Often, within limits your province sets. In Ontario, a for-profit fitness business that takes money up front has to give you ten days to cancel. The clock starts when you get the written copy, and you don't need a reason. Quebec treats exercise studios as fitness centres: they can't take payment before classes start, and cancelling early in the contract costs a fee the law caps. Elsewhere, read the terms before you buy.

Often, and it's why many people start. Pilates isn't treatment, though. Tell the studio what your doctor or physiotherapist has said. If a physiotherapist will teach you, look them up on the provincial regulator's register. Ontario's college puts its register online. A studio that books you a private session before a group class is doing its job. Stop at any sharp or new pain.

Ask which program they finished, because training comes from private providers. STOTT PILATES was developed in Toronto by the company now called Merrithew. It offers a full certification, a shorter route for people already in fitness, and a rehab program for licensed health professionals. Its exams have practical and written parts. Whatever the method, check that the course covered the machines you'll be using.

In Quebec, not for an injury the studio caused through its fault. The Civil Code says no one can exclude or limit liability for bodily injury they cause to someone else, so the waiver can't take that away. You still accept the ordinary risks of exercising. Other provinces work differently, so read any waiver before you sign it and ask about anything that worries you.

Anyone pregnant or recently postnatal should check first. So should anyone after back or belly surgery, and anyone with osteoporosis, since some bending work isn't advised. Studios set their own minimum age. If a studio teaches teenagers, ask about screening. The business decides whether a role needs a vulnerable sector check, which adds a search for pardoned sexual offences to a police check. Ask whether its instructors have one.