Clarity as Kindness – Updated Studio Policies and FAQ’s
Posted on January 30, 2025 by pilatesnative
Running always brings up some good brain activity and on the last few runs, I’ve been ruminating on “clarity as kindness”. This idea comes from Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead, which can be quickly summarized in the linked article. Today’s newsletter and most of my January admin tasks have leaned heavily into Clarity as Kindness. In addition to the usual insurance policy verifications, tax prep, and website fixes, I’ve spent a lot of time updating our studio policies to ensure they’re clear, consistent and maintain the integrity of the studio and what we offer.
Updated Studio Policies & FAQ’s
In the spirit of Clarity as Kindness, the studio policies and FAQ’s have been updated on our website. This page goes over session length, what to wear, our late policy, cancellations, reschedules, payment, cleaning, memberships, packages, holiday closures, inclement weather and more. If you don’t want to read through the entire page, the biggest updates are listed below:
What to Wear
Zippers, metal pulls, rivets, necklaces, earrings and other metal on clothing can damage the equipment. Please check clothing is clear of these items when coming in for a session.
Packages and Memberships
6-packs expire three months after the purchase date.
10-packs expire six months after the purchase date.
Monthly membership credits rollover, but must be used within 60 days of the cancelled session.
Clients are responsible for using their packages and membership credits prior to expiration date.
Packages and memberships can be paused for medical, personal or work needs. Please let us know asap so we can work with you to pause your sessions.
Cancellations and Reschedules
We do request that clients reschedule sessions rather than cancel. This allows us to spend more time in the studio with you and helps keep your sessions running smoothly.
Packages and Memberships
6-packs expire three months after the purchase date.
10-packs expire six months after the purchase date.
Monthly membership credits rollover, but must be used within 60 days of the cancelled session.
Clients are responsible for using their packages and membership credits prior to expiration date.
Packages and memberships can be paused for medical, personal or work needs. Please let us know asap so we can work with you to pause your sessions.
Cancellations and Reschedules
We do request that clients reschedule sessions rather than cancel. This allows us to spend more time in the studio with you and helps keep your sessions running smoothly.
Happy 5th Birthday Pilates Native!
originally posted on Oct 28 2024
Oct 11th marked Pilates Native’s official 5th bday!
The story behind Pilates Native is one of luck and timing.
Fifteen years ago, in a city far, far away…I was living in Houston, laid-off from my engineering job and wondering what to do. My friends at Spine and Sports Therapy were hiring, and brought me on as their Sports Therapist. They sent me to get my Pilates and Stretch certifications and gave me free reign to design the Therapy programs for patients working through their sports injuries with chiro.
A first year teacher will usually do a few sessions a week, building up their client base and gaining momentum. I hit the ground running, with a 40 hour a week workload. I loved the work and the clients, but the hours were killing me. After teaching literally thousands of sessions in just two years, I was burned out. When my old Engineering Manager called, I happily went back to Welding Engineering.
Luckily, my brother owned “The Fit Box”, a local kickboxing studio in Denver, and I kept teaching Pilates and offering stretch sessions every time I came back home. When we moved back to Denver, I was able to teach and stretch regularly, something I had missed wholeheartedly.
The evolution cometh
Five years ago, I was renting a small office space in Lakewood and working remotely as a Welding Engineer. The space was big enough to fit my personal reformer, so I brought it to the office, with the intention of working out during lunch breaks to help combat my terrible desk posture.
After a few weeks, I figured I could probably teach a few sessions a week on Friday afternoons and cover the rent on the space fairly easily.
One Facebook post later, I had three clients and three pre-paid six-week packages to fulfill.
Suddenly, I was running a business…Cue scene: Late night research on small businesses, scrambling to put together an LLC, drafting a business plan, basically hitting the ground running…again…
I named the first iteration of the studio “Engineered Evolution”, inspired by the idea that we weren’t just working out, we were intentionally evolving the way we moved and how we thought about movement. I had also learned a few things from my last go round and decided this business would run intentionally and be engineered towards my ambivert personality. No burn-out for this round.
After a few weeks, those three clients told three friends and pretty soon, I had added lunch sessions to the schedule, three days a week.
From there, the ball just kept rolling and “The Beast”, my first real commercial reformer, replaced the home reformer. Engineered Evolution rebranded as Pilates Native, a nod to my Grandparents, our Colorado roots and the idea that movement is native to the body.
Pilates Native moved into The Green Mountain Wellness Center in July 2020, The Beast was replaced by Bumble Bee in ‘21, and I quit engineering to run Pilates Native full time in Jan ‘22. We’ve added a few folks to the team, started running instructor training, made some friends and had a bang-up good time along the way.
It is with a heart bursting that I’m so happy to announce that Pilates Native celebrates another birthday on October 11th!!!
Happy 4th Birthday Pilates Native!
Happy Birthday, Pilates Native!
The story behind Pilates Native is one of luck and timing.
Fourteen years ago, in a city far, far away…I was living in Houston, laid-off from my engineering job and wondering what to do. My friends at Spine and Sports Therapy were hiring, and brought me on as their Sports Therapist. They sent me to get my Pilates and Stretch certifications and gave me free reign to design the Therapy programs for patients working through their sports injuries with chiro.
A first year teacher will usually do a few sessions a week, building up their client base and gaining momentum. I hit the ground running, with a 40 hour a week workload. I loved the work and the clients, but the hours were killing me. After teaching literally thousands of sessions in just two years, I was burned out. When my old Engineering Manager called, I happily went back to Welding Engineering.
Luckily, my brother owned “The Fit Box”, a local kickboxing studio in Denver, and I kept teaching Pilates and offering stretch sessions every time I came back home. When we moved back to Denver, I was able to teach and stretch regularly, something I had missed wholeheartedly.
Four years ago, the evolution cometh
Four years ago, I was renting a small office space in Lakewood and working remotely as a Welding Engineer. The space was big enough to fit my personal reformer, so I brought it to the office, with the intention of working out during lunch breaks to help combat my terrible desk posture.
After a few weeks, I figured I could probably teach a few sessions a week on Friday afternoons and cover the rent on the space fairly easily.
One Facebook post later, I had three clients and three pre-paid six-week packages to fulfill.
Suddenly, I was running a business…Cue scene: Late night research on small businesses, scrambling to put together an LLC, drafting a business plan, basically hitting the ground running…again…
I named the first iteration of the studio “Engineered Evolution”, inspired by the idea that we weren’t just working out, we were intentionally evolving the way we moved and how we thought about movement. I had also learned a few things from my last go round and decided this business would run intentionally and be engineered towards my ambivert personality. No burn-out for this round.
After a few weeks, those three clients told three friends and pretty soon, I had added lunch sessions to the schedule, three days a week.
From there, the ball just kept rolling and “The Beast”, my first real commercial reformer, replaced the home reformer. Engineered Evolution rebranded as Pilates Native, a nod to my Grandparents, our Colorado roots and the idea that movement is native to the body.
Pilates Native moved into The Green Mountain Wellness Center in July 2020, The Beast was replaced by Bumble Bee in ‘21, and I quit engineering to run Pilates Native full time in ‘22. We’ve added a few folks to the team, started running instructor training, made some friends and had a bang-up good time along the way.
It is with a heart bursting that I’m so happy to announce that Pilates Native turns four on October 11th!!!
To celebrate, I’m going full ‘90’s mode and making t-shirts! If you’d like to join me in this awesome milestone celebration and snag a t-shirt, let me know. Until then, I’ll be eating chocolate and doing Pilates in my awesome new t-shirt.
Have an awesome day!
Cheers!
-Rubecca
Your rates aren’t competitive!”
Posted on June 14, 2023 by pilatesnative
As I’m writing this newsletter, I’m listening to a training module for Pilates Instructors. In an excellent moment of universal synchronicity, the host is talking about all of the mental and emotional reactions we have when it comes to our rates. Whether it’s setting our rates, actually charging our rates, telling people our rates or raising our rates.
Rates have actually been on my mind for several months.
A few months ago, a comment was made in a passing conversation with someone that my rates “weren’t really competitive”. Rather than getting upset or feeling confrontational or racing to do market research (my usual go-to reactions with any perceived criticism), my reaction was more amused. “Well, who am I competing with?”
Pilates Native was not built on competition, but on the idea that there was great value in sharing the things I know and love with others. And let’s be honest, teaching Pilates is way fun!
That love of movement and passion for the Pilates work makes Pilates Native a power house of modalities and offerings. In twelve years as an instructor, I have learned, studied and certified in so many fun things, meaning the sessions offered at Pilates Native are a blend of:
Hatha Yoga
Energy Work (Reiki, Psych-K)
Sports Therapy
Injury Prevention + Injury Recovery
Mat Pilates
Equipment Pilates (Reformer, Cadillac, Chair, Spine Corrector)
Standing Pilates
Running Shoe Analysis
Gait Training
Fascial Stretch Therapy
Life Stretch
Trauma Informed Sessions
DEI, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ Informed Sessions
Somatic Movement
TRX
Spreadsheets (seriously can’t forget those!)
and now…RYC – Restore Your Core
On top of all of this fun stuff, I’m also a Yoga Alliance E-RYT and a Physical Mind Institute Certifying Instructor. (in an unrelated but amusing aside from my past life, I’m also a Certified Welding Inspector lol)
With all of that being said, rates will be assessed annually. Monthly subscriptions will give the best deal on sessions.
If you’ve been wanting to start your Pilates routine or get back into it, Laura and I are both accepting new clients right now!
Laura has her own amazing list of certs and experience. Most notably she is a classically trained Pilates instructor and is also certified in Thai Yoga Bodywork.
As always, making this work accessible to as many people as possible is super important to me, so equity sessions and scholarships will still be available for the Pilates work and the instructor trainings.
Rebranding for 2020: Pilates Native
Posted on January 1, 2020 by pilatesnative
Happy New Year! I hope you’re settling in nicely to your normal life routines after all of the madness of the holidays. We were in Mississippi for a few days last week and I couldn’t be happier to be back in Denver, where the sun actually shines in winter!
January is off with a bang. After a lot of thought and convos with my brother (and business consultant!), I’ve decided to rebrand. As of January 2020, Engineered Evolution has evolved into “Pilates Native Pilates & Stretch Therapy”. While Eng Evo helped get me started and inspired the initial push towards opening a Pilates and Stretch studio, Native feels like coming home. I’m excited to bring a lot more of my own culture into my Pilates and Stretch offerings.
Not to worry, all of the nerdy dork stuff from Eng Evo is sticking. (Can’t keep this girl away from her spreadsheets!) Initial Assessments are a huge part of our focus, and they’ll be here to stay.
Launching into “Native” also provides space for me to follow my heart and focus on “Pilates and Stretch for All”. As you’re probably aware, Pilates and Stretch can have a huge barrier of entry, especially when it comes to familiarity with the practices, the pricing and the locations. Focusing on the studio as a welcoming place for beginners and newbies to Pilates is a huge passion of mine.
January Events:
Jan 13: New Website is live! www.pilatesnative.com is up and running! Wooohooo!!
Why you should sign up for an Initial Assessment
Want to focus on your fitness, strength, or flexibility but not sure where to start? Already super active but finding yourself with minor aches, pains and limits that won’t go away? Weekend warrior hitting the wall more often than the high? The Initial Assessment is a great tool to provide guidance and direction on what you should be doing to hit your goals. To book your IA, click HERE.
Jan 21 @ 5:15 kicks off the Employee Wellness Pilates Class @ Red Rocks Community College. (Limited to RRCC Employees)
This 60 min class includes a 45 min full body Pilates session + 15 min guided stretch. Focus is on improving balance, developing and improving core strength, getting mind and body to work as one and developing/improving physical strength and flexibility.
Jan 25 1pm – 4pm Fashion, Fun & Fitness
@ Green Mountain Wellness Center
13655 W Jewell Ave Suite B201 Lakewood, CO 80228
This fun event includes three 30-min all abilities fitness classes, a fashion show, a raffle, vendors and much more! I’ll be there as a vendor and will be offering 10-min teaser stretches (woohoo!) Tickets are $44 and include a goody bag.
As always, thank you for your support! I can’t wait to see you.
Rubecca