And I adore pilates. It makes me feel so strong.

It sounds like you've not had a good teacher - there are legions of poor pilates instructors out there. A good one will modify any movement to fit your current limitations and continue to modify as your abilities increase. I've been fortunate to have a few excellent instructors (and a few bad ones as well).

It's like math - at the beginning of the year, you look ahead in the book and it all looks so difficult. By the end of the year, you look back to the beginning - or middle - of the book and wonder why it seemed so difficult.