Everywhere you turn there seems to be a new Pilates studio popping up, and with good reason. The fitness class is increasingly growing in popularity as it’s an effective way to build lean muscle while also being low impact, making it easy on the body and a great, openly accessible form of exercise.
Maybe you’re curious to give it a try, but the thought of entering a studio of complex-looking reformer machines seems overwhelming. Or are you a Pilates pro, but your busy schedule just doesn’t allow the time to drive to-and-from a studio for a group
class. Or you just prefer the privacy, attention, and customization of one-on-one coaching.
These are just a few of the reasons that 25-year-old Franklin resident Carly Van Syckle founded Synergy Pilates Nashville, a mobile Pilates studio that comes straight to you.
Originally from Albany, New York, Van Syckle has been interested in fitness since her high school cheerleading days. Her love of fitness continued into college, but she never envisioned it would turn into her career.
When the pandemic hit during her junior year of college, she couldn’t follow her normal routine of going to the gym. This led her to discover her love of Pilates, as she began doing Pilates workouts on YouTube at home during quarantine. She eventually moved to Nashville - ironically finding herself living above a Pilates studio downtown - and as the world reopened, she began taking classes at different Pilates studios around town. With a dual undergraduate degree in psychology and political science and a Master’s degree in policy and public administration, Van Syckle had no plans of entering the fitness world when she began her first post-graduate job as a senior policy researcher for the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.
As an active person, Van Syckle quickly learned she wasn’t made for a sedentary career, but knew she didn’t want to work for someone else’s Pilates studio either. The high prices of leasing a studio of her own led her to the innovative concept of a mobile studio. In April 2024, she dove right into creating her 90-page business plan and spent 300 hours getting her Pilates certification. By January of 2025, she’d acquired her trailer-turned-mobile-studio and Synergy Pilates Nashville was born.
“Synergy means the working of two things or more to create a whole that's better than just the parts,” Van Syckle says of the company’s name.
The trailer is a custom size, built to be tall enough to work out in on its two reformers and outfitted on the inside to be the perfect studio space for her clients. “One is a regular-sized one,” she says of the reformers. Then I intentionally got another, a stretch model. It's basically longer and wider because I wanted it to be accessible to everyone, including men. For example, the regular reformer, the weight limit is 200-something pounds, whereas the stretch model is rated for over 300 pounds and it's for taller people. That’s really my goal, making Pilates accessible and not even just Pilates. I don't care if people don't workout with me forever, but just making movement accessible is important.”
With the ability to do private reformer classes for two people, client pairings have included friends, mother/mother-in-law and daughter, couples, and more. The beauty of offering private classes is that Van Syckle writes custom classes for each of her clients that can be altered as their needs change. She focuses on helping post-partum mothers, people with injuries or physical limitations, and those recovering from surgeries. “For post-pregnancy, Pilates can really help with your core,” she says. “So I have a few people that prefer that and they like that it’s private because they can't do all the movements that may be in a regular class and we can work through it. I write every single class for the client, so it's not doing the same thing.”
Synergy Pilates classes are especially good for people with injuries including spinal injuries or fusions because it’s completely customizable. I've trained clients with knee replacements, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, hip replacements, and diastasis,” Van Syckle says. “It really can be adjusted to everyone's body, so trying it in a private setting, you have nothing to lose there."
While she specializes in private and paired reformer classes, she also offers larger group mat classes, including coming to Airbnb rentals for bachelorette parties or doing collaboration events, like the 35-person mat class she held in April at Wedgewood
Houston’s Diskin Cider in partnership with E + Rose Wellness.
Van Syckle is a big believer in giving back. She offers all first classes at a 50 percent discount to allow more people the chance to try pilates and offers one donation-based public mat class per month, with all donations raised being given to a different charity. “I never want to be someone that doesn't give back,” she says.
In addition to placing great importance on helping those in need, Van Syckle also takes pride in being a female business owner. “I think what makes women so powerful in business is that we just keep going. We don't take ‘no’ for an answer… at least I don't. I'm proud to be a Hispanic woman in business.” SynergyPilatesNashville.com