PILATES PILOT

While she started her professional career in the finance industry, Tifani O’Rourke enjoyed exercise and maintained a focus on staying fit. Born and raised in the Chicago area, she had her second son while working on the trading desk for Bank of America and decided to make a lifestyle change to stay home with her children.

She moved around the country for a few years and returned to the Chicago area with her family 12 years ago. Six years later she purchased Energie Pilates in downtown Hinsdale.

“I’ve always been proactive about staying fit. I played sports throughout high school and intramurals in college, and have been a runner since college,” O’Rourke says. “Pilates had been in the background and then it really started getting bigger in the early 2000s. When we came back to this area, I had three kids and I needed something for myself, so I started working at the studio that I now own.”

O’Rourke attended Warren Township High School in Gurnee and studied finance at Northern Illinois University, a major that she says comes in handy while running the business. She’s also hands on, and stays involved by teaching classes herself.

“When I teach, I love just getting to know different people and different types of bodies, trying to help someone figure out how to make the workout work for them,” she says. “I think it’s great to see how people transform or progress as they keep moving along. It’s nice to see when someone has been struggling with a different movement, and it becomes easier for them.”

While Pilates has some similarities to yoga, O’Rourke says it’s a lot about doing different movements with controlled, balanced precision. The main focus is working the stabilizer muscles, making other movements easier because participants are working smaller muscles a little deeper down. And while not a cardio workout per se, there is exertion involved.

“Our studio has what are called reformers, which is a piece of equipment on which you do movements based on spring tension,” O’Rourke says. “You use different springs to change the load of your exercise. Depending on the movement, it can be cardio, but I wouldn’t say it’s cardio based.”

O’Rourke’s clients include both men and women, and she says a lot of athletes are joining Pilates classes because it can improve their performance on the field or court.

“A lot of basketball players, even football and baseball players, are Pilates enthusiasts. Jake Arrieta, the former Cubs pitcher, is a huge Pilates activist, and actually convinced the Cubs to put a reformer in their weight room,” says O’Rourke. It’s mostly still women, but we’re seeing more men. And our clients include everyone from teenagers to people in their 80s.

Regardless of age, O’Rourke says most people who start with Pilates have different places of weakness in the muscles in their bodies, such as a back strain, and are looking to get stronger.

“Generally, people coming to Pilates are looking find more strength and get stronger,” she says. “As you get older and naturally deteriorate, having a strong core will help you live a higher quality of life.”

O’Rourke says one of the aspects of owning and running Energie Pilates she appreciates is that, with its downtown Hinsdale location, the studio has a sense of community just like the surrounding town.

“The studio has been here for 16 or 17 years, and I am a part of the community. My kids go to the schools in town,” she says. “Our teachers in the studio are all local, and everyone in the studio is very welcoming.”

Energie Pilates is located at 18 W 1st Street in Hinsdale, 630-734- 3493, energiepilatesspa.com.