A pilates instructor, much as the name suggests, is tasked with teaching groups of people or single individuals in the art of pilates for the purposes of maintaining health, muscles, and other bodily benefits.
Pilates has been around for about a century now and has evolved quite a bit. It's a rather popular form of exercise nowadays, and is most often learned and practiced with the oversight and advice of an instructor, who knows hundreds of different pilates exercises, techniques, and moves, all with different benefits and purposes. Some instructors work with small groups or individuals and adjust the programs as necessary, based on their clients' needs and wants.
More often than not, the pilates instructor can be found at fitness and community centres, health clubs, gyms, and through online platforms centred on health and exercise. A person hoping to work as an instructor must earn certain certifications first which may take upwards of a few hundred hours over several months.
How to Become a Pilates Instructor
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a pilates instructor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.7 an hour? That's $55,526 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 13% and produce 45,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Pilates Instructor Do
There are certain skills that many pilates instructors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed customer-service skills, communication skills and listening skills.
How To Become a Pilates Instructor
If you're interested in becoming a pilates instructor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 70.7% of pilates instructors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 12.0% of pilates instructors have master's degrees. Even though most pilates instructors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a pilates instructor. When we researched the most common majors for a pilates instructor, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on pilates instructor resumes include associate degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a pilates instructor. In fact, many pilates instructor jobs require experience in a role such as yoga instructor. Meanwhile, many pilates instructors also have previous career experience in roles such as internship or personal trainer.
Pilates Instructor Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of instructor you might progress to a role such as consultant eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title general manager.
Average Salary for a Pilates Instructor
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Pilates Instructors
1. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
5. Texas Christian University
Fort Worth, TX • Private
6. Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO • Private
7. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
8. University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX • Private
9. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Private
10. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
Top Skills For a Pilates Instructor
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 34.1% of pilates instructors listed customer service on their resume, but soft skills such as customer-service skills and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Pilates Instructor Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Pilates Instructor templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Pilates Instructor resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Pilates Instructor Demographics
Pilates Instructor Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among pilates instructors, 90.5% of them are women, while 9.5% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among pilates instructors is White, which makes up 77.0% of all pilates instructors.
- The most common foreign language among pilates instructors is Spanish at 47.1%.
Online Courses For Pilates Instructor That You May Like
Pilates will transform your body, improve your posture, health & wellbeing, core strength, mobility and flexibility...
Become a Classical Mat Pilates instructor with this comprehensive CPD Certified course - 15+ points...
At any age and fitness level improve your posture, mobility, flexibility, core strength. Get a toned body with Pilates!...
Best States For a Pilates Instructor
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a pilates instructor. The best states for people in this position are California, Delaware, Hawaii, and Nevada. Pilates instructors make the most in California with an average salary of $68,794. Whereas in Delaware and Hawaii, they would average $64,885 and $61,348, respectively. While pilates instructors would only make an average of $61,123 in Nevada, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Nevada
$61,123
Avg. Salary
2. Delaware
$64,885
Avg. Salary
3. California
$68,794
Avg. Salary
How Do Pilates Instructor Rate Their Jobs?
Top Pilates Instructor Employers
Most Common Employers For Pilates Instructor
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gold's Gym | $55,526 | $26.70 | 13 |
| 2 | South Suburban Parks and Recreation | $55,526 | $26.70 | 10 |
| 3 | Wellbridge Clubs | $55,526 | $26.70 | 10 |
| 4 | Equinox | $55,511 | $26.69 | 20 |
| 5 | Club La Maison | $54,940 | $26.41 | 3 |
| 6 | Active Wellness | $54,907 | $26.40 | 3 |
| 7 | AEA Investors | $54,093 | $26.01 | 6 |
| 8 | WTS International | $53,528 | $25.73 | 9 |
| 9 | Independent Contractor | $52,375 | $25.18 | 3 |
| 10 | Midtown Clubs | $52,135 | $25.06 | 4 |
Pilates Instructor Videos
