What’s best? Classic or contemporary Pilates?
It’s more accurate to say that Pilates’ popularity today is more resurgence than boom, given that the exercise has been around for more than a hundred years.
Despite its idealized (questionably, according to some) image, it traces its roots to rehabilitation medicine and professional conditioning, starting with German gymnast Joseph Pilates, who interned in a wartime prison camp where he helped soldiers recovering from injury stay fit.
Best fit: Contemporary or classical?
As familiarity with the basics settles in for many of us who regularly do Pilates, you might have noticed its different schools, each promising a better, if not the best method.
Generally, the schools can be categorized as contemporary or classical. The classical schools adhere to the original exercises designed by Joseph Pilates himself, while contemporary studios modify these—sometimes drawing from other fields like yoga.
Online, I often see people aligned with the classical method—wary of contemporary practitioners—while the latter believes that the classic exercises can be improved further.
For a balanced view, I interviewed Jenn Odronia-Aquino, a contemporary teacher who frequently holds group reformer and mat Pilates classes across various studios in Metro Manila and Rizal province, and classical Pilates teacher-trainer Cecilia Ibarrola, a former principal dancer from Ballet Philippines who opened one of the first Pilates studios and certification centers in the country in 1996—Integrated Body Arts (IBA) in Makati.
Contemporary: Evolving everything
A former IT professional, Odronia-Aquino could arguably now be the poster girl of a multisport athlete.
To keep fit amid lockdown, she discovered yoga and stuck with it as it “entered my life as a workout, but offered healing in ways I never expected.” Soon, she found herself teaching for many studios after one owner found her strong and hired her.
Both yoga and Pilates have enriched her life and the sports she competitively trains for. Today, she can’t imagine lifting weights or running races without balancing it with Pilates, which she observes gave her body benefits unique from yoga’s.
On social media posts comparing weightlifting and Pilates, she says, “They’re completely different disciplines. One is not better than the other; they complement each other. Malakas ka nga, pero [kumusta] ang mobility, stability, control?”
She’s also aware of “the debate” and believes that “everything evolves. The body evolves too” and that contemporary Pilates “spices up” the fixed sequence of classical Pilates. It’s good “as long as the contemporary studio doesn’t deviate from the principles of classical Pilates: breathing, coordination, control, flow, and centering.”
“Iba-iba rin ang hanap ng iba’t ibang students,” she says.
“People think mat Pilates is easier,” she clarifies, but “the machines prepare you for the mat where it’s all bodyweight, where you don’t get the support of the machines.” This checks out, given Pilates’ origins in helping injured, confined people regain strength.
Today’s boom, she believes, has made people “keen on an instructor’s background [and] certifications.” She’s observed studios that neglect the principles mentioned above. And she also cautions against “aesthetic” Pilates workouts optimized for social media engagement rather than for the human body.
And when it comes to teaching Pilates, she prefers small class sizes so she can check in on each participant. “It’s my personal conviction,” she shares, “to check every student’s form and breathing. ‘Yon din naman ang turo ni Joseph Pilates. Teach clients the way you want to be taught.”
Classical: Knowing your body
At IBA, the movements we did were very simple. Deceptively simple. “Not Instagram-worthy,” I quip, recalling how contemporary reformer group classes went. I expected big, sweeping movements with many repetitions utilizing a reformer machine’s springs, saddle, and implements lying around, from a wheel to a keg.
Here, I barely used the machines. Coach Heidi Alemania, my instructor and a former competitive dance sport athlete, focused on basic form—on keeping my heels together, making sure my shoulders were relaxed, and my spine was aligned.
I was doing small movements, with only three to five reps for each. But channeling all my energy to keep proper form was the challenge.
“Deceptively simple,” yet my muscles were singing soon after our session ended. Getting home, my inner thighs and core were now hitting soprano notes. I thought I was already strong—having run a marathon, lifting weights twice a week, and repping my section in swimming and football intramurals back in high school.
But classical Pilates showed me just how much of my body remained mysterious, and how focusing more on my breath—like in those samurai movies—unlocked hidden powers.
I relayed all of this to Ibarrola, highlighting how coach Heidi adjusted everything based on my body’s present capacities and limits—making observations like “your right arm is struggling” or “your left foot is compensating.”
Curiously, before my session, they asked me to sign a chart, almost like a medical history document.
Ibarrola shares that IBA clients are not one-off, drop-in visitors. Many return to fine-tune their form, practice, and capacities. Some are actual patients referred by doctors, transitioning from rehabilitation and therapy. That explained the chart I signed.
“You have a dominant side that you always use in daily life, when doing housework, opening doors, yes? You neglect the other side. It’s about balancing the body and getting it into its proper position,” she expounds.
Ibarrola first discovered Pilates when Ballet Philippines hosted foreign dancers. Backstage, they were doing exercises which piqued her. Soon, she found herself training in the New York studio first run by Joseph Pilates.
By then, its founder had passed on, and his protégé, ballerina Romana Kryzanowska, was in charge. “She closely observed students and gave precise corrections with the lightest touch or none at all,” Ibarrola recalls.
“Romana expected commitment in mastering details rather than simply completing exercises. The focus was often on what each body needed. If you made a mistake, she never put you to shame in front of others. Romana was the kindest and had a great sense of humor. She challenged you with a smile.”
As part of a global network of Romana’s Pilates-certified studios, the IBA sticks to the original 500 exercises designed by Joseph Pilates. Many of Pilates’ original students founded their own studios and methods, and this is the root of “the debate” we see between classical and contemporary schools.
Ibarrola designed a program for active dancers, drawing from her own experiences—without deviating from the classical method. She notes that becoming a Pilates teacher is often what retired dancers like coach Heidi gravitate to given the “movement-based intuitions” they’ve picked up.
A common, shared ethos
Despite “the debate,” the best contemporary and classical teachers can agree on fundamental points.
First, both relate that Pilates is part of a bigger ecosystem of wellness, where it doesn’t only supplement other trainings and sports but also quality of life. Next, both teachers emphasize giving ample time for individual students’ contexts, with a focus on balanced alignment, paying attention to the littlest details on form, and adjusting cues as needed with constant reminders to breathe.
Both agree that it’s ironic that people get injured in Pilates when it was created to help people not only heal from injury but become stronger after recovering.
And finally, both agree on the importance of teacher-training quality. In other classes I attended, the instructors treated the exercises as more of a checklist to run through without really checking in on individual students. It seems the problem is systemic, not individual or tied to either tradition. When most Pilates studios cropping up prioritize student volume, both Ibarrola and Odronia-Aquino believe students stand to benefit the most from smaller class sizes.
It seems that the core (pun intended) principles of both classic and contemporary Pilates are the same. Each school provides an approach that not only benefits different people but can benefit the same person at different points in their fitness journey.
With additional reporting by Sandra B. Sendingan
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