hi hello ola
I’m Larissa Arias, a Certified Pilates Teacher. I completed the 950-hour Advanced Teacher Training Program through The Pilates Workshop in San Francisco. A licensed studio for world-renowned Pilates Center Teacher Training program. It is the most thorough and comprehensive Classical Pilates Teacher Training program and has been called the "Harvard" of Pilates schools. My trainers - Erika Groff, Susanne Staehr, and Aura Fischbeck drive and empower their trainees to become astounding Pilates teachers right from the get-go. Their twenty+ years of experience with the most authentic and nuanced form of teaching Pilates is distinguished. Without a doubt, these teachers pressed me to become the best version of myself as a teacher beyond all expectations!
I immediately fell in love with Pilates when I took my first class, because I didn’t just feel like I got my exercise in, I felt educated as well. This is when I found my love for science and movement come together like two peas in a pod! Teaching Pilates has given me the gift of replicating that first experience with others, like you! It’s my life’s joy to see this excitement spark in my students, because in those precious moments, I see my ‘beginner’ self in them. It’s a constant and grounding reminder of why I chose this path in life.
When I was a little girl in Brazil, my nature of being a mover began to show and the adventures of climbing up the walls and door frames persisted to the point that my mom signed me up for gymnastics. It became my greatest passion and I have always been grateful for her decision! After moving to California,
the girl’s flag football team coach in elementary school approached me and asked if I would join the team. I became one of the fiercest defensive players, and I remember the surprised look on the coaches’ faces after certain plays during practice. I could sense that my version of determination and spirit was something they never quite saw before. I was nicknamed “The Beast.” In high school I won the “Defensive Player of the Year” award as a sophomore, junior, and senior. It was my favorite sport, and I poured all of myself into it. Why am I telling you this?
While the people in my life gifted me with the things I most loved, I wish it were a well established reality in our world then that the education system also valued the intelligence within the body. So that the “The Beast” and all other students could have the opportunity to develop their KQ’s alongside their IQ’s! (See quote below).
This is a worldwide challenge that Joseph Pilates recognized while he observed his modern world. We need to be educated within our bodies and so do our next generations!
I thankfully never experienced any major injuries or had to go through any surgeries, but with my steadfast ‘beastliness’, I experienced smaller injuries that still resurface today. Today I wonder:
What if throughout life, I had the tools and the help to understand how to protect my body while having the most fun?
What if instead of being carelessly brave, I was mindfully skilled in the art of movement?
What if I could have woven the profound body intelligence I have today with the fierce determination I held towards my passions and goals?
Today I want to help my community, near and far, continue doing what they love to do in life with the confidence that their bodies will obey their intelligent and present minds. I hear so many older folks in which I admire discussing old age and body pain as something that inevitably happens together. This means the generation before them believed this, and the new generation following in their steps may just hopelessly adopt such mentality. Joseph Pilates once said, '“If your spine is stiff at 30, you are old. If it is flexible at 60, you are young.” And therefore…“change happens through movement, and movement heals.”
Is this something you’d like to experience for yourself? Let me introduce you to Pilates!
