Pilatesblue: Pilates Training with a Personal Touch

For one-on-one Pilates training with a truly personal touch, we couldn't recommend Pilatesblue more highly. Jaime Ullman, a modern dancer with multiple Pilates training certifications, runs this private studio in a renovated garage behind her home on a quiet residential street in the Culver City area. She's stocked her studio with every type of Pilates equipment imaginable, and also done a wonderful job of creating a peaceful and calming environment.

Jaime's welcoming demeanor and sweet, soft-spoken nature are a lovely complement to her highly technical, hands-on approach to teaching. In her own words: "I wanted to create a hipper studio than most, drawing on the energy from all of the different guests. I like to shine some light on the fact that the Pilates practice, study and workout is well rounded, always challenging, always teasing the mind, and always safe."

Jaime teaches both the West Coast and New York, also known as Classical, styles of Pilates, and her studio features both types of equipment. During our session, we followed the Classical approach, which is conducted on machines with very tight springs. Jaime was careful to keep the level of tension in line with our skill level, so that we felt challenged without feeling that we were in over our head. We spent most of our session on the trapeze table, or Cadillac, a piece of equipment that we had primarily used for stretching up until our session with Jaime. She provided constant verbal cues throughout our workout to make sure that we held the proper positioning and breathed correctly during all of the exercises. Our one-hour session was highly customized, and left us eager to return to Pilatesblue to see what Jaime had in store for us the next time.