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Back in 1995, Mike Duffy was living in Chicago and suffered the terrible
loss of his wife due to breast cancer. Supporting her struggle and
eventual defeat by this disease was mentally draining for Mike. After
her passing, the process of trying to cope with being a single father,
breadwinner, and recent widower, proved to be too much for him to
handle on his own - something in his life was about to implode. Turns
out, it was his health. Mike was not eating healthy, not getting any
exercise, gained over 20 pounds and had debilitating back pain. In
short, Mike was a physical and emotional train wreck. Then he met
someone who could get him back on track. A mutual friend introduced
Mike to Joey Greco. Joey is a renowned Pilates Instructor
who was fortunate enough to be one of the select few trained by a
living protégée of creator Joseph Pilates. Nine months
later, after many visits to Joey’s Pilates Studio, Mike’s
physical and emotional well being was drastically improving every
week. He lost the extra weight. He felt great. Mike even joked with
Joey that they should sell videotapes of their training sessions so
that others could get the same benefit he received from the classical
way Joey taught Pilates. Joey would laugh and shake his head as he
explained that trying Pilates on your own at home with a videotape
doesn’t work because in order to get the benefits of Pilates,
you have to perform the movement correctly, which requires live supervision.
Mike knew the public would go wild over Joey’s training methods,
if only he could find a way to clone Joey. But as with all great stories,
they came to a fork in the road. Mike had to move to San Diego and
Joey decided to move to Arizona. Maybe a joint business venture wasn’t
meant to be?Fast forward eight years and Mike’s life was back
on track and Pilates was an integral part of it.
Mike ran an international CPA test preparation company utilizing prerecorded
lessons on videotape, while live local instructors roamed the class
assisting students. This allowed for consistent, superior lessons
with the benefit of one-on-one counseling. It was at this same company
that Mike met another CPA, Steve Goldstein. Steve couldn’t help
but be infused with Mike’s enthusiasm for Pilates and impressed
by how much it had improved Mike’s life. In the spring of 2003,
Mike and Steve went to check out a new fitness studio that had opened
only two miles from Mike’s house. When they walked through the
door, they were shocked to see who was standing there - Joey!
Once Mike and Steve approached Joey, the three partners were struck
by an idea, as if by lightning - let’s revolutionize the Pilates
industry. Mike and Steve left their jobs and using their over 50 years
of media assisted training experience, along with the
prestige of Joey Greco’s classical instruction, they launched
Pilates Joe. The immediate excitement from the community about their
first studio in Scottsdale, Arizona was proof that the Pilates Joe
system of training was exactly what people looking to get in shape
had been craving for years. In short, a better, faster, more effective
method of improving their fitness. Double the instructors. Double
the results. A month’s worth of training at the cost of an hour.
The Pilates industry will never be the same! |
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