Kelly Sams accomplished something truly wonderful last November: she completed the rigorous, Pilates Method Alliance Certified Teacher Training at Six Degrees. It was the culmination of a full year’s commitment, dozens of courses, hours of practice, and, of course, a true passion for the practice. Now that she’s assisting in Asana Stretch and teaching Six° Barre, Pilates Reformer, Pilates Mat, Pilates Chair, and private sessions, it’s clear Kelly’s a pro. Even Emily Easton, our fearless leader, truly can’t get over Kelly’s instruction: “She blows me away every time!”

How would you describe your “movement journey”?

I started my fitness practices by playing hockey and tennis during high school, then turned to running through college. I started to become injured frequently, but found Pilates after college. After my first class, I realized it was the best I’d felt in years. I became obsessed! Six Degrees was a warm, friendly place, but I really came here because it offered the most affordable Reformer classes around—even for a recent college graduate!

You’d been doing Pilates for about 7 months when you took the plunge and started training as an instructor. Tell me a little about that. 

Training is a long, ever-changing path. You’ll think you have a grasp on a concept or an exercise, and then you go into a training weekend and start to look at it a different way. In some ways, it can be frustrating or feel like a paradox that Pilates is such a precise practice but teaching can’t involve concrete rules that extend to every person’s body. You learn from every client, adapting different cues or different exercises that can benefit them on any given day; you have to be flexible to the needs of each individual as they change day to day.

And now you teach Chair! Why do you gravitate toward that class?

Well, we say Pilates is a series of skills performed through choreography. These skills don’t change whether you are on a mat, Chair, or Reformer, but your relationship to gravity changes. You get to feel the muscles moving differently than you can when you’re laying down. The Chair also brings in a lot of unilateral exercises, highlighting the differences between the sides of the body, so I think it promotes awareness for our clients.

Having achieved your Pilates certification, what are some other goals you’re working on?

I practice “living in the now” without judgment, but more concretely, I’m working to become a full-time Pilates teacher and to learn ever-more yoga handstands and arm balances, because they’re super fun! 

What do you like to do when you’re not in the studio?

I love music, everything from electronica to alt rock. And there’s such good local music: Doomtree, Caroline Smith, The 4 on the Floor, and I can punk out with my parents to the Suburbs and Replacements. I also like to do acroyoga with my boyfriend Nate and travel whenever I can—I’ve already been Germany, Spain, and Cambodia, and I’m going to Puerto Rico in just a couple of weeks! I really want to go to India and Turkey, too. 

How do you work to keep your balance in life and embody wellness?

I’m not the best at this, but I try to drink lots of water and, when I’m craving caffeine, I avoid all the free soda at the bar where I work and the energy drinks with all their chemicals and fake sweeteners. On a broader level, I try to think about my movement patterns, in daily life as much as in class. And at the widest edges of wellness, I’m trying to let go of expectations. I want to simply let my practice—and my life—be just the journey it is.