Going Beyond Pilates & Building a Business with Instagram: Interview with Kim Moscatello

“There are elements missing from both Pilates and the traditional gym environment. By integrating the best of both worlds, we can prepare individuals for almost anything, making them well-rounded and physically fit. The complementary nature of these approaches is astonishing. If you know how to incorporate Pilates into your gym routine and vice versa, you’ve hit the jackpot in terms of physical fitness.”

Do you ever wonder what’s better, Pilates or weight training? Should both of them belong in the same workout or should they remain strictly separate from one another? 

Today’s guest in the Expert Interview series is Kim Moscatello. Kim is a Pilates teacher who challenges the norms of teaching Pilates and brings Play and Positivity into her sessions. Kim shares her tips, movement explorations and funny light-hearted videos on her Instagram account which has over 37K followers. Today we will talk about combining traditional Pilates practice with strength training, growing  an Instagram account and having fun with movement. 

Interview Highlights:

Part 1. Finding a Unique Pilates Path: From the PT Office to an Instagram Rockstar

• The years of working with post-rehab patients at a physical therapist’s office taught me a lot about seeing the individual and using the tools I had as a movement coach, regardless of whether it meant being a Pilates teacher or simply a person helping someone get stronger with the knowledge I had.
• Working with a diverse clientele over the years, I’ve come to see many Pilates teachers as strength trainers who apply strength training principles to improve their clients’ bodies. If we have knowledge of other strength training applications, we should bring them into the Pilates studio or gym. There’s a wealth of information out there, and when you combine these approaches, you can create a versatile mover capable of tackling a wide range of physical challenges.

Part 2. Pilates vs Weight Training: the Limitations, the Benefits and the Complementarity

• There are elements missing from both Pilates and the traditional gym environment. By integrating the best of both worlds, we can prepare individuals for almost anything, making them well-rounded and physically fit. The complementary nature of these approaches is astonishing. If you know how to incorporate Pilates into your gym routine and vice versa, you’ve hit the jackpot in terms of physical fitness, in my opinion.
• Pilates springs have limitations such as fixed resistance and variable tension throughout an exercise, but the same limitations can turn into benefits by promoting continuous control and body awareness.
• Pilates apparatus is designed to challenge your core and encourage spinal control, creating an inherently unstable environment. This means you must trade some aspects of strength for others.
• In contrast, strength training at the gym requires placing the body in the most stable position possible in order to lift heavier weights and build muscle mass. 
• The meeting point of Pilates and strength training is where you can harness their combined benefits. While Pilates excels in end-range control and focuses on positions that promote stability, it may lack elements that replicate real-life situations or offer the variety of weight loads encountered in a gym. Combining both approaches can help create well-rounded and adaptable individuals who are prepared for various physical challenges.
• Women shouldn’t be afraid of lifting weights. In fact, they should embrace weight training as a healthy part of their fitness routine to build strength in the areas where they are inherently weak. 
• When you see someone outside lifting something or making a sudden movement, and your initial thought is, “Oh my God, that’s going to hurt them,” it means you recognize that you might hurt yourself if you attempted the same action. To me, that signals an area where you need to explore and address your own limitations.
• There’s nothing wrong with working with determination and intensity. I encourage people to push themselves a little more in the studio so that intensity doesn’t seem like something that will hurt them.
• In my studio, I strive to cultivate an environment where we can freely pursue challenging exercises without feeling the need to look a certain way. It’s not about putting on a show; it’s about pushing boundaries and achieving something powerful and meaningful.

Part 3. Growing an Instagram Following and Expanding Business Online

• I never had a specific goal of growing my IG channel. I recorded videos of exercises I planned to use with clients to have a visual record of them and uploaded them to Instagram.  I simply shared exercises that I recorded and engaged with fellow Pilates teachers, often reciprocally sharing each other’s content. That’s how my channel started growing.
• I’ve gained more business in the past year and a half by simply being true to myself and not worrying too much about growing my following. If I believe something is wrong or that an issue needs addressing, I’ll just say it. This authentic expression of my thoughts and values has resonated with many people in the industry who share similar viewpoints. This is where a significant portion of my new business has come from. People want to work with someone who isn’t afraid to speak up and advocate for what’s right.
• My advice to those seeking real business opportunities is not to focus solely on growing a following. Instead, identify who your target audience is, understand what you have to say to them, and just say it. These are the people who will genuinely engage with you and are more likely to invest in your services. 
• The content I share on Instagram flows quite organically. It’s either inspired by recent conversations or interactions with the clients, or it’s content I have stored on my phone (visual exercise demonstrations that I’ve been working on earlier) that I can share.

KEY Takeaway: ONE Thing Kim Wants You to Take Away 

We’re teaching people, we’re not teaching moves.

Our mission is to help that individual feel better in their body on that particular day and then progress towards making it stronger. That should be our primary focus. All the Pilates teacher training or any other knowledge we’ve acquired should serve as tools in our toolbox to apply to a unique human being, not merely a collection of body parts.

My advice to Pilates teachers is to expand your knowledge beyond just Pilates. Learn about different types of exercises, but also delve into the realm of pain management and psychology, especially related to fear and motivation.

Pilates is a wonderful form of exercise, and one of its great strengths is its ability to make challenging movements accessible. The way the springs work can make things feel fun and achievable, which is a huge selling point for many people. However, my message to teachers is not to stop there. Realize that once you have the person in the room, there are other ways to help them tackle even more challenging exercises. 

Interview Transcript

A: Kim, how did your Pilates and fitness story begin?

I would say Pilates began for me as a form of physical activity when I was in college. Prior to that, I was always an exerciser from around fifth grade. I have a connective tissue disorder and was frequently in a lot of pain, which led to a lot of injuries. So exercise became something that I channeled into in order to help me feel more in tune with my own body.

So by the time I got to college, I had plenty of types of exercises already in my repertoire, whether it be cardio, piloxing, step classes, or weightlifting, along with using various equipment. I was already doing all of that. Then something about Pilates clicked for me in college when I started attending mat classes and such. I found it cost-effective because I thought if I can figure this out, I can just do it in my apartment since I had limited funds.

There was something about it that made me think, “Wow, it’s really teaching me how to locate and connect with my body parts.” With my connective tissue disorder (EDS), it often felt like my body parts were floating in space. So, even though I exercised a lot, I still experienced a lot of injuries and frequently hurt myself. Pilates felt like it had a lot of value to it, even if I couldn’t quite figure out why at first.

Throughout college, I would do Pilates on and off. As I started working in the corporate world, I wanted to know more about it because, even though I loved it, I still didn’t really feel like I fully understood it. I just felt like there was a lot of value, and I just didn’t grasp it yet. So, I initially attended my first teacher training for that reason. I just wanted to understand how to apply it more deeply to myself, without necessarily expecting to teach it to anybody else.

I worked in finance, but then when I had my first sign, I didn’t want to go back to that and felt like, “Let me dabble a little bit in teaching mat classes.” I started teaching in gyms and obtaining other certifications in various types of programming, and so it was just a snowball effect. Now, here I am, all these years later, and this is what I do now.

The Turning Point in the Teaching Mindset: Working for a Physical Therapist

I would say the turning point for me was probably around 2015. I started working for a physical therapist, conducting these short 25-minute sessions with patients as they were transitioning out of their physical therapy. It was more of a tune-up session, if you will.

It was quite interesting because the patients weren’t coming in for Pilates, didn’t want Pilates, and most of them had no idea what it was. Many of them were irritated because I was still teaching pretty close to the Pilates method at that point. They would ask, “What are you talking about? I thought you were going to help my shoulder.” I tried to teach the method, guide them through the flow.

I found myself at a crossroads, questioning whether I had the ego to sit there and think, “They just don’t understand,” or if I should sit down and recognize the value in these exercises for the areas and issues they were struggling with. I needed to apply what they needed, not what I thought it should look like.

This was a significant turning point for me. I began to deconstruct and reconstruct exercises tailored to the individual in the room, without worrying about following the traditional order or making it look like a typical Pilates routine. It had to be what that person needed for their specific body, swiftly and efficiently making them stronger, helping them feel better, and then moving on.

Those years taught me a lot about seeing the individual and using the tools I had as a movement coach, regardless of whether it meant being a Pilates teacher or simply a person helping someone get stronger with the knowledge I had.

The room they assigned to me had a balanced body equipment setup, including a Gratz reformer and an exo chair with springs. I was hired as a Pilates teacher, but when clients started coming in with a variety of diagnoses I had never encountered before, I found myself in uncharted territory. As Pilates teachers, we often hear common issues like herniated discs or rotator cuff tears, but in this situation, I was dealing with clients who presented entirely different challenges.

They brought in individuals such as 90-something-year-olds using walkers and struggling to move, or someone with cerebral palsy who had limited mobility and speech difficulties. I was at a loss, and every day after work, I would rush home to buy books or research their conditions to figure out how to help them. The solutions wouldn’t always align with traditional Pilates practices, but that didn’t deter me from doing my best to assist them.

For instance, if a client couldn’t get onto the reformer or chair due to mobility issues, I’d adapt. I’d seat them in front of the chair and have them use the pedal from the opposite side. This required me to think beyond the typical Pilates framework and consider alternative ways to achieve the same goals. It pushed me to be creative and resourceful for the sake of the clients.

I was never inclined to omit exercises I had used for myself, taught in a different class, or applied in a different fitness setting. I firmly believed that if an exercise could benefit a person, I would incorporate it into their routine, even if it didn’t fit the traditional Pilates model. I couldn’t fathom leaving out valuable knowledge just because it didn’t conform to a specific title or label. To me, that was absurd.

Working with a diverse clientele over the years, I’ve come to see many Pilates teachers as strength trainers who apply strength training principles to improve their clients’ bodies. If we have knowledge of other strength training applications, we should bring them into the Pilates studio or gym. There’s a wealth of information out there, and when you combine these approaches, you can create a versatile mover capable of tackling a wide range of physical challenges.

A: How do Pilates and weight-training complement each other? Why do you believe in combining them in your training programs?

There are elements missing from both Pilates and the traditional gym environment. By integrating the best of both worlds, we can prepare individuals for almost anything, making them well-rounded and physically fit. The complementary nature of these approaches is astonishing. If you know how to incorporate Pilates into your gym routine and vice versa, you’ve hit the jackpot in terms of physical fitness, in my opinion.

Pilates Springs: The Benefits and Limitations

Limitations Associated with Pilates Springs

• Firstly, the springs  always have a fixed weight/resistance. Regardless of the adjusted colors or contemporary models, springs will only ever provide that specific amount of resistance, and you can’t surpass it. 
• Additionally, the resistance from springs isn’t constant throughout an exercise. It’s at its maximum when fully extended, and it decreases during the initial pull, which is quite different from a fixed-weight dumbbell of a set load. A 25-pound dumbbell feels consistent in resistance throughout the entire range of motion, but springs provide a unique challenge.

The Benefits of using Pilates Springs

However, these limitations can be beneficial because they help teach continuous control at the end range of motion in both directions. This is where the complementarity of springs and free weights comes into play. While a dumbbell or barbell doesn’t give you a sense of control beyond lifting or lowering it, springs can teach you how to control your body in space, move a resistance load, and avoid relying on momentum that might throw you off balance – something that often happens with free weights when technique isn’t properly understood.

Can You Build Muscle with Just Pilates?

When it comes to building muscle, pushing beyond a weight plateau is crucial. This is how muscles grow in size. Pilates is often promoted as an all-body, all-the-time exercise, which is a pro, but it can become a con when it comes to spring tension. Pilates positions typically place you in unstable conditions because you need to co-contract against spring resistance. As a result, you can’t focus on maximizing strength in any one area.

In the gym, for strength training, you usually aim for as much stability as possible to lift the heaviest weight. For instance, when doing a bench press, you’re lying on your back with your feet firmly planted on the ground, and your back is positioned to provide a stable platform for your shoulders to push against a heavy load. You intentionally create a stable environment to support lifting the maximum weight possible.

In contrast, Pilates apparatus is designed to challenge your core and encourage spinal control, creating an inherently unstable environment. This means you must trade some aspects of strength for others. Pilates tends to focus on slow and controlled movements, which are beneficial for certain purposes. However, real life isn’t always slow and controlled, and many situations require quick and unexpected movements or lifting heavy weights. This is where Pilates might fall short, and there’s a need for a more dynamic approach.

The meeting point of Pilates and strength training is where you can harness their combined benefits. While Pilates excels in end-range control and focuses on positions that promote stability, it may lack elements that replicate real-life situations or offer the variety of weight loads encountered in a gym. Combining both approaches can help create well-rounded and adaptable individuals who are prepared for various physical challenges.

The Need to Bridge the Gap Between Pilates and Strength Training Specifically for Women

One notable point is that women, in general, tend to avoid lifting heavy weights. While this is changing with increasing awareness and progression, there’s still a tendency to avoid significant resistance training. It’s not coincidental that women often exhibit weaker grip strength, which can be traced back to smaller wrists and weaker forearm muscles, impacting their upper-body strength. This issue highlights the need to bridge the gap between Pilates and traditional strength training.

Even in the gym, it’s worth noting that many leg exercises involve holding weights, indirectly working the hands and arms. In contrast, Pilates exercises for the legs tend to isolate leg muscles without overemphasizing the upper body. So, even a leg day in the gym can turn into a hand and arm workout to some extent. Pilates apparatus offers a unique opportunity to focus more on isolated leg exercises. It’s essential to consider these differences and try to merge elements from both worlds to create a well-rounded approach that marries the benefits of both Pilates and traditional strength training.

A: We often see clients coming to Pilates studios after experiencing injuries from activities like going to the gym (weight training) or CrossFit. Is it better to AVOID these activities to prevent injuries?

The debate surrounding activities like CrossFit often centers on the potential for injury. While it’s true that there’s a risk of injury if exercises aren’t executed correctly, that’s where the role of movement and Pilates becomes crucial. These practices are designed to teach individuals how to exercise safely and with proper control, allowing them to engage in a variety of physical activities, including CrossFit, without the same level of risk.

Yes, it all comes down to preparation and one’s exposure to certain movements. In my own studio, I make an effort to reframe people’s expressions about these matters. I don’t want to say that people are prohibited from speaking in a certain way, but in a sense, they are encouraged to think differently. I always challenge those statements.  For example, if you look at me doing something and your immediate reaction is, “Oh my God, she’s going to get hurt,” I want to correct that perception. The truth is, you’re just identifying where you feel vulnerable or unsure.

Let me reiterate that point because it’s essential. It reveals your perception of your own capabilities. When you see someone outside lifting something or making a sudden movement, and your initial thought is, “Oh my God, that’s going to hurt them,” it means you recognize that you might hurt yourself if you attempted the same action. To me, that signals an area where you need to explore and address your own limitations. It’s not about blindly replicating what I’m doing but understanding why you find it risky.

For instance, if you see me perform a challenging movement involving my knee and think, “Oh my God, that would wreck my knee,” it suggests you’re hesitant to push your knee to that range or handle that amount of load. Let’s delve into that. Why do you perceive it as harmful? Is it due to a lack of strength in that area? Let’s work on it together so that it no longer seems intimidating or risky.

Don’t Demonize Intensity in Your Workouts. Embrace it instead

People who practice Pilates often make comments about high-intensity exercises like CrossFit because Pilates is generally not regarded as intense. I’ll admit that much. Pilates isn’t known for its intensity. This is what attracts many people to it – it’s still challenging but not overwhelmingly intense. There aren’t moments where you feel like you can’t take any more.

However, this attitude of looking down on intense exercise, as if any form of intensity is harmful, is problematic. Intensity should not be demonized. There’s nothing wrong with working with determination and intensity. I encourage people to push themselves a little more in the studio so that intensity doesn’t seem like something that will hurt them.

I try to open up the conversation and emphasize that intensity and power are not negative things. Sometimes I lock up the springs and challenge my clients. They might look at me and say, “But it won’t look pretty.” I respond, “I don’t care.” I’m not concerned about impressing anyone with a poised expression or picture-perfect performance. It doesn’t matter to me. I just want to help you tackle challenging tasks without causing harm. I strive to cultivate an environment where we can freely pursue challenging exercises without feeling the need to look a certain way. It’s not about putting on a show; it’s about pushing boundaries and achieving something powerful and meaningful.

Building an Instagram Following and Growing Your Business

A: Kim, you are a rockstar on Instagram with close to 40K followers.How did you do it? What was your journey?

I opened my Instagram account back in 2018. At that time, Instagram was quite different from what it is now; it wasn’t trying to be like TikTok. When I first created my account, I was still working for a physical therapist, and I had been in that role for a few years. I was starting to feel a bit isolated. I had spent those years in a studio, working with one patient at a time in a small room. I began to feel disconnected from the wider Pilates community, and I wanted to find a way to reconnect and feel like I was part of something bigger again.

So, my primary motivation for opening the account was to regain that sense of community. Additionally, I’ve always struggled with documenting and explaining my exercises in writing. I’d come up with something, jot it down, and then later when I read it back, I’d think, “What on earth was I trying to convey here?” My notes often seemed unclear to me. As a solution, I began recording videos of exercises I planned to use in classes or with clients. This way, I had a visual record of them, and I started uploading them to Instagram. Initially, I had no expectations beyond that – I just wanted a little piece of community and a place to store my exercise videos.

I didn’t put in much effort to grow my Instagram following; it wasn’t a specific goal of mine. Most of my work was done in-person, and I didn’t have a particular intention to expand online. However, a little before COVID and during the pandemic, social media usage surged, and my account saw some growth. To be honest, I never actively worked to increase my Instagram presence. I simply shared exercises and engaged with fellow Pilates teachers, often reciprocally sharing each other’s content.

However, since 2021, it’s been a different story. Instagram’s algorithm and focus have shifted. They primarily promote content creators who produce short, engaging reels and utilize popular audio tracks. If you fall in line with that trend, they’ll share your content, but otherwise, it’s become quite silent. You have to follow their rules and trends.

That said, I’d like to emphasize that I’ve gained more business in the past year and a half by simply being true to myself and not worrying too much about growing my following. Before COVID, my approach was quite straightforward – I would share exercises that I had on my phone and tell others to use them if they found them helpful. That’s all my account was about. I was still working for studios and Pilates businesses during that time, which led me to hold back on expressing my opinions on certain matters. I didn’t want to burn bridges or stir up controversy.

Now, things have changed, and I’m fully committed to my own venture. I’ve realized that I can express myself freely and not be overly concerned about what others think. If I believe something is wrong or that an issue needs addressing, I’ll just say it. This authentic expression of my thoughts and values has resonated with many people in the industry who share similar viewpoints. This is where a significant portion of my new business has come from. People want to work with someone who isn’t afraid to speak up and advocate for what’s right.

So, my advice to those seeking real business opportunities is not to focus solely on growing a following. Instead, identify who your target audience is, understand what you have to say to them, and just say it. These are the people who will genuinely engage with you and are more likely to invest in your services. Don’t chase follower numbers, as most of them might never actually engage with you.

A: What does your average day look like as an Instagram influencer and a movement teacher?

My typical days are filled with teaching, usually around five to six hours a day, working with clients one-on-one. This can involve a combination of Zoom sessions and in-person meetings. Additionally, I also teach for a few different studios that are possibly not well-known. I record classes for their companies.

In terms of the content I post on Instagram, I currently have an archive of no less than 3,000 videos that no one has ever seen. This is because I frequently record exercises and movements. The reason for doing so hasn’t changed from what I mentioned earlier – I record these videos as a reference for exercises I might want to use with a client or something I’m working on for my own practice. These videos remain on my phone, and when I have some downtime, which is usually in the evenings, I go through them. I have two children, and I’m often waiting at my daughter’s art class or one of her soccer practices, so that’s when I review my videos. I pick a few that I think might be useful for others, and I post them on Instagram. It’s a relatively straightforward process. 

To be completely transparent, the creative reels, the ones where I add a humorous or anecdotal twist, often stem from conversations with clients in the morning. Something will happen during a session, a client might say something, or a topic related to the fitness industry might come up during a discussion with a fellow teacher I’m working with. These interactions can trigger something in me, often a feeling of annoyance or inspiration, and these reels tend to happen very quickly. As soon as the client leaves, I already have the idea, and I hit record. These reels usually come together in a matter of seconds because they’re a direct response to real-life experiences or conversations.

In essence, the content I share on Instagram flows quite organically. It’s either inspired by recent conversations or interactions, or it’s content I have stored on my phone that I can share. In fact, there’s so much material on my phone that I could post a video every day for the next five years without recording anything new.

A: What is ONE THING that you wish more people who practice and teach Pilates take away from this interview?

We’re teaching people, we’re not teaching moves.

I believe that obsessing over rules can be counterproductive. In the Pilates industry, in particular, we can become so fixated on strict rules that we end up elevating them to the status of false gods. It’s as if we’re worshiping these rules, and in doing so, we lose sight of the individuals we’re working with. All that rule-bound information is right in front of us, while the person is somehow pushed to the sidelines, left behind.

What we need to do is strip away all of these rules and remember our core purpose in the room. Our mission is to help that individual feel better in their body on that particular day and then progress towards making it stronger. That should be our primary focus. All the Pilates teacher training or any other knowledge we’ve acquired should serve as tools in our toolbox to apply to a unique human being, not merely a collection of body parts.

There are many reasons beyond just muscles and bones that may affect a person’s ability to do a certain exercise or cause them to experience pain. So, my advice to Pilates teachers is to expand your knowledge beyond just Pilates. Learn about different types of exercises, but also delve into the realm of pain management and psychology, especially related to fear and motivation.

Understanding all these aspects of human physicality will make you a better teacher. It will enable you to see the individual in front of you and figure out how to help them achieve something that might seem unattainable to them when they first walk into your studio.

Pilates is a wonderful form of exercise, and one of its great strengths is its ability to make challenging movements accessible. The way the springs work can make things feel fun and achievable, which is a huge selling point for many people. However, my message to teachers is not to stop there. Realize that once you have the person in the room, there are other ways to help them tackle even more challenging exercises. The springs can provide tremendous support, and that’s where you can truly make a difference.

A: What are some of the Ways that Pilates Students and Teachers Can work with you? 

1. Video platform: watch tutorials, get inspired, get creative with your workouts
   I have a small internet platform on Patreon with over a hundred videos, including various tutorials and more that you can access at a reasonable cost. 
2. Work One-On-One
   If you’re interested in working with me one-on-one, which is something I truly enjoy, feel free to get in touch directly. You can contact me through my Instagram page or send me an email. I provide my services to teachers all across the country and even abroad, as long as we can coordinate our schedules.
3. Mentorship for teachers. I offer mentorship relationships that don’t have to be a weekly commitment. Some teachers prefer to consult with me on specific topics or challenges, whether it’s about applying a different modality to a client’s needs or seeking a unique workout experience for themselves. So, please don’t hesitate to reach out and connect with me personally.