I was initially going to two different Pilates classes, one was Mat the other was Reformer, with two different instructors. When I mentioned that maybe I’d like to do Pilates Teacher Training, they both said “You have to do Polestar, in terms just the amount of detail that goes into it the training!”.

My highlight of the course was actually the people that I’ve met. In fact it was a massive highlight and I’ve made some really, really good friends.

I’ve got a long history of back problems and I had sort of reached a point where I thought I was going to be quite debilitated by my back problems later in life and so just realising actually Pilates for me has been single most benefit thing I have done for my low back pain. Just learning that actually this body even in its 40s could still learn to move better and find a little bit more freedom with my movement.

I had a very, very good Educator who really knows her stuff, she was always on the end of an email or on the end of a phone. They are a really supportive bunch of people to go through the course with, and I didn’t feel silly asking questions.

I signed up with Polestar because I was working with physios that were doing a lot of rehab-based Pilates, and their training had been with Polestar.

They just said that they had really enjoyed the experience, had been in a very supportive environment, and that it was really evidence-based. So that really appealed to me.

The Polestar Pilates community is really embraces you and it supports you and you just feel really confident as a consequence of that.

That was a real highlight, as well as the people that we were on the course, as we’ve now got some really amazing friendships.

The people who were part of our mentoring, just the relationships that we developed were really lovely.

It’s an amazing community to be a part of, and having been working in that professional environment as a physio it was really nice to feel very supported: with Maree, she would always you know like she was there for a chat, and would be really just enabling you to develop a little bit further. Emily was there if we needed to have the communication with what we were doing through the course, and then of course we had Abbey and Mel who were both there just how us along the way the whole time so it’s fantastic.

I really embrace Pilates as a profession now, because I’ve really enjoyed the movement-based rehabilitation. It is like you think you’ve reached a level where you feel you’ve really explored how much your body can do, but then you get into Pilates and the amount of stability and the movement that you can do in reality is so much more.

I’m in my 50s and I do my stretches with my 13 year old daughter who really wants to improve her mobility. My daughter is like “Mommy you can do it better than I can!” and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do that, so it’s been amazing.

I’ve just completed my Polestar comprehensive training (Auckland) and can honestly say it has changed my life.

Polestar training has opened doors… and I’m now working with clients in an environment I love.

Looking forward to continuing my learning journey with Polestar. ❤️

I liked Polestar’s philosophy and certainly having gone through the course through the mentor program and now through the educator lines, I can really I really feel a part of the Polestar community and a part of the Polestar family.

I’ve been a Mentor for Polestar on and off since I finished my course in 2005. I ended up in Polestar because when I first came back to New Zealand there was only one Pilates studio and that was Maree’s.

As well as being involved with Polestar as a Mentor, I work in a really large physio clinic and we’ve had lots of physios and lots of instructors that have come to us who’ve had some experience with Pilates, but had not experienced Polestar. We get them to complete a Polestar Pilates Teacher Training course, and we find that they become 10 times the instructor that they were before.

They themselves acknowledge this, we acknowledge it, and the clients see the difference!

That’s what I love about Polestar, the international influence and also the family that it creates.