A wooden wall with blue and brown strips.

Studio Blog

61 classes. One half marathon. A new relationship with movement. When Leslie Gonzalez first walked into our Spring Branch studio in February 2025, she wasn’t chasing a finish line. She was just beginning to explore what movement could look like for her. Before Citizen, her workouts happened mostly at home. Walks. Short routines. A lot of uncertainty. Like many people, the traditional gym environment didn’t feel welcoming, and Pilates felt like something she admired from afar, not something she “fit.” What brought her in was simple. Location. What made her stay was everything else. “The

So many studios and social media outlets talk about the Lagree Method like it’s Pilates. But it’s not, for so many reasons: from the equipment itself, to its “torture†and “die†focus, to its sustainability, there’s really very little the two have in common. Developed by Sebastian Lagree, a self-described “French American inventor and fitness visionair,†a MegaReformer is NOT a Pilates Reformer, though it might look similar. Lagree developed the Mega specifically for the “Lagree Fitness Method†he created, a method with its own tempo and duration standards. Each 40-minute

People often ask me why I chose the name Citizen for my Pilates studio. As hard as I’ve tried, I haven’t been able to condense that story down into a 30-second elevator pitch. Naming a company you’ve poured your heart and soul into should feel personal, but so much about that process has to be intentional and practical.  I found myself having to think about things like domain name availability. Can I get the .com or do I have to settle for the less desirable .net or .co? Is it too

Ask Jess Hughes when her passion for Pilates began, and she’ll laugh and say that she is still waiting for it to kick in. That’s not what it’s all about for Hughes. The owner of Citizen Pilates isn’t proselytizing about fitness or trying to convert anyone to a particular format. Instead, she’s bent on creating a place where everyone feels like they can join. “You’d be hard pressed to come into my studio and not have someone call you by your name,” Hughes said. “It’s just not going to happen. I want everyone