face.
Although training directly with Moira is something to be proud of, there are many ways to learn, both within the realm of pilates and without. Personal training, yoga, MELT, and the study of general anatomy can all contribute to base knowledge that makes me a good instructor.
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.
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.