Studio One Pilates is owner's 'Little bit of Manhattan'

“This is my little bit of Manhattan right here in the Ozarks,” Miller said of her studio.

Miller was comfortable with downtown Springfield even before the area’s fabled renaissance.

“I taught at (Southwest Missouri State University) for 30 years, and I was also choreographer and part-time director at the Landers Theatre,” she said. “So when I got ready to open up a business, I was very comfortable in the Landers-SMS-artsy area.”

Studio One’s second-floor location allows students privacy, and ample skylights and exposed brick lend a cosmopolitan feel. “Some of the new spaces going up now are nice,” said Miller, “but there is a certain charm that you get with older buildings that you just can’t get in other places.”

As a seasoned dance instructor with a degree in physical education and a master’s degree in exercise and physiology, teaching Pilates was a natural choice for Miller.

“I found Pilates in the ‘80s when I was a dancer in New York,” she said. “At that time it was pretty much just for extreme athletes.”

She learned that it was possible to become certified as a Pilates instructor in New York. Then, she said, “I found out that there was a lady named Maura Stott in Toronto who was doing Pilates work with a rehabilitation trend to it. So I rented out my house for six months, took a sabbatical from the university, and went for training.”

Miller returned to the Ozarks and opened Studio One in 1999. The clients who found her initially had discovered Pilates in New York or in upscale fitness clubs abroad. News of her tiny studio spread quickly, however, and she soon found herself with clients of all sorts.

Despite the new popularity of Pilates, Miller said she still receives calls from individuals who do not understand it. “It is core-strengthening,” she said. “It works the muscles between the rib cage and the pelvic girdle to keep that part of the skeleton and spine strong and in correct alignment.”

Miller has clients who integrate Pilates into their overall exercise regimens and those who use it to augment or replace physical therapy.

Ed Powell, president of Herrman Lumber and a recreational runner, said, “I was having problems with plantar fasciitis. I had tried a number of different doctors and chiropractors and I was at my wit’s end when a friend suggested that I try Pilates because they could fix anything. I knew Chyrel Miller from the theater so I called her, and within a few months of going once or twice a month, I was cured. From there, I continued on with Pilates, going two to three times per week, and it’s been over three years. I just love it.”

Internist Norman Mechlin of Ferrell-Duncan Clinic finds it beneficial as well.

“I had been exercising on my own for some time. I had some soreness in various joints. My wife recommended that I try Pilates and actually set up my first session,” he said.

“I had heard of Pilates but did not have any direct personal experience with it. I could tell a difference even after just one session. The promptness of results kept me interested and I have been going ever since,” she added.

Miller does not advocate Pilates as a cure-all but does say that its immense adaptability makes it applicable for a variety of people.

“We get referrals from orthopedic surgeons who are getting their patients ready for surgery, and we rehabilitate them along with physical therapy or in some cases in place of physical therapy,” she said.

As a method, Pilates is extremely centered on biomechanics. Much of the goal of Pilates is to put joints and muscles back in alignment.

“You are exercising, just in a different manner,” Miller said. “There are so many exercises to work around. If someone is pregnant, they can do this right up to the day that they deliver and can come back right after their doctor’s release. You can’t do that with all exercise. I have clients in their 80s who are building strength and muscles and getting their range of motion back.”

When she first opened, Miller taught about 12 hours per week, she said. Now she and her staff of seven certified instructors teach for some 105 hours per week. Classes are held from 5:30 a.m.–10 p.m. In addition to 150 private clients, Miller and staff teach certification classes for aspiring Pilates instructors.

Miller said that copious knowledge of the body is what sets a certified Pilates instructor apart. Studio One is one of only 16 Stott Pilates Certification Centers in the United States, which Miller said makes her business “sort of a dual entity. The nice thing is that we have continued to grow and this has become not just my own little studio – it has a life of its own. It is an educational place as well as an exercise place.”

Studio One Pilates LLC

Owner: Chyrel Love Miller

Founded: 1999

Address: 317 E. Walnut, Springfield, MO 65806

Website: www.studio

onepilates.com

Phone: (417) 865-0500

Employees: 8[[In-content Ad]]