[00:00:00] Welcome to Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to becoming a great Pilates teacher. I'm Olivia and I'll be your host. Join the conversation and the Pilates community on Instagram at @pilatesteachersmanual and visit buymeacoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts to support the show. Today's chapter starts now.

[00:00:56] Hello, hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I am so [00:01:00] excited to be on today with Amy Sasso, who is an incredible individual that I met at the Diploma of clinical Pilates, and I've done study groups, and I feel like I know everything about what we've done in the course together, but I like wanna know all of your Pilates adventures prior to the course as well. Um, so I'm gonna turn it over to Amy. Thanks so much for being on the show. 

[00:01:24] Hi. Hi, Olivia. Thank you so much for inviting me. It's uh, my first time I'm on a podcast, so that's very exciting. 

[00:01:31] It is super exciting. And I'm super, just like excited to hear first in a nutshell, if you can say what you're up to, what you're doing, where you are in the world and we'll jump off from there.

[00:01:45] Okay. Well, um, right now I'm living in Costa Rica. I'm half Costa Rican and half Australian. So I speak English and Spanish, and I've been here for the last 12 years and I'm teaching Pilates in my studio that I [00:02:00] own, I set that up, uh, five years ago. And well, as you mentioned, I'm taking the Diploma with you, uh, in clinical Pilates. So that's very exciting. Yeah. That's the nutshell, I guess. 

[00:02:11] No, that's so cool. So I always like to throw it way back to the beginning of time. And if you'd be so kind, just to share your first experience with Pilates. 

[00:02:24] Whoa, I love that question. That's a really great question. Um, so I experie- I first experienced Pilates in, I think it was like 2008 when I was living in Amsterdam. Uh, I I'm going further back. I'm a computer scientist, so I'm a programmer. I do software. So when I finished my university degree here in Costa Rica, I was like, I want to travel and work abroad. So I applied and I got a job in Amsterdam, so I moved to Amsterdam, um, of all places, and started working. 

[00:02:55] And I was working in this like office job all day, every day and [00:03:00] my passion at the time was ballet. So after work, I would go like every evening to the ballet studio in Amsterdam and dance to my heart's content. I loved it. It was wonderful. And then I started actually auditioning for stuff for dance stuff, which, you know, had never been a career possibility for me, but I started to think it might be.

[00:03:22] And in one of these auditions, I actually fell and got hurt. I, uh, I think it was, I tore my hamstring. And it was, you know, devastating. That was the first time I'd been injured. And, um, I went to the physio for that and he, you know, started doing the rehab stuff and he's like, you should try Pilates. So I was like, what? Okay, fine. 

[00:03:43] So they had this one class at the dance studio, which was Friday mornings. So I started taking this class and it was just so much fun. It was, it was really cool. And I really liked the teacher. The teacher was called Becky Rice. [00:04:00] and she was just this wonderful person who was so caring and she cared so much about me. 

[00:04:08] And something that I found really. I don't know. It really touched me was that sometimes I, I ask a lot of questions. I love asking questions. So I was always asking her stuff like after class, I'd be like, oh, you know, X, Y, Z question. And a lot of the times you would be like, you know what? I don't know, but I'm gonna find out. And then I would come back the next week and she would be like, oh, I found out, you know, what you had asked me about. And that just, it made me feel really special. And it was a really nice time. 

[00:04:37] So I did that for a year, no ballet during that year. Uh, so I was working and taking the once a week mat class with Becky. And then after about a year, uh, my physio said, yeah, you can go back to, to dance. So I, I got back into my classes and it was unreal how much I had improved in ballet without doing ballet . [00:05:00] So just from the Pilates classes, I, it was really weird. Like, I was never like this outstanding dancer person. I just loved what I was doing. But all of a sudden I was like doing all of these turns and I was like really centered. And I was like, holy, wow. This is really something, you know, like, what are the chances of actually improving after a year of not doing the thing, then I was like, okay, I need to know more about this. 

[00:05:29] And I found a training, there was a Pole Star mat course in Amsterdam. So I signed up. That was on the weekends and I did that and yeah, that, you know, it just started there and it just spiraled out of control from there to the point where I quit my job. And now I only teach.

[00:05:49] I mean, I don't know if I call that like a spiral out of control. That's like- but Nope, that's so incredible that you found something almost by [00:06:00] accident, that you like injured yourself into a new career, which is wild. 

[00:06:07] I did. And it what's even wilder is that I had no intention of teaching. I was like, no, no, definitely big no. But I did the program for me, like for my own knowledge, for my own body, cuz I was like, I need to do Pilates. I mean, I want to do Pilates every day. It's super expensive. I can't pay classes every day, but I can pay a certification and then just teach myself every day. That was my master plan. Right. 

[00:06:33] And when I finished the, the program, I was starting to date my now husband and I told him what I was doing, how I had finished and you know, got my cert and he's like, well, are you gonna teach? I was like, no. He's like, that makes no sense. Why would you, you know, study to teach and then not teach?

[00:06:53] And I was really like, well, okay, I guess I could try. So . [00:07:00] So I went on, on this like forum, like expat forum online, and I started advertising Sunday class at two or three. And I booked a space in a yoga studio and people started coming and when I was doing it, I was like, oh my God, I love this. I didn't expect to love it. And it was just so much fun and connecting with everyone in the class and it just felt so wonderful. I was like, oh, I need to do more of this. And then it spiraled . 

[00:07:35] Pilates, definitely does that. Where just, when you think you're out, they pull you back in with another piece of equipment and another training and another thing, but that's, I mean, that's wonderful.

[00:07:47] How did you, so you talked a little bit about becoming a teacher that you do a mat certification for fun to like learn more and end up being a teacher, which is, fun fact, what they trained you to do. [00:08:00] So that's awesome that that worked out. And then how did you jumping ahead almost to Lolita. And how did you get into this specific style?

[00:08:12] Because for people who may not know you, you also have this relationship with one of the Pilates elders. So one of the people who was trained by Joseph Pilates in Pilates is someone that you connected with and now do trainings with. So can you tell me a little bit about that connection? 

[00:08:29] Well, that's really interesting that that goes all the way back to the first, the first day, because Becky Rice was actually a, uh, student of Lolita's. So from the very start she was talking to me about Lolita this and Lolita that, and I was like, oh, okay. Wow. She's so amazing. Becky is so amazing. So if she's so amazing, her teacher must be so amazing, but Lolita was, would only teach teachers. So she has this, it's called the Pilates Master Mentor Program where you have to be a teacher. You need to have, [00:09:00] I think it used to be five years experience teaching or something. And you had to apply, send a video and do an interview and whatever, but I was already thinking about that, like from the very beginning as being a really cool end goal. You know, like getting as close to the source as you can today. And if Becky, you know, she led me to her basically. 

[00:09:20] So after I did the Polestar thing, I was in Amsterdam for a little while. And then we moved back here to Costa Rica and I went for the Power Pilates comprehensive it's cause I wanted to learn the reformers and all the stuff, all the things I did that in Miami, I had to fly back and forth many, many, many times. Which was great. Um, and then I started working in a studio here and when I had the, you know, prerequisite amount of years under my belt, I was like, okay, I better do this because if I wait any longer, You know, she was 80 at that time and I thought, I wasn't [00:10:00] ready. I didn't feel ready, but I knew I had to do it. So I just did it. 

[00:10:04] So I, I contacted her, sent my application in and, uh, she accepted me into her course and that was amazing. And, uh, then I had to fly to the States some more times cuz she's in Palm Beach. So I went back and forth from Palm Beach many, many times. And I went through her program. It was a two year program and. Wow. Yeah, it was, it was amazing. It really, really was amazing and it changed a lot. 

[00:10:31] So, yeah. Um, getting to spend time with her and learn from her, and it's not with, Lolita's not only about the Pilates, you know, like the Pilates is a big part of it, but she really wants to mentor you in all aspects of your life, which I didn't see coming at all, but yeah, it was really fun. And well, now that I did the Master Mentor Program, she then allowed me to teach [00:11:00] her Legacy, which is the, the certification for new teachers. And that's, uh, I think it's a year and a half. I've done it three times already. I do that here in Costa Rica. So I have to set it up. I run the, you know, the advertising. I find the people set up the group and teach the thing. I just finished my third group. They're gonna have their test in October this year. They're flying up to Palm Beach with Lolita to do their test. 

[00:11:26] Yeah, that is incredible. And one thing that's come up with other guests on the podcast and just conversations I've had with other teachers as well is how valuable mentorship is because a lot of times. You just can't do everything in your first teacher training. Like there's so much more. And for a lot of people, um, for myself included a lot of times you're learning the exercises at the same time you're learning to teach the exercises. And so you're already [00:12:00] overwhelmed by spring settings or are my feet pointed or flexed or my palms down. And how big are my arm pumps? And there's like, Pilates itself is complicated. And then you're trying to learn how to teach it. And also, you know, potentially changing careers. You know, there's people who are like you, who have a day job and then are also doing teacher training and having families and lives and all of this. And so this, this idea of having like a continuation of your training, I think is really valuable. It takes some pressure off of you to be done at the end of teacher training. You know, that there's more to learn more to do. 

[00:12:41] And I kind of wanna hear more about the, the mentorship program with Lolita. When you say all aspects of your life, are you getting like business coaching? Are you getting like relationship advice? Like what's happening? 

[00:12:53] Everything, everything, everything. It's like, I was thinking, cuz so thinking about what I was gonna say to you today, [00:13:00] I just, it was so nice going down that memory lane again, like remembering all the parts, all the things. From when I signed up, uh, she sends Lillian, her second hand, uh, assistant, who I love. She's a wonderful, wonderful woman. Lillian and her husband pick me up at the, I get off this train and they pick me up in their car. They take me to their house and they're like, you know, I just, I feel like they're just accepting me into their family. You know, they just make sure I know where everything is, where I have to go, what I have to do.

[00:13:33] And Lolita, she arranges for me to share a hotel room with Ana, a girl from, um, Brazil. So just from like the get go, she's like you and you, you, you know, you're gonna get along. And we did, we got along great. We became really close friends throughout the whole thing. The first day of class, it's like, she takes us to her. It's like she lives in this, um, big condominium and [00:14:00] there's. Area where you can do parties. So it's like this big open space with, you know, tables and, and whatever. 

[00:14:07] And so we're there and she's like, okay. So tell me about you. Do you have a boyfriend? What's he like, where do you live? What do you do together for fun? What do you do on the weekends? Where do you go for holidays? Nothing Pilates like the, the first morning. And you get to know your, your peers and your friends. And so that just kicks off the, like the setup where she's just so interested in everyone. And truly, truly interested. And every time you see her, she'll ask you, how's your, how's your mother. She, you know, how's her wrist going? Cuz she remembers that she fell. And like she's just so interested in everyone. And she'll ask me about my students. Oh, how is so and so getting along with their, their roll up. I remember they were having trouble with it. Did you try this and this and this? 

[00:14:53] And it just blows me away how this like amazing woman, you [00:15:00] know, power woman, uh, mentor person with so many students in so many countries across the world can take the time to ask me about my students and each individual thing. Um, It's just amazing. Blows me away every time. 

[00:15:16] Then when we would have our sessions. So like we would come in and the session would start off at, I think it was eight in the morning or nine in the morning. It would be eight, eight hour day. But the first thing would be like, okay, how are you all, what did you do last night? Did you go out? Did you go dancing? Did you have a margarita? Like, tell me how was it, you know, like giving such importance and such emphasis to the fun part of life and of being together. And for me that was like, wait, what, where, you know, I'm here to learn, teach me now. Like, I was very, very strict and very here, I'm here to, to do my best.

[00:15:54] And you know, and when she would be asking me about, you know, where did you go last night? How, how fun was [00:16:00] it? Who did you see? Like, I was really a little bit, almost like pissed off. Like, not really, but it wasn't what I expected in, in, in those ways. But that's what made it great in the end. So yeah, that was awesome.

[00:16:14] Knowing you and knowing your personality, I can see how annoying that would be. You're like, why are we wasting time on this? Like, I'm here to absorb all the information that you can possibly give me in eight hours, but I love that the teacher that you chose to be your teacher and it have this like beautiful legacy and you, like you said, get as close to the source as, as you could also had this, this like fun streak and this, you know- 

[00:16:46] Unexpected. 

[00:16:46] See, yeah. Seeing life as more than Pilates. And I think, especially in teacher training, but also just because it's our job. Like your life can be a hundred percent Pilates. And I think it's nice to sometimes [00:17:00] have a reminder that like you can go out and have a margarita and go dancing and see people. And that's like part of it. . 

[00:17:08] Yeah, that was really important to me, cuz I'm definitely an overachiever. Always have been like big, big, big time. So it was a real kind of, I dunno, it was really important for me. It was good. 

[00:17:21] And about the business side, like you asked, she also would ask me every time I saw her, she's like, have you opened your studio? I'm like, no, not yet. You should open your studio. You need to have a studio. You know, you, you know, you're at this point and you have a certain level. And I was like, no, I don't want to open a studio, leave me alone.

[00:17:40] And you know, now I own a studio and yes. Okay. I, I see. I see what she wanted me to see, but it's like, she really kind of just nudges you and well, not so much nudges, but pushes in to grow, you know, to, to be better, to improve, to, to move forward, to take [00:18:00] steps that you otherwise wouldn't. 

[00:18:02] Can you share a little about how her style of teaching or her way of teaching or just her way of being has kind of rubbed off on you and what you find, you know, passing on to clients who maybe even aren't in your legacy program, but just like the way you interact with people, how has working with her changed your teaching or the way you do or see Pilates? 

[00:18:28] Yeah, for sure. It's really interesting. Cuz every time I go through a program, my clients are like, oh wow. And they like, they pick up on it immediately and they, they're also thankful and they love hearing about Lolita. My clients, so they're always like asking me, you know, what did she say and what was this? And I'll be like, oh, Lolita says so and so, and they'll just, they'll love it. 

[00:18:48] But I think definitely a big part of what Lolita helped me was with finding softness in my teaching, in my way, or in my [00:19:00] being, because, so I had done the, the Polestar and that was, you know, the beginning. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just starting. When I did the Power Pilates, I got really serious about what I was doing cuz then I was like, this is it. This is my life, my new career. I'm gonna go all in. And I memorized the manuals back to front. Like you, you know, every single word on every single page, I'd be like, oh, on page 99, it says this at the bottom. You know? So I was like this super nerd and the Power Pilate style is very almost military maybe is, is like the, the feeling I'm thinking.

[00:19:39] They teach you to stand with your hands behind your back. So you're standing like at attention and you give cues in a certain way, and there's a certain rhythm and it's all very bum BU bum BU bum, and you, each exercise has a setup. It has a transition to the next exercise. And like I was thinking about it again in the, um, [00:20:00] in the final exam of that course, I had to simultaneously teach a beginner client and an advanced client taking them through the order, the classical order, at the same time, so that this one is doing this exercise, but slower. And this one is going faster. Thinking back that how I did I do that. It was just unreal. You know, it was it's you have this level of like, you, you dream the exercises because you know them so well. And you don't think that maybe you can kind of go off script sometimes, or you can color outside the lines sometimes.

[00:20:41] And that's a little bit what Lolita taught me about. You know, it doesn't have to be so strict. It doesn't have to be so intense. It doesn't have to be like, we have to make the client die every time. . And that was not only Power Pilates. I'm I'm not saying that they're like that. But the studio where I was working there [00:21:00] was this atmosphere of like, oh, I really killed her today. And that was the, a good thing. That was a positive thing. 

[00:21:08] So when I show up to Lolita with this like very strict style, she was like, on the first time I taught, she was like, what are you doing? You know, just, you know, put your hands in front of you, relax a little bit. And yeah, her style is a lot more relaxed, a lot more about flow and just kind of positive movement experience. 

[00:21:30] She actually has a lot of Power Pilates- and of Polestar, sorry, infused into her work because she, after studying with Joe, after working for all those years, she then got recertified with, um, Polestar because she wanted to learn the new stuff. Like, she always says how important it is to evolve, to preserve, but also evolve because she, and she, she knew she's like, well, you know, since Joe was there, so many things have been discovered by [00:22:00] science and, and we can't ignore that. So she, she did this, uh, Polestar certification when she was, I wanna say, like, I think she must have been like 60 years or 70 years old. You know, and she went and got, re-certified putting herself again as a learner, as a beginner, and she wasn't afraid to do that. So you can see a little bit in her work of the, the Polestar attitude, which is, I feel a lot softer than what I had been doing.

[00:22:33] I'm just putting myself in the shoes right now of the person leading the teacher training that Lolita San Miguel is in. And you're just. Oh, my gosh. I like, I had the same thought when I was reading Caged Lion and you know, he's he, uh, John steel, the author never became a Pilates teacher, but he takes Pilates classes from just like teachers. [00:23:00] And it's just like, so you learn Pilates from Joseph Pilates, I guess we'll do some footwork. Like , it's just so wild. Oh my gosh. 

[00:23:10] But also, I think that that shows you a lot about Lolita as a person, that she wanted to learn, that it wasn't a, well, I'm done. Like I've already done everything and now I'm just here to share it. Like it's really difficult to be a beginner, especially it's something that you have experience in. So I think that's a huge testament to her character to want to, not just encourage you to evolve and grow as a teacher learning her way, but also for herself to really do that as well. That's awesome. Yeah.

[00:23:46] And she used to do it with us as well. Like when we were in the PMP, she would be like, I learned so much from you guys. There was this one girl that is a horse, equestrian specialist. And when she went to do the horseback on the ladder [00:24:00] barrel, like, she just kind of mounted the ladder barrel by putting her foot on the little step underneath as if it were a stirrup and then just flipping her leg over the top.

[00:24:10] And Lolita was like, show me that again. I've never seen that before. I never learned it that way. Why didn't I learn it that way? This will be the new way. So now we teach in Lolita's Legacy when you're gonna do horseback, you put your foot in the stirrup and you get on your horse. But Lolita was just so excited to learn a new thing from someone. And it's great. 

[00:24:31] She even- and I, I kind of, I fought with her a little bit on this when I was there, but she has us create these, uh, movements called creative movements. So for each module, you have to do your test out your whatever, and, and you have to show a creative movement. And why is it it's because she wants to learn some new stuff and she wants to see new things and new movements and new possibilities.

[00:24:54] And I was like, I don't wanna create any movements. I want you to teach me the movements. I don't wanna [00:25:00] create them. And I would get really stressed about having to come up with something. And I was always like, Ugh, you know, it was like one of the worst moments of the program for me. 

[00:25:11] What did she do with all these movements? She put them in a binder and she has them in on file for all of us to look at. And she has look at all of the movements that the, the, the Lolita people have created and is just it's wonderful. 

[00:25:26] I really am appreciating just from hearing what you're sharing, the way that she really met everyone, where they were, and with the experience that they had. And to let everyone be involved in, you know, the creation and like making this new thing. That's really remarkable. 

[00:25:47] And like, I can only imagine being a student there. I can see how stressed you would be at the, now I have to make something up for myself part, but then to be part of that and to be, you know, in this binder with all of these incredible [00:26:00] people, all working together in Pilates, like what a dream like that's like utopian, Pilates, adventure.

[00:26:09] It was, it really was.

[00:26:16] Hi there. I hope you're enjoying today's chapter so far. There's great stuff coming up after the break, too. Be sure to subscribe wherever you're listening and visit buymeacoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts to support the show. There, you can make a one time donation or become a member for as little as $5 a month.

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[00:27:13] If I can ask a little bit about your teaching and your teaching style, because you've been doing, you've been doing Pilates for over a decade now. And how did you see your own teaching evolve from, you know, coming right out of your mat training with Polestar to now working one on one and having a studio. But I also wanna, I also wanna hear about your studio, but how has your teaching kind of changed and evolved? 

[00:27:40] That's really interesting because some of it has just gone completely different and some of it has just stayed the same, which I guess is normal. But so from the, the Polestar, which is my start, I mean, it doesn't define me much. The Power Pilates really gave me this like [00:28:00] rigorous practice that I still adhere to when I do my own practice. Which is I work out through the classical order. I always start with the hundred, the roll up, the rollover. I do the exercises in that order. I also teach them in that order. Mostly sometimes I'll take some out and in their place, plug something in which looks similar, but isn't exactly the same after going through the