Pacific Northwest Pilates

Pacific Northwest Pilates We've Transformed Lives w/ Pilates in Portland, Oregon since 2001
Personalized | Small groups | STOTT PILATES® school | In Studio & Zoom
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Pacific NW Pilates is the NW's premier studio for customized, private and small group Pilates instruction. Beginner to advanced, all ages (15-to-93 currently), all fitness levels. PNWP welcomes referrals for therapeutic Pilates from physical therapists and physicians. Also a licensed STOTT PILATES® certification training center, our instructors are always surrounded by a passion for science and th

e techniques that produce good results. Description
Pacific NW Pilates studio teaches movement to real bodies for real life. Movement solutions for elite athletes, dancers and gymnasts, pre- and post-natal women, biomechanical pain, post-surgical injury, special conditions (e.g., Parkinson's, fibromyalgia, etc.), and seniors. Pacific NW Pilates Education is a STOTT PILATES® Licensed Training Center. Classes are offered in easily scheduled modules on two career tracks: Pilates training, and Pilates for PT and rehabilitation professionals. Career transition for dancers: Pilates as a second-career opportunity offering security, flexibility, independence and international options. Owners Melanie Byford-Young and Leslie Braverman have incorporated their deep and varied experiences in dance, physical therapy, sports, teaching and learning for exceptional therapeutic Pilates-based movement and fitness since 2001.

Katherine went to New York — and she came back with the goods.Three days at the Merrithew® Symposium. Five new offerings...
06/03/2026

Katherine went to New York — and she came back with the goods.

Three days at the Merrithew® Symposium. Five new offerings. All online. And we're posting this early because spots are already filling.

Here's what we know after 25 years of doing this: the best instructors never stop learning. Katherine was in the room this May with some of the sharpest movement educators in the world — including Master Instructor Trainers PJ O'Clair, Kim Kraushar, and Wayne Seeto. That's the standard we hold ourselves to at PNWPE. And that's what we bring back to you.

Here's what's coming:

📍 NEW: STOTT PILATES® Programming Protocols for Breast Cancer Rehab 💻 Online | October 18, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM PST | $420 (manual included) | .6 CECs Research is clear: exercise improves survival rates, quality of life, and function for people navigating cancer — before, during, and after treatment. Your clients need instructors who actually know how to work with them. This course gives you that knowledge.

📍 NEW: Dynamic Core Control with the Mini Stability Ball 💻 Online | December 4, 2026 | 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM PST | $140 | .2 CECs

Mat-based and sneaky hard. The Mini Stability Ball adds feedback, support, and instability that challenges alignment, coordination, and endurance in ways your clients won't see coming.

📍 NEW: Fitness Circle® Strength, Endurance and Recovery Flow Sequences 💻 Online | December 4, 2026 | 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM PST | $140 | .2 CECs

Integrated flows, themed flows, multi-planar movement — all using the Fitness Circle® Lite. Smart programming structure you can use in group class or private sessions the next day.

📍 Back-to-back on December 4 — register for one or make a day of it. 💜

📍 NEW: ZEN•GA® Strength & Mobility on the V2 Max Plus™ Reformer 💻 Online | December 5, 2026 | 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PST | $140 | .2 CECs

ZEN•GA® meets the Reformer. Swinging and elastic movement patterns, fascial system integration, whole-body flow. A more sensory, fluid approach to Reformer programming that your clients will feel differently than anything else you're doing.

📍 NEW: Reformer Pilates for Active Aging: Strength, Balance & Longevity 💻 Online | December 6, 2026 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM PST | $140 | .2 CECs

Real strategies for joint mobility, balance, postural control, and functional strength — because helping people stay active and independent is some of the most meaningful work we do.

And one more coming to PNWPE in 2027 — STOTT PILATES® Deconstruction-to-Reconstruction: The Art of Teaching Complex Reformer Exercises. Worth the wait. ⭐

We also have more workshops coming in September. Stay tuned for that.

All the details and registration are at pacificnorthwestpilates.com → Instructor Training → Courses & Workshops.

Most people expect their first Pilates session to be a workout.It isn't — and that's actually the point.A Starter Sessio...
06/01/2026

Most people expect their first Pilates session to be a workout.

It isn't — and that's actually the point.

A Starter Session at Pacific Northwest Pilates is a conversation as much as it is a movement experience. Before anything else, we sit down together. We review your intake form, ask questions, and listen to your history, your goals, and what's been getting in the way. If you have injuries or a complicated movement history, we spend more time here. That conversation matters more than most people expect it to.

Then comes a movement assessment. We're not grading you or testing your fitness. We're building a picture — looking at where you move easily, where you guard or compensate, what positions feel comfortable, and what aggravates things. That information tells us where we can begin and where we need to be thoughtful.

From there, we introduce some foundational movement. Not to push you, and not to impress you. Simply to start building a working vocabulary between you and your instructor, and to give you a real sense of what Pilates feels like when it's taught well and adapted to you specifically.

By the end of the session, your instructor has a story. They understand your body, your history, and what you're working toward. That's what makes everything that follows more effective — whether you move into private sessions, a small group class, or something in between.

People sometimes leave a Starter Session a little surprised. Not because it was hard, but because someone finally took the time to figure out what their body actually needs.
That's what we're here for.

If you've been wondering whether Pilates is the right fit — or where to even begin — a Free Chat with our team is a great first step. We're happy to answer questions before you commit to anything.

See how to get started here:
https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/client-home/

Book a Free Chat here:
https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/






There's a reason you use a blender when you bake a cake, a pump when you inflate a bike tire, and a level when you hang ...
05/28/2026

There's a reason you use a blender when you bake a cake, a pump when you inflate a bike tire, and a level when you hang a picture. Tools help you do things well — or sometimes, do them at all.

Props in Pilates work exactly the same way, and yet somewhere along the way fitness culture decided that working without them was more admirable. That struggling through something unassisted was a sign of effort or strength, and that reaching for a prop was somehow taking the easy way out.

It isn't. And at Pacific Northwest Pilates, we'd like to make the case for why.

Consider someone working on shoulder mechanics. The weight of the arm keeps pulling them back into the same compensation they've always used. Place a small stability ball under the arm to offload that weight, and suddenly the shoulder can find the position it's actually been trying to reach. The prop didn't do the work. It made the work possible.

Or consider someone whose tight hip flexors and hamstrings make sitting upright in a Pilates exercise genuinely difficult — not because they aren't trying, but because the body doesn't yet have the range to get there. Raise the surface with a box, and the trunk can finally do what it's being asked to do. Learning happens. Strain doesn't.

A resistance band looped behind the back can give just enough sensation to help someone feel what spinal extension actually means — before any verbal cue has managed to get there. Sometimes the body understands feedback before it understands instruction.

This is what thoughtful Pilates instruction looks like. Props are chosen not to make things easier for the sake of it, but to make things possible. Will you eventually work without them? Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. Honestly, that's not the point. The point is that your body is learning — and props are part of how that happens.

At PNWP, our goal has never been to see how little support someone needs. It's to help people move better. And good teaching uses every tool available to make that happen.

If you're curious what a session designed around how your body actually moves looks like, we'd love to talk.

Book a Free Chat with our team here: https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/

What happens when a client doesn’t respond the way the textbook says they should?

Recently, Melanie Byford-Young joined Adriana Rotella on Pilates Unscripted for a conversation that wandered into some of our favorite territory: complex clients, messy movement patterns, pain, learning, and what happens when experience starts challenging the rules.

For more than 25 years, Melanie has worked with the kinds of clients many of us secretly (or not so secretly) find the most challenging—persistent symptoms, complicated histories, and bodies that don’t always follow the script.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How Melanie found her way from physiotherapy into Pilates
• The idea of “unwinding” complex joints
• Why stretching isn’t always the answer
• The Pilates boom—and where the profession may be headed
• Teaching instructors to think instead of just follow a syllabus
• Having better conversations about pain and client experience
• The “contrarian” client (you know the one 😉)
• Why mentorship matters more than ever

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking:

➡️ Why isn’t this client changing?
➡️ Am I missing something?
➡️ There has to be more than cueing harder…

…we think you’ll enjoy this one.

It’s thoughtful, practical, occasionally challenging—and full of the kinds of conversations we wish happened more often in movement spaces.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts (or find Pilates Unscripted wherever you listen).

And stay through the end (or peek at the show notes 👀)—there’s a little something there for listeners.

What happens when a client doesn’t respond the way the textbook says they should?Recently, Melanie Byford-Young joined A...
05/26/2026

What happens when a client doesn’t respond the way the textbook says they should?

Recently, Melanie Byford-Young joined Adriana Rotella on Pilates Unscripted for a conversation that wandered into some of our favorite territory: complex clients, messy movement patterns, pain, learning, and what happens when experience starts challenging the rules.

For more than 25 years, Melanie has worked with the kinds of clients many of us secretly (or not so secretly) find the most challenging—persistent symptoms, complicated histories, and bodies that don’t always follow the script.

In this episode, they talk about:

• How Melanie found her way from physiotherapy into Pilates
• The idea of “unwinding” complex joints
• Why stretching isn’t always the answer
• The Pilates boom—and where the profession may be headed
• Teaching instructors to think instead of just follow a syllabus
• Having better conversations about pain and client experience
• The “contrarian” client (you know the one 😉)
• Why mentorship matters more than ever

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking:

➡️ Why isn’t this client changing?
➡️ Am I missing something?
➡️ There has to be more to than just repeating cues.

…we think you’ll enjoy this one.

It’s thoughtful, practical, occasionally challenging—and full of the kinds of conversations we wish happened more often in movement spaces.

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or find Pilates Unscripted wherever you listen).

And stay through the end (or peek at the show notes 👀)—there’s a little something there for listeners if you're looking to learn more from Melanie at www.melaniebyfordyoungeducation.com

Listen here 👉 https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/when-the-body-wont-let-go-working-with-complex/id1890182975?i=1000768514027

We just wrapped our STOTT PILATES® Intensive Cadillac course here at Pacific Northwest Pilates Education — and this grou...
05/20/2026

We just wrapped our STOTT PILATES® Intensive Cadillac course here at Pacific Northwest Pilates Education — and this group completely delivered. 💜

Watching students move through this curriculum every time reminds us why we love teaching this piece of equipment so much. The Cadillac is genuinely unlike anything else in a Pilates studio — and it's one of the most underestimated.

What you're looking at in this photo is a Spread Eagle — hanging from the horizontal bars using the fuzzy straps. It's a full upper-body challenge that requires coordinating the entire body, and here's the thing: no other piece of Pilates equipment lets you work on hanging skills like this. It's in a category of its own.

But that's just one exercise out of 125+ in the Cadillac repertoire. Over the weekend, students also worked through:
👉 Hug a Tree standing on a rotation disk — arm spring work layered with oblique control against rotation. Smart, challenging, and incredibly useful for teaching trunk stability.
👉 Side-lying leg springs — hip mobility and trunk stability happening simultaneously. Sounds straightforward. It is not straightforward. And it translates directly to a wide range of client needs.
👉 Push Thru Bar with the feet — spinal articulation rolling up into a bridge, with spring resistance providing feedback and support right where clients need it most. Beautiful hip extensor work.
👉 Monkey — which requires full-body mobility and control, and is exactly the kind of exercise that separates instructors who've done the training from those who haven't.

What makes the Cadillac so valuable for instructors isn't just the repertoire. It's the design of the equipment itself. The working surface is higher off the floor, which makes it significantly safer for newer or therapeutic clients to get on and off. The springs work independently, so you can identify imbalances and train bilaterally, unilaterally, or reciprocally — all on the same piece. You can work in virtually every position: supine, prone, side-lying, sitting, standing, kneeling. Spring tension and positioning are fully adjustable, so you can dial in exactly the right resistance and angle for each client and each exercise.

And then there's the studying. Because a STOTT PILATES® Intensive course isn't just about moving — it's about understanding why. These students showed up with their manuals, asked great questions, and did the work to actually learn the material. That's what real training looks like.

This is the kind of depth we build into every course at PNWPE. Not just exercises. Not just hours logged. Real knowledge that makes you a better, more adaptable instructor.
If you're curious about what instructor training looks like here — or you're already certified and want to add the Cadillac to your teaching toolkit — we'd love to talk.

🔗 Visit pacificnwpilates.com → Instructor Training to explore our programs, or use the link to book a free chat with our team.

Sometimes in the spring, the studio gets a little quieter, and we're reminded that this is actually a good sign.People a...
05/18/2026

Sometimes in the spring, the studio gets a little quieter, and we're reminded that this is actually a good sign.

People are gardening, traveling, hiking, and finally doing the things they've been waiting all winter to do. Sessions get rescheduled. Schedules get unpredictable. And that's life.
But this is also the time of year when people come back and say things like:

"I gardened all day and my back was completely fine."

"I got into a canoe for the first time in years."

"I walked everywhere on that trip and never needed to stop."

"I couldn't have done any of that last year."

That's the report card. Not what happened in the studio — but what happened out in the world when the body was asked to do something that actually mattered.

It's easy to forget that the exercises have always had a destination. Carrying luggage through an airport is spinal compression management. Walking a dog that pulls is hip stability and lateral control. Hours in the garden is endurance, hip mobility, and learning how to get up and down from the ground without thinking twice about it.

When people come back after time away, they often notice the difference more than they expected. Not dramatically — but honestly. That awareness is one of the most useful things a consistent movement practice can produce. The body gives clear feedback when you pay attention to it.

So if summer means your Pilates practice gets a little sporadic, that's okay. Come back when you can. The work you've done doesn't disappear — and the work waiting for you will be there.

If you'd like to stay consistent through the summer, we offer online classes that travel with you. Book a Free Chat to learn more about what might work for your schedule.

https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/






Pilates went viral. That's not why it works.Pilates is now the fastest-growing individual exercise in the United States ...
05/14/2026

Pilates went viral. That's not why it works.

Pilates is now the fastest-growing individual exercise in the United States — up nearly 40% since 2019.

If you've noticed it everywhere lately, you're not imagining it.

But a lot of what's driving that attention is about image and lifestyle. A certain aesthetic. A certain kind of person. Which is fine — and also not the whole story.

Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates as a complete system for building strength, coordination, and whole-body fitness. Over time it has been applied across a wide range of populations — from general fitness to injury recovery and rehabilitation. The core idea has remained: the body works best when it moves as a coordinated system.

The method has evolved over time. Contemporary approaches like STOTT PILATES® integrate modern movement science — particularly around spinal alignment and how the nervous system supports movement. But the underlying principles have stayed consistent: progressive, coordinated movement that teaches the body to work more efficiently.

The benefits that keep people coming back are ones you feel, not ones you photograph — moving with less effort, recovering from setbacks more easily, feeling more confident in what your body can do.

At Pacific Northwest Pilates, we've been teaching Pilates since 2001. Our instructors hold advanced STOTT PILATES® credentials, with backgrounds in rehabilitation, movement science, and working with complex bodies.

The trend will keep evolving.
The principles we teach won't.

If you're curious what Pilates looks like when the focus is on how you actually feel and move, we'd love to talk.

→ Book a Free Chat with our team at pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/

The fitness industry is very good at one thing: making promises it can't back up.Long and lean. Toned. Sculpted. Transfo...
05/12/2026

The fitness industry is very good at one thing: making promises it can't back up.
Long and lean.

Toned. Sculpted. Transformed.

Pilates has its own version of this — the "longer muscles" promise has been circulating since the 1930s, and it's done a lot of work for a lot of studios. It sounds plausible.

It sells. So it sticks.

The problem is, it's not accurate. No exercise changes the length of your muscles. That's determined by your genetics — specifically, the points where your tendons attach to bone. Not negotiable, no matter how many hours you log on the reformer.

But here's where it gets interesting, and where I think the real conversation should be happening.

How you train does influence how your body develops. The range of motion you move through, the attention you bring to the eccentric — the lengthening, decelerating phase of movement — the depth of stabilizer strength you're building: all of it shapes muscle architecture over time. The research on this is genuinely compelling, and it's growing.

Pilates, taught well, trains exactly these qualities. Full range of motion. Eccentric control. Precise alignment. Deep trunk strength. The results are real and they're meaningful — better posture, more efficient movement, strength that shows up in how you carry yourself and feel at the end of the day.

That's worth talking about. It's just not the same thing as "Pilates makes your muscles longer."

And this is where it lands for instructors.

Your clients are arriving with expectations built on decades of marketing. They've heard the promises. Some of them believe them completely.

Your job isn't to keep selling the myth to make them feel good — and it's not to tear it down in a way that makes them feel foolish for believing it.

Your job is to understand the science well enough to replace the hype with something real. To be the person in the room who can say: here's what's actually happening, here's why it works, and here's what you can realistically expect.

That's not a small thing. That's the difference between a client who drifts away at six months and one who stays for years — because what you told them was true, and it held up.

After 25+ years in this field, we've watched the instructors who invest in that depth of understanding build something different. Not just better classes. Better careers. The kind where clients refer their friends, where trust compounds, where the work keeps feeling meaningful.

That's what we train for at PNWPE.
If any of this resonates — if you're ready to teach with that level of depth and credibility — explore our instructor training programs at the link below.

Or book a Free Chat if you'd like to talk through where you're at before committing to anything.

🔗 Explore programs: https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/student-home/

🔗 Book a Free Chat: https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/

The fitness industry has gotten very good at optimizing for volume. Larger classes. More reformers. Higher revenue per h...
05/06/2026

The fitness industry has gotten very good at optimizing for volume. Larger classes. More reformers. Higher revenue per hour.

We've taken a different path — and this month, we're celebrating 25 years of it.
What keeps people coming back for 10, 15, even 23 years isn't habit.

It's that something is working, and they know it. Bodies change over time, and a practice that can meet people through those changes — through surgeries, setbacks, new goals — becomes part of how they take care of themselves for life.

Our classes are small by design. Six people maximum. Instructors who know your history and programming that evolves with you.
If you've been curious about what a long-term Pilates practice could look like for your body, we'd love to talk.

→ Book a Free Chat with our team at pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/






“Isn’t Pilates just… Pilates?”We’ve been asked this question for 25 years.And the answer is still no.When we opened Paci...
05/04/2026

“Isn’t Pilates just… Pilates?”

We’ve been asked this question for 25 years.

And the answer is still no.

When we opened Pacific Northwest Pilates in 2001, we weren’t just choosing a set of exercises to teach.

We were choosing a philosophy.

At the time, that meant aligning with STOTT PILATES—not because it was popular (it wasn’t), but because it offered something we both believed in:

👉 A principle-based approach
👉 A focus on the why behind every movement
👉 A system that prepares instructors to think—not just perform

Because here’s what we’ve seen, again and again…

Real people don’t walk into a studio with “textbook” bodies.

They come in with:
• shoulders that don’t quite cooperate
• new joints (and old injuries)
• pain that doesn’t follow predictable patterns
• goals that don’t fit neatly into a class

And when that’s the case, memorizing choreography isn’t enough.

You have to be able to:
✔ assess what you’re seeing
✔ make thoughtful decisions in real time
✔ adapt exercises without losing their purpose
✔ meet someone where they are—and help them move forward

That’s what a principle-based education gives you.

Not just a library of exercises…

…but the ability to solve problems.

And in our world, that’s not a nice-to-have.

That’s the job.

This May, we’re celebrating 25 years—and when we look back, this is one of the decisions we’re most proud of.

Because it shaped not only how we teach…

…but how we think, how we serve our clients, and how we train the next generation of instructors.

If you’ve ever wondered:
“Is this the right path for me?”
“Do I want to understand movement at a deeper level?”
“Could I actually do this work?”

We’re always happy to have that conversation.

No pressure. No pitch. Just clarity.

📲 DM us to chat
🌎 Visit www.pacificnorthwestpilates.com

📞 Call us at 503-292-4409
🔗 Or book a free consultation here: https://pacificnorthwestpilates.com/book-a-free-chat/

Address

5201 SW Westgate Drive, Ste 114
Portland, OR
97221

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 12:30pm
2pm - 5:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 12:30pm
2pm - 5:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 12:30pm
2pm - 5:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 12:30pm
2pm - 5:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 12:30pm
Saturday 8:30am - 12:30pm

Telephone

+15032924409

Website

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