The new studio will offer classes to all ages in varying intensities.

“I want to honor the people in each community,” Kimi Evans says of the reason for opening Honor Pilates in The Village. 

Now open at 7734 Girard Ave, Honor Pilates offers Pilates reformer classes in a variety of formats to address all levels of strength and intensity.

But Evans’ “secret sauce is creating community,” she said, adding that she has opened other studios in San Diego over the last 16 years.

Honor Pilates is “more of a mental and emotional health business that happens to do Pilates,” Evans said. “My whole goal is to create a safe space for people where they feel comfortable coming, where they can release their stress, where they feel renewed and refreshed when they leave.”

Curating a warm, friendly and welcoming ambience is crucial to Evans, who began implementing that philosophy in her Pacific Beach pilates studio 14 years ago after noticing there were many younger clients not native to PB and without family. 

“I wanted to create a space where they always felt like they [have] family and … people,” she said.

Evans is carrying that inclusivity into La Jolla, where she’s providing younger residents community as well as the seniors, which she identified as another group in need of a place that focuses on its needs.

Noting many seniors in La Jolla are strong, Evans said there aren’t spaces dedicated to helping seniors improve balance, strength, bone density and joint mobility.

“We’re here to fill that gap, while also continuing with high intensity Pilates,” she said.

Evans loves bringing various age groups together, she said, so “the young people can keep the older people young, and the young people … learn from the older people.”

Evans herself began practicing Pilates 30 years ago due to various injuries and is grateful to help others achieve a “strong workout in a safe way,” she said.

But above all, “people want a gathering place,” Evans discovered. “They want a community.”

To that end, Honors Pilates has a community room within the studio for people to lounge and connect before or after classes, hold small events and “feel like they can just relax, like they’re in their own living room or in a friend’s house,” she said.

Honors Pilates is “honoring their mind, it’s honoring their soul,” Evans said. “It’s honoring who they are as a person and having a holistic view to everything.” 

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