How Studio Qila Founder Bridget O’Carroll Is Making Fitness More Accessible

Bridget O’Carroll never dreamed of launching her own online fitness studio, let alone the first one that’s Native-owned. In fact, Studio Qila — her self-created high-intensity, Pilates-inspired workout platform — could easily be described as a happy accident. 

When the pandemic struck back in 2020, the former [solidcore] master coach and SLT-trained instructor’s days consisted of walking from the bed to the fridge to the couch. Wash, rinse, repeat. “I was just so isolated and sluggish,” O’Carroll tells Shape. “I tried some home workouts, but I just didn't really find the level of intensity that I was looking for.”

Her solution: Drop some cash on a Zoom membership and Spotify subscription and virtually teach a few friends the high-intensity, low-impact workouts she’d previously led in studios. Word of her method began to spread, and soon enough, people began asking to pay her for the classes, she says. By November 2021, Studio Qila, named after her own Alaskan Native heritage, was officially in business.

The Story Behind the Studio Qila Method

For much of her life, O’Carroll believed that taking part in vigorous cardio workouts was the only way to, well, work out. In high school and college, she joined the cross-country team and would spend hours tackling sweat-soaking cardio sessions, she recalls. “I used to get so much guilt — if I didn't run every single day, I would have so much inner turmoil,” she says. “I realized after a while that my body was just so broken. I was having a bunch of hip issues and IT band issues to the point where I couldn't walk during my peak cross-country time.”

When O’Carroll graduated college, she began dipping her toes into various boutique classes. No matter the modality, she'd feel pressure to try the most advanced variation or compete with other class members, she adds. “And that's when I started to realize that I love intensity and I love toughness and that feeling of grit, but I also love feeling good and like I'm taking care of and being kind to my body,” says O’Carroll. 

And this high-energy, low-stakes vibe that O'Carroll once sought is the now backbone of Studio Qila’s method. The Pilates-style workouts are high-intensity in the sense that they’re focused on increasing the time under tension and building endurance. But they’re also adaptable and approachable: Modifications — or as O’Carroll prefers to call them, variations — are always offered, maintaining proper form is prioritized, and ego is left at the door, she explains. “It's not about being on your toes, lifting the heaviest weight, or doing what looks like the most advanced move,” she says. “It's focusing on your form. That's where you're going to get the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability for your body.”

Making Fitness Inclusive and Accessible

Inclusivity and accessibility aren’t just fluff words featured on Studio Qila's mission statement. They’re a part of an ethos that plays out in every one of the company’s 150-plus on-demand workouts and live Zoom classes. All of the exercises can be done with or without equipment and can be tweaked to meet your individual needs, goals, and fitness level, says O’Carroll. Throughout each class, the founder (or the company's newest instructor, Erica Choo) will demo how to do the suggested exercises. Then, she'll walk participants through options that take wrist pain, ankle issues, and stability concerns, for example, into consideration, says O'Carroll.

“One [variation] might seem harder and one might seem easier, but it's just so different based on how you sequence everything together and how you're feeling that day,” she adds. That’s why O’Carroll encourages class members to simply choose a variation that feels best for their body and mind in that moment — not the move they think they should do based on their track record. 

To make classes even more approachable to total newbies, Studio Qila offers an on-demand Foundations program that teaches participants fundamental core, upper-body, and lower-body moves, plus suggested variations, over the course of four weeks. “It helps you lead into feeling more confident in this method,” says O’Carroll.

Of course, breaking down barriers to fitness for folks of all body types, needs, and abilities is only one part of the equation. A single boutique Pilates class can cost upwards of $30, depending on your studio and location, a hefty price tag that can make wellness inaccessible for many. That’s why Studio Qila, which offers unlimited access to on-demand classes for just $20 a month, has scholarships available to anyone in need; all you have to do is email the company and request a membership, says O'Carroll. “I started teaching for free before this became a business,” she adds. “Once I shifted to a subscription model, I just never wanted that to block anyone from being able to focus on their physical and mental health.”

What’s more, the company also holds pay-what-you-can donation classes to support organizations centered around Black and Indigenous communities, such as the Loveland Foundation and Native Wellness Institute, says O’Carroll. To top it off, Studio Qila donates 10 percent of its proceeds to support similar organizations, she adds.

Representing Her Heritage Through Fitness

Before Studio Qila had its official moniker, the company was simply called Body By Bridget, the hashtag O’Carroll had used while teaching in studios. But in late 2020, O’Carroll won the Penn Wharton Innovation Fund while studying to earn her MBA. The grant went toward a branding overhaul, and Studio Qila was born — literally. “It was kind of like a birth of a new business,” she says. 

“Qila” means “spirit” — representing strength beyond the physical — in Alutiiq, the language of O’Carroll’s Alaskan Native tribe, she explains. Today, only about 400 people speak the language, she adds. “It's protecting a word that could otherwise die off,” she says. “Representing myself as a Native woman and representing Studio Qila as an Indigenous-owned brand has been really important to me to — to focus on bringing more Indigenous representation into the mainstream wellness world.” 

Still, O'Carroll does feel some internal conflict over having the label of the first Native-owned online fitness studio. “In some ways, it's amazing and feels like we're making history,” she says. “But then in other ways, it’s sad that it hasn't happened before when so much of what wellness looks like today is taken from Indigenous rituals, Indigenous histories, and Indigenous culture.”

But in putting her identity front and center, O'Carroll only feels more fulfilled with the company and community she's created. “I have a lot more confidence and a lot more pride to represent it as something that feels really mission-driven," she says. "I was always mission-driven in the way that I approached it, but to integrate that into the core identity of my business has been incredible.”