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By Emily Bench-Lahrssen
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Pilathon, Founder + Owner | PMA-CERTIFIED PILATES TEACHER | IIN HOLISTIC HEALTH COACH | pilathon.com | instagram: @Pilathon
I had always wanted to put smiles on people’s faces, so a career choice was super easy for me! I went to dental school. I loved my work, but long hours stooping and bending over patients took its toll and frequently my upper back and neck pain was severe. Pilates came to my rescue. Literally. After just half a dozen sessions, a dramatic improvement, and I was back to my usual strong and healthy self! But something else happened; I guess I fell in love! To cut a long story short, I enrolled in a leading Pilates training school in Miami, successfully completed their program, taught at their school and learned the ropes, and bonded with another dentist/Pilates teacher and decided to go into business together and Pilathon was born!
Many clients at Pilathon are yoga practitioners and yoga teachers who came to us wanting to improve core strength, which made me wonder why. I could understand this for runners, tennis players, or athletes, but yogis? I decided to join a yoga training course. Though Pilates and yoga complement each other wonderfully, I now know and rmly believe that the core strength and core control that you acquire from Pilates is essential for healthy yoga practice. In other words, Pilates really will improve your yoga! But don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge yoga fan. I think anybody and everybody who wants to improve their health and lifestyle should practice yoga. To quote a dear friend, my personal yoga teacher, Cat Haayen, “Pilates is the main course, but yoga is the dessert.”
The greatest reward that I get from my work is buckets full of job satisfaction, and the knowledge that I really am making other people healthier and happier and even inspiring them to spread the word. The icing on the cake for me personally has been that in October this year we launched our own teacher training program in response to the demands who said loud and clear that they wanted to follow our footsteps and become Pilates and health coaches. These trainees include people from different walks of life: a physical therapist, video producers, marketing specialists, an English teacher, and would you believe, a dentist! We have created a ripple effect and are now teaching our followers to be leaders!
