Top 5 Job Perks for Pilates Instructors

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Thinking about training to become a Pilates teacher? Check out my personal top 5 perks of teaching Pilates!!  If these perks sound appealing to you be sure to check out our upcoming Pilates Mat Teacher Training Program that starts in September 2016!

1. I get paid to live in my comfortable workout wear.

2. I’m constantly in motion.

3. As a teacher I grow just as much as my students, learning with them!

4. I get to be a part of people’s health journey.

5. Working out is kind of required (I like to call it playing).

 

Practice What You Teach: Is Perfection required?

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It was a busy week.  After having the first month of summer off, my husband was back teaching this summer which simply means for us there is a little more juggling schedules when it comes to kids activities and kid care throughout the week.  This is really no big deal, but the first week of adjusting schedules is always a little more hectic and crazy.  This just happened to start on the first of the month (which is always a busy time from a business standpoint as we are doing our monthly newsletter, payroll, and lots of other first of the month tasks) and to add to the fun we had a pretty big event planned at the studio on Friday night.  So..by the time Saturday morning arrived, I barely had time to think about my movement practice this week, let alone write a blog about it!

Luckily I had an hour break after my morning clients and my 9 am Return to Life Mat class and I decided just to work out and see if anything came to me! First of all, let me tell you I really kind of wanted to do a Reformer workout (no particular reason…it was just what I was feeling like.)  But… I was also feeling a little tired and uninspired to teach my morning mat class so I decided the best thing I could do is to do my mat work.  As a teacher I find that doing the Pilates work in my own body before I teach is often enough to help “inspire my teaching” and simply helps remind me of the work and the feel of the work that my students will be doing.

Before I started, I decided I would just flow through the work letting my body do what it knows how to do. In my mind I was telling myself…Just move and don’t worry about what it looks like or doing things perfectly! So that’s what I did.  I put on my favorite Pandora station, and ran through the entire mat sequence from Footwork to Pushups with Big Twist thrown in at the end!   The whole workout took me about 25 minutes and I had two takeaways definitely worth talking about.

imperfect1. Moving is more important than perfection!  As a Pilates teacher I spend so much time teaching people to move better, that I think I forget sometimes that it’s the movement itself that is so effective as a health tool not the perfection of the movement.  As long as you are being safe in your body and not injuring yourself the best thing you can do is just show up and move!

2. Flowing movement and breath without breaks means you are getting your heart rate up and sweating (at least for me).  I felt “worked” when I got done but honestly more than that I felt kind of refreshed and definitely more energized for the rest of my day.  As a teacher this reminded me of the importance of working toward more flowing workouts with clients where ever they are in their body.  The concept of flowing movements in the Pilates method definitely ties together all of the concepts you learn in your Pilates practice and is a great way to keep challenging your body in a safe way.

Hope you had a great week and had some time to sneak in some mindful movement time into your life whatever you had going on!    As always I would love to hear from you and what you’ve been doing in your personal practice!  What did your movement time look like this week?  What did you take away from from your movement practice?

 

 

My arms aren’t long enough!!

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It never fails, when I’m teaching the transition in between Backstroke and Teaser on the Reformer to drop a spring at least one client tries the exercise and when they can’t quite do it the first or maybe even the 20th time they say,” I have really short arms. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do that.  My arms are just not long enough!”

If you have ever said this or something similar in your Pilates class I have some good news for you.  The good news is: Your arms are long enough.  Very rarely does your physical size or shape effect your ability to do a movement, but what does effect it is your mind!  Note: this doesn’t mean your body size and shape doesn’t effect how you do a movement it means it doesn’t generally effect being able to do a version of that movement in your body!  Without even realizing it we put limitations on what we can do based on previous experiences, based on what other people have told us or based on the stories we create in our head!  I want to be the first to tell you there are no limitations on what you can accomplish with movement if you open your mind to the possibilities.

Now, don’t get me wrong- just changing your thought process probably won’t immediately change your ability to do something, but over time I promise it will.  If you whole heartedly believe in yourself and practice that movement adjusted to where your body is right now…eventually you will get there.

I would love to hear from you on this topic!  What does it feel like when you finally do something you’ve been working towards?  What advice would you give others who get frustrated when they can’t seem to do something right away?

SHhhhh…….I have a Pilates training secret…

IMG_3316I have a secret that you may not know if you don’t know me that well. If you are a regular client of mine you may have figured this out already. I think it’s OK and actually encourage my clients to not always give 100% in their workouts!!

Let me explain. First let me just say that I know how challenging Pilates can be. When you are giving 100% and paying attention to every little detail of your alignment, engaging your core and staying balanced….it can be intense! When I’m teaching you and you’re giving it everything …I can feel that work! If you work with me on a regular basis you know there are times I’ll “ask” for that effort more often than not and you always do your best.

BUT…if you work with me on a regular basis you’ll also find there are times when I specifically don’t ask for it. There are days when I really believe that the most important thing you did for yourself that day was to show up! Not because I don’t think that you can do the work, but because I truly believe that not every movement experience needs to be an all out 110% effort kind of movement session to be an effective part of your movement practice.  There are some days when a little extra stretching and breath work will allow you to reconnect with your body, de-stress and just plain feel better than if we did your most challenging Pilates Mat workout. (And even if you are not working at 110%…I guarantee you are still working! You are still strengthening, gaining flexibility and working on maintaining a strong balanced body!)

When I say some days, I’m talking about the days when it would have been so much easier just to shut the alarm clock off and go back to sleep instead of coming to the studio, the days when you had a really stressful day at work and would much rather have a glass of wine than go to your Pilates session, or maybe the day when you are feeling a little sore and would love to just take another few days off. Even on those days I truly believe that doing something movement wise (even if it’s at 75% instead of 100%) will make you feel better and keep you and your body much happier in the long run!

2exerciseAs an instructor I really try check in with my clients and tailor their workouts to what their body and their life needs on any given day. You might wonder does this mean clients aren’t getting the most out of their workouts? Absolutely not! The way I see it, by tailoring workouts to the person(and their life on any given day) I’m encouraging clients to show up more often, listen to their body more often and create a more regular movement practice in their life.  I call it balance!

Life is about balance and that includes your movement and workout sessions. I hope that next time you’re considering skipping your movement time you’ll think about this and maybe decide to just do something….. Listen to your body, move it in a way that feels good to you and be proud of yourself for making movement a part of your life!!

Practice What You Teach: Appreciating the Hundred

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100_0I’ll be the first to admit that the Hundred is not my favorite Pilates exercise.  My body or my brain doesn’t ever go, “Wow, I feel like doing my Hundreds!” It’s not like Rolling Back or Short Spine that I find myself craving to do if my body is tight or just needs to move more.  But, I was reflecting this week on how I do really appreciate the Hundred as an exercise and all the things it teaches me on any given day.  Here’s a few of the things that I appreciate and keep me doing it (even though it’s not my favorite!):

1.  Everything is engaged and working in a balanced way: I feel like the Hundred is a shining example for putting all of the Pilates concepts and ideas into one exercise that takes just a minute or so.  Moving from your center, whole body engagement, coordinating breath and movement, concentration, control, persistence….you need them all to get through this one exercise! Even if I do just this one exercise…I feel the work!

2. Check-in Tool: I’ve found that I often use the Hundred exercise as a tool to check in and see how my body is feeling on any given day.  Because the Hundred is an exercise I do most of the time in my Pilates workouts, I have done the exercise thousands of times in my lifetime.  I know where my working level usually is, I know how my body likes to compensate for my imbalances and I have a good sense of what my body normally feels like during the exercise.  So when something feels different, slightly unbalanced or maybe just tight I can usually feel it as soon as I start.  For example, if my hamstrings and low back are feeling tight I usually adjust my working level of my legs and bring them up to 90 degrees with flexed feet so that I can start to lengthen and stretch them.  Then I use that awareness to add other things into my workout that day to try to focus on stretching and lengthening what is over-tight that day.

hundreds3. Feeling Progress: Again, because I consistently do this exercise it easily allows me to feel when I am changing things in my body and making progress.  Some thing are obvious like noticing if my working level of my legs is more challenging or making it through all 10 breaths instead of 6 or 7 and other things can be more subtle.  As an example, I have a tendency to shorten my left side and I can always feel this in the Hundred. When I shorten I feel like I am putting more weight into my left hip and then have to correct by shifting weight into my right hip and lengthening my left side waist.  Lately I’ve been finding that I don’t have to make this correction as often and naturally I’m finding and maintaining the balance in my body better- yeah for progress!

I would love to hear what you have to think about the Hundred!  Do you love it, hate it? What are your takeaways from this exercise?