Meet Anna Elkins of Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anna Elkins.

Hi Anna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started teaching Pilates in 2012. I grew up a very passionate dancer and moved to NYC at 18 to become a professional dancer. I discovered Pilates as a young teenager through my mom’s workout tapes, so when I moved to NYC I immediately began taking Pilates classes in Manhattan as my favorite source of conditioning and rejuvenation from a strenuous dance training schedule (and stressful life in the city). At 19 I was so in love with Pilates that I began my training to become a Pilates Instructor. For many years I was afraid to make Pilates my full time career because I didn’t want to risk the possibility of burn out on something I loved so much – sounds silly right? Finally after many years of teaching Pilates only as a hobby or side gig I went for it full time because no matter what other career path I tried, teaching Pilates was always the most fulfilling. My irrational fear of burn out didn’t come true and I have absolutely loved teaching Pilates full time the past 8 years, especially since opening my own studio. After having our first baby in 2018, my husband Kirby and I decided to move from the valley back to our home town of Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ where I opened my studio, White Mountain Pilates. This has been one of the most fulfilling choices of my life. I get to help so many bodies with so many different issues and do it my own way. I get to bring the value of quality Pilates to the northeast corner of Arizona which didn’t have it before. From injured athletes to postpartum mothers struggling with core dysfunction, from autoimmune disease to surgery rehabilitation, we get to help transform so many lives.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I decided to open my business in my hometown I knew I needed to get the word out about Pilates first before opening a studio if I wanted it to succeed. I would also be doing it alone as I was going to be the only Pilates Instructor within 2-3 hours of our town! So I spent 4 years marketing and teaching wherever I could to include gyms, parks, bars, coffee shops, dance studios, schools, homes and more. Finally I was able to successfully open a Pilates studio in the very building I had my eyes on and had prayed for the whole time.

We had quite the hiccup in trying to open though. Leading up to opening the studio I designed a 450 hour teacher training program and spent a year training another instructor as I never intended to open a studio by myself. We planned to open our doors in September of 2023 but I was pregnant with my third baby who entered the world 3 months premature – which is a whole story in itself! Then while nearing the end of our 80 day hospital stay, my new instructor called to tell me her husband had lost his job and they would have to move across the country. I was losing her and would be opening my studio alone as the sole instructor when I came home from the hospital. To top this massive hiccup off, in the weeks leading up to opening I became very ill and was diagnosed with Graves Disease and Hashimoto’s. All of this was quite the journey but made our grand opening that much sweeter when it finally happened with my miracle baby on my hip.

Since January 2024 I have trained multiple awesome instructors that I am so blessed to have and our studio has been thriving since the very first day of our grand opening.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Comprehensive Pilates Instructor, Prenatal & Postpartum Fitness Specialist and Corrective Exercise Specialist. I have been teaching for 14 years. I am a third generation Pilates Instructor meaning that the women who trained me were trained directly under one of Joe Pilates’ proteges, Lolita San Miguel.

I am comprehensively trained in Pilates Mat & apparatus including Reformer, Cadillac/Towers/Trapeze, Chair, Barrels, toe corrector, foot corrector, pinwheel and the ped-o-pull and have additional fitness training in Barre Above, TriggerPoint Therapy myofascial release, TRX suspension training and Pilates Suspension Method.

I specialize in corrective exercise, core rehabilitation, injury prevention and injury rehabilitation. I highly specialize in prenatal exercise and postpartum injury prevention and rehabilitation but I also love to take that skillset into working with male athletes. These 2 people groups are so different but my absolute joys to work with and help fill in the gaps they aren’t getting anywhere else. Also, the more messed up someone’s body is, the more excited I am to help them! I am definitely a nerd about the body and investigating how I can fix it.

I have successfully worked with professional athletes, pregnant and postpartum recovering mothers, frozen shoulder, pelvic floor prolapse, Diastasis Recti, Parkinson’s, MS, blindness, Lyme disease, brain injury, scoliosis, fusions, post surgery and all sorts of injuries and levels of fitness. I have seen countless transformations throughout the years as clients gain a new sense of integrated control and achieve exciting results. I love having a part in mothers getting their confidence back, in athletes becoming better at what they do or getting to do what they love again after rehabilitation, in helping those with serious ailments find some sense of freedom and control again when they haven’t been able to workout in any other setting. I love helping trapped bodies find freedom again. There is nothing better.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
My mom who passed away 8 years ago always called me her persevering girl. She actually always wanted me to move home and open a Pilates Studio and would be so proud that I did. But I think persevering is exactly what anyone needs to be successful. I had to persevere in finding the right path for my life, in laying the ground work for 4 years to open a successful studio in a remote area, in finding the best ways to help my clients especially in the more severe cases, in pushing to be my best to give my clients the best and in pushing through obstacles when they come up – because they will. If you want to succeed, you have to be someone who doesn’t simply survive but who perseveres.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.whitemountainpilatesaz.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitemountainpilatesaz/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitemountainpilatesaz/