A Love Letter from Your Pilates Instructor

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valentine

Pilates instructors are very passionate people who LOVE what they do and they love the people they work with.  In honor of Valentine’s Day,  this letter was written to show you how much we care!

Dear Devoted Pilates Client,

1.  You are amazing!  I am amazed and inspired daily by your devotion to your Pilates practice!  I know, as much as you love your Pilates sessions, that it is not always easy to get to the studio.  Life happens and there are a million excuses you could use to not come in- but you do.  Your devotion inspires me in my daily life.  Thank You!

2. You are making amazing progress in your Pilates practice and in your life every time you practice.  As instructors we are often giving you feedback on how to improve your practice because that’s part of our job.  I probably don’t spend enough time telling you how far you’ve come and how great you’re doing.  One of the wonderful parts of my job is that I get to see people create positive changes in their bodies on a daily basis. Keep it up!

3.   I love to celebrate the little milestones with you!   Can you pick something off the floor without your back hurting?  Can you sit comfortably on the floor with your kids or grandchildren?  Are you sitting taller at your desk or has your posture improved?  I love to hear about and celebrate these moments with you.  I practice and teach Pilates so that I can help others live life to the fullest and it makes me happy when I hear your success stories!

4.  Please don’t feel bad about speaking up and telling me something doesn’t feel good in your body.  I know that not every exercise or movement is right for every body and it does not bother me at all if you tell me that something hurts or doesn’t feel right. In fact- I LOVE the opportunity to find something that does work for you.  Changing, modifying and creating exercises designed specifically for your body is what I am trained to do and I LOVE to do it!  It makes me cringe to have a client work through the pain.  I believe and know that exercise does not have to hurt to be super effective.  If you are in pain, then you are not getting the benefits of the exercise and you might be doing more harm than good to your body.

5. Thank you for choosing me to share your Pilates journey with you!  Working with amazing, nice, thoughtful clients makes me happy!  I know there are lots of choices when it comes to instructors and I truly value you as a dedicated client.

With Love,

Your Pilates Instructor

Practice what you teach: I need to take more classes!!

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I got to start off my week taking a Pilates Mat class this week and it reminded me of all the reasons I should take more classes with other instructors even though I practice Pilates on my own on a regular basis!!

#PracticeWhatYouTeach (1)

Side Leg Kicks….my favorite!

1. 50 minutes of me time!  It’s pretty rare that I take a full 50 minutes to do my Pilates workouts!  Often I flow through a workout in 20 or 30 minutes tops and sometimes I do smaller 10 or 15 minutes workouts when I can fit them in.  There is something very therapeutic about knowing for the next 50 minutes the only thing I get to do is pay attention to my body, breathe and move the best I can!

2. New cues and fine tuning.  Listening to someone else explain an exercise or give alignment cues helps me fine tune more and work deeper.  It makes me think differently about how I’m doing each exercise and I really get more out of each exercise.

3. Energy of the class.  I love being in a room full of people who are doing mindful movement.  It’s kind of hard to describe, but it definitely motivates me, keeps me focused and is just fun!!

4. Client perspective.   From a teaching standpoint being a client and taking a class reminds me what it’s like to be the student!!

5.  I do more than if it were just me working out!  Like most people I’ll admit that when I’m working out by myself I’m less likely to push myself or I occasionally skip things I don’t love!  (Which as I tell all my clients…the things we don’t love are often the things we need most!!) Case in point….side leg kicks.   The side leg kick series is sooo good for my body but they are also really challenging for me to do well!  So….. I often don’t do as many of them or I skip them.   In a class though, the energy of the class and my competetive nature kicks in and I do way more than I would on my own!!!

That all being said I’m going to try to take more classes this year!  Maybe I’ll see you in class this week!

 

A Long Distance Pilates Consult

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Everyone knows that you tell your troubles to your hair stylist, or your bartender, but your Pilates instructor?   Yep, that’s what I did, and she even solved this one for me.

I was on vacation recently and we were doing a lot of walking.   Last year, I had worn new boots on the airplane, and started the trip with blisters which filled my entire vacation with sore feet.    I was determined not to do that this year.

The first day of vacation, I put on my ToeSox and a pair of UGG Riding boots which are very comfortable, and we headed over to the convention center.  I didn’t get blisters, but two hours later, my lower back was screaming with shooting pains.    I took some Ibuprofen, but it didn’t touch it.   I tried doing some Pilates breathing, and being more aware of my posture but it didn’t help.    I was carrying a tiny purse, so I knew that wasn’t it.   We finally had to take a break from walking, because I was feeling rotten.

When we got back to the hotel, I texted Carey, and told her I was having back pain for the first time in months.   She asked me what shoes I was wearing.   I told her, and she advised me to wear shoes with more support.   The next day, I wore a pair of cowboy boots.   We walked for hours.   No back pain.

IMG_2609The third day I wore a brand new pair of cowboy boots, which I was thinking was risky because they weren’t broke in.    No back pain, no foot pain.     It was cowboy boots on my feet the entire rest of the trip.   My UGGs are comfortable, so I can wear them for errands, and certain activities, but if I’m doing any amount of walking, I make sure to wear shoes with more support!

 

Practice what you teach: A walk in the snow

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One of the highlights of my Pilates practice this week was a beautiful walk in freshly fallen snow.  Yes I consider a walk in the snow part of my Pilates practice!

Many years ago,  I would joke about the old pictures Joe standing in the snow in nothing but his white briefs but the older I get and the more my Pilates practice matures I really get it!  When I read Return to Life and read Joe words about the importance of plenty of sunshine and fresh air,  I realize that Joe’s method isn’t just about the exercises he teaches, it’s about a way of living and moving that keeps you healthy and strong inside and out.

Footprints in the snow on the sidewalk.

Footprints in the snow on the sidewalk.

 

I’ve come to the realization that I need to move outside (running or walking on the treadmill doesn’t quite do it for me), and my body is so much happier when I do it on a regular basis!  No worries though – I dress for the weather and my walks in the snow involve my long down coat!!  For me it’s more than just the movement..it’s the fresh air, the time to myself, the time to just soak in my surroundings and be in the present moment (like watching the snow fall on my walk this week!)

 

 

I’ve been keepingjoseph-pilates-82-anos a journal to track my Pilates practice and I’ve realized that I do a lot of Pilates Mat work, which probably shouldn’t surprise me. The Pilates Mat work is so easy to do anywhere, anytime so it is often easiest to incorporate into my days.  Noticing this trend I have been making a point this week to get more Reformer workouts in and just play time on the equipment in when I have a chance. I’ve re-realized what a great tool the equipment can be in my movement practice. There is something about the springs and the feedback system created by the equipment that always helps me to create more balance, fine tune more and really work deeper.  My focus has really been how can I use the equipment to get more out of the exercise……more length, more decompression, more balance.

Hope to see you at the studio this week so I can help you explore your Pilates and movement practice!!

 

 

 

 

We are all cheaters sometimes…

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IMG_6734Often times when I correct a client on a particular exercise they will respond afterwards with a, “Ooooh, so I was cheating…”   I don’t really love the word cheating when it comes to movement because I feel like it’s such a negative word.

I really believe that wherever you are in your body you are trying to do the best you can at any given moment and it is absurd to think that you could or would do something perfectly right away or even after lots of practice. Many times it takes a combination of understanding the exercise’s choreography, knowing the goals of the exercise, maybe seeing what the exercise should look like, and lots of lots of practice before you figure out how to do it and how it should feel in your body. Even then there is always a better version you can do.

That all being said the answer is YES you were cheating. We don’t do it on purpose, but if there is an easier way to do something of course that’s what we naturally do first. If there’s a version that doesn’t require as much concentration, control, or work that’s what we do because that’s human nature.

The beautiful thing about your Pilates practice is that once you figure something out, once you know what you are trying to do and once your body has figured out how to do it- you’ll know if you are cheating yourself!! Once you have that “aha” moment where something clicks and you practice it…and it becomes part of how you move. It makes it really hard to go back to the place where you were “cheating”.

For anyone who has practiced Pilates you probably already know about these “aha moments” in your body. Usually these moments are accompanied by some conversations with yourself or your instructor that go like this, “Why is this exercise harder than when I used to do it? I really I am trying my best but it seems to just keeping getting more difficult! Shouldn’t it be getting easier?”

Nope….when you learn how to “fix your cheating” you learn to work deeper, with more control and more precision and it always seems like more effort even though for those watching you….it looks easy, controlled and graceful!!

So don’t feel bad about “cheating” in your Pilates practice! When your instructor helps you figure out how to do an exercise better be excited! It is all part of the learning process! Every time your instructor catches you cheating is another opportunity for you to practice at a deeper level.

 

Practice What You Teach: Pilates fuzzy strap revelations…

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Today’s fuzzy strap revelations were inspired by Andrea Maida and her insightful blog called:  The Pilates Exercises and the Lower Body: Strength for Life!

Andrea is one of my favorite Pilates bloggies as I love how she talks about the connections in the Pilates method and shares her own personal revelations along the way (and she’s pretty funny)!  After reading Andrea’s blog about the lower body I often find myself rethinking the lower half of my body, it’s purpose in the Pilates exercises and how what happens in the lower half of the body effects the body as a whole during each exercise.

IMG_5794During a reformer workout this week I had quite a few aha moments when exploring this concept but my favorite was on the short box.  I tell people all the time to be strong in their straps and use
their legs to anchor, but I found I wasn’t doing it myself( or least not doing it enough!)  When I do Flat Back on the Short box I often keep my range fairly small as I feel like if I go to far I immediately start to feel it in my low back.  So today I dug a little deeper and engaged like I had not quite engaged before.

I anchored into the fuzzy short box strap and found my lower body.  I engaged through my legs to pull the strap apart and reach into and found a place of length where I almost felt like my sitting bones were going to lift off the box (and it was an amazing amount of work).  The beautiful thing was that I felt amazingly stronger throughout my whole body and was able to hinge back to a much bigger range of motion without any strain or pain through my low back. The exercise was at least 20 times more challenging but I also moved about 200 percent better!!  This is what I love about the Pilates work!!

The next day I also reconfirmed my new found revelations as I was feeling worked muscles in places that I hadn’t felt for awhile or ever! I love it when that happens and yet another reason I love the Pilates work.

If you’re working with me this week don’t be surprised if I encourage you to find your lower body in new ways.  The only thing better than finding new engagement and understanding in my own body is sharing it with others!!