Show Notes
In this episode, I sit down with someone I've had the pleasure of knowing since her earliest days in Pilates — Mina Aleshina, functional movement coach and founder of Saana Studio in Geneva, Switzerland. This one got me fired up in the best way possible, and I think it will for you too. Mila is a STOTT Pilates instructor, Functional Range Conditioning mobility specialist, ELDOA practitioner, and TRX trainer. She works out of a physical therapy center in Geneva where she takes a deeply therapeutic approach to movement — and she is not afraid to say exactly what she thinks about where the Pilates industry is headed. In this episode we talk about: Mila's personal journey from discovering Pilates for her own rehabilitation to building a multi-disciplinary practice that blends Pilates, ELDOA, FRC, and TRX
Why finishing your certification is just the beginning — and how working under an osteopath early in her career shaped everything
The Pilates boom: what's exciting about it, what's deeply concerning, and why Mila calls it "the McDonald's era of the Pilates industry"
How watered-down training and fitness-branded Pilates is feeding off a therapeutic reputation it hasn't earned — and who gets hurt in the process
The client who came in saying Pilates hurt their back (and why that should never happen)
Why I believe — and Mila agrees — that Joseph Pilates himself would have kept evolving the method
Knowing your "why" as an instructor and choosing a lane: therapeutic vs. fitness Pilates and why trying to be both often means serving no one well
The moment early in my career that reminded me exactly why I do this work (and it involved a client with tears in her eyes)
Teaching the person in front of you — not the exercise
The connection between nutrition and movement, why Mila brought in a clinical dietitian to work alongside her practice, and why exercise alone isn't the full picture
Battling sarcopenia, building bones, and why the unsexy basics — consistency, nutrition, movement — are still the most effective tools we have
Mila's expanding studio in Geneva, her growing reformer classes, and her vision for a space that never capitalizes on women's insecurities
~ Connect With Mila ~ Instagram - @mila_aleshina_ Website - www.sanastudio.ch TikTok - @mila_aleshina_
~ Connect With Me ~ Instagram - @adriana.rotella Website - adrianarotella.ca
More from Pilates Unscripted
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