Potomac Pilates student on the reformer. Photo by Heartwing Photography
The Potomac Pilates studio will be relocating to the heart of Potomac Village from the Potomac Tennis Club on Potomac Tennis Lane. Helen Marshall, owner of Potomac Tennis Club, has decided that the multi-use facility, frequented by hundreds of Potomac residents each month, will be closing permanently in April.
“We are very excited that Potomac Pilates will be taking over the entire second floor — 4,000 square feet — of the Potomac Promenade Shopping Center at 9812 Falls Road,” said Reina Pratt, owner of Potomac Pilates. “Our expected move-in date is spring. The new location will have an 1,800-square-foot state-of-the-art Pilates studio, a comprehensive retail boutique, a training facility and six administrative offices. It will be our headquarters and we will run all of our customer service from this location.
“Clients will access our studio through a door located on the Falls Road side — next to the former Toys Unique space — and they can park in both the front and the rear of the shopping center. The awning now reads ‘Offices,’ but it will read Pilates soon. The shopping center also houses SunTrust Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Mix Restaurant, Potomac Pizza and Five Guys.”
Since Pratt launched Potomac Pilates 10-years ago, the company has expanded from one studio in Potomac Village to five studios, located in Chevy Chase, The Palisades on MacArthur Blvd, McLean, Va. and Denver, Colo. Pratt opened the studio with seven instructors and has now expanded to 50. In the Potomac location alone, they hold 75 classes a week with 200 different clients weekly and about 500 client visits each week.
This year, the company rebranded Potomac Pilates to “Rock the Reformer” Pilates. “We now call ourselves RTR Pilates, but most still know us as Potomac Pilates. However, in Denver, we are Rock the Reformer or RTR Pilates,” she said.
The major change with the new location will be the accommodation of 30 percent more students. Instead of nine students per class, they will have room for three more reformers and therefore, the capacity for 12 students per hourly class. “Our clients will be pleased with the modern new facility and the class availability,” said Pratt. “We hope to increase our hours of operation and to attract more men into our programs. We have recently seen an uptick of men in our Potomac Tennis facility. Many doctors and physical therapists are recommending Pilates to strengthen the core, back, hamstrings and other muscles as both restorative and prevention of injuries.”
An instructors’ training portal will also be featured at the new location. New instructors are required to complete about 200 hours of training, classroom teaching, observations and teach-backs — and current instructors must also stay abreast of the latest instructional techniques. The Potomac Pilates training program is copyrighted. Pratt authored the training manual and launched an on-line system that her instructors can access for information and new instructional ideas. Instructors also attend and lead workshops for other instructors; Ulrich Rosemond recently returned from a training workshop in Italy and will host a training seminar for Potomac Pilates instructors next weekend which will include a number of Italian innovations for Pilates instruction.
“We are extremely sad to see the Potomac Tennis Club close,” said Pratt. “It was such a wonderful community and we all worked together to make it a comfortable place for Potomac residents to frequent. We all got along so well — the tennis staff, tennis players, the fitness trainers, their clients and the Potomac Pilates staff. I’m hopeful that we will bring positive energy to our new space in the Village.”
The new website for Rock the Reformer/Potomac Pilates is www.RocktheReformer.com and its telephone number is 301-983-3745 or email Pratt at info@RTRpilates.com. Classes run from 7 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.