What did you do when you got back? Megan Fox I taught Pilates in churches. About a year later, I decided to open my own studio. I had some backers, but it wasn’t a good fit, so after six months, I decided I needed to be on my own. In late 1984, I borrowed $10,000 and rented half a duplex in Central Houston. One of my colleagues gave me the plans for equipment, and I had some made. A client introduced me to someone who had worked for Ron Fletcher, and she loaned me two Fletcher Reformers. I also mounted some springs on the wall since I didn’t have a Cadillac.
Megan Fox Weight Loss Diet & Workout Plan Photo Gallery
Did the business take off?
Megan Fox Yes. I began training teachers and soon outgrew my half-duplex because I was getting many referrals from my clients, as well as from health professionals for outpatient exercise—especially Rebecca Clearman, MD, a physiatrist (a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist) and James Butler, MD, an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Clearman is still a mentor and dear friend.
And around this time you got remarried?
Megan Fox Yes, I married Sam Boswell in February of 1986. We rented a two-story house that we lived and worked in. Sam taught music and built several pieces of equipment. In the fall of 1986, while pregnant with our first child, I appeared in a newspaper article about Pilates and the outpatient restorative work I was doing. We grew quickly after that article. I had my first child, Marie, in 1987. I only took two weeks off, which was really tough. But the business was growing and my clients and staff anxiously awaited my return. Lucas was born in 1990. We quickly outgrew that place, too. We had been eyeing an old firehouse that was for sale. We bought it and lived upstairs and worked downstairs until 2001. Lily was born in 1994. I was only in labor for an hour and a half with her; it was a homebirth and clients were downstairs. I had my last baby, Joseph, in 2002, when I was 44.
How did you end up working with so many firstand second-generation teachers?
Megan Fox After I finished training in London, I would take classes with Diane Severino and Michael Podwal in Los Angeles for several days at a time over the years. I didn’t know all the Pilates matwork until I learned it from them. In 1989, there was a Pilates conference at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where I met Ron Fletcher. At the time, he scared the crap out of me, though he later became a dear friend, and I studied with him for 11 years. I also met Eve Gentry and Michele Larsson there. For several years after that, I would go to Santa Fe, NM, every year for a week to study with them. The first time I met with Eve, she looked at me and asked, “Can we work for two hours every day?” She saw my desire to understand the work on a deeper level. One of the things I did poorly was the breath, so she worked with me a lot on that. She’d say, “Pucker up and blow, honey!” She also taught me how to profoundly feel the muscles in my back through imprinting, which was hard for me because of my back injury. I couldn’t do it at first, and I’d push instead. She’d smack me and say, “Stop pushing!” I remember sitting in my minivan, practicing breathing into my back, trying to get it to open up without pushing. It finally did, but it took me three days. Eve was so gentle; I loved her rehabilitative work. I studied with her until her death. It was a privilege working with her and with Michele Larsson, whom I also love. I took a workshop with Carola Trier in 1989. She taught me the full Cadillac repertoire. She was a fabulous presenter and very caring.
