A little love letter to September, the routines that make us feel good, and finding our way back to each other.

By Kimmy Smith
Founder of East River Pilates

Hi everyone!

It's been a couple of months since I last wrote to you all, and somehow here we are in September. How did that happen?

I hope you've had the most wonderful summer and managed to squeeze every possible drop out of it. I hope there were long evenings, cold drinks, sweaty walks, swims, weekends away, late-night dinners, a few cheeky regrets, and plenty of moments when your usual routines happily went out the window.

I've always loved September in New York because there is something about it that makes the whole city feel like it's been called back to class. School bags reappear on the sidewalks, calendars start to fill up again, the pace of the city begins to shift, and after a few glorious months of long days and slightly looser schedules, there is this lovely collective feeling of settling into a new season together.

So, happy September, East River Pilates, and happy Labor Day.

Summer is supposed to interrupt our routines a little. That's part of what makes it so good. But I also think there's something really comforting about reaching this point in the year and thinking, okay, I'm ready for a little routine again.

Not a dramatic reset or the pressure to design some brand-new version of yourself. Just a return to the things that make you feel good.

And, dare I say it, maybe a regular Pilates class or two.

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

There are new school years and new schedules, everyone is getting organized again, and suddenly the idea of cooking an actual dinner, going to bed at a reasonable hour and knowing what you're doing next Tuesday feels strangely appealing.

Maybe it's simply about returning to a few of the things that make your week work better.

For me, one of those things is sitting down on a Sunday evening, looking at the week ahead and booking my workouts. It's an incredibly unglamorous life hack, but it works. I look at what's actually happening that week, how much energy I realistically have, where I am in my monthly cycle, and where the little pockets are that movement can actually fit. Then I book them and stop thinking about it. The realistically part is important.

If Wednesday is complete chaos, Wednesday probably doesn't need to become the day you suddenly decide you're a 6:30 am workout person. Book Tuesday.

And if Pilates wasn't exactly at the top of your summer agenda, welcome back. We missed you.

Please don't respond by booking five classes next week and making yourself so sore that you decide you hate Pilates by Thursday. Start with one class you know you can make, with a teacher you love, at a time that works for the life you're actually living. Then maybe book another one, give your body a chance to remember how good it feels to move, and let the routine build from there.

I've been teaching Pilates for a while now, and the routines I've seen people actually stick with are rarely the most ambitious ones. They're the ones that become so normal you almost stop thinking about them. Tuesday morning Pilates. Saturday Reformer. The Thursday evening class you take with your friend. Whatever it is.

And, crucially, you have to actually like it.

You can come into ERP tired, distracted, enthusiastic, grumpy, returning after three months away, or mostly motivated by the fact that your friend is already there and will absolutely notice if you cancel.

We'll take you however you arrive.

Pilates Is Still Pilates

Of course, movement trends are always evolving, and New York is often at the center of what's new in fitness. Right now, Hot Mat Pilates is having a moment, and while I'm all for people discovering new ways to enjoy movement, I'm yet to be convinced that Pilates needed to get hotter to be any more effective.

I say this with love, and with full acknowledgment that someone may eventually drag me into a Hot Mat class and I may emerge completely converted. If that happens, I promise to report back.

What I genuinely love about watching Pilates have yet another moment is that underneath the new formats, temperatures and interpretations, people are continuing to discover something we've known for a very long time: Pilates is just really, really good.

It was good before it was trending. It's good without a heated room. And it will still be good when the next fitness trend comes along.

You don't need to make Pilates more extreme to experience its benefits. Done well and practiced consistently, the method itself gives us so much: strength, control, mobility, body awareness, confidence and a way of moving that can genuinely change how we feel in our everyday lives.

That's what we've always believed at ERP. We're constantly learning and evolving, but we're also incredibly proud to keep bringing the Pilates method to life in a way that feels joyful, challenging, contemporary and welcoming.

Sometimes innovation isn't about changing the thing itself. It's about continuing to do a really good thing, really well.

So if Hot Mat Pilates is calling your name, go for it. But if you're wondering whether you need to add it to the ever-growing list of things you're apparently supposed to be doing, you can happily skip it.

Come back to your favorite reformer. Take the class you love. Keep doing the movement that makes you feel stronger, happier and more at home in your body.

Pilates has always been good. It's still good. Ask me again in 20 years and I'm pretty sure I'll be saying exactly the same thing.

The Best Part Has Always Been the People

Of course, if you've been around ERP for any length of time, you know that the Pilates itself is only part of why this place means so much to us.

It's walking through the door and seeing someone you know. It's your teacher remembering what you were working on last week, taking your favorite spot in the room, chatting to the person on the reformer next to you and spending 50 minutes moving alongside a group of people who have all arrived carrying completely different days with them.

Sometimes you leave feeling stronger. Sometimes lighter or clearer. Sometimes you simply needed 50 minutes during which somebody else told you what to do. All excellent reasons to take Pilates, in my opinion.

And behind every one of those classes is our truly extraordinary ERP Dream Team.

Running five Pilates studios in New York City involves a frankly ridiculous number of things happening behind the scenes at any given moment: schedules, subs, equipment, laundry, repairs, emails, training, programming, deliveries, plants, mysteriously missing things, and things nobody knew existed until they suddenly needed to be fixed immediately. Hopefully, most of you will never have to think about any of it, because our Dream Team already has.

Our teachers and leadership teams hold this community in their arms every single day, while another wonderful group of humans is diligently making sure everything works behind the scenes. They know this community, they care deeply about it, and they take enormous pride in making ERP feel like ERP.

For the past two years, I've had the slightly surreal experience of watching all of this from the other side of the world, and I cannot properly put into words how proud I am of the people who care for this community every day. They really are my Dream Team, and I hope the next time you walk into one of our studios, you feel a little bit of all the love and care they put into making it feel like home.

And Now I Get to Come Back, Too

After almost two years away, I'll be back in Brooklyn in October, and I cannot quite believe I'm writing that.

I'll be teaching some classes, taking plenty too, celebrating together at a few socials, spending lots of time in the studios and finding as many opportunities as possible for us all to be together. We'll share more about everything we have planned very soon, but I genuinely cannot wait to walk through those doors again, see so many familiar faces and meet all of you who have become part of ERP while I've been away.

I'm also planning to fit approximately two years' worth of hugs into one visit, so consider yourselves warned.

There is something particularly funny about the timing because while Brooklyn is saying goodbye to summer, pulling out sweaters and heading into fall, I'm currently on the other side of the world emerging from an Australian winter and heading into spring.

Apparently we're all changing seasons together, just in completely opposite directions. I'll bring a little Australian spring to Brooklyn if you promise to save some New York fall for me.

Here's to Whatever Comes Next

Wherever September finds you, I hope you give yourself the space to settle into the season in a way that feels good for you.

Maybe that means booking Tuesday. Maybe it means coming back to the teacher you've missed, making a standing Pilates date with a friend, trying something you've been curious about, or simply starting with one class a week and seeing where it takes you.

The routines that last are often the simplest ones: the classes, walks, stretches, and small rituals that gradually become part of our weeks and leave us feeling better for having made time for them.

So as we head into fall, find the movement you genuinely look forward to, make room for it in your week and let consistency build from there. There's something really lovely about having a routine that feels less like another thing on the list and more like a part of your week you're genuinely happy to have back.

And if that routine happens to include a 6:30 am Pilates class, I am very impressed.

Here's to a new season, getting back into our rhythms and making a little more time for the things that make us feel good.

And very soon, I'll be back doing all of it alongside you. I cannot wait to see you.

With so much love,

Kimmy

Back Into the Swing of Things