We love hearing from our Polestar community about their Pilates journey and training. Check out this recent testimonial from Polestar community member Gamze Gunay from Bejing!
I remember the times I was working hard until the late hours at the office. No matter if it was the night or weekend, or even a holiday, I was to finish my duties. The workload was increasing continuously and it felt like there were dozens of knives in my back. All I knew was that I needed to move; however, I couldn’t find the time for it. I was just shuttling between office and home. I was feeling totally stressed and I wasn’t supposed to reflect it to the people that I was responsible for as a human resources professional. I couldn’t even get rest when I slept.
The pain in my back was so intolerable that I finally had to see a physiotherapist, and he suggested a 10-day therapy to me. Even though we discussed that 10 days wouldn’t be enough itself and that I had to keep moving, we decided to give it a try. I had to go to therapy during my working hours. While in therapy, I understood that the more I worked, the more workload was given to me and there was no interruption during my absence. So I decided not to work out of working hours and let my manager know about it. Otherwise, I was going to fall out of love with my job to which I dedicated myself passionately. Therefore, I got the chance to start my journey of Pilates that I was so curious about. And I wasn’t wrong about the feeling that there was something for me in it. The equipment, the environment, the feeling before and after the session… they were all making me feel better day by day and I was working at the office in a healthier way.
I was practicing four to five times per week and my teacher told me,
”the happiness on your face every time you get in the studio is priceless.”
We talked about the possibility of me leaving corporate life to be a Pilates teacher. Meanwhile, there was something happening in my life; my boyfriend proposed to me while he was living in Beijing, China, and it wasn’t going to be the final destination as he would be appointed to many other countries all around the world time after time. That meant that I needed a job much more global than human resources and one that would make me happy.
So, I decided to take into consideration my conversations with my Pilates teacher and pursued a path to become a Pilates teacher. Before moving to Beijing, the first thing I did was search for the training options, which led me to the Polestar Comprehensive Training Program here.
Now I’ve completed the program and am getting ready for the certification exam. Pilates is filling the gaps of my new life; it is my best friend; it is my new job; it is my therapy. It is a way of meeting new people and helping the ones that share a similar story with me. By digging down deep into its principles and teaching techniques and gaining more family members through it, I understand that starting my journey with Polestar Pilates has been my best choice. I am proud to be a member of the Polestar Pilates family and am happier than ever!
Love from Beijing as a Turkish member,
Gamze Gunay
I had been working in technology sales for more than ten years and was getting very bored. My current position was winding down and I hadn’t started looking for anything else. At the same time, I was seeing a career psychologist to help determine what I should do next. Just the same it never dawned on me to leave the corporate world. Then, a personality profile that I had completed with the psychologist showed that I would make a good teacher. Of course, I thought. You don’t work in technology sales without being able to teach clients why the new expensive tech solution is something they need when none of their competitors are spending money on it. But, did that mean I could teach people why Pilates could help them stay strong and flexible while enhancing their ability to do just about any other activity they were interested in doing?
Weeks passed and I kept going to my two private Pilates sessions every week. My instructor brought it up again. I questioned her about why she thought I would be good. It turned out she was seeing the same things that the personality profile showed. I started to connect the dots and thought this might be something to consider. I did a little research into different teacher training programs and quickly decided that if I was going to do this I wanted to be comprehensively trained from a school that qualified for PMA certification. I wanted to make sure that I was well qualified to teach; I was going to do this right.
Even though I live in Philadelphia, a major metropolitan area, there were not many options. I had long believed in the therapeutic healing properties of Pilates. It made sense to me that a school founded by a physical therapist would take a scientific approach to Pilates. My logical mind liked that. This led me to Polestar. It was also the school that my teacher had been trained by. I considered other schools and really wanted to find an option that would not require a hotel or long drive. In the end, I chose Polestar and took the training in Burlington, VT. It was a long drive, but it was also where my husband grew up and his parents still lived there. In the end, I did have a long drive, but I would not have a to stay in a hotel.
The training was intense. I was surprised by how much there was to learn. After all, I had been doing Pilates for 8 years. I thought for sure I knew how to do the exercises. Turns out it takes a lot more than knowing the exercises to be a Pilates Instructor. In addition to learning how to cue and formulate a workout, Polestar takes the time to make sure you understand why you are doing what you are doing not just how to do it. A lot of time is spent prompting the student to think through their decision-making process to ensure that when they graduate they can work with people in an effective manner that helps them reach their fitness goals.
The educators and mentors truly care about the students in a way that makes you feel like family. As I planned my Pilates career and determined that I wanted to open a studio I knew that I also wanted to work with Polestar to bring Comprehensive Teacher Training to the Philadelphia area. In the fall of 2017 it became a reality. Now I am the instructor asking my clients to consider becoming Pilates teachers.
Surprisingly I have not missed the corporate world. It used to be that every couple of years I would get bored with my job and start looking for something new or different. Now, I truly believe that I have found what I was meant to do. Several years have passed and rather than becoming bored, I have become more obsessed and engaged with Pilates and the Pilates community.
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