How about a mini-workout for Abs and Thighs?

Introducing the core, inner thigh, and back of the arms Pilates Magic Circle Mini-Workout!


If you’re looking for a quick core-strengthening, arm-toning, inner-thigh workout . . . this is it! This magic circle mini-workout is a great workout to do at home in between your classes or as an addition to your at home workout. Try it twice a week and be sure to let us know what you think!

Need a Pilates Magic Circle? Stop by the studio and pick one up at our Inspiration Boutique!

The Inspiration Boutique is our studio retail store. We have a line of fashionable, functional workout clothes (including our own Rivercity Pilates workout wear, Lucy and Glyder) and an assortment of small at home workout equipment including the Magic Circle, foam rollers, and various balls and props.

#PracticeWhatYouTeach: Getting Down and Back up

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Can you sit on the floor and stand back up without touching your hand or knee on the floor?  Last week when I took Benjamin Degenhardt’s Upright Pilates workshop he started by talking about this ability. There has been some interesting studies done on life expectancy in older adults being directly correlated to this ability.  The first thing that popped into my head when this discussion started was….Can I do it?    When I got to try it during workshop time I was a little embarrassed at how hard it was for me (I am a Pilates teacher after all….). ..and I have to tell you I had to use a hand on the floor.  This bothered me and I made a pact with myself to practice and master this!

Have I mastered it yet? Nope. Have I been practicing…you bet.  Almost every time I practice Pilates I take a little time to try out my ability to get down and stand back up. Somewhere in that practice I learned a lot about my teaching and about what I can do to help others move better in their life. Here’s a quick video of my 8 year old daughter and I practicing!

I had been practicing the crossed leg sit and stand which is often shown as the example of getting down and back up. I found myself getting creative and exploring what was so hard about the movement and what I needed to do to be successful at it.   I discovered if I added a little rolling like a ball in once I sat down I could use my momentum to help get me back up.  I learned that the position of my feet and ankles made a big difference in my success of standing back up.  And then at some point as I practiced I had an aha moment.  It went a little something like this in my head:

Most of my clients are probably not going to be able to do this. Is there any benefit to training them to get up and down exactly like this? Does it really matter if one hand or a knee touches the floor?  Probably not.   Is there benefit in helping them strengthen and balance their bodies in a way that allows them to safely get down and up from the floor? Yes of course!! Do we do this type of work in our sessions?…ALL THE TIME!!   What can I do as a teacher that would benefit my clients the most when it comes to getting up and down?

My conclusion:  Talk about the benefits of Pilates more! The Pilates exercises are so well designed to help us live life and do little things like get up and get down to the floor. Sometimes I need to be reminded as a teacher that my job is not just to teach the correct way to do an exercise or movement but to motivate, inspire and educate clients on why this work will help them live life better. I don’t know about you, but I’m much more motivated to do the detailed work of an exercise when I know why I’m doing it and what it will help me do in the rest of my life.

As a quick example, we often have specific foot and ankle positions that we use in Pilates exercises.  Sometimes I feel like these adjustments seem small or insignificant in the big picture of the exercise to clients.  I have found though that when I talk about how important it is to have flexible, strong feet when you want to get up off the floor or at that moment you need to catch your balance….clients seem to connect to that more, something clicks and they make the effort to work on that detail of the exercise.

Don’t be surprised if you hear me teaching a little bit more about not just how to do an exercise but why we do it! I would love to know from you: is this type of teaching helpful for you as a student? Are there any particular exercises or pieces of the Pilates exercises that standout for you because of what they help you do in your day to day life?

Two simple exercises to help with Upper Back Tension and Shoulder Pain!

These simple moves done on a foam roller can help you to open tight shoulders and provide a much needed destressing of the shoulders and upper back.

 

By coordinating these movements with your Pilates breath and core engagement you can sneak in a quick total body movement break anytime!

Need a foam roller?  Stop by the studio to purchase one and get your free guide to using the foam roller!

#PracticeWhatYouTeach – Teachers Learn Too!

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pma-2016As I finish up my last day at the annual Pilates Method Alliance Conference I am struggling with what to write about for this weeks blog.  Not because I don’t have anything to write about but because I have so much to write about I can’t possibly get it all in one blog that people might actually want to read! So I’m going to keep it short and sweet and share with you my top 3 takeaways from this year’s conference.

1.  The Pilates community is amazing! In just 3 days I have reconnected with old friends, met in person my online Pilates friends (those people I consider Pilates friends from social media and blogging interaction but have never actually met in person) and made a ton of new Pilates friends!! There is truly something about the Pilates work that brings to it the most genuine, interesting, intelligent, and generous people!

control22.  Benjamin Degenhardt said,” This work (contrology) is about empowering you where you are in your body.”   This is not a new idea to me but it’s one that really speaks to me as to why I do Pilates and why I teach. Many times throughout the conference I heard very experienced, distinguished Pilates teachers echo this same idea.  Pilates is about teaching ourselves and others to live in the body we have the best we can.  It’s more than OK that we don’t all teach exactly the same way or exactly the same version of exercises . As teachers it’s about being in the moment with our students, teaching movement patterns that are specific to what the body needs and empowering others to learn how to use movement as a tool to improve quality of life!

3. More Struggle = More Results
trentmTrent McEntire started his ” What’s Neuroscience got to do with it?” Workshop with this topic and it really resonated with me.  Most of his discussion involved how we teach clients and help them find the “edge” in their movement practice so that they continue to get and feel results in their body.  From a teaching perspective I loved that he was describing how I normally teach clients because it confirmed that what I often write off as intuitive teaching really had some science to back up why it’s effective.

From a big picture perspective I realized that the idea of more struggle equals more results is one that can be applied to most situations.  Whether its growing a business, teaching Pilates, relationships or anything else,  I think that getting outside the “comfortable” zone and pushing ourselves to “struggle” (which is what we would call our “working level” at the studio) is what keeps us growing and expanding.   Like most people I tend to shy away from things that might be a little more work, might make me be uncomfortable, or push me to the edge. I think my brain sees struggle as bad, but in reality the struggle is what leads us to amazing places in our lives! I’m grateful for that change in perspective when it comes to struggle in Pilates and in life.

Inspiration of the Month: Linda Jones

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    Linda Jones and the Pilates Experience
About three years or so ago, I had just been through multiple back surgeries, multiple foot surgeries, and multiple hand surgeries. Additionally, I was told that I would eventually have to have rotator cuff surgery which I finally had done twice this past year. After all the surgeries, I was in almost constant pain and it hurt to get up in the morning, and it hurt to move.   I had given up the water aerobics classes I had previously enjoyed, and was pretty much of the attitude that I could no longer exercise.   To top it all off, I had gained a bunch of weight (I won’t tell you how much!) and didn’t feel good about my appearance.

At about this time, my husband, Phil, signed up for a series of private Pilates lessons with Carey and came back from his first lesson all enthused about how Pilates might be just the ticket for me. Eventually, Phil talked me into coming to observe one of his Pilates lessons so I could see what it was all about and decide for myself whether I might be able to do it. To my surprise, it looked do-able, even for me. So I signed up for private Pilates lessons with Carey and have been working with her off and on ever since—the off times being the periods when I’ve had to go back in for more surgery and undergo rehabilitation before resuming Pilates. As of this time, I take a private lesson from Carey once a week. Private lessons with Carey work really well for me because Carey is able to help scale the Pilates exercises to exactly my ability level. Right now, this one-on-one with Carey is, I believe, necessary for my continued progress, but I hope and expect to be able to participate in group classes eventually.

I’ve really noticed some huge benefits to Pilates. First, before starting Pilates, movement of almost any kind was painful, and I had really become very inflexible due to my back surgeries. Now, and I attribute this almost entirely to Pilates, I’m able to move more fluidly and with much less pain than before. Pilates also helps greatly with “range of motion” issues. Second, before Pilates, my attitude towards most physical activity had become: “I can’t do that.” Pilates has changed my attitude towards the same kinds of physical activities into: “Not yet, but I can eventually.”

Best of all, I’ve managed to lose about 60 pounds of excess weight this past year. What’s kind of surprising to me in retrospect about it is the following. You may remember that I said I had two rotat0r cuff surgeries this past year. Now this, in my experience, is a difficult surgery with a difficult recovery period. And the reason I had two surgeries is that after I had the first one and had just about completed my re-hab, I slipped and fell and tore the rotator cuff all over again. When that happened, I remember thinking, even as I was still down from the fall, that I was not going to let that derail my weight loss program—and it didn’t.   I truly think the positive thinking I’ve picked up from Pilates was key.
My favorite piece of Pilates equipment is the reformer/tower combination. I love the way this piece of equipment makes virtually every exercise completely scale-able so that it can be scaled down to be doable by the elderly and infirm or, conversely, scaled up to be a challenge to even the young, physically fit beach-bodies among us.

#PracticeWhatYouTeach: Travel Pilates

Do you love to travel but maybe don’t love how you feel after you been on a airplane or in the car for hours! I’m a natural mover so when I’m confined to sit for much more than 15 minutes you’ll find me squirming in my seat doing anything I can to keep my body from getting tight and tense. As I was driving back from a quick road trip up to Center Point (half hour trip each way) I found myself bopping along to the music and rolling through my spine.  When I caught myself doing this, it reminded me of how great it is that I often times just automatically use movement to keep my body happy and healthy.  It also reminded me of how helpful some simple little movements can be when you are traveling to keep your muscles from getting tight and achy!!

I can tell you that I have found lots of little tricks and ways to move while traveling without drawing too much attention to myself!  I’m headed out to Phoenix, Arizona for the annual Pilates Method Alliance conference this week and will be traveling with my friend and social media rock star Becky from Farmgirl Marketing Solutions.

She knows me well enough to know that I don’t sit still well and I think she may be a little concerned about traveling with me!  I promised her we wouldn’t break into any traditional Pilates sequences on the plane or anything too crazy… but I will have to keep moving a little so I don’t get crabby!   Be sure to follow Rivercity Pilates and Farm Girl Marketing on your favorite social media sites to keep up with my favorite movement travel tips and of course highlights from the conference!!!

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