Education

Leading Classical Pilates Education & Globally Accredited

What does a high quality Pilates certification look like?

The Century Pilates Instructor Training Program, CPIT® is a comprehensive 12 month in person certification program presented systemically through 4 to 5 mandatory seminar weekends. In addition to this, we require you to log observation, self practice, practice teaching, weekly meetings, anatomy and lecture, and practical exams to track progress. With 700 hours total, the focus of our program is to hone career professionals in our industry that stand apart as exceptional practitioners. Our graduates confidently graduate with the skillset required to tailor to their students unique goals and navigate our industry with integrity and expertise.

What does your Bridge Pilates certification look like for existing comprehensive instructors?

The Century Pilates Instructor Training Bridge Program, CPIT® is a comprehensive 8 to 10 month in person certification program presented systemically through 4 to 5 mandatory seminar weekends. In addition to this, we require you to log observation, self practice, practice teaching, weekly meetings, anatomy and lecture, and practical exams to track progress. With 500 hours total, the focus of our program is to hone existing career professionals who already have a classical Pilates comprehensive education and need to polish their skills with less hourly requirements than out 'Full 700 Hour' requirement.

Why choose Century Pilates, CPIT® program?

Century Pilates was named and founded from the idea that Pilates is perfect the way it is, original to the authentic techniques and teachings of its creator, Joseph H. Pilates over a century ago. As a leader in classical Pilates education, we have committed to preserving its integrity for future generations of instructors. Century Pilates Instructor Training was founded in 2021 after the demand for quality professional instructors was heightened by an influx in Pilates surge in popularity. Century Pilates creator and Master Instructor, Emily Urbanosky Wills, a 3rd generation Pilates Instructor, has fused her various classical Pilates backgrounds into one of the most comprehensive, immersive, and industry focused curriculums you'll find. Wills developed Century Pilates honoring the lineage of her education which can be traced directly back to the source, Jospeh H. Pilates, and several proteges. After a decade of teaching, she has designed CPIT® to produce talented, eager, hirable, and sought after 4th generation classical Pilates instructors.

Most importantly however, is the in person mentorship and critique you receive from senior instructor staff while in your apprenticeship and your access to a fully equipped studio.

Will I be ready to jump into the workforce?

Aside from providing a thorough understanding of classical Pilates and its history, CPIT is equally tailored to groom future teachers with the skills required to assess, modify, program, and adapt to the ever changing climate of personal and group training, especially with regard to special populations like those with structural dysfunction and chronic pain. Students are empowered with the super-skill to confidently apply Pilates' methodology to all populations.

Century Pilates Instructor Training begins prepping its students for industry success immediately upon acceptance into its program with enriching prerequisites and in depth training seminars. By choosing to become a graduate of CPIT®, you'll be a part of a valued population of 4th generation Pilates instructors and have access to one of the most sophisticated classical Pilates studios in the country fully furnished with world class classical Pilates apparatus. Century Pilates produces exceptional teachers who will step into the industry as a top-ranking, respected, and in demand professionals.

Is a Pilates Career a good idea?

A quality comprehensive Pilates certification is a wise career move for various reasons.

1. Pilates classes are instructor lead, automatically making them higher in value.

2. Pilates is a safe and low impact workout making it accessible to everyone.

3. Pilates is effective and renders rapid and lasting results, making it popular.

4. Pilates can be practiced at any age and can be a lifelong practice.

5. Pilates improves quality of life, and those who love it, refer others.

6. Pilates is incredibly specialized and includes apparatus that is otherwise useless

without a certified pilates instructor to guide clients properly.

Because of these notable facts, becoming a Pilates instructor ensures both a rewarding and high paying career without years of school. After your first 2 day beginner seminar, you'll be poised to enter the Pilates industry. Your salary depends on your global location, studio, gym, wellness center, clinic, home studio, owning a brick and mortar studio, traveling instructor jobs, type of classes, whether group or private, and your years of industry experience. Century Pilates helps to ensure your certification stays current and that you stay at the top of your trade.

As a Pilates instructor, you get to make your own hours, learn to leverage your skills and training to set yourself apart in the industry, and make connections that will last a lifetime.

The average income for comprehensively certified Pilates instructors

USA Hourly Pay $20.00- $75 Annual Salary $48,200-$112,000

Vital characteristics to ensuring a successful career as an Instructor

Empathy- Understanding how each movement effects your clients body, and their overall wellbeing.
Education- Making a connection between all exercises within the Pilates system and applying them to effectively render improvement.
Teachability- Taking constructive feedback readily and immediately laying the groundwork to improve.
Adaptability- Knowing how to work with clients of all fitness levels and backgrounds as well as adapting to changing work environments.
Personality: Having fun and empowering your clients while keeping their goals and success in the forefront of your lesson plan.
Leadership: Demonstrating superior, verbal and tactile cues, while upholding the proper form, technique and flow that classical Pilates is revered for.

Why does program accreditation matter?

When you invest in education, you want to have the piece of mind that your education can get you further and across all spectrums of this industry. Choosing a program that embodies a robust comprehensive syllabus is vital to your return on investment.

Century Pilates Studio Midland, TX

Vocavo Pilates Studio Dallas, Texas

Tuition & offerings

Earn CEC Hours by Auditing our comprehensive seminars.

Audit Form

CPIT Apprentice: Not graduated yet.

Apprentices who have completed their peer groups seminar weekends and plan to audit the next consecutive peer group may do so by paying the additional audit fees. Partial audits; example, only being able to pop in for a few hours, will still result in a full day audit fee.

1 Full Day Audit 8 Hours: $175

2 Full Days Audit 16 Hours: $275

$15 will be assessed for printed CEC certificates.

CPIT Graduate

Effective August 19th 2026 {audit for free up to a year after graduation} is no longer permitted. Partial audits; example, only being able to pop in for a few hours, will still result in a full day audit fee.

1 Full Day Audit 8 Hours: $175

2 Full Days Audit 16 Hours: $275

$15 will be assessed for printed CEC certificates.

Not an Apprentice or Graduate of CPIT.

We welcome fully certified or comprehensively certified classical Pilates instructors to attend our existing training seminars for mentorship & CEC hours. Attending such seminars will award you a continued education certificate. Approval required at the discretion of CPIT faculty. Attendance pricing for non-CPIT observer.

1 Full Day Attendance 8 Hours: $375

2 Full Days Attendance 16 Hours: $725

$15 will be assessed for printed CEC certificates.

What's the difference between classical & contemporary Pilates?

Classical Pilates is the preservation of Jospeh Pilates original teachings. Classical Pilates maintains the ideology that Pilates, when taught authentically, on Classical equipment, maintains the systemic approach that Joseph Pilates set in place, which progresses a students strength uniformly, rapidly & effectively. Classical Pilates is taught as a system and utilizes a variety of specifically engineered classical Pilates apparatus which serves a purpose and function. Classical Pilates also practices an order of exercises in both the reformer & mat repertoire Classical Pilates instructors can trace their lineage on a Pilates family tree back to the source of Pilates, which is Joseph himself.

Classical Pilates also has different “styles” of methodology handed down from individual 1st generation proteges or pupils of Joseph Pilates, whose time or extensive sessions with Joe or his wife Clara were tailored to their own needs, goals, and limitations. This individually tailored experience is what metamorphasized each student to blaze a path that proliferated their own unique experience through instruction and education which in turn, gave our industry a rich variety within the global classical Pilates community.

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Contemporary Pilates is a hybrid style of resistance training inspired by Pilates original method that does not strictly teach the original work, but rather fuses physical therapy, athletic conditioning, or other forms of resistance training not originally taught by Joseph Pilates. Contemporary Pilates does not follow a prescribed order of exercises or use classical transitions. This style can be considered an off shoot, modification or variation of the original work which utilizes equipment that has been modified from classical parameters along with modern day inventions of new props & variations of apparatus to better serve the evolving body of work contemporary Pilates continues to revolutionize.

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Made up Pilates is the really scary stuff that's not Pilates at all. It was never a thing in our industry until social media and influencer culture came about. Subsequently, our industry has no Pilates Police, and people can call anything Pilates and sell it. It's dangerous, it's made up, it's terrible, so do your research.

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What does Pilates even mean?

What and Who is Pilates?

Pilates was originally called, Contrology, the art of control, and was created by, Joseph Hubertus Pilates nearly 100 years ago, which we honor, in naming our studio and education, Century Pilates®. It is said that Pilates, during his interment during WWI, began developing his method as a means of staying healthy both mentally and physically as conditions in camp were very poor. His knack for body conditioning started long before this chapter in his life. As a sickly child, Pilates was diagnosed with rickets, asthma, and rheumatic fever. Joe's strong will essentially strengthened his mind into overcoming his frailty by taking up bodybuilding wrestling, marital arts, and yoga. By the time he was in his teens, he was modeling for anatomy books.

Pilates came to New York in the 1920's where his method had the chance to take off. Decades later, Pilates is known for its unsurpassable ability to uniformly strengthen and tone the entire body through the use of varied spring loaded apparatus, barrels, props, and mat work which all work together as a system with the help of your body’s weight and the spring resistance acting as another set of muscles. Pilates’ equipment and method provides the mechanism to total body transformation.