Who We Are
Our lead trainer, Emily Hoffman has over a decade's experience working in some of NYC's best gyms and boutique fitness studios where she learned to work with her clients become the best versions of themselves they can be. Fitness, and exercise aren't only about fitting in your little black dress, The focus of Emily's training style is to help people their lives the healthiest way possible. What do you need to do in your life? carry a suitcase, pickup your kids, get to the floor to play with your grandkids, carry groceries, and walk to and from the train. These are the things Emily wants to prepare her clients for.
specializations
Emily has a combination of certifications that help successfully build a program to help her clients achieve optimal health. Emily's training baseline begins with the classical Pilates system that focuses on alignment of the body, skeleton, and muscles to help the body work most efficiently and correctly, to avoid injury and imbalanced wear and tear of muscles and joints. Built on top of her classical Pilates foundation, Emily has layered certifications in traditional personal training from NASM (the National academy of sports medicine) which stresses the importance of the OPT (optimal performance training) model. The OPT model [see image] says that fitness is a progression of abilities that one must build before moving on to the next stage of training. If you don’t have a stable base you can’t develop strength, and without strength you can’t be powerful. Think of a baseball pitcher. He can’t get strong enough to throw a pitch if he can’t stand at the plate. And he can’t have any force behind his pitch if he isn’t strong.
During her years of working with clients Emily heard the questions her clients were asking her, and saw the struggles they had in maintaining their health, and exercise routine in between their meetings so she sought education to learn how to best fulfill the needs of her clients. The two biggest problems Emily came across were her clients eating habits, and staying disciplined about exercising when they weren’t meeting and having Emily coach them through their workouts. These issues inspired Emily to seek certifications in nutrition coaching, and behavior change so that she could fulfill her clients needs as much as possible.
philosophy behind No Pity Pilates
Emily tells all of her clients that her goal is to render herself redundant. You shouldn't need me to hold your hand for the rest of. your life. Emily and you will work together to develop an exercise program that you're comfortable with and maintain on your own. The best combination Emily has found to working with clients is to meet for a session at least once a week until you feel confident in performing the exercises independently. You live in your body everyday, not Emily. You're responsible for keeping up with your workouts in between meetings, Emily recommends meeting for 30 minutes as needed to touchbase, give you a little extra encouragement, and answer any questions you might have that arise during your independent workouts. Emily os here to support and encourage you but you're responsible for your own body.
flashback to 2011 No pity pilates
In 2011 I recorded a few videos of "core" contrology exercises: the Mat work is most accesible to the average contrology practitioner since no equipment or apparati are required. you might think: "I can just do the mat exercises on my own why should I pay somebody to teach it to me if I can just find the exercises online?" there's where you're wrong. a teacher explains to you how and why to perform the exercise, calls you on your misalignments and gives you the cue your body needs to get just a little deeper into your powerhouse. Ask anybody who's had an Ah-ha moment because of a cue their teacher gave them and you'll understand the difference. Pilates/contrology isn't just a list of exercises. it's a precise system of movements designed to help your body move and feel its best.
About Us
Stroke
In May 2019 I went to bed with a migraine and woke up in a hospital bed. I suffered a dissection of my carotid artery. Not a stroke bc of high blood pressure or cholesterol, but because my connective tissue failed, just bad genetics. My BP was and remains perfect, cholesterol is great, the majority of my meals are homemade with olive oil, I don't eat junk food, bag snacks, use seed oils, eat fried food, or heavily processed food. I had to relearn how to walk, sit in a chair, use my arm and hand. How to do everything. I still walk with a limp, and have very limited use of my arm and hand. I can’t do anything with my fingers, and my arm movement is very gross movement, but I’m alive, I walk an average of 2 miles a day, go to the gym. Although my workouts look very different from what they used to I can still exercise. I go to the pool to do a little aquaPT routine I came up with. All of the progress I’ve made is possible only because I went into this being very strong, healthy, and familiar with exercise.
senior fitness
I have permission to use this photo, even before my stroke I loved working with seniors. Many seniors they think, "this is it, I can't try new. things, or achieve new things. That's ridiculous! of course they can! The man in the photo had simple goals. He wanted to raise his arms up next to. his ears, something he hadn't been able to do in over 50 years. Many seniors want to be able to play with their grandkids, or simply alleviate some of the aches and pains that come with many well lived years. Exercise is essential for health and safety in your golden days. As we, age bone density decreases, and we’re more susceptible to falls which is a recipe for fractures, surgeries, hospitalizations, and pain. Exercising to increase muscle tone will help keep your bones stronger. We’ll work on balance, both dynamic, and reactive. Dynamic balance is your balance while moving whereas reactive balance is when your body has to make split second adjustments because of obstacles in your way, or if you catch your toe on the sidewalk.
Classical Pilates/Romana's Pilates
Clasical Pilates as developed by Joe Pilates is the foundation to all of No Pity Pilates training philosophy. Joe developed a system of particularly sequenced exercises that focus on developing and maintaining proper alignment of the muscles and skeleton to create safe and efficient movement to prevent and heal injuries. Something as simple as carrying your bag on one shoulder more than the other can lead to a trickle down imbalance of muscular activation that makes its way all the way to your knees and beyond. when your muscles are imbalanced your skeleton is pulled out of alignment causing uneven distribution of weight and uneven wear and tear on joints. Pilates focuses on the Powerhouse muscles not your core. You're not an apple. Your powerhouse are all the muscles that hold your spine together. every limb in your body originates from your spine. your legs plug into your pelvis, and your pelvis is the bottom of your spine. your arms connect to your shoulders which are actually the meeting point of several different bones your scapula [shoulder blades] glide over your ribs that extend from your spine and meet at your sternum [breast plate]. your collar bone connects the scapula to your arm. A wonky collar bone can go all the way down to your hips. crooked hips will probably lead to knee pain which will probably lead to ankle problems. Joe was truly a mad scientist and held over a thousand patents for different apparatus. you've heard the term 'reformer Pilates' nonensense. Pilates is only Pilates if the particular sequence is being performed and the focus is on form and precision. The apparatus is to facilitate resistance and alignment. an exercise isn't Pilates because it's performed on a reformer. You can do Pilates on your own, watch a video tutorial ot follow along with a subscription video on demand service but if somebody isn't calling you on your imbalances or cueing what your body needs you aren't getting the full benefit.
specialization
behavior change
virtual training
behavior change
nutrition
virtual training
behavior change
virtual training
virtual training
virtual training
OPT model
Additional Information
