Simple Steps to Improve your Personal Pilates Practice with Brett Miller

How often do you personally practice Pilates?

Joseph Pilates in his book, “Return to Life through Contrology” wrote,

“If you will faithfully perform your Contrology [Pilates] exercises regularly only four times a week for just three months, you will find your body development approaching the ideal, accompanied by renewed mental vigor and spiritual enhancement.”

Most people don’t come to Pilates for mental vigor or spiritual enhancement, but it’s a pretty good bonus to a strong and pain-free body! But how do you actually practice Pilates to gain all these benefits?

Recently I talked to Brett Miller, the creator of PilatesIntel.com and he defined Pilates the following way

Pilates is an extremely effective way of becoming strong and intelligent in your body.

But in order to gain this body intelligence as well as the mind vigor that Joseph Pilates was talking about we need to practice Pilates intentionally and not leisurely. I asked Brett to expand more on his tips for a better Pilates practice and I think that anyone can benefit from them. But first let me share 5 amazing facts about Brett Miller

1. Brett currently lives and teaches Pilates in Stockholm.
2. Brett used to be a ballet dancer in New York but ended up moving to Stockholm and becoming a … software developer (talk about a career shift!)
3. About a year and a half ago a letter landed in his inbox saying “Change your life, work for 4 hours a week and start an inbox magazine.” And he decided to start a magazine about Pilates – PilatesIntel.com
4. In the last year and a half Brett connected with amazing Pilates teachers like Kathy Corey, Karena Thek, Michael King, Andrea Maida and Alycea Ungaro. Their voices can now be heard on the pages of PilatesIntel.
5. Brett likes to challenge the Pilates community and question Pilates rules. In fact, he thinks that any Pilates teacher (or student) can gain a deeper understanding of the method by questioning everything that they do, hear or see.

1. Brett, what is your Pilates story?

I used to be a dancer, mainly ballet and used to live in New York. I found a person that I fell in love with and she lived in Finland so I moved there to be with her. But the relationship ended quite quickly. I stopped dancing and started to do software development.

I got an offer from Ericson, a company that makes telephone networks, to move to Sweden. That’s how I ended up in Stockholm.

Pilates was always too expensive for me when I was living in New York and dancing. I knew that it was fantastic but I couldn’t afford it. But then I started doing software so I wasn’t as poor as I always was. Another thing that attracted me to it was the fact that Pilates takes a lot of work and skill, a little bit like dancing.

I started doing Pilates in 2005 at a small studio with very talented teachers. They told me after 1 month “Go get trained and come work for us.” There was a STOTT training school in Stockholm so I went there. I am not an advocate for STOTT, but it was a good program and I went there because I didn’t know anything.

And then about a year and a half ago a letter landed in my inbox saying “Change your life, work for 4 hours a week and start an inbox magazine.” I knew it was a bunch of garbage but it turned out to be a very good thing to do. So I decided to make a magazine about Pilates. I was scared to death and full of doubts thinking that nobody would like it. But after a year and a half it is going really nicely and I am pleased with it.

2. What is your goal and vision for PilatesIntel?

When I first started it was difficult for me to get content that was interesting. I have decided to give it one year. I started to publish every two weeks thinking that I can do 25 article in a year. I thought that if it wasn’t going well then I would stop after that. Luckily, very soon people got turned on to it and I started getting new content that was very good from other people. That has helped my magazine a lot because now I have people like Kathy Corey, Karena Thek, Michael King, Andrea Maida and Alycea Ungaro writing for the magazine.

Now I have a lot of interesting content on PilatesIntel and I can move into questioning and challenging the whole Pilates community. Our community is very fractious and political. I think that we have to … get over that.

I would like PilatesIntel to be very large and be the go-to magazine. I publish every week now. In time I would like to have some fun events around the world.

Update: One of the latest editions to PilateIntel is the PilatesIntel shop. Take a look around and treat yourself to a Pilates goodie.

3. What role does Pilates play in your life both personally and professionally?

Personally, I work out myself and put my workouts as my highest priority. I do it twice a week for an hour a half, sometimes a third one for a little bit less time.

I usually teach on Wednesdays and Saturdays for a couple of hours so these are the days that I usually work out. Pilates is a major part of my life.I also do Yoga and play tennis so I work out a lot.

Professionally, I teach between 6 and 10 hours a week. I teach 2 mat classes as well as private students at various places. It creates a nice balance for me since I develop software and sit all day. But once I am done I like to get up and be with people.

I also work with the magazine (PilatesIntel) and am learning a lot about publishing articles, advertising, selling products so that part is always expanding.

4. What are your tips for a successful Pilates practice?

1. Do it often and do it a lot. Take responsibility for learning this practice yourself.
2. Find a great teacher or several of them. Go to these teachers often but still take responsibility for your own practice.
3. Practice at home. Take what you’ve learned from your teacher and practice it at home.
4. Teach your friends and your family. When you start teaching even though you are not trained to teach, you really get your thinking and exploration process going. The next time that you are doing it you will be looking (listening to the teacher) more closely because now you want to explain Pilates to your friends and family.

5. What piece of advice would you like to share with all the instructors and students?

1. Always question what you have learned and what you have seen.
2. Read at least once the original work of Joseph Pilates “Return to Life through Contrology”
3. Always put your own practice first. If you are teaching too much and get tired to the point where you don’t want to do your own work then try to teach less (if it works out financially.) Don’t get burnt out so that you can have your own beautiful sacred Pilates practice.

Brett likes to challenge the Pilates community with questions. I would like to challenge you with a better Pilates practice.

Commit yourself 4 days a week for at least 15 minutes to a Pilates practice (at home, at the studio or at the park) and see what transformations you are about to experience in your body and mind.