Passionate About Pilates
By Sara Piccola |
Leslee Bender has a one word response for why she only took 4 days off last year – PASSION.
With over 25 years of experience in the Pilates industry, Leslee Bender still shows up to work everyday with a smile on her face and the drive to change people’s lives. She loves Pilates, and explains why…
Pilates puts your mind more in tune with your body. It offers numerous benefits including helping to alleviate lower back pain, increase energy levels, lower stress and improve bodily movement and performance. Elite dancers have been benefiting from Pilates exercises for decades. Today however, this innovative system of mind-body exercises is readily available and you don’t have to be a dancer to benefit.
Bender is the founder of Reno’s Pilates Coach studio and the creator of the Pilates Coach Training Systems. With her unique training methods, the studio offers a bio mechanically safer approach to core training.
One of Leslee’s motivations in developing a new method was her personal struggle with back and knee pain. Once Bender personally experienced the benefits of her system, she recognized a public need for her program. Thus the Pilates Coach method focuses, among other things, on back pain with an emphasis on the need to extend the spine rather than to flex it.
In order to make her system available to the masses, Bender certifies thousands of trainers around the world. Instructors also undergo personal body-analysis and posture assessment training; Bender’s mission is to develop instructors who are critical thinkers and who understand the purpose of every move they make.
Leslee believes that Pilates classes should be as personal as possible. For this reason, she emphasizes one-on-one sessions and reminds us that Pilates classes were not meant to include more then 6 students per class. Its flexible exercise system was designed to address individual needs. The Pilates Coach method adjusts exercises to fit every client’s personal and medical requirements.
Many people feel that Pilates targets women aged 20 to 40. In reality, however, seniors need Pilates more then any other age group, especially because of arthritis. Pilates has been proven to be beneficial in treating the symptoms of arthritis. The older we become, the more important movement and flexibility are to maintain our health.
Bender is proud to own the only international Pilates school in Reno. Her training reaches far beyond our local area: She has taught in more than 30 countries and her Bender Ball infomercial is one of the top performers in the US.
She has not let her success get in the way of working with people personally. Leslee loves observing the change in people and continues to teach classes at her studio. Every instructor at The Pilates Coach shares her passion and is individually trained with a mentor. Additionally, the studio is the only facility in Reno that has a doctor on site, Dr. Robert Johnson, DC.
Leslee personally embraces the philosophy she teaches in her studio. She enjoys life and everything it has to offer, and stresses that people too often go through life blinded, forgetting to open their eyes. In summary, she advises us to “take a moment everyday and just really appreciate something.”
