A Day in The Life of a Full Time Pilates Instructor

Photo Credit: Freepik.com

The truth is that for a full time Pilates instructor, unless you work for a studio who has a book of business with clients on the hour, it's unlikely you will have a single day that will be the same, and consistent weeks are few and far between. Most locally-owned studios in the U.S. will hire independent contractors for blocks of time and other franchise-owned or national/global brands will hire Part Time W2 instructors to typically teach any where from 4 to 20 classes per week. Most instructors will need to piecemeal their schedules to secure their income needs-- and even then the variables like cancelled Private client sessions can throw of even the most strategically planned efforts.

The other hard truth is that despite the hourly rates being attractive, it is nearly impossible to teach 40 classes/sessions per week. Most full time instructors will tell you that 20 is a sweet spot where they do not feel completely drained, and 30 is the maximum before their mind and bodies give out. Don't forget--there will be things to consider outside of just the hour that you are actively teaching that goes into your work.

For context, I make a conscious effort to take Mondays off from teaching without exceptions to set a boundary to reset. I try to stack all of my Tuesday and Thursday classes/sessions between 1PM and 9PM. I leave Wednesdays and Fridays for primarily Private Training Sessions and picking up sub opportunities. I also rotate weekend classes with fellow instructors at a studio so that we can all have some weekends off.

Are you curious to know how much you could make in a day as a full time Pilates instructor and what that schedule may look like? Here is an example of a a recent "high earning" Friday of mine. This day did not allow me to condense my working hours to a single block or location, which resulted in a long and somewhat inefficient day of work--but it an example of a very common day for many instructors--especially when they are first starting out and just trying to fill their schedule with income generating classes.

FRIDAY SCHEDULE AS A PILATES INSTRUCTOR

• 5AM: MORNING ROUTINE (ME TIME)

• 6:30AM: TRAVEL TIME

• 7AM : SUB JUMP BOARD GROUP CLASS

• 8AM: SUB UPPER BODY + CORE GROUP CLASS

• 9AM: SUB CORE, ARMS, GLUTES GROUP CLASS

• 10AM: CATCH UP WITH STUDIO OWNER

• 10:30AM: TRAVEL TIME

• 11AM: WRITE AND SCHEDULE BLOG POSTS

• 12:30PM: TRAVEL TIME

• 1PM: PRIVATE TRAINING CLIENT

• 2PM: TRAVEL TIME

• 2:30PM: LUNCH (ME TIME)

• 3:45PM: TRAVEL TIME

• 4:15PM: PRIVATE TRAINING CLIENT

• 5:15PM: TRAVEL TIME + GRAB A QUICK SNACK

• 6PM: PRIVATE TRAINING CLIENT

• 7PM: TRAVEL TIME

• 7:15PM: DINNER AND DECOMPRESS (MET TIME)

TOTAL INCOME (PRE-TAX / PRE-EXPENSES): $386

This is not a day that I like to make a habit, but in my early days teaching, it was quite common to need to stretch my day across 12 hours. Days like this feel long and exhausting and are not sustainable long term. I will share a type of day that I prefer in a future post.

I want to know more about you--
Are you a new instructor? Are you a seasoned instructor? Are you thinking about becoming an instructor? Are you just a lover of Pilates looking to learn more? Did you stumble upon this site and just find this topic interesting? Email me at mentors@graduatepilates.com to introduce yourself!