A passion to bring a love of Pilates to Hobart began an amazing journey in late 2013 for Emily Clark and Todd Skipworth, founders of The Studio. It started with a passion to bring something new to the Hobart Pilates scene. With a small team of instructors and a reformer Pilates studio in the heart of Salamanca, The Studio Salamanca was born. 6 years on and The Studio has forged its own path in Hobart’s growing fitness scene together with an amazing team of growing instructors it now operates small group classes in Pilates, Yoga, Spin and Barre at The Studio Salamanca & The Studio SoHo as well as specialist private and semi-private classes at The Studio Hobart.
We caught up with the founders to understand more about the rise of The Studio and what’s next on the agenda for this inspiring team.
Q: It’s an interesting mix of methods, can you share an insight into why?
A: Our methods have really evolved fairly organically over time. It started when we added Yoga to the mix, we knew members really wanted something to bring a little more mindfulness into their practice and we felt that Pilates and Yoga work in synergy so we began offering a few weekly Yoga classes. When we looked at the space in South Hobart it opened up a world of possibilities and we felt like we could offer a truly holistic centre for people to come and workout. Barre is deeply rooted in Pilates principles but has a really upbeat cardio pace to it, something we felt was perfect to challenge our members in a different way again. Our spin and cycle and core classes were born out of a desire to find the most effective lowest impact cardio workout that everyone could participate in. Pound for pound it’s still the best workout and it balances our other methods perfectly.
Q: Did you always plan to grow the way you have done?
A: Definitely not, it started out of a desire to offer more to our members, then we started noticing a gap in the market. There’s a lot of 24hour gyms that offer a place to workout but not much in the way of instruction. Then there’s a lot of single method specialists that offer good instruction but little diversity. We thought it would be great if there were a constant mix and different stimuli and challenges for our members. We wanted to do this while still delivering really personal authentic instruction. So we started building more for our existing members, it’s just evolved and grown naturally ever since.
Q: Is there a plan to keep growing?
A: The more members we help the more we want to grow, it’s hard not to because everyone wants something different and we want to deliver it. For instance, recently we added The Studio Hobart which offers private and semi-private Pilates delivered by diploma qualified instructors. A lot of people were coming to us who wanted to deepen their own practice. Similarly, a lot of prospective members were coming to us not ready for group classes. They didn’t have an avenue to get there so the Studio Hobart was born to meet this demand. We can take anyone from post-surgery to an elite athlete and cater to their specific needs. Lots of members have taken it as a way to improve their technique in group classes. Some come to The Studio Hobart to become more advanced in their own movement. We added Personal Training at about the same time and for much, the same reason. The PT program has just gone from strength to strength.
Q: So what’s next?
A: Haha …So much we don’t know where to start. Together with our team, we’re working on a lot at the moment. We’re looking at adding some HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training & LIIT (Low-Intensity Interval Training) to our weekly timetables. We will also be adding more Barre, Spin, and Mat Pilates classes in the new year. Our big focus is on our trainers. We have an AMAZING team who loves what they do and we want to support them in every way possible. It’s not easy to access professional development in Hobart, usually, it requires interstate travel and can be expensive. So we’re working on bringing valuable opportunities down to Hobart. This way we ensure our instructors are able to develop their own skills and help our members even more. There’s loads more but we’ll keep it under wraps for the moment.
There is definitely something different about the Studio, want to know more about the Studio difference? Read this first-hand account of what it feels like to be part of Hobart’s quality fitness space.
