Interview with Lindsay and Moira Merrithew

Interview with Lindsay and Moira Merrithew

Lindsay and Moira Merrithew have been positively influencing the Pilates industry for over 20 years since founding STOTT PILATES®. Their passion and energy for this amazing form of exercise continues on a journey to make it more accessible and mainstream. They both agree that there is still a lot of awareness needed for Pilates.

They have truly taken Pilates to all aspects of the community through their many programs. There are 210 STOTT PILATES Instructor Trainers, 55 Licensed Training Centers and 17,000 trained instructors world-wide. Not only have they created a Professional Series of DVDs, but they also have an At Home series included in their collection of over 120 titles. STOTT PILATES attends 35 trade shows each year, including internationally where they have seen tremendous growth in Pilates over the last five years.

For those interested in bringing Pilates to their health club or starting their own Studio, the STOTT PILATES Full Solutions Group is a team of consultants that offers assistance to help you be successful in your Pilates endeavor. Their website lists equipment sizes and layouts to help create the space so that one can visualize the entire facility before making a purchase. As President and CEO, Lindsay realized that Health Club’s were having a hard time making economic sense of bringing Pilates into their business. The Full Solutions Group has been the answer for many facilities.

Quality is of utmost importance in their equipment, education and standards. As Executive Director of Education, Moira works closely with the Instructor Trainers and the programming of STOTT PILATES. She says that it is essential for their message to be consistent as it is delivered by their trainers all over the world. When an Instructor Trainer returns to Toronto with questions from participants, their team researches the issue to be sure they fully understand the issue. All of their instructors are trained to know the purpose of each exercise and why they would modify it in any way. As a STOTT PILATES Certified Instructor myself, I know this is true.

If you are looking to become a certified Pilates instructor, Moira recommends you do your homework and find a training facility and organization that fits you. To create a professional career in Pilates, attend a quality program and then continuing education is just as important. She says that as much as we give to others, we must continue to nourish ourselves with education.

Currently, Moira is enjoying programming on the new V2 Max Plus™ Reformer which was developed by Lindsay and released in 2007. This machine has a vertical frame pulley system that allows for an increased range of motion and overhead pull. It delivers specialized programming for rehabilitation and sport-specific clients. Instructors can include functional movement patterns, standing exercises, shoulder rehabilitation and over 500 exercises with this amazing machine. Leave it to STOTT PILATES to take Pilates just a little bit further. For more information on the revolutionary V2 Max Plus, there is a great article in the August 2008 issue of Pilates Style magazine.

Moving forward, Lindsay believes we need to continue to establish credibility through empirical evidence of the effectiveness of Pilates. Many people feel the benefits, but he thinks controlled studies could establish what we do, especially to the rehabilitation world. These studies could also convince athletes and the aging population that it is more than just fashionable to do Pilates. These are big markets for the Pilates world that have yet to be fully tapped. We are looking forward to these studies from STOTT PILATES, because we know they will be done with exceptional precision.

They stay busy at STOTT PILATES and everyone in the Pilates community benefits from their hard work. Lindsay says, “When challenges go away, there is no reason to come to work”. It sounds as if there are many more exciting things to come from STOTT PILATES and we definitely look forward to them!