Jules Pilates

In the late 1920s, above Manhattan’s 8th Avenue, a middle-aged man looks out from a large window at people going about their everyday lives: mothers running errands with their kids, construction workers on their lunch breaks—the steady rhythm of a city in motion. Joe Pilates wasn’t just people-watching. Like an artist studying the human form, he was paying close attention to the biomechanics of movement.

“He could see what somebody was doing and feel it in his own body and then translate that to strengthening and movement and coordination,” says Jules Wolf Stenzel, owner of Jules Pilates. Jules studied Pilates under Lolita San Miguel, one of only two people Joe personally trained to teach his method as he intended, making Jules a second-generation Pilates teacher. Her presence in Madison is already something special, but the value of her studio goes far beyond her credentials.

Her teaching philosophy began taking shape in the mid-2000s at Gilda’s Club, where she was a yoga teacher. “I was their first yoga teacher,” says Jules. “It changed my mind about the kinds of relationships you can have with your clients. You think: I’m the owner. I’m very clinical. I’m a teacher. That they’re just people who come in and want information. But I realized I couldn’t be that kind of person because when we’re talking about holistic health, how you feel about something, who you are is part of what you bring to the table in terms of exercising.”

Jules begins most sessions by simply asking how each person’s day is going. Understanding where someone is mentally and physically allows her to meet them where they’re at. Pilates isn’t separate from the rest of a person’s life; it builds everyday movements into intentional ones. That awareness fosters a culture rooted in belonging. Clients span all ages and abilities, and through a scholarship program, financial barriers are reduced. It’s a safe and welcoming space for people of all body types.

Her teaching philosophy is also linked to her management style, which traces back to her early career as a professional chef. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Jules earned her history and philosophy of science degree, “so that prepares you to either be a chef or a rock star,” she says. “I trained in Chicago and then worked in my hometown, Urbana, for a year at a vegetarian jazz nightclub.”

She then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to continue her career in kitchens, but soon realized she wouldn’t stay for long. The toxic culture she encountered left her feeling unhappy, so she looked back to her degree for direction. “Since I had science for my degree, I thought I would do something that used that, so I became an environmental educator with kids at this beautiful farm and wilderness preserve in the Santa Cruz foothills. That’s truly where I learned to teach, and I worked with kids from the age of two through high school. Maybe that’s where I developed my teaching communication skills.”

During that time, Jules recalls one of her managers who mastered the art of teamwork, pairing people based on complementary skills and helping them grow. She would later start several businesses of her own before opening Jules Pilates, and developed a “vision to have the opportunity to create a good team and to have this beautiful environment that promotes the mental health of the employees.” To get there, she prioritizes hiring good communicators first and foremost.

That lens of communication and its value show up everywhere in Jules’ life. As much as she admires Joe, she admits, “Joe was not a tender communicator. He had a tender heart, but he had a very harsh sort of Germanic way of speaking. He’d be like, ‘Sit. Move your arms. Move your legs. Pump faster. Harder. Move here.’ And he’d push on people’s bodies to put them into position.”

Lolita, in contrast, is a gifted communicator. “Lolita was the prima ballerina at the Met Opera,” says Jules. “Just a wonderful, beautiful, charismatic woman. When I met her, I fell in love with her grace, her clarity, and the stories she told about the days when Joe was inventing his equipment and working with people. I was sitting at a lunch table with her and her husband. We were talking and her husband kind of poked her and said, ‘You should invite her into the program.’” Typically, Lolita’s Pilates master mentorship program was something you had to apply to and get accepted, but it was clear Jules would be a great fit.

That invitation marked the turning point—when Jules made the shift from just yoga to Pilates, or as she calls it, “the world of functional fitness. It teaches you how to access your movements and your muscles in a way you can squat and crawl and climb and jump. It’s really foundational movement.” Over the years, she’s opened studios; worked with a variety of equipment, including CoreAlign; and continued studying to help clients get the most out of their bodies. Today, she’s a teacher-trainer for Balanced Body.

Because Jules learned directly from Joe’s protégé, she carries forward not only the moves, but an intimate understanding of the whys behind them. That depth shapes every class she teaches. “We don’t leave it at one level,” says Jules. “We work with your goals. It’s the why behind the movement so they can apply it to their real-life Pilates. And the community—a sense of belonging—we’re very close.”

There’s also this broader idea of what a world that does Pilates might look like. Joe lived during some of modern history’s greatest hardships, including both World Wars, and even wrote to President JFK to get Pilates in schools. He believed that when people feel happy, they get along in this beautiful way. That a world doing Pilates would lead to world peace.

Jules sees her studio as an extension of that belief. At Jules Pilates, she says, “We’re not just little robots doing our things by ourselves. We’re friends. We’re really a community. If we can get that feeling of friendliness, next step, world peace.”

Jules Pilates Studio
5419 Monona Drive
Monona, WI 53714
(608) 239-5989
julespilates.com