APEI Classic Pilates Conference

What makes some clients progress faster and move with greater precision and control? In this insightful workshop, Joel Crosby shares the principles and teaching strategies that help students master Classical Pilates efficiently and effectively.

You’ll explore how the brain learns movement, discovering techniques that improve both learning speed and movement retention.

Through practice and discussion, you’ll learn Joel’s seven key elements of Contrology—a framework that refines teaching clarity, enhances client comprehension, and accelerates results.

This workshop will empower you to teach with greater purpose, adaptability, and confidence—helping your clients experience faster progress and deeper understanding in every session.

Hyperextension in the upper limb often reflects a loss of connection between the arms, the shoulder girdle, and the powerhouse.

In the Classical Pilates system, the arms do not work independently; they are supported by the back, stabilized by the shoulders, and controlled by the center.

This 2-hour workshop examines upper-limb hyperextension through the lens of Classical Pilates. We will explore the anatomy of the shoulder girdle, how over-locking at the elbows disrupts shoulder stability, weight bearing, and transmission of force through the body—particularly in exercises requiring support on the arms.

The Mat is the heart of the entire Method of Joe Pilates. Join Gloria in this workshop to dive deeply into the full session of the 34 Mat exercises as presented in Return to Life Through Contrology.

You will feel each exercise in your own body — and study the order, the rhythm, and the energy that gives each movement its purpose. Beyond biomechanics — you will uncover the true meaning and intention behind this powerful workout.
Bring your questions, your doubts, your curiosity — and get ready to “squeeze the juice out” of your body!

“Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.”

These words from Joe Pilates remind us: nothing strong can be built without solid foundations.
In this workshop, Gloria will guide you through how to establish and teach from a place of strength, clarity and intelligent progression.

You will explore the criteria and decision-making behind building safe, effective, connected lessons — for yourself and your clients — with the original work as reference.

Joseph Pilates stated, “Above all else, learn to breathe properly.”

But what does that truly mean within the context of his original Contrology method? Is there one correct way to breathe, or does the breath evolve with the movement?

In this workshop, we’ll explore how breath is integrated throughout the original Pilates work—not as a separate technique, but as a powerful tool to enhance connection, control, and flow. Through guided practice and discussion, you’ll discover how breath supports alignment, stability, and dynamic movement across all apparatus.

This workshop guides participants through a comprehensive Pilates Reformer/Mat circuit, from basic to advanced levels.

The sequences are designed to integrate classical Pilates principles, build strength, flexibility, and coordination, and offer a full-body workout. Participants will explore progressive Reformer and Mat sequences in three levels: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Each sequence incorporates key exercises to enhance core stability, posture, control, and flow, while emphasizing connections between exercises and proper biomechanics.

This workshop explores practical and intelligent Pilates strategies for managing common lower-limb issues seen in athletes and active populations. Using a multi-apparatus approach.

Helen demonstrates how movement screening, kinetic-chain analysis and targeted exercise selection can transform foot, ankle, knee and hip mechanics for improved performance and injury resilience.

The barrels are among the most versatile and transformative pieces of Pilates apparatus. In this workshop, Joel Crosbywill clarify how to use each of them—the Ladder Barrel, Spine Corrector, and Small Barrel—to improve mobility, balance, and alignment throughout the body.

You’ll learn how to apply classical sequences and techniques to unlock major joints, restore natural movement patterns, and relieve discomfort. Whether working with beginners or highly advanced clients, you’ll discover how to adapt barrel work to both support and challenge the body appropriately. This workshop will expand your teaching repertoire and reveal how precise, purposeful movement on the barrels can strengthen, lengthen, and reawaken the entire body.

Classical Pilates transitions are an exercise withing themselves. Theys are the "glue" that connects individual movements, turning the entire session—whether on the mat or apparatus—into one continuous, flowing workout.

These transitions are as important as the exercises themselves, designed to maintain flow, increase stamina, and build muscle memory. There are no pauses, adjustments, or breaks. They are purposeful exercises in themselves, governed by the same principles as the formal repertoire.

The body is never abandoned between exercises. The transition is where control, organisation, and intelligence of movement are most clearly revealed. Each movement is deliberate, Efficient and economical. When transitions are performed with clarity and control, the workout becomes a seamless intelligent experience revealing the true depth of the system.

Take a look at things from another perspective — literally!
In this workshop, Gloria will show you how to safely and effectively construct and progress inversions in the Pilates system.

You will learn why they matter, where they belong, and how to use them with different bodies at the right time in the right way. Gloria is ready to turn your world upside down in the full studio setting!

Flow is the hallmark of advanced Pilates practice—where strength, control, and rhythm unite seamlessly. Once strong technique is established on individual Wunda Chair exercises, combining them into continuous sequences elevates both challenge and reward.

By linking movements together—transitioning directly from the end of one exercise into the beginning of the next—you create a complex, logical flow that amplifies the overall training effect.

This dynamic workshop with Joel Crosby explores the art of sequencing classical Wunda Chair exercises to build stamina, coordination, and mental focus. You’ll learn how to structure flowing routines that enhance the body’s responsiveness, efficiency, and vitality—what Joe called the “internal shower.” Experience the evolution from isolated exercises to integrated, full-body flow—and discover how to bring that sense of vitality to your teaching and practice.

Joseph Pilates did not choose springs by accident. They are the very heart of the Classical apparatus. Unlike free weights or gravity alone, springs provide continuous, reciprocal resistance — offering both support and challenge in every phase of movement.

They create feedback, demand precision, cultivate balance, and establish a profound sense of connection to the centre.
In the Classical system, the springs are not simply a source of resistance; they are a teaching tool. They reveal imbalance. They expose compensation. They reward integration.

In this workshop, Joel will explore how to truly work with the springs rather than against them. Participants will learn how spring tension influences alignment, rhythm, timing, and muscular .

At the end of the workshop, you can go and drink a barrel of beer — but before that — stay focused and explore with Gloria these amazing tools of Joe’s System!

Ladder Barrel, Spine Corrector and Small Barrel: you will learn how to use them to stretch, strengthen and revitalise your body — and how to apply that for your clients.

Understand the purpose and differences between the three main barrel types.
Explore how the barrels support spinal organisation, opening and strength.
Learn how to select which barrel is best for which body and which objective. Study how the unique shapes of the barrels support “two way stretch” and whole-body connection.

In Pilates every exercise is a full body exercise! The specific biomechanics of the specific exercise allows you to work a specific part of the body but we always have to consider the body as a unit. To be stable, the body has to be elastic and to move as a unit.

Join Gloria in this workshop to explore a different perspective about the idea to “stabilize” your body, remembering the first principle of Pilates… the MOVEMENT!

The Pilates Ring—also known as the Magic Circle—is one of Joseph Pilates’ most ingenious creations. Simple in design yet remarkably effective, it offers resistance, feedback, and precision to enhance both strength and control.

In this engaging workshop with Joel Crosby, you’ll learn how to incorporate the Ring to enrich your teaching and personal practice. Explore classical exercises in new ways, add challenge to familiar movements, and discover lesser-known variations that bring fresh vitality to your sessions.

You’ll experience how this small but powerful tool can engage the body from head to toe—on the mat, in standing work, and beyond.

The Baby Chair tells the truth. There is nowhere to hide. Without true lift from the powerhouse and proper organisation of the shoulders, the work simply does not happen. Its simplicity demands precision & clarity, making it an invaluable tool for refining the work as Joseph Pilates intended.

In this 2-hour workshop, we will explore the Classical Baby Chair repertoire with a focus on developing lift through the centre and stability of the shoulder girdle. The exercises on the Baby Chair challenge the practitioner to organise the body vertically, requiring the powerhouse to lift and support the spine while the shoulders remain wide, anchored, and responsive to the work of the arms.

Take your Cadillac teaching to the next level by exploring exercises performed outside the frame. In this hands-on workshop, Joel Crosby will guide you through classical standing arm and leg spring work, push-through bar variations, and innovative applications of the neck stretcher in upright positions.

You’ll also experience dynamic arm-hanging exercises designed to build upper-body strength, mobility, and coordination. By combining familiar movements with new perspectives, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of how to challenge clients safely and effectively while enhancing their functional strength and control.

Refine what you already know, learn fresh material, and discover new ways to bring creativity and variety to your Cadillac sessions.

Every Pilates exercise has its specific goals, but often we focus on their differences and forget that Joseph Pilates created a System meant to work as a whole.

Join Gloria in this interactive workshop to explore the Pilates System from a fresh perspective. You’ll uncover connections between exercises you may never have noticed before and learn to see them as integral parts of the same amazing family.