Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep # 134 Healing Bodies, Finding Balance: A Journey into Pilates
What happens when marketing expertise meets a passion for movement? Brooke Centrella's journey from corporate media planner to owner of Pilates in Motion studio reveals the transformative power of following your calling—and helping others reconnect with their bodies along the way.
Brooke discovered Pilates years ago while seeking relief from equestrian injuries. The method so profoundly changed her physical wellbeing that friends encouraged her to become certified. What began as teaching on the side while maintaining her marketing career eventually evolved into her full-time passion after selling her family's business.
Beyond the common misconception that Pilates is "just core work," Brooke explains Joseph Pilates' original vision of "Contrology"—a comprehensive system designed to create balanced, integrated bodies through controlled movement and proper breathing. Unlike contemporary group classes that follow rigid choreography, classical Pilates adapts to each person's unique physical structure and needs.
This personalized approach makes Pilates accessible to everyone from teenagers to octogenarians. Clients report not just improved physiques, but better sleep, reduced pain, enhanced mobility, and for older practitioners, fewer falls and improved balance—benefits that extend far beyond the studio.
The conversation explores the differences between equipment-based and mat Pilates, the optimal frequency for seeing results (most notice changes within 10-15 sessions), and how even remote students can benefit through virtual training. Brooke's combined expertise in marketing and movement gives her unique insight into both the technical aspects of Pilates and the challenges of entrepreneurship.
Whether you're curious about trying Pilates, interested in fitness entrepreneurship, or simply looking for a method that creates lasting physical change from the inside out, this episode offers valuable perspective from someone who's lived both the corporate and wellness worlds. Connect with Brooke at PilatesInMotionLLC.com to begin your own transformation.
Pilates in Motion
Brooke Centrella
260 Vreeland Ave
Midland Park NJ, 07432
(201) 681-7555
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Hey, good afternoon everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast brought to you by the Bergen Neighbors Media Group. Today we are joined by Brooke Centrella. She is the owner of Pilates in Motion, based in Midland Park, new Jersey, in Bergen County, right in the probably sort of in the center of Bergen County. Anyway, brooke, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Hi, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:So you are a Pilates instructor, you're the owner of your own practice called Pilates in Motion. I used to watch a fitness show on ESPN back in the day by a guy named Gilad, or Gilad. He was Israeli. He was actually an Israeli decathlete, I think in the Olympics, but he had a show called Bodies in Motion, and so whenever I when I hear Pilates in Motion, it makes me think of Bodies in Motion, which obviously is a Newton's law of physics, but anyway.
Speaker 2:So tell us a little bit about you. Know why Pilates, like, how did you get into it?
Speaker 3:So years and years ago I started taking mat classes and I just loved it. It really helped me in my body. I had some injuries I'm an equestrian and I had some injuries from various falls, as you get and it was a wonderful method of helping me reconnect and balance my body out from all the imbalances I was developing over the time. And I became so into it that a couple of my friends were like you should learn and teach it. So I got my first MAP certification. I think I was 24 when I got my first MAP certification and I started teaching and from then on I just loved it and continued pursuing it and pursuing it, and it has been a part of my life ever since.
Speaker 2:Wow. So you, I mean, did you go to college? Did you study, exercise physiology or like what was your?
Speaker 3:So I did go to college. I have a degree in marketing, physiology, or like what was your. So I did go to college. I have a degree in marketing. I worked in um, media planning and placement, on air planning and placement for most of my life and I taught Pilates as well and, uh, helped my family with their business and it was great. My brother's actually a sports physiologist. He went to college for that but so we're like the two fitness people in the family. You know, espousing the great acts of fitness, but basically no, my college background is not in this, but I did grow up riding and competing horses my whole life, so I have been very physical and was always in training. I did dance as well, so very body aware, and Pilates really spoke to everything about that and made everything better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to you know to practice Pilates and teach it. It's another thing to say I'm giving up my career in marketing or advertising and I'm going to start my own Pilates business, because I guess there's a couple of Pilates studios around, maybe one or two. What was the deciding or driving factor for you to say I'm going to go off on my own and start my own business?
Speaker 3:So I was always doing this on the side while I worked. And then, after I had my daughter, I had a little bit of a break doing this and I was still working remotely mostly, and I decided I wanted to just bring the studio back up, get more people in.
Speaker 3:I had time because I could work remotely so I could devote more time to the studio which really, I guess, was what set me on the trajectory of being like I'm going to do this full time that and selling the family company. I'm going to do this full time that and selling the family company. So I don't have that company commitment anymore and I can commit fully to the studio all the time. But I have been teaching the entire time while I had my career. It's kind of the nice thing about the fitness industry is you? Can do it with a career.
Speaker 2:So what was the family business?
Speaker 3:We had a media planning and placement company.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, okay. And the city.
Speaker 3:No, we were in Montville. Oh wow, we worked all over the world, with many cable networks from literally all over the world. It was a lot of fun. My father started the business and built it, which is also why I think it wasn't a hard leap for me to be like. Of course, I'm going to open my own Pilates studio because I saw my father open his own business and be successful with it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and I think we mentioned, you know, when you, when you and I first spoke, I used to be a personal trainer and I did it on the side. I worked in Manhattan, but I lived down in Hudson County, like on river road, so I could train people in the morning, go back home, shower, get on the bus, go into the city, come home and do it again at night, and because there were so many condos and so many great open spaces, I could do boot camps. But I loved it. It was a great side hustle, but people would ask me, why don't you do it full time? And I was like well, I trained people before work and after work.
Speaker 2:What am I doing between nine and five Plus? I didn't believe in myself. I had never done anything on my own like that before, um, so maybe I needed to be kicked to the curb, which is what spurred me on to start my own business now. But, uh, yeah, I think it's great and I mean what drives you beyond? I mean so to be an instructor? What is it that wants you to share your passion for Pilates? And then let's get into what Pilates is. You know, you mentioned how it helped fix your body. How is it different than yoga? How is it different than weight training? You know, core classes, things like that.
Speaker 3:Sure. So why I started teaching it and what keeps me going as a teacher is seeing it always work. I love it so much. I know I can always come into my studio if I'm I mean, I do every day anyway, but if I can come in and I can help myself through a situation and it it makes my riding better, it makes my life better, I sleep better, I am able to do more with my daughter and and just overall healthier. So I think it kind of feeds itself and you want to share that with people. You want other people to have that. It's like a high from it in its own way. You know, I guess an endorphin high would be a good way of putting it. So I definitely like that. I really enjoy helping people accomplish their goals. It's very fulfilling to me to have somebody come in with a goal and it can be the smallest thing to them, but once they accomplish it it gets them going to try more and more and more and that really fills me up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so their goal I mean. So let's go to the second part of my question, joseph Pilates, and like what is the goal for most people with Pilates and what was his you know kind of philosophy I guess you could say.
Speaker 3:So you know, his philosophy was mostly that you to be healthy, you know, is breath and control. So the method isn't really Pilates. He named the method Contrology. We call it Pilates today because it was developed by Joseph Pilates. He developed it over his lifetime I mean, he's a very amazing man, definitely way ahead of his time and basically it's a full body conditioning system. It's not just core, it's not just abs. We do not create imbalanced bodies in Pilates, we create balanced, whole, integrated system. And that's what he wanted. He wanted people to be connected and whole and integrated so that they could live a healthy life all the way through their 80s and 90s and still be mobile. And obviously, since the pandemic we've become much more sedentary because everything's become much more virtual and even this right. So the act of motion, the act of breath and motion, the act of balancing out your front, your back, your lateral movement, everything coming into alignment for your body, it's also based on your body, not an anatomy picture of a body. So when you come into a classical studio.
Speaker 3:We're working with your specific body. What's capable for your spine, what's capable for your joints, what your tendons are strung like all of that comes into play when you come into a Pilates studio. It's not just do an exercise, pilates is much inside to out and a lot of the other methods out. There are more outside to in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean bodybuilding is more outside in and it's usually, you know, I used to see guys in the gym. He called it mirror muscles because, they'd look at themselves just in the front, but they didn't pay attention to their backside, so to speak. But it's interesting because if I do some research on Pilates and this just came up, are there any downsides to Pilates? So I want you to respond to this. Sure, limited cardiovascular benefit. Okay, yeah, you're not getting your heart rate up to 120 beats per minute, but that's not.
Speaker 3:That depends on where you are in Pilates and your control. Because, the better you become in your practice, the more control you get, the faster the exercises move. So that's not 100% correct.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, I've sweat a lot in yoga classes just trying to hold those poses. So yoga was like one of the most. I don't know if it was cardiovascular, but it was challenging. So the other one that says a downside is injury risk. So I don't know. You know, certainly it could depend on the instructor. If they try to, you know they don't understand your, your flexibility limitations, and how do you go beyond your, your normal range of motion? But how do you respond to what the you know, an injury risk being a downside?
Speaker 3:My response to that is a little bit along the lines of what you were just saying.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot of different types of Pilates available to people now everywhere, but it's not necessarily the classical system, and in the classical system we are intentionally trained and vigorously trained to work within the system and when you work within the system you're really not going to see injury or create injury and when you work within the system you're really not going to see injury or create injury.
Speaker 3:So usually the injuries that people describe and trust me, I've had people call me and like I broke my vertebrae. I broke my vertebrae in a Pilates class. That should never happen. But that's in a group, not being looked at as an individual and just being sort of given choreography, looked at as an individual and just being sort of given a choreography. So I find most of the injuries I deal with from people who come to me from other studios who have experienced an injury in studio is that they've come from a more contemporary Pilates studio where they're in a group. They don't really understand the contrology component of it, the connection. They don't really understand the reason why we're giving them the exercises and the sequence to do them in and they're just sort of pushed into this choreography whether it suits them or not and then they generally injure themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the challenge with group exercise, because it's not one size fits all. And when I was an instructor and I used to do group exercise classes, my classes were not easy. They were hit classes, high intensity interval training with plyometrics, but I always showed people a way to you know kind of regress. You don't have to jump, you could just do lunges instead of jumping up and things like that. But with that said, if you have a class of 20 people, it's really tough to keep an eye on everyone to make sure that they're doing the exercises properly.
Speaker 3:Excuse me, no, it's okay and be honest with yourselves. Right, there's a lot of people who come to that class because they want to push, whether it's appropriate for them to push or not.
Speaker 2:Right and there's a rush I want my body in shape. Now I feel like with Pilates, people look at you or they look other Pilates instructors and they say, ah, that's how I want to look. But, as you mentioned, you've been doing this for a very long time and it's not an overnight, as anything is. Nothing is really an overnight success story. It takes time, it takes a learning curve, and it's interesting because it says in this are there any downsides to Pilates? There's learning curve and time commitment. Well, you know, if you want to make a lifestyle change, it should be a time commitment, it should be a learning curve. Somehow that's written here as a downside, as if there's other exercises out there that don't require time and a learning curve. I guess if you go to the gym and you want to pump iron, anybody can go to the gym and do that.
Speaker 3:But that's still time and that's still a commitment. You're still carving time and a commitment out to pump iron.
Speaker 3:I think for a lot of people it's what fuels you and if the exercise makes you feel better when you leave, I mean my goal is for people to walk out of the studio feeling better than when they walked in. It doesn't have to be a miraculous change. They just need to feel longer and lighter and more balanced in their body than when they walked in. And that feeling can carry with you no matter where you go. From Pilates and you can take it into the gym classes. You can take it into the weightlifting because you know how to control from the inside out. You can apply it to the other exercise forms you're doing and prevent injury or prevent imbalances from forming in those exercises, because you know yourself better.
Speaker 2:I mean a strong core and flexibility, I think are the two keys to preventing injury. You know if you're tight and your range of motion is limited and you try to do things and I'm just going to go into weightlifting you're going to injure yourself or you know your body's going to take over parts of your body. It's going to find that path of least resistance. So if there's a muscle imbalance or a tightness, your body's going to find a way to perform that range of motion and probably put strain on an area that wasn't really meant to do that part. So you know what I see as a benefit to Pilates, only having done mat Pilates a very long time ago. So we'll have to talk about that. You know the core, the posture, the flexibility. You know as I stand here, sit here in front of my computer, I'm hunched over. I have neck issues now. So I think you know one of the biggest things that I see in the benefits of Pilates are posture, flexibility and core strength, because I think core strength leads to better posture.
Speaker 3:For sure and breath right. The better you breathe, the better your whole respiratory system works, the healthier your body is.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:It's also a lot about length and breath and people kind of think it's only about core. So they come into classes and they really contract and there's a big expansion component. There's a push and pull in Pilates all the time and if you're just contracting you're going to miss it completely.
Speaker 2:So do you only use Reformer, or do you do Matt Pilates as well?
Speaker 3:I do the, I have a full, fully equipped classical studio and I do Matt as well. Um, so I, I do all of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now do you find, um, so, when you're working with somebody and, and let's go back to that, so you know, contrary to the group classes, you are a one-on-one studio.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Correct, I can do single or duet sessions, but I don't usually go beyond that.
Speaker 2:Right, okay, okay. So in that session you might go from reformer to mat, or one session it's purely mat and another session it's reformer early met another session.
Speaker 3:It's reformer. So, um, yes, no, it would be a full studio session. So if it was your first time you would come in. We would go through basic reformer. Usually in your first time that is the session just learning the reformer a little bit, learning how to transition in and out of the exercises and what the connection for means and where the imbalances are in your body. But as you come it moves around the studio. So so it'd be reformer, depending on what your special needs are. There might be some Cadillac or chair or baby armchair, foot corrector, toe corrector there's an innumerable amount of things, ladder, barrel, so many things. So it just depends on what I see in your body that day and how I'm going to incorporate the system and the method to get you to the most square for that day.
Speaker 2:Got it and do people cry in your class? No, I have never had Well because I could imagine the moaning and groaning that's going to come from me. Maybe I won't cry, but I'll definitely be, you know, screaming uncle or something.
Speaker 3:We get a lot of laughter actually in classes you know it's hard, but in a joyous way which sounds silly, but it's hard and people like to be challenged. I mean, why would you keep coming if you weren't being challenged? If you weren't progressing and feeling some challenge to your core, then what are you doing here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so to that point, like, who's your typical client? Is it mostly female, and is there an age range that you work with?
Speaker 3:So the average age range is probably 25 to, I'm actually say, like 70. It's predominantly women, but I do have quite a few men that come as well and get a lot out of it. But the male demographic skews older, usually 45 to 80 for the men. That's what I see.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking from that demographic, I could say that when you're younger, it's all about bulking up. And well, if you're that kind of person, like I was, it's about hitting the iron and grunting and squats and benching. And how much can you bench? It's not like how flexible are you? No, no, no guy ever asked me in a bar, or one of my friends hey, can you touch your toes? How much are you benching these days?
Speaker 3:I was in a drinking challenge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly what's your one rep, max? A couple of years ago I benched 255, which I hadn't done in a long time and no one's ever asked me if I can, if my left arm can touch my right arm. You know, behind my back, which are about six inches apart, um, so I get it. You know, when you get older, the to your point about just having the mobility and having. You know, being pain-free and having great range of motion is more important in your life than you know having big pecs. So I could see why, as a male, it skews a little bit older.
Speaker 3:I definitely see. I do work with kids too. People bring their athletes, their children athletes, in especially if they're experiencing imbalances. So I work with teenagers. It just depends, and when you start Pilates, it's a method that lives in your body. So even if you start it and you go away from it for a while, when you come back to it your body's like yes.
Speaker 3:Muscle memory Muscle memory, but it's just something that I will tell you. When I first started, my body actually craved the classes. If I missed the Pilates class, I felt it in my body. It was not okay, and so that's, I think, another beautiful component of the method. So the earlier you start, the more your body learns at a young age, the more time you have with the method.
Speaker 2:Nice. So what is it? Obviously, people don't come in. I mean, they can just book one session with you, but your clients are with you for years. Do you have people that do it multiple times a week? And so what's the experience like if someone calls you, and how would they contact you? What's the best way to contact you?
Speaker 3:So they can call on my cell phone or they can go to my website, which is Pilates in Motion LLC dot com, and my phone number is on the website as well. And usually what happens is we talk about where they are in their life, what what they're looking for, what their expectations are for Pilates. You know what's bringing them into the studio. And then I usually recommend, when you first start, you should start with solos with an experienced teacher. You should because you get the one-on-one attention and we're really cuing in on what your body specifically needs. And in the first 10 sessions for most people it's learning the method, learning the flow of the method and how it integrates into their body, and they usually see a change in their body by the first 10, 15 sessions. They notice a change usually oh, my pants fit different. Oh, I sleep better, I stand better, things don't hurt anymore.
Speaker 3:Definitely for older people I will say falling tripping is a number one hazard as they age and it's because they lose that flexibility in their feet and their ankle to lift their foot all the way. So their brain thinks they're still lifting their foot like they were 10 years ago, but it's catching their toes, catching on stairs or things. So I have had a lot of people who are older say to me like I don't have that tripping problem anymore. I'm not tripping like I was. So it's definitely that way. I always recommend coming at least two times a week. Two to three is optimal. You can come once a week. You're just not going to progress that much.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and you also offer virtual classes.
Speaker 3:Yes. So if you're not here, I teach all over. I've taught people in Europe and everywhere, so you don't have to have equipment. I can do virtual mat with you and all you need is a mat and yourself. If you have your own studio, I'm certainly happy to help you with your apparatus and work you through a full repertoire on that and help you achieve your goals all the way through the advanced repertoire.
Speaker 2:That's great. That's great. So you know if it's a virtual mat class, you're doing the exercises as well. They're watching you on.
Speaker 3:I can, or I can just be focused solely on them. If it's if it's brand new, then I'll demonstrate some stuff for people, but if you have a solid practice. I'm going to just be watching you to help.
Speaker 2:That's great. That's great. So, um so, so you're in Midland park, your studio is located in Midland Park and your hours are like, obviously, if they go on Pilates in motion LLC. Now I havenet you saidcom.
Speaker 3:It can do either. I have both.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay. So that's where they can book an appointment and it's basically, you know, since it's mostly one-on-one, it's not like you know, you have a class that people just drop into.
Speaker 3:No, I don't do that. I don't have classes that way.
Speaker 2:So they can. You know it's Monday, wednesday, friday. You want to go through that?
Speaker 3:So I have I'm available all week except Saturdays. I'm in studio all day Tuesday and Thursday. I'm in studio all afternoon Monday, wednesday, friday. In the morning I'm out because I have to take care of my horse, so I'm down here virtually in the mornings on Monday, wednesdays and Fridays, as well. So I'm open six days a week and you're welcome in or online six days a week.
Speaker 2:So what so, having been a marketing person and now Pilates, what is owning your own business been like in terms of? You know, I've heard people describe being an entrepreneur as a roller coaster. Certainly, a lot of people that have been on my show are not business people. They were, you know. They studied medicine or dentistry or whatever it is, and you know a lot of them started during COVID and they had no business background, no marketing background, no HR background, which most of us don't. So what has it been like for you in terms of all the years that you've started this business, and how is what's the journey been like?
Speaker 3:So it's been interesting. It's definitely. It forces you out of your comfort zone a lot I think most people who have their own business will tell you that and you learn what your comfort zone is pretty quickly. It can be tiring, especially being a sole entrepreneur. I helped with the building of my family's company, but it was a group of us and I mean I was a small piece so I did have insight to that very different industry and so I have a little bit of knowledge of like you know it takes time. It takes time for your business to be recognized, trusted and, you know, referred to that, so I kind of came into it with that already in the back of my head of like you know, this isn't gonna blow up overnight to be like an Instagram sensation or anything like that.
Speaker 3:I didn't have those kinds of expectations, but I will say there are times where I'm like I wish there was just one other person who could do this side of it for me, or oh, I you know that was not the right choice, I, but you learn from your mistakes as much as anything else. So I feel like it's just been definitely I wouldn't call it like a total roller coaster, but I will say you have your up and your down days for sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:And the learning curve is there, but the nice thing is that you can learn. You know there's no boss that tells you you know, recommends you or fires you for you know making a mistake and you're free to make mistakes, but you're also free to grow beyond what you could have done elsewhere. So Exactly.
Speaker 3:I think it makes you believe in yourself a little bit more too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think it gives you the confidence that, hey, I built this.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:If I can do that, yeah, like you said, if you already had that experience with your family, so you know you can do it, yeah, Like you said, if you already had that experience with your family, so you know you can do it Right.
Speaker 3:And I knew that it was like I know I think for a lot of people who maybe haven't had the experience I know what a struggle it was Like. I knew how much we struggled for like the first 12, 14 years with the company. It was tight and hard and I'm like just like I don't have a preconceived notion about that. I'm pretty clear. You know there are going to be really good months and they're going to be really bad months, and you know you, you can forecast with the best of them. But at the end of the day you just have to make the best decision in the moment you're in and and really you know that's all you can do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I used to work in a a fifties sixties diner Well, it was a restaurant called the Dino Mat and my name was Buddy. We had to dance to certain songs and there was a song that always popped in my head. We used to play it a lot. It was Mama Said. Mama said there'd be days like this. Mama said there'd be days. There'd be days like this, mama said and that's always in my head when I'm having a tough day. It's like oh, mama said, there'd be days like this. Mama said and that's always in my head when I'm having a tough day. It's like oh, mama said, there'd be days like this, you know.
Speaker 3:Lately it's been good news from Shabuzy for me. Yeah, I'm like it's been some good news. I'm just going to take it. When you're having those days you really do have to like cling hard to the good things.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:Find something good in the day, because, oh my god, some days.
Speaker 2:I agree, yeah, it's like oh yeah, but you know, the joy of of you know, growing as a business owner is those days are fewer and fewer, right further between as you, yeah, as you, as you continue to right build. But uh, brooke, this is great. I really appreciate you uh sharing, and you've got me, um, you know well, we could talk offline, but there's a lot of things that uh piqued my interest, so we're gonna have chuck close us out here and you and I'll be right back all right bye thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast.
Speaker 1:To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's gnpbergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.