On Jan. 26th, Pulse Pilates debuted its Mat Studio, diversifying its class selections.
Since opening in May 2023, the establishment sports a staff of 13, and offers a variety of classes, ranging from high to low impact. Notably, Pulse Pilates provides specialty services including pre/post natal, 50+ and private sessions for those recovering from injuries or surgery.
In an interview, managing director, Sheryl Heath touched on a variety of topics, including her journey founding Pulse Pilates, service specifics and the studio’s relationship with the Blacksburg community.
Her comments were edited slightly for length and clarity.
You’re not a Blacksburg native; can you tell me about how you ended up here?
I’m from Florida. I was a nurse practitioner for 35 years. I started doing travel work because you make more money and travel the country. I landed here with a travel position with Carilion Clinic.
They had me start at Rocky Mount, then I was at Lexington for a while, and then Roanoke. I ended up being offered a full-time position at New River. I’ve always wanted to be in the mountains. I hated Florida; it’s too hot.
I accepted that full-time job, and formally became a Virginia resident in 2017.
How did you go from nurse practitioner to Pilates studio founder?
I was doing my nurse practitioner job, and then along came COVID. After going through two years of that, I was just fried. I didn’t want to see anything medicine, I was done.
I decided that I was going to retire from nursing. In the meantime, I had gained a lot of weight. When I finally did retire, I started taking Pilates lessons with my business partner, Ashlin.
I really liked it, and she and I had a great rapport. She was in a teeny tiny studio that was about the size of a bedroom. She wanted some help because she had too many clients. She encouraged me to go into Pilates training.
At the time, I saw places like Club Pilates that had group classes. I presented her with the idea to expand. It took me a while; I finally convinced her around December of 2022. We decided to go ahead and take the plunge – open the bigger business, start offering group classes and form this partnership.
Pulse Pilates debuted its Mat Studio on January 26th. What was the expansion process like?
We took over the suite next door and made that our Mat Studio. Our grand opening for Mat was this week. The first day, we had to cancel because of the snowstorm. The second, we had decent class numbers, but had a bunch of no-shows. Today is our fourth day open, and we had decent numbers, where people were showing up and filling up the class.
Sheryl Heath poses in her professional headshot.
On your website, a variety of specialized services are advertised. Can you tell me about the pre/post-natal courses?
Usually, with our prenatal classes, we give them a couple of private sessions to teach them techniques they’re going to need to know as they go through pregnancy.
Eventually, once they learn these techniques, they can flow in with the general public and be able to participate in group exercise. The majority of our pregnant women, up until about 20 weeks, can do any type of exercise. Further on, we start modifying exercises so they don’t develop diastasis recti.
The biggie is the pelvic floor. We try to focus more on abdominal and pelvic floor work to restore the body to where it was before they were pregnant and had the baby.
Pertaining to 50+ classes, how do you tailor Pilates to an older population?
The first thing we do is incorporate some kind of hand weight. They hate it, but we incorporate weights into our sessions, the thought being that you build muscle mass and bone density. Stronger bones equal less fractures.
We also incorporate balance work, whether we’re using a BOSU or a wobble cushion. We’re doing something requiring them to move and balance themselves to try to get that proprioception back so we can prevent falls down the road.
You require five level one reformer sessions in order to participate in level two classes; can you expand on this?
It depends on the person. Our Focus class routines were created by Joseph Pilates and is the classical repertoire. When we bring newcomers in, we want them to do classical moves, primarily to get them used to the machine.
We don’t want them potentially setting themselves up for an injury or not getting the most out of the class. The other key piece with Focus, or level one, is teaching control and pace. Pilates is about slow, controlled movements.
We generally stick to the five-class rule, but with younger students – able bodies who are a lot stronger – they may complete three classes and ping-pong into an Evolve class, our level two. Usually by then, I know who they are. Despite what it says on the website, it is person-by-person.
Being so close to Virginia Tech, I am curious about your relationship with the students. Can you speak to that?
We love our students. Every year, when they leave for breaks and summertime, we have to cut back our class load. We wait for that September-January surge when everybody comes running back.
We offer a 25% off special for the first class. We’re hoping that if the first class is effective, it will be enough to bring them back. Occasionally, it doesn’t – students are very transparent. They’ll say, “I love the class, but I can’t afford it.”
Those I put on a list, and say, “We have a teacher trainee who needs practice hours. You can volunteer for them, and can get free Pilates.”
We also opened the Mat Studio next door if the student cannot afford Reformer. It’s cheaper than any other business in town; you could attend for 10 bucks.
How have you used your studio to make a community with your clients?
It’s getting to know people. We bring them into class, introduce them to other students. During classes we queue, walk around, correct, give high fives, and call people out for doing great things – which makes them more comfortable. That’s partly why we’ve capped our classes at eight.
We also try to include our clients in our online pictures. We don’t use models, we don’t use ourselves, we use actual clients. We want to say that Pilates is for everybody, of every age.
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