Pilates in Common — Local services in San Francisco

I first started working with Nicole in 2015 at the age of 21 when the spinal specialist I had been working with suggested Pilates as an alternative to surgery. I was struggling with severe chronic lower back pain from two herniated/degenerative discs which I acquired from skateboarding and jiujitsu. As a result I had spent the last three years on and off bedridden trying to resolve my injury. Where physical therapy, spinal injections and bed rest had failed, Nicole succeeded.

Although I should have started with privates, I walked into Nicole’s mat class with only a handful of Pilates sessions under my belt. Even within the constraints of a group class she was able to curate each exercise to not just accommodate but to improve and eventually rehabilitate my injury.

After 5 months of working with Nicole I was able to return to the activities of daily living that I had previously struggled with, and after a year I returned to combat sport and found that not only was I in better physical condition than before my injury, I was in better physical condition and health than the majority of those I competed against. My body is stronger, more coordinated, and injury resistant!

Nicole’s approach to teaching Pilates is an intricate blend of theory and craft. She keeps up to date on current research and expertly uses Pilates as a medium to deliver those benefits to your body. Nicole is invested in the health of her students, and her teaching style reflects it. Her personalized instructions are so attuned to my physical needs that I want to accuse someone of handing her the blueprints to my body. Because of this every class I can safely and confidently challenge the limits of what my body can do. Nicole maintains a creative and playful environment which eliminates the risk of her class ever becoming rigid or routine. I consider it evidence that you’ve found a high quality movement teacher when your body feels better at the end of class compared to when you walked in. I can say that I reliably leave Nicole’s class...

Pilates in Common has changed my life! I never imagined I could become as strong and capable of healthy spinal movement as I am today. I have had back pain since I was 13 - I used to throw my back out for a few days around once a year. Tried many things, including other Pilates studios, with no success. When I started working with Nicole around 5 years ago I was just recovering from a week of severe neck pain that even heavy painkillers and PT hadn’t been able to solve. Nicole helped me get rid of the neck pain in a sustainable way. She has been amazing - she has an uncanny ability to both figure out what I need to do in order to change a bad movement pattern, as well as the ability to communicate what I need to do in ways that I can actually follow and try. She is unendingly patient, and focuses not just on helping me “get a workout” when I work with her (although that happens too) but also on teaching me how to use what I have learned with her out in the world, and how to diagnose in myself what bad movement habits might have crept back in to cause any small aches and pains in daily life. Since I started working with her, I have not thrown out my back a single time.

And it’s not just Nicole - the whole studio is people who, besides being great Pilates instructors in general, are also able to help people with a wide range of injuries and challenges. They are all enthusiastic about helping people use Pilates to improve their lives and become their best selves. It’s a really special group of people and I feel very lucky to have found them. Would (and do)...

I started taking sessions with Destinie back in 2018, when she was still an instructor-in-training! 😂 At the time, I was a weightlifter recovering from a car accident that happened a few months prior. Because I had been fairly avoidant of exercises or movements outside of my lifting routine, I was experiencing muscle atrophy and feeling more and more pain as my recovery period dragged on. I experienced so much pain relief even from that first session that I continue to seek out Destinie’s ever-increasing knowledge about human anatomy and healthy, sustainable movement.

What sets PiC instructors apart is that their commitment to helping you live painlessly isn’t limited to the work you do just during your session. They care about a holistic understanding of how your body moves. “Oh, you’ve taken up pottery these days? Here’s some exercises you can do at home to support finger dexterity and ease shoulder tension after the pottery studio.”

Always grateful for Destinie’s expertise, patience, and lack of judgement even when she has to talk me through a movement a few times. I could not recommend Destinie and Pilates in...