Las Vegas Pilates studio helps those with arthritis, Parkinson’s find relief

Core The Pilates Studio owner Jessica Rabbo said she’s seen plenty of success stories come out of her studio at 6115 S. Fort Apache Road, Suite 104, with inches and pounds shaved away. But the successes that are most significant to her come from clients seeking rehabilitation from injury, illness and disease. 

People such as Craig Michael impress Rabbo with their persistence and progress.

“Craig came to me in a wheelchair after his stroke, and now he’s completely walking,” Rabbo said. “He doesn’t even need a cane. And he’s doing full-on Pilates now.”

Rabbo said when Michael started, he couldn’t get out of the wheelchair.

“So he did his Pilates seated in a wheelchair, and we worked on a lot of upper-body movement, and eventually, we kept increasing week by week,” she said. “And now he comes in here, and he walks right in. He’s very consistent. He’s a hard worker in here. And he never complains.”

The studio offers private sessions for clients such as Michael on clinical-based equipment. Rabbo said some come in with multiple sclerosis, seeking to live pain-free. Others use Pilates to rebound from arthritis or Parkinson’s disease. The studio also offers a special program for clients going through breast cancer.

Jeanne Moller, 68, has been training with Rabbo around five years. Moller said Pilates has been the trick to battling her rheumatoid arthritis.

“I despise exercise,” she said. “I was not born to exercise. (Pilates is) the only form of exercise I have found that I thoroughly enjoy but that I can also see progress in. I can actually see muscle and toning. And it’s made a world of difference to me. I’m flexible, and I have strength where I’m not supposed to have strength. My doctors are amazed that I’m as flexible as I am with rheumatoid arthritis.”

Rabbo said Moller’s results are not isolated.

“About 80 percent of our clientele come to us injured,” Rabbo said. “So we specialize in rehabilitative Pilates.”

Rabbo said even 20-somethings come in with back pain and sports injuries they need to work through.

Rabbo, who is about four months pregnant, faces her own Pilates challenges.

“This is my second pregnancy,” she said. “I did it through my whole first pregnancy. And most of the girls that we have in here have all had a baby at some point. We have a pregnancy wedge. After your first trimester, you’re only supposed to be on your back for 10 minutes at a time. So to alleviate that, we put them at an inclined position, and they’re able to do the entire class on their back.”

Rabbo got her start in Pilates through flamenco.

“My mother is Spanish, and my father is American,” she explained. “He met her when he was stationed in Spain. I lived in Spain until I was 7, and then I moved to London. From London, I came to Vegas. I’d always done flamenco dancing, and when I moved to Las Vegas, I found a flamenco group here at UNLV. My instructor said, ‘You really need to work on your posture. You should do Pilates.’ So I started doing Pilates at UNLV.”

After studying Pilates for personal practice, Rabbo fell in love with it and pursued certification, thinking teaching might be a good way to work her way through college.

“And I ended up turning it into a career,” she said.

Rabbo started out working with rehabilitation patients in clinical physical therapy settings. Then, in 2012, “The economy went kapoof,” she said, and the clinic she was working at announced it was closing. Rabbo and an instructor she was working with had less than a month to find an independent location.

Since opening, she has built the business from two instructors to 17. She’s also worked to increase the size of the studio, adding a coffee bar for private clients and treadmills for group sessions. The focus is on small classes assisted by the Pilates Reformer machines. She said that using the machines, instructors can stroll up and down the row, adjusting tension to give each participant a custom workout.

“We don’t use actual weight,” she explained. “We don’t tear the muscle fibers; we elongate them. So you’re going to get more of a dancer’s body here. We do a lot of smaller muscle groups instead of focusing on those big, huge muscle groups that you do when you’re doing weightlifting. So you’re going to get an entire body workout when you’re in here, from head to toe.”

Moller said the difference between Pilates and traditional workouts is dramatic. Prior to being referred to Rabbo, she was running on treadmills and lifting weights with no progress or results.

“I just didn’t have the stamina,” Moller said. “It was very frustrating. It was just not working. With Jessica, she eases me into it, and I’ve done stuff I never thought I would do.”

Rabbo said hers is one of the few studios in town to insist on annual training for instructors. She is a master instructor through Balanced Body, the maker of the machines.

Her reach has extended throughout the Pilates community.

“You’ll usually always find someone who has either worked here or has trained with me,” she said. “I’ve trained a lot of the girls who now have their own studios, which is really cool, too.”

Rabbo is hoping to expand her own reach by the end of this year or the first of next year with the addition of a studio in Henderson.

Visit mycorestudios.com or call 702-798-8000.

Contact View contributing reporter Ginger Meurer at gmeurer@viewnews.com. Find her on Twitter: @gingermmm.