Recent Court Ruling Puts Pilates Name Up for Grabs

Brace yourself--or at least strengthen and balance yourself--for an explosion of courses in the trendy Pilates method of body conditioning.

That’s because a U.S. District Court in Manhattan recently declared that the distinctive program of movements developed by German fitness pioneer Joseph Pilates (1880-1967) is a generic form of exercise--like karate or yoga--not subject to trademark.

This means that gyms and studios are suddenly free to offer Pilates classes without skirting use of the name. Pilates (pronounced puh-LAH-teez) exercises are designed to strengthen the body’s core--the stomach, buttocks and spine--and relieve wear on hips and joints.

For fitness consumers and prospective initiates, there’s just one problem: The Pilates community is less a single coherent school than a bunch of rivals battling for market turf. And what you get from a $60-or-so-per-private-session Pilates class in one gym may bear little resemblance to what you get in another.

Some feature mat work, and some work on equipment with pulleys and tension springs. There’s also the matter of certification. The question is: Certified by whom?

Purists may want to stick to programs credentialed by Pilates Inc. (https://www.pilates-studio.com), last holder of the Pilates trademark that was struck down in court. The company stakes its lineage through its septuagenarian training director, Romana Kryzanowska, taught by the master himself. Instructors like Karen Garcia, owner-director of Studio Body Logic in Arlington, Va.--certified through Pilates Inc. after nine to 12 months of training, costing $3,500 including tests--are upset that such competitors as Polestar (https://www.polestareducation.com), Physicalmind (https://www.the-method.com/) and Stott (https://www.stottconditioning.com/) offer some kinds of certification after as little as a few weekends’ training. “There’s no quality control left anymore,” says Garcia.

Competitors beg to differ. Sheri Walczy, director of the Pilates program at Tenley Sport & Health Club in the District of Columbia, says consumers should be wary of any studio that claims “that they are the best and this is the only way to do Pilates. We’re all after the same corrective exercise for our clients.”

Jennifer Gamboa, director of Body Dynamics in Arlington, Va., says gifted Pilates instructors don’t come from just one school. And certification course length doesn’t tell the whole story.

For example, she says, only physical therapists, health-care professionals and those with schooling in anatomy, physiology and biomechanics can qualify for the four-weekend Polestar training to get rehab/post-rehab certification--a higher level than fitness certification. Her studio requires instructors to undergo further training. Advises Gamboa, “You have to find out if instructors are able to adapt programs to meet your needs.”

The newly formed Pilates Method Alliance (aiming to have the first pages of its Web site, https://www.pilatesmethodalliance.org, up and running this week) plans to standardize certification guidelines and help consumers find instructors in their area.