Kitsie, from my first session I can tell you that it involves massage, exercise, breathing deeply. I didn't do any floor work yet. The table is a big padded thing with all kinds of contraptions (can't think of a better word) for strength training but with Pilates you don't isolate like you do with machine work at the gym. You use your core muscles. He was able to assess where I was tight and worked on that. One thing that amazed him was how flexible I am. I've done a lot of yoga so maybe that's why. Pilates is not new, it's rather old, but seems to be very popular today.
I believe it's important to have a person trained in Pilates to prevent injury from what I've read about it, long before my son had an interest in it.
I remember taking care of patients who did Pilates before surgery and they recovered much faster than those who didn't That first started my interest in it but I didn't pursue it until my son trained.. The day after he received his MFA he started training for this!