When Michel’Le Clairmont founded Pilates Mind Body Spirit four years ago, she had a vision. It was simple. Her goal was to create a “safe space to help people move, heal and love themselves,” Ms. Claremont said. And since opening, she has done just that.
The studio welcomes all fitness enthusiasts, from those recovering from surgery or injury to professional athletes and everyone in between, offering a wide range of hot and non-hot Pilates classes at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. It offers. Group classes include mat group classes and reformer group classes, as well as fusion classes (arms/abs/butt, cardio, and stretches). The studio also offers private sessions for a more hands-on approach.
Pilates has many benefits, including increasing strength, mobility, flexibility, and strengthening the mind-body connection.
“Pilates is good for everyone,” Claremont says. “Pilates has a lot of different techniques that can be used to help people improve wherever they are. The reason I like Pilates is because it suits you where you are. You don’t have to be a crazy athlete to do Pilates.
Michelle Claremont opened Pilates Mind Body Spirit, a Pilates studio in Pasadena four years ago. (Chris Mortenson/Staff)
Claremont played Premier Soccer for 17 years and was introduced to Pilates after a series of injuries in which he tore his meniscus and then tore his ACL. When her physical therapist recommended Pilates to her, she recalls thinking, “I’m going to try Pilates. Is it like stretching? Is it yoga? ” She will soon realize that it is at least all of those things. It was tough, even for a lifelong athlete. “I was shaking,” Claremont said. She said, “She was feeling muscles that she hadn’t felt in a while or that she hadn’t felt before.” She was hooked.
Unlike other forms of physical rehabilitation, Pilates treats the entire affected body area, not just the injured body part. For example, when Ms. Claremont first tore her meniscus, she only rehabilitated her knee, but during that time her injury weakened her hip. That made her injury-prone when she returned to soccer, tearing her anterior cruciate ligament.
“Pilates ties everything together and works the whole body,” Claremont said. “If you are injured, we treat all parts of the injury.”
But it wasn’t until he started helping his father recover from double bypass surgery that Claremont started considering opening a studio. Mr. Claremont created a personalized program to rebuild significantly decreased strength, flexibility, and range of motion.
But more than that, Claremont said Pilates helped him find “a connection to himself.” “After undergoing such a traumatic surgery, he lost connection with himself. He had no mind-body connection and it was difficult for him to do many things. Creating that program really helped him recover and live a more fulfilling life.”
Claremont realized he couldn’t just help his father. “When I helped her father recover and saw how vibrant and happy and healthy he became, I thought, ‘Okay, this is what I need to do,'” she said. .
After opening the studio, Claremont continued to make changes in his life. She has worked with a client who was injured in a car accident and was in “constant pain and could not move her body,” she said. She said she saw tears of relief streaming down her face as she realized they were no longer in pain and could move again. “That’s why I wanted to build this,” Claremont explained.
Another customer, Gary Foreman, suffered a stroke in October 2022. After three weeks in the hospital, Foreman said he had lost so much muscle mass that he felt disconnected from his body. His daughter and his wife were at the studio and suggested we try it out. Claremont recalled that he was reluctant at first.
“(Foreman) was a big athlete, so I was like, ‘What is this?'” He wasn’t really into it. ” He has since come up with the idea and has been practicing it in the studio over the last year, and the results speak for themselves. His back pain is gone, his muscle mass has increased, and his mind-body connection has increased.
Mr Claremont said: “His journey has been really inspiring and the fact that he has made so much progress from last November to now is amazing.”
