For Pilates teacher training programs
Should you teach anatomy yourself, or outsource it?
We sell an anatomy course, so read this knowing that. We’ve also tried to write the version we’d want to read if we were on your side of it, because for a decent number of programs, teaching it yourself is the right answer.
First, the distinction
Split “anatomy” in two
Most of this gets easier once you separate two things that usually get discussed as one.
- Foundational kinesiology is identical in every program: what the muscles are, where they attach, what they do. There is no house style for the origin of biceps femoris.
- Applied anatomy is yours: how you connect structure to repertoire, how you cue it, what you emphasize, the language your graduates leave with.
Nothing below is about handing off the second one. The only question is whether the first one is a good use of your hours.
The choices
The four options
Teach it yourself
The most common approach, and free in cash terms. Costs 20 to 30 hours of prep per cohort if you’re building it properly, and considerably more the first time.
Bring in an instructor
Typically $1,500 to $3,000 for a weekend, plus scheduling around their availability. You get live teaching and questions answered in the room.
Assign a textbook
Cheap and no prep. But no assessment, so if you’re working to a standard that requires a quiz supporting the learning outcome, a book alone doesn’t get you there.
License a course
Fixed cost per student, no prep, assessment included. Covers the foundations so the applied teaching stays with you. You give up live teaching of the basics and gain the ability to tailor it in the room.
The case for keeping it
When teaching it yourself is the right call
- You’re genuinely good at it. If you have an anatomy background and enjoy teaching it, your version will beat anything brought in, because you can connect it to your repertoire as you go, in language your trainees have already heard from you.
- It’s a differentiator. Some programs are known for their anatomy teaching, and people enroll partly for it. That’s a real reason to keep it in-house.
- You want it woven through rather than blocked. Much easier when you’re the one teaching, because you can pull an anatomy point into a repertoire session on the fly.
When outsourcing makes more sense
- Anatomy isn’t your strength. Excellent Pilates teachers are not necessarily confident on origins, insertions and actions, and trainees can tell. Teaching something you’re shaky on is worse than not teaching it.
- You’re teaching it inconsistently. If what gets covered depends on who taught it and how much time was left at the end of the day, your graduates aren’t leaving with the same foundation. That’s a quality problem before it’s an accreditation problem.
- Faculty hours are the constraint. Prep time spent on anatomy is time not spent on the things only you can teach. For most program directors, anatomy is not the highest use of their hours.
- You need documented assessment. Building, administering and grading quizzes is its own project. If you need per-student records for verification, that’s ongoing work.
- You’re preparing for accreditation. ITTAP asks for documentation of curriculum, assessment and hours. A pre-built module comes with all three, already written.
The cost comparison, honestly
Teaching it yourself
- Cash cost:
- $0
- Your time:
- 20–30 hrs prep per cohort
- Consistency:
- varies by cohort
- Assessment:
- you build it
- Live questions:
- yes
- Tailored to your repertoire:
- yes
- Accreditation docs:
- you write them
Outside instructor
- Cash cost:
- $1,500–3,000 per cohort
- Your time:
- scheduling and coordination
- Consistency:
- varies by instructor
- Assessment:
- usually not included
- Live questions:
- yes
- Tailored to your repertoire:
- sometimes
- Accreditation docs:
- you write them
Licensed course
- Cash cost:
- per student
- Your time:
- minimal
- Consistency:
- identical every time
- Assessment:
- included
- Live questions:
- no
- Tailored to your repertoire:
- no — that stays in your contact hours
- Accreditation docs:
- provided
Look at cost as a percentage of tuition, not as a number. Licensing is roughly 1 to 2% of what your students are already paying you, and that stays true at six students or sixty, because both sides scale together. Above 15 students, tiered pricing means the percentage drops. Your prep time doesn’t scale that way. It’s 20 to 30 hours whether you teach six students or sixty, which makes it a heavier cost per student at low volume, not a lighter one. Cost is rarely what decides this. What decides it is whether you’re good at teaching anatomy, and what else those hours could be doing.
Two programs
Two scenarios
Six students, one cohort a year
The director has a movement science background and enjoys teaching anatomy. Licensing would cost less than a weekend instructor but more than nothing, and she’d lose something her program is partly known for.
Keep teaching it. The prep is amortized over years of reuse, and the material is already built.
Thirty students, three cohorts
Anatomy is taught by whichever senior teacher is available, which means three different versions a year and no consistent assessment. The director spends most of her prep time on it, and none of that is work only she can do.
License it, and spend the recovered hours on the repertoire teaching that actually differentiates the program.
Most programs are somewhere between these two. The question that usually settles it: if anatomy took no preparation at all, what would you do with those hours instead? If the answer is compelling, that’s your answer.
The option people forget
You don’t have to choose one.
A common arrangement is to assign a pre-recorded module as pre-work, then spend your contact hours applying it: connecting anatomy to repertoire, answering questions, working on bodies.
Due diligence
What to look for if you do license
Four things worth checking before you commit.
Format and assessment
Does the delivery format match what your standard permits, and does it include the assessment that permission is conditional on?
Documentation
Can you get a curriculum outline listing modules, lessons, hours and where assessment falls? You’ll need it for accreditation, and for mapping against your own syllabus.
Access period
Does student access last long enough for a program running 9 to 18 months? A six-month access period on a fourteen-month program creates support problems you’ll be handling personally.
Records
Can you demonstrate which students completed it, and when? Certifying bodies audit verification, and “we assigned it” isn’t evidence.
What we’d actually say
If you enjoy teaching anatomy and you’re good at it, keep teaching it. Nothing bought in will connect it to your repertoire the way you can, and there’s real value in a program whose director teaches the foundations personally.
If you’re teaching it because someone has to, and it’s eating prep time you’d rather spend elsewhere, that’s the case for handing it off, and the format standards permit for anatomy makes it the easiest piece of your curriculum to hand off cleanly. Either way, keep the applied teaching. The only part worth handing off is the layer that’s identical in every program anyway.
If you’re weighing the outsourced option
12 modules, 79 lessons, 15 hours.
Foundational kinesiology only — no technique, no cueing, no repertoire. Quizzed throughout, $80 per student for 12 months of access. Pre-recorded and self-paced, the format certifying bodies permit for anatomy. Programs in the US, Mexico, Germany and Australia already run it.
Anatomy course for Pilates teacher trainings →