Veronica Whetsel

MY PILATES JOURNEY… In my late 20s, I had a very stressful pregnancy during full-time graduate physical therapy school while raising a 5 year old son and working. I had no time to exercise, eat well or even sleep and gained 70 pounds. I split my vertical abdominal muscles (diastasis recti) and had core and pelvic floor weakness and sciatica caused by bulging discs in my lower back. It took me 2 years to lose the weight and heal my back with self-care strategies.

Pilates helped me tremendously during this challenging time. I felt my abdominals getting stronger and my urinary incontinence was improving. I had some pain with exercises that put pressure on my tailbone, but learned how to modify them based on my physical therapy training.

In 2003, I decided to get certified in Pilates so I could teach my patients how to heal their own injuries. What was amazing to me were the immediate improvements they had– not only in their core abdominals, but their shoulder and hip joints gained more range of motion and stability, their neck and back pain was reducing significantly and they actually enjoyed doing the home programs I prescribed for them! This whole body movement method was missing in the traditional physical therapy setting. I was able to discharge people from physical therapy within just a few short weeks and knew they had effective exercise tools to use for the rest of their lives.

I started teaching small group Pilates Mat classes in a community gym and my love for Pilates continued to grow as I witnessed the value it brought to peoples’ lives, no matter what age or body shape they were!

In 2004, I opened my own Pilates Physical Therapy studio in Annapolis and have since worked with hundreds of people who found me through their pain management doctors, traditional physical therapists or friends and family members who had success with the training I shared with them. My youngest Pilates client was 10 years old and my most mature client is 90 years old!