Organic Pilates

Keri Grauel knows one thing is certain: “If you can see yourself in it, doing it, living it, you can absolutely make your passion a business.”

It’s her passion that led her to open Organic Pilates on Locust Street just over 18 months ago. “I wanted to share my love of Pilates and offer others the chance to experience just how good the modality is,” Grauel says. “Being able to combine my love of teaching Pilates with my passion for design is what Organic Pilates is.”

Organic Pilates is a modern reformer Pilates studio offering group reformer and mat Pilates and barre classes. Joseph Pilates developed a fitness system in the early 20th century designed to improve flexibility, build strength, and develop control and endurance in the body through controlled movements. Reformer Pilates uses a “reformer” to allow for a more targeted and dynamic workout. Barre is a hybrid workout combining ballet-inspired movements with elements of Pilates, dance, yoga and strength training.
“From the day I decided to open my own business, it was exactly seven weeks from conception to reality,” Grauel says. “I was very intentional and there was nothing stopping me from making it happen.”

Although there were challenges, structural and cosmetic renovations to the studio were made in quick fashion thanks to a little sweat equity and help from Grauel’s father and sledgehammer-wielding fiancé. “I was four weeks out from opening and I found a way to purchase 800 square feet of new tile,” she says, adding her fiancé also doubled as the tile installer.
The result is a bright, fresh, calming and welcoming space. Clients can sign up and pay for classes on the studio’s website – www.organic-pilates.com – with either Grauel or fellow instructor Hannah Worley.

“I want to inspire people to fall in love with their bodies – not just aesthetically, but for how better movement brings better quality of life,” Grauel says. “I’m inspired when I have a client say to me that they were able to ‘do’ something that was maybe not available to their body before they came to the studio. I love that.”

Grauel loves to be creative in her classes. “My classes are unexpected but challenging, and I like to give each body in front of me the opportunity to experience the practice (of Pilates) as it was intended, but with a playful, modern approach,” she says.

Through COVID, Organic Pilates has vowed remained open due to Grauel’s belief that “movement is essential. Our bodies were meant for movement and movement is life,” she says.

Organic Pilates
169 Locust St., Redding
(530) 524-9008
www.organic-pilates.com