Qualifications can include:

- Degree in a related field such as corporate fitness, sports medicine or exercise physiology

- At least two years of Pilates teaching experience

- Pilates apparatus certification

Pay commensurate with experience. We’re a generous business who likes to recognize your contribution to our Studio.

To interview, contact Daphne Allen at 650.949.3031

Visit our website PilatesAthleticCenter.com

Our reformers are top of the line rock maple by Balanced Body

Our Los Altos studio is furnished with top-of-the-line Pilates equipment by Balanced Body.  The mood is positive, peaceful and friendly.

All of our instructors are certified and highly educated in all areas of physiology and wellness. Our founder, Joseph, is a Master Pilates Instructor, as well as having extensive training as a chiropractor and a medical technician.

If you’re looking for personal attention and a plan to improve your health and fitness, we’re here to help. We have both one-on-one private coaching, and small classes — in fact, no class is larger than 6 participants.  We’re also known for our work helping cancer patients to regain their strength, with gentle training that improves stamina and energy.

We put our clients first always, and we are ardent champions for your improved fitness and health.

Necessity is the “father” of invention and knows no law except to overcome.
Joseph H. Pilates…………The Early Days

Joseph Hubertus Pilates (1880 – 1967) was born in Mönchengladbach, a small town near Dusseldorf, Germany. His name had been spelled “Pilatu” and was of Greek derivation but was changed to Pilates (pronounced Puh-lah-tes). He was a small and sickly child who suffered from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. He watched wistfully as other children played outside, running and laughing and yearned for a healthy, strong, physically attractive body like his fathers.

His father was a prize-winning gymnast and his mother a Naturopath. There had to be a way to overcome his weaknesses, thought Pilates. The more he thought, the more determined he grew. Necessity is the “father” of invention and knows no law except to overcome. After surviving diseases fatal to thousands each year he began his life long quest to find a way to overcome his frailness and get strong and healthy so he could be like his dad.

A family physician gave him a discarded anatomy book and as he put it “I learned every page, every part of the body; “I would move each part as I memorized it”. “As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young.” he said. He studied both Eastern and Western forms of exercise including yoga.

Not yet a teen, Pilates began researching many types of exercise to aid in his strength-training program. He sent for books and haunted the university libraries in Düsseldorf. By the time he was 14 he had worked so hard he had developed his body to the point that he was modeling for anatomy charts.

At home, Pilates tried each exercise he read about. He kept records of the effect of each movement to chart his progress. He studied yoga, Zen meditation and several ancient Greek and Roman Olympic exercise regimens. He studied anatomy, hoping to find a way to combine these disciplines to improve his health. He took copious notes.

He believed fervently in the Roman motto “Mens sana in corpore sano,” or, “A sound mind in a sound body.” a philosophy that is the keystone of the Pilates Method.

His used his this knowledge to overcame his body’s physical limitations and in his late teens evolved into an accomplished skin diver, gymnast, skier and all around great athletes. Reveling in his strength, and overcoming his frailness he sought a career that was in-line with his passion.

“We should recognize the mental functions of the mind and the physical limitations of the body so that complete coordination between them may be achieved.” — Joseph Pilates

That determination to overcome spurred Pilates (1880-1967) to devise a movement therapy that has helped millions people achieve better heath an happiness. Known as the Pilates Method, the series of more than 500 revolutionary and evolutionary exercises is the fusion of ancient Greek, Roman and Eastern disciplines with the Wests scientific understanding of anatomy and physiology.

This hybrid approach to fitness pioneered by sickly child merged the best teachings of both worlds into a method that is at the for fount of a Mind Body Movement that, today, is turning the fitness world in-side-out and revolutionizing the way fitness is taught.

An exercise ball can help you to improve your strength and balance.

We have a limited number of items that are available
for purchase at our studio.

Stability Ball: from $19.95

Exercise tubing and straps from $14.95

It’s our pleasure to give you a demonstration on this equipment.

We also encourage anyone who has had five or more private sessions to take advantage of our Open Studio time. Call us at (650) 949-3031 for more information.

Her diverse background gives her strong insight to help patients from many walks of life. As a Human Resources Manager at Intel Corporation, Yvonne traveled constantly all over the world and can attest to the challenge one faces to stay fit despite a harrowing schedule as many have here in the Silicon Valley.

A cancer survivor, Yvonne has also become a specialist in helping cancer patients to recover and regain strength during or following cancer therapies.

Yvonne constantly takes classes and seminars to update and refine her knowledge so that she can coach her clients to the highest level they wish to go.

She manages all areas of operations – to keep our beautiful studio running comfortably and efficiently. She wears many hats, and is likely to be the one greeting you when you arrive at the studio!

Daphne is a design consultant with certification from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco, California.

In addition to her role in Pilates Athletic Center, Daphne is also a wife and a mother.

After managing fitness centers in his early career, he went on to complete certifications as a medical technician and a fitness trainer. He also got his degree in Chiropractic from the Palmer College-West in 1995.

The co-founder of Pilates Athletic Center, Joseph works with staff to develop best practice training for anyone, at any level. He’s also a proponent of Pilates to support recovery from injury, and using it to gain strength and balance, to avoid injury.

Joseph is also a dedicated cyclist, a husband and a father.