Recognized by Fitness Living Magazine™ For alignment-first, one-on-one Pilates coaching, home practice between sessions, and client relationships that have lasted since 2007.
“Who would have known,” she said, “that we just did this for fun?” What began with two reformers, a Cadillac, and a plan to serve the nearby Hollywood Beach and Silver Strand neighborhoods became a one-on-one Pilates studio in Oxnard where several clients have trained since the doors opened, and where the work begins with helping each person understand the body they live in.
“Once you know your body, then I believe that you can help yourself so much.”Sharon George / Pilates Influence
The harbor view is usually the first thing clients notice. Boats sit along the boardwalk just beyond the door, with the Ventura County mountains visible in the distance, especially when capped with snow. Inside, two connected rooms of roughly 20 by 20 feet hold the reformers and Cadillac, along with a few cushioned seats. Large picture windows bring in the ocean breeze and give the studio the relaxed feel of its waterfront setting.
The personal attention follows. Sessions are by appointment and mostly one-on-one, beginning with a conversation about why each client has come. Sharon then uses a walk test and body-alignment assessment to spot differences in posture and movement, such as a dropped shoulder or lifted hip. Rather than treating the assessment as a test, she uses it to understand where to begin and which exercises are appropriate.
That care helps explain why people stay. Several have trained at Pilates Influence since it opened in 2007; many began in their 40s, 50s, or 60s, and the oldest client is 88. Sharon gives clients simple homework, often resistance-band exercises, so progress continues between sessions, and clients are never pushed to move faster than they are ready for.
Sharon George has shaped Pilates Influence around a simple standard: understand the body in front of you before asking it to do more. That approach, built over four decades of teaching fitness, gives the studio its patient, personal tone and helps explain why clients return year after year.
The Alignment-First Philosophy of Pilates Influence
The philosophy at Pilates Influence begins with one simple idea: once you know your body, you can help yourself. Sharon George has built 19 years of one-on-one sessions around that belief, starting every client with a walk test and an alignment assessment before asking the body to do more.
Pilates Influence is a Pilates studio in Oxnard, California, overlooking the Channel Islands Harbor, that has offered appointment-based, mostly one-on-one Pilates training since September 2007. Co-owner Sharon George describes a small studio with two reformers, a Cadillac, and a Wunda Chair, where each client begins with a walk test and alignment assessment and many clients have trained for years, some since the studio opened.
It is built around private sessions, careful alignment work, and home practice, in a two-room harbor-front space that has stayed intentionally small for 19 years.
Session formats and pricing, including the $50 Get Acquainted session for new clients, are listed on the studio’s website.
Sharon’s own path shaped that view. She began teaching group fitness in the early 1980s, discovered mat Pilates in the early 1990s, and moved into reformer and Cadillac training around 2000 before earning her Pilates certification.
She and three fellow instructors opened Pilates Influence in September 2007 as a part-time studio, planning to serve the nearby Hollywood Beach and Silver Strand neighborhoods; two of the original four remain as owners today.
Why Pilates Influence Feels Different From a Typical Studio
This profile looks at how Pilates Influence combines private sessions, alignment-first coaching, home practice, and a harbor-front setting into a studio clients stay with for years.
Every client begins with a walk test and alignment assessment, and sessions are private, so the work is built around one body at a time.
The studio serves clients of all ages, including many older adults and people working around injuries, arthritis, or joint replacements.
It has kept the same harbor location, the same small scale, and many of the same clients since 2007.
A Small Studio by Design
The space they found sits on the boardwalk at the Channel Islands Harbor in Ventura County. The four founders opened it part-time in September 2007 because each of them still held a full-time job, and Sharon says none of them expected it to last this long. There have been memorable moments along the way. Before larger studios opened in the area, a couple of Dallas Cowboys players who were training nearby called Sharon to continue their Pilates sessions, and their height and reach were such that she had to move a reformer into the middle of the room to fit them.
Those stories are part of the studio’s history, but its real identity is its regular clients. Sharon says Pilates Influence serves all age levels, and a large share of its clients are seniors who started in their 40s, 50s, or 60s and simply stayed. Some come weekly, others twice a week, and several have been with the studio since it opened.
An Assessment That Starts With How You Stand
The first session at Pilates Influence begins with a conversation, then an assessment. Sharon asks what brought the client in and why, then uses a walk test and a body-alignment assessment to look at functional movement and see where the body and spine may be out of alignment. Her approach draws on the principle at the center of Joseph Pilates’ method: maintaining a neutral spine whether a client is standing, lying down, on one side, or bending forward.
She explains it simply. When muscles pull the body out of balance, as with a dropped shoulder, the lower side is often tighter and the higher side looser, so the goal is to loosen the tight side and strengthen the loose one. If an imbalance does not show up in the walk test, reformer exercises often reveal it. Sharon then uses wedges and props to bring a surface up to the part of the body that is not yet touching, so the client has something to press against. “Push your right hip into this wedge,” she said, describing the moment it clicks. “Now you’ve found it.”
Understood Before Being Asked to Work Harder
A client at Pilates Influence is meant to feel understood before being asked to work harder. Sessions begin with questions about what brought the client in, move through an alignment assessment, and build at a pace that fits the body in front of the instructor.
Sharon is careful about what she promises. She is not a doctor or a physical therapist, and she says any structural change depends on the individual body and is never guaranteed. What she does see is greater body awareness, and clients often tell her that pain they had been living with has eased.
Progress Clients Can Feel
Progression at the studio happens in two ways. Sometimes clients ask for more intensity, and Sharon welcomes it. Other times she decides a client is ready, warms up the body parts a harder exercise will require, and then moves the client up a level while she spots. Spring tension on the equipment can be adjusted to make an exercise easier or more demanding. One milestone she builds toward is the teaser, a challenging Pilates exercise that is hard to hold in proper form. She recently introduced it, with assistance from the equipment, to a client who never thought it was possible.
She judges whether the approach is working by what clients tell her and what she sees. Clients come in saying they feel wonderful. They perform exercises more correctly, need less correction, and begin to catch and fix their own form. Over the years she has watched a surfer in his 50s place third in a contest, a client take second place in an abdominal competition, and many clients regain balance they thought was gone. The change she mentions most is simpler: people walking straighter and taller, more confident and feeling good about themselves.
Pilates Influence matters because it treats understanding the body as the starting point rather than the reward, and that patience has kept clients returning to the same harbor-front studio for nearly two decades.
What Pilates Influence Offers
Based on the interview and the official studio website, Pilates Influence is built for clients who want private, appointment-based Pilates instruction shaped around their own alignment, goals, and pace.
Who Pilates Influence May Be a Good Fit For
Sharon says the studio serves all age levels, though it tends to fit people who want patient, individual coaching rather than a class schedule—including many older adults and people returning after an injury.
A large share of the studio’s clients are seniors, many of whom started in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. The oldest client is 88, and the pace is adjusted as each client progresses.
People working around injuries, arthritis, or a joint replacement get sessions built around their current ability, with wedges and props that make alignment easier to feel.
Readers who want to know why they move or hurt the way they do—and learn simple exercises to practice at home—may appreciate Sharon’s alignment-first approach.
“I just wanted to send a quick note to express my gratitude for Pilates Influence and all the sweet humans who make it what it is. No matter what is going on in my life, I have a safe place to go, be myself, be loved on, and build my confidence while building my booty. I could literally name every single instructor and a time they pulled me out of a funk, saved the day with their smile, or just made me feel seen and taken care of. It took about two seconds for me to feel settled, connected to my body, and like I could breathe again. I genuinely hoped that I make my students feel as strong, powerful, and safe as the Influence Teachers make me feel. It’s really magic.”
The Client Who Asked for Half an Hour
The story Sharon returns to is not a before-and-after photo or a number on a scale. It is a client who arrived two years ago saying she never stuck with anything and was in constant pain.
She wanted to begin with half-hour sessions. Sharon kept the early work simple and added resistance gradually, and by the third week, the client asked to try a full hour. She has trained for an hour twice a week ever since.
Sharon says the difference that stands out most is not only that the client reports feeling better, but that her outlook has changed: she is more positive, less stressed, and now asks to be challenged.
It is the kind of change Sharon points to when she says a diagnosis does not have to be the end of feeling good—progress measured in confidence as much as in exercises.
Where Pilates Influence Relationships Take Shape
Pilates Influence is easiest to understand through the people in the room. Sessions are private and unhurried, built around one client’s alignment, goals, and history at a time.
Why This Matters Locally
In Oxnard and the surrounding Ventura County communities, adults looking for a Pilates studio, private Pilates sessions, or Pilates suited to older adults often want more than a class schedule. They want an instructor who will take time to understand an old injury, a recent surgery, or a body that no longer responds the way it used to. Pilates Influence was built for that kind of attention.
The studio also gives the Hollywood Beach and Silver Strand neighborhoods something steady: a small, owner-led business that has stayed in the same harbor location since 2007, kept its scale personal, and grown through long relationships rather than volume. For clients who want Pilates in Oxnard that is personal, patient, and focused on alignment, that continuity is the point.
Life on the Harbor Boardwalk
Sharon came to Ventura County in 1979, when it was a very quiet community. It has grown since, but she says it has kept much of that quiet, with open fields still separating one shopping center or harbor from the next. The studio’s corner of it is a laid-back beach community: docks and boats crossing the channel, a couple of good restaurants within walking distance, homes just across the street, and a Sunday farmers market that has shared the studio’s parking lot for years.
Questions Readers Ask
Who Is Sharon George?
Sharon George is a co-owner of Pilates Influence in Oxnard, California, and one of the four fitness instructors who opened the studio in September 2007. She began teaching group fitness in the early 1980s, discovered mat Pilates in the early 1990s, and moved into reformer and Cadillac training around 2000 before earning her Pilates certification.
What Is Pilates Influence Known For?
Pilates Influence is known for appointment-based, mostly one-on-one Pilates training in a small studio overlooking the Channel Islands Harbor. Sessions begin with a walk test and a body-alignment assessment, and the studio has many long-term clients, including several who have trained there since it opened.
Is Pilates Influence a Good Fit for Older Adults and Beginners?
Sharon George says the studio serves all age levels and that a large share of its clients are seniors, many of whom started in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. The oldest client is 88. Each session is built around the individual client’s alignment, goals, and current ability, and the pace is adjusted as the client progresses.
What Happens During the First Session at Pilates Influence?
New clients can begin with the studio’s Get Acquainted special, a one-hour session for $50. Sharon George described it as an assessment that covers what the client wants to work on and includes a body assessment, with each instructor using a slightly different format.
What Makes Pilates Influence Different in Oxnard?
Pilates Influence has stayed intentionally small for 19 years, with two reformers, a Cadillac, and a Wunda Chair in a harbor-front studio. Its private session format, alignment-first coaching, home practice, and long client relationships give it a distinct place among Pilates studios in Oxnard and Ventura County.
What Is the Best First Step for a New Client?
Sharon says the best first step is to call or text her to schedule an appointment; if she is not available, a message is welcome and she returns calls as soon as she can. New clients can also begin with the $50 Get Acquainted session, a one-hour introduction and body assessment.
Key Takeaways
Pilates Influence is a small Pilates studio on the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, California, opened part-time by four instructors in September 2007.
Co-owner Sharon George builds each client’s work around a walk test, an alignment assessment, and the neutral-spine principle, using wedges and props to help clients feel the right muscles.
Sessions are appointment-based and mostly one-on-one, with duet sessions, a group mat series, and a $50 Get Acquainted session for new clients.
The studio’s community is defined by long relationships, including several clients who have trained there since it opened and an oldest client of 88.
Conclusion
Pilates Influence was never meant to be large. It was meant to be useful to the people nearby, and 19 years later that original intention still shapes almost everything about it: the private sessions, the short list of equipment, the careful assessments, and the clients who keep coming back. Sharon George’s own path, from teaching aerobics in the early 1980s to teaching cycling and kickboxing after knee replacements, gives that intention real weight.
The idea she returns to most is simple: once you know your body, you can help yourself. For clients in Oxnard and across Ventura County who want Pilates that starts with understanding rather than intensity, that may be the clearest reason this small studio on the harbor has lasted as long as it has.
Sharon George
Sharon’s fitness career began in the early 1980s teaching group classes, moved through mat Pilates in the early 1990s, and into reformer and Cadillac training around 2000. She has worked as a fitness instructor and trainer with the U.S. military for more than 20 years, and she still teaches cycling and kickboxing after two knee replacements.
Sharon George is a co-owner of Pilates Influence in Oxnard, California, and one of the four instructors who opened the studio on the Channel Islands Harbor in 2007. She began teaching group fitness in the early 1980s, found mat Pilates in the early 1990s, and moved into reformer and Cadillac work around 2000 before earning her Pilates certification. According to the studio’s website, her certifications include Pilates, yoga, cycling, and several group exercise disciplines, she is certified through the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America and the American Council on Exercise, and she has worked as a fitness instructor and trainer with the U.S. military for more than 20 years. She has lived in Ventura County since 1979 and still teaches cycling and kickboxing.
Sharon’s philosophy begins with understanding. She believes that once clients know their bodies, including why they move or hurt the way they do, they can help themselves far more than they expect. Her coaching follows the neutral-spine principle behind Joseph Pilates’ method, using assessments, wedges, and patient progressions to restore balance. Her mission is to show clients facing injury, illness, or joint replacement that feeling good, physically and emotionally, is still within reach.
Her values include patience, individual attention, honesty about what Pilates can and cannot promise, and lasting relationships with clients. Her specialties include one-on-one reformer and Cadillac training, body-alignment assessment, work with older adults and clients managing injuries or joint replacements, and home exercise plans that help clients keep progressing between sessions. At Pilates Influence, those values show up in a small studio where many clients have trained for years.
About This Spotlight
Fitness Living Magazine™ selected this Spotlight for Sharon George’s four decades of fitness teaching, the studio’s 19-year record of alignment-first, one-on-one Pilates coaching, a harbor-front setting clients can feel, and client relationships that have lasted since the studio opened in 2007.
This profile belongs to Fitness Living Magazine™’s Local Fitness Leadership Series, which documents independent studio owners and coaches through recorded interviews, reviewed drafts, and material supplied by the businesses themselves.
Sharon George’s recorded October 23, 2026 interview with Fitness Living Magazine™ is the foundation of this Spotlight. The draft she reviewed during the technical sign-off process, a customer review supplied for editorial use, studio and harbor photography provided for publication, and the official Pilates Influence website supported session formats, contact options, and first-visit details.
This feature is editorial content and is not medical advice. Session descriptions, client comments, and experiences reflect Sharon George’s account, supplied client material, and current public business information; they do not establish guaranteed results. Individual experiences vary, and readers should consult appropriate healthcare professionals before beginning or changing an exercise program, especially if they are managing pain, injury, arthritis, or a medical condition.
