Lately, I’ve been seeing it a lot—alignment all over the place in group classes. And here’s the truth: yes, your instructors are here to guide you, but at some point in your Pilates journey, your form becomes your responsibility.

But let’s start with the good news—there are ways to take your practice to the next level, and if posture and alignment are your focus, one-on-one sessions are where you’ll see the biggest transformation.

Want to Improve Your Posture? Start With a Private Session

If you’re serious about making changes to your alignment, breath, and form, a private Pilates session is the best way to start. In a group setting, we do our best to give individual corrections, but a private allows us to assess your body specifically—your imbalances, your tendencies, and your areas of strength and weakness.

A tip for making the most of your private: Be clear about your goals. If posture and alignment are your priorities, tell your instructor upfront. Too many people book a session and just hope for the best. But a good instructor will have a conversation with you at the beginning of your session, talk through your goals, and create a plan that actually helps you get there.

In a private, we can focus on:

Identifying specific postural imbalances.
Strengthening muscles that support proper alignment.
Teaching breath techniques that help correct posture from the inside out.
Developing body awareness so that you naturally self-correct in class—and in daily life.

That doesn’t mean group classes aren’t effective (they are!), but if you want dedicated attention to detail, private sessions will accelerate your progress.

But Let’s Be Real: Pilates is a Skill, and Skills Take Work

We get the feedback sometimes:

“The instructor didn’t correct my form.”

“I wasn’t getting enough attention.”

And I hear you. We want every client to feel guided and supported, but in a group setting, you also have to meet us halfway.

✔ In a group class, expect challenge, not hand-holding. The goal is to move, sweat, and get stronger. If you want more posture-specific guidance, we recommend doing both—taking privates to refine your form and using group classes to build endurance and strength.

✔ Repetition is your best friend. Expecting perfect posture corrections after one or two classes? That’s not how this works. The exercises themselves are designed to enhance your form and function over time. Show up consistently, and you’ll feel it—your body learning, refining, self-correcting before you even think about it.

✔ If an instructor isn’t hovering over you, it’s probably a good thing. If we’re not adjusting you, it means you’re doing well. We’re watching, we’re scanning, we’re stepping in where necessary. But part of Pilates is building your own body awareness—learning to feel when you’re out of alignment instead of waiting for someone to tell you.

✔ Listening is a skill too. A lot of clients aren’t really listening to their instructors. They’re moving through class, lost in their own world, missing key cues, forgetting to breathe. But your instructor is already telling you exactly what to fix—if you listen.

Posture is More Than Standing Up Straight—It’s a Mindset

One of the things I love about posture work is how much it shapes your presence, not just your spine. Your posture tells the world how you breathe, how you move, how much space you’re willing to take up. When you round forward, collapsing into yourself, you’re not just affecting your muscles—you’re literally cutting off your breath, limiting your own energy.

That’s why in Pilates, we teach posture correction not just through movement, but through breath.

How does it feel to expand your ribcage fully?
What changes when you exhale from your diaphragm instead of your chest?
What if better posture wasn’t about “fixing” yourself, but about organizing your body in a way that makes movement effortless?

Beyond the Studio: Start Owning Your Movement Now

You don’t have to wait until your next class to work on this. Ask yourself—how are you sitting right now? What small adjustments can you make throughout the day to align yourself better? Maybe your hip pain isn’t from working out—it’s from slouching at your desk. Maybe your back discomfort has nothing to do with strength, and everything to do with how you hold yourself when you’re not thinking about it.

The more you own your movement, the more effortless your Pilates practice becomes. You’ll make faster progress, you’ll move better, you’ll feel stronger.

To Every Pilates Instructor Out There…

This is our job—to guide, to correct, to inspire—but at the end of the day, our clients have to meet us halfway. You can cue until you’re out of breath, you can offer every hands-on correction possible, but if a client isn’t actively listening, if they’re not engaged in their own movement, the work doesn’t stick.

If you teach group classes, you know the challenge—balancing form correction while keeping the energy and intensity high.
If you’re a client, understand that group Pilates is an experience designed to push you—not baby you.
If you want deep, personalized correction, book a private. Group classes are for challenge; privates are for precision.

The Takeaway?

If posture is your priority, start with a private session. It’ll give you the foundation to thrive in group classes.
Show up consistently, and posture work will transform you.
Listen to your instructors—they’re already giving you the cues you need.
Take accountability for your movement—it’s what will take your practice from “good” to “effortless.”
If you’re an instructor, keep holding your clients accountable—because this is how real progress happens.

Pilates is a relationship—between you, your body, your breath, and your ability to listen. The moment you start taking ownership of your form? That’s the moment everything starts to change.

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