Butt-watching at Pilates?

IMG_6675Today’s blog starts with a client story…. A client was doing her her long stretch on the reformer and I cued her to reach through her left heel more and engage her left butt. She adjusted and then when she transitioned to the next exercise (Down Stretch) and was getting set up I said the cue again as I could see that she wasn’t engaging her left gluteus muscles and I wanted her to find the balanced work in this exercise. She laughs and says,”Really? How can you tell that? Are you looking at my butt?” My answer was,”Yes, of course I am. I’m looking at muscle engagement in your whole body as you are are moving which includes your butt!”

After teaching movement for 16 years sometimes I forget that not everybody looks at bodies like I do. Part of teaching the Pilates method of exercise is helping clients figure out what it means to create balance in their body and do balanced movements. By giving cues and instruction to clients on how to work more efficiently and more balanced you help them figure out how to notice and adjust in their own body without you always having to tell them.

If you are contemplating wanting to teach Pilates and this concept seems foreign or maybe complicated…..don’t worry you’ll learn how to do it!  When you go through workshops we’ll look at different bodies doing different exercises and talk about what we see and how we could help that person do the exercise better in their body. You’ll learn about what to look for and really how to become an observer of movement and muscle engagement. As you integrate your own personal practice time, with observation hours and practice teaching hours you’ll have plenty of chances to look at bodies and figure out how to hone this skill of observing and then cueing to create balance! I promise by the end of the program you won’t think twice about looking at someone’s butt while they are moving!!

Practice What You Teach: Pilates on the Water

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What could be better than beautiful summer weather, getting out in nature and movement?  Twice this week I got to go play at the lake and do some stand up paddle boarding! The paddle boards are a fun way to cruise around the lake, but also stable enough you can pretty much do the entire Pilates Mat sequence on them!  The added instability is great for fine tuning your form and having to use your center to balance!  During our monthly Life Inspired gathering this week we played around doing both Pilates and Yoga on the boards and it was a blast!  Here’s a few pictures from the evening!

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Balance, balance, balance…

Saw with our paddle as a group
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Check out Dick’s great plank (only 9 weeks
after shoulder replacement surgery!!)		 Right before I fell in as Julie was guiding
me through a yoga pose
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Nancy was doing Pilates and Yoga in the canoe!! Rolling Like a Ball!! My favorite!
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Roll Ups with a beautiful
view of the sky!		 Mountain Pose is a lot more
work on a paddle board!

 

Inspiration of the Month Gary Stetzel

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Inspiration of the Month
Gary Stetzel
July 2016 

When did you start Pilates and what inspired you to start?  I started Pilates in January 2015.  I wanted to improve my health and do an activity with my wife.

How often do you practice Pilates and what type of sessions or classes have you been doing?   I try to do 2-3 sessions per week. I have been doing Private Pilates sessions with my wife. It is a good couples activity. 

What benefits or improvements have you noticed in your body and life from doing Pilates?  I have noticed that I am more trim. In fact, I just took some clothes to alterations to reduce the waist size. I am more flexible and have more stamina biking and hiking.

Do you have a favorite exercise or piece of equipment (or both)?  I like the leg spring exercises on the Tower equipment the best.

What would you say to someone who is thinking about doing Pilates?  I would say give it a try. I think men perceive that this is more for women and that is not the case. You will notice the improvements in your waist size and stamina!

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?