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Why train with Fearless Fitness Training Academy
You don't want to finish your training and still not feel ready to teach
That's the experience too many people have.
They finish their course, they have the certificate, and then they stand in front of their first class and feel completely underprepared. Not because they weren't capable, but because their training never actually got them ready for what it's like to be in the studio.
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That's what I built Fearless Fitness Training Academy to change.
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Every course we run is built around one thing: leaving you ready to teach on day one. Not six months later. Not after more CPD to fill the gaps. Day one.
Movement should never be taught with fear
The name Fearless Fitness isn't just a name, it comes from something I see constantly in the Pilates world, and trainee instructors: a kind of inherited anxiety about movement.
They've been taught to protect clients from injury by treating the body as fragile. Slow, small movements that are less than what the person does in their everyday life.
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The problem is that when you teach from fear, your clients move with fear. And fearful movement is never good movement.
Joseph Pilates didn't teach that way. He taught movement as something the body is built for, something to be reclaimed, explored, enjoyed.
​That's what movement optimism looks like. Not recklessness. Not ignoring contraindications. But a genuine belief that the body is capable, and that your job as an instructor is to help people find that out for themselves.
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That's the thread that runs through everything we teach. Classical foundations, modern application, and the confidence to get out of the way and let your clients move.
THE original method
For where the industry is now
Joseph Pilates developed a complete, coherent system of movement. The Matwork sequence, Reformer repertoire, the apparatus work - it all connects. There's a logic to it that a lot of modern training skips over in favour of whatever's trending.
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We start from the original. The classical exercises, in the classical sequence, with the classical intentions behind them. Because if you understand why Joseph Pilates built the system the way he did, you can teach any class in any studio and know exactly what you're doing and why.
But we're not purists for its own sake. Boutique Reformer studios don't run the same way they did in New York in 1950, and your clients are coming in with different bodies, different goals, and different expectations than they used to. So we teach you how to take the original method and make it work in the room you're actually standing in.
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That means understanding progressive overload. Understanding how the classical Pilates principles interact with basic movement science - which classical training usually skips, but which we think are the same conversation.
The best Pilates instructors aren't just Pilates instructors.
They understand movement. We make sure you do too.
"Naomi was consistently approachable, generous with her time, and always available to answer questions and deepen our understanding of the practice. Whereas with BASI I was only able to email support in the USA, through a centralised system that offered support solely by email."
Marjan Nourouzi
Large training providers put 20 people in a room and call it personalised education.
You leave with a folder, a certificate, and not much else.
We keep our groups small deliberately, because real feedback and mentoring is the only thing that actually makes you better.
The large training providers put 20 people in a room and call it a course. We don't want to do that.
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Our groups are deliberately small. Not as a selling point but as a commitment to our students. Small groups mean we actually see how you move, how you cue, where you're getting it right and where you need more support. When something isn't clicking, we notice before it becomes a problem. And you leave knowing exactly where you stand, not hoping for the best.
​Our students get real access and real feedback. We stay in contact throughout the whole learning and assessment process. You will never be handed a folder and left to get on with it.
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Our External Quality Assurer at YMCA Awards has consistently praised the quality of support and feedback our students receive. That's not us saying it, but the people whose job it is to check.
“Finding the Real Pilates Teacher in Me
Naomi is hands-down one of the best teachers I have ever had.
My previous training felt so rigid and disconnected from my own style that it left me uncomfortable in my teaching. Naomi completely changed that.
Backed by her immense knowledge, passion, and ongoing support, Naomi's open approach empowered me to trust my own style and integrate my multi-disciplinary knowledge and love of full body movement into my Pilates teaching style.
I finished her course feeling proud, confident, and deeply inspired to keep learning and staying up to date with the science.”
Katya Mohsen
Why I built this
I've been teaching dance, fitness and Pilates for over 20 years and have been training fitness professionals since 2007. Before that I trained as a dancer at the Accademia Internazionale di Danza in Rome.
I worked for Zumba Fitness as an Education Specialist, training tens of thousands of instructors across Europe and Africa.
I've developed concepts and training programmes for my own business, as well for others, have managed boutique studios in London, and now focus on teaching Pilates instructors from Poole to Glasgow and beyond.
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Some people might think that such a varied background is a weakness, that a proper Pilates educator should have done nothing but Pilates their whole life.​​
I think the opposite.
​​Because I've worked across fitness disciplines, I understand movement as a whole, not just through one lens. I know what progressive overload means in practice. I know how Pilates sits alongside - and sometimes in tension with - the broader movement science.
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I know what clients actually want from a boutique fitness experience, because I've worked in those environments. And I know what makes the difference between instructors who build a client base and instructors who don't, because I've seen both.
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Classical Pilates training can be extraordinary. It can also be rigid, disconnected from basic movement principles, and taught as though nothing useful has been discovered since the 1920s. We're not doing that.
​​But contemporary training isn't automatically the answer either. Some of the most widely taught contemporary methods - the ones that market themselves as evidence-based - are working from evidence that's 20 or 30 years old.
They teach movement protection and fear under a different name. And they often spend so much time on individual exercise technique that they never actually prepare you to stand in front of a group and teach. You come out knowing how to nitpick a foot position. You don't know how to hold a room.
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We're teaching the original method with the full context of what we now know about how bodies work. And we're teaching you how to actually teach in real studios, with real groups, from day one.
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That's what 20 years of varied experience gets you. I wouldn't trade it.
A lot of what gets taught as Pilates truth is decades-old received wisdom dressed up as fact. We use current evidence, cite our sources, and update our content when the science moves. Because your clients deserve better than mythology.
Being a small provider means we can move quickly. When a new systematic review comes out that changes how we understand something - load management, breathing mechanics, the evidence base for specific exercises - we can update our content for the next cohort. We're not waiting on a curriculum committee or a three-year accreditation cycle.
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We back everything we teach with the best quality studies available. Not textbooks that haven't been updated in a decade. Not received wisdom from 30 years ago. Current evidence, cited, accessible, and taught in a way that makes sense in the real world.
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Because we think your clients deserve instructors who know this stuff. And we think you deserve training that actually reflects it.
Who you'll train with
Small team. Real people.
Genuinely invested in your success.
Naomi Di Fabio
Founder • Lead Tutor • Assessor •
Fully Comprehensive Pilates Teacher
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Naomi leads all Reformer and Matwork Pilates training at Fearless Fitness Training Academy, both in person across the UK and live online.
20 years training fitness professionals, a classical Pilates foundation, and a background that spans dance training in Rome, global instructor education, and boutique studio management. She brings all of it into the training room.
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You'll find Naomi in your online learning content, in the room with you on your in-person training days, and available throughout your assessment process. She replies to messages personally.
Phoebe Heyhoe
Clinical Pilates Instructor • Tutor • Assessor
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Clinical Pilates instructor, former studio owner and educator with a strong background in evidence-based movement and a passion for empowering instructors to teach with confidence and curiosity.
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Phoebe has extensive experience teaching group Pilates and mentoring new instructors, with a focus on fearless movement and inclusive teaching practices. A lifelong dancer turned educator, Phoebe's classes balance movements that feel good and deliver results.
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When she's not on the mat, she's a first-time mum to boy/girl twins and an enthusiastic baker (who admits she eats more of her creations than she shares). Married to a musician, she jokes that they make the perfect pair - her wife brings the beats and Phoebe brings the moves.
You'll find Phoebe within your recorded online learning content, teaching live virtual sessions and assessing for both Matwork and Reformer courses.
Clare Axon-Saunders
Tutor • Fully Comprehensive Pilates Teacher
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Clare's Pilates started almost 20 years ago when she took a class to improve her horse riding and unexpectedly fell in love with the method. After becoming hooked on the benefits - increased strength and flexibility, and yes, better riding - she trained in contemporary Pilates. Then she found Classical Pilates and felt the missing pieces click into place.
Clare continuously refines her expertise. She recently completed training in evidence-based Pilates, integrating the latest scientific insights with traditional Pilates principles.
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She has an eye for detail and classes that are both challenging and progressive. Her support throughout your Pilates training is unwavering.
Expect her sessions to include laughter and the occasional F-bomb - she firmly believes working hard should always be enjoyable.
You'll find Clare teaching in-person training courses for Pilates apparatus - Tower & Cadillac, Chairs, and Barrels, as part of the Fully Comprehensive pathway.
If you're nearly there but not quite ready to commit
Choosing a training provider is a real decision. It costs money, it costs time, and if you've had a mediocre experience before, you're right to be careful.
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Get in touch directly. Naomi replies personally to every message, and there's no sales process, just an honest conversation about whether what we offer is the right fit for where you're at.
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If it is, great. If it isn't, she'll tell you that too.