#PracticeWhatYouTeach: Do you get bored?

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Do you ever get bored with your workouts? If you asked me this I would probably say no. There is so much variety built in to the Pilates movements and system it would be hard to get bored.  I realized this week though that I do “work” at not being bored and I kind of do it without even realizing it.    When I decide to do a Pilates Mat Workout or Pilates Reformer workout (that I could do in my sleep because my body knows it pretty well…)  I automatically find something I want to work on that day and I incorporate it into everything I do.  Some days I just focus on coordinating breath or breathing better.  Other days I am focused on whole body engagement, balance in my body or flow.  Other days I focus on a body part like feet or shoulders and what they should be doing.  Some days I pick something that I’ve been specifically having a client work on because I want to know what it feels like to do what I’m asking of them.

This week I did a mat workout where I focused on stability and lengthening in my low spine.  Every exercise I did I mentally came back to finding how I could better decompress and lengthen the space between my hips and rib cage.  The result was a great focused workout and some good soreness in my abdominal muscles! I also found myself checking in with that low spine length throughout the rest of my week (like when I was sitting at the computer working and even when I was standing teaching.)  All of this got me thinking and I thought I’d put together a quick list of some different focus ideas for myself and anyone else who might need a quick idea.   These ideas work best when you are not necessarily learning something brand new but practicing those movements and sequences that your body already knows fairly well.

  • Breath ..not holding your breath, just focusing on it, the flow of it, coordinating it with each movement..
  • Feet: Are you using them? are they in alignment? feet awareness!
  • Head alignment…check in with where you head is in relationship to the rest of the body during every exercise
  • Shoulder stability…are you stabilizing your shoulders in each exercise?  How does that effect the rest of the movement?
  • Focus on your tight spot in your spine and focus on articulation especially through that spot and awareness of that area during each exercise
  • Pick a muscle ( could be hamstrings, biceps, obliques, whatever) and notice how it is engaged in each movement
  • Pick a Pilates principle..Breath, Centering, Control, Coordination, Flow, Precision and focus on what it means in every exercise to use that principle
  • Whole body engagement
  • Pelvic floor awareness/engagement
  • Your working level on each exercise
  • Flow and transitions between exercises
  • Balance….is your body balanced? are your movements balanced? is your breath balanced?
  • Spine Movement ( or stabilizing)…notice what your spine should be doing in each exercise
  • Are you overworking anywhere?…continually check in and figure out how you can work more uniformly by not overworking in areas

This is just a quick list of things I thought of or have used in my own workouts.  I would love to hear more ideas from you!

#PracticeWhatYouTeach: Lessons From My Son

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I got to do something I love this week – Pilates with my son!  As a Pilates teacher my kids get a lot of exposure to movement and of course I’m always playing and moving with them.  As a mom of 3 and business owner I can tell you that getting one on one alone time with the kids is definitely rare and treasured and rarely does it happen at the studio!  This week the stars aligned and my son Tyler was able to come hang out at the studio with me for part of the day.  It was probably the first time that I worked with him in a more structured way than our usual play time at home or Pilates Mat class at school and it was super fun!

img_9551As a parent I get to watch Tyler move when he’s taking a Ninja Zone class, a Taekwondo class and even when I teach a Pilates Mat class at his school, but this was definitely different.  I loved being able to put him on the reformer and watch him put the pieces together to figure out how to do Footwork on the Reformer.  I loved seeing that although I only cued him a couple of times to engage his abdominal muscles, he automatically engaged them on most exercises. I loved seeing how even though it was a challenge, he worked to control equipment (ie no banging or making noise…which is asking a lot from a 10 year old boy!) and it didn’t take his body long to figure it out!  When I showed him how to do an exercise I call scooter on the Reformer he jumped on and said we could both do this at the same time (and he was right!).  After that exercise Tyler decided we should make a Parent/Kid Pilates class that he would help me design!

As he tried exercises it was fascinating to listen to him talk about how the exercises felt (be sure to watch the video of him describing jumping on the reformer!) He of course wanted to play on the Cadillac (who doesn’t?…it’s like a giant jungle gym!)  so I let him play on his own and found that he ended up doing movements with the Trapeze that were really close to traditional exercises without any cuing from me!

img_9553From a personal practice standpoint, working with Tyler reminded me of the joy of movement and exploring movement.  As I worked with him I tried not to over teach him, but just give him some basic instructions designed to keep him safe and let him figure things out on his own.  It was very cool to see how the feedback from the equipment helped him very quickly move better and more efficiently.  What a great reminder of the value in trying new things and trusting the design of the equipment and the exercises!

 

 

 

#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?

#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.

#PracticeWhatYouTeach:More Instagram?

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instagramI decided this week that I should be trying to post more on Instagram, sharing my personal practice and sharing my passions.  One of my passions when it comes to movement is showing people that Pilates is doable no matter where you are in your body.  Pilates can be such an amazing health tool to make your life happier and healthier! It drives me a little (ok a lot) crazy when I see so many social media posts of instructors doing movements that the average person would find intimidating or impossible.  As a teacher I’ve never really been comfortable posting pictures and videos of me doing exercises because I don’t want potential clients to think that they need to be able to move a certain way or look a certain way to start Pilates.   I think in my head I’ve always thought that me posting pictures of myself would come across as bragging or showing off……. or worse yet people would look at it and criticize my movement or me! Something changed my mind about that theory this month.

Anula Maiberg of Sixth Street Pilates in New York posted a project this month she called the #CropTopChallenge.  For 30 days Anula posted daily pictures of herself in a crop top doing various Pilates exercises and starting conversations about body image, unrealistic expectations about fitness, and body size in the Pilates world. It has definitely inspired me to be a little braver about posting and sharing on Instagram and all of our social media outlets.

https://instagram.com/p/BLizjl-gHO1/

Something about Anula’s project inspired me to want to dive in a little deeper into how I share my passion.  I decided that me not being all in, not sharing the stuff I love about Pilates and movement on social media, is kind of a waste, it’s playing small.  One of my favorite quotes from Marianne Williams says, “Your playing small does not serve the world. …. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough to have found someone to help me grow my social media presence and we often talk about how to best connect with potential and current clients using our blogs and social media posts. Since I’ve been working with Becky from Farm Girl Marketing Solutions, I’ve learned that the more I share, the more authentic and real I am,the more people feel connected with me. When people feel connected they find the courage to get outside their comfort zone and make that first appointment at my studio or find a studio near them and start a movement practice that might just change their life.  That’s the kind of impact I want to make in people’s lives.

Don’t be too surprised if you see a little more of me and my ideas on social media!  I’m hoping you’ll follow along and share with others anything that might resonate with you!

 

#PracticeWhatYouTeach: The devil is in the details!

img_9189On Sunday night, after a fun filled day of teaching teacher training workshop I got a chance to get in a long walk and practice my Pilates mat work.  What kept popping into my head during my Pilates time is hearing the trainees say things like:

  • “I can’t believe I’ve been doing that wrong for 5 years”.
  • “There’s another thing I’ve been doing wrong”.
  • “I’ve been doing this completely wrong all this time!”

First let me say that when I hear things like this my response is usually something like this:  The only wrong way to do Pilates or any movement is in a way that creates pain or hurt in your body. The fine tuning, the deeper understanding that happens when you dig deep into the details of the exercise…that is all just part of the process.  That is what keeps your movement practice exciting, growing and challenging.  For me it’s what keeps me coming back for more!

By the end of the workshop day these phrases became kind of the joke of the day.  Even though I knew the trainees were kidding, I also knew there was a little bit of seriousness to their comments and a little bit of frustration.  I can relate to this because like most people, I don’t like to do things I’m not good at.  Whether I’m writing a blog, running a business, playing a sport or doing Pilates, I want to do it well. I want to be good (okay, great) at it. I want to think that I am doing everything I can to do my best. And we all know that it doesn’t matter how nicely someone gives you some helpful advice or gives you a better way to do something….they are telling you these things because whatever you are doing could be better. They clearly think you are not doing what you are capable of.

jpquote2What’s the key to not feeling like a complete failure every time your Pilates teacher gives you some advice on making your movement better?  For me, I had to make the realization that my Pilates practice was a practice.  I had to acknowledge that the benefits of me moving my body and practicing Pilates movements really comes from the process itself and not any end result.  My flexible spine, my awareness of my posture and alignment and my core strength are a cumulative effect of the practicing of movements I do on a regular basis.  I don’t have to wait until my Teaser is absolutely perfect or for my side leg kicks to look like those of a ballerina to benefit from my Pilates practice.

From a teaching perspective I had to realize that my “performance” of an exercise really has nothing to do with my ability to teach and guide others on their Pilates journey.  Of course I need to know the exercise in my own body to teach it to someone else, but it definitely does not need to be perfect.  In fact I think that the exercises that are a challenge for me are often the ones that I teach best to others. My challenge exercises inspire me to take more time to really understand those exercises and figure out how I can tweak little details to get more out of those exercises.  In the long run, this understanding helps me be a better teacher when I am helping someone else figure out these movements in their body.

As I lay on the floor and practiced Pilates this week, thinking about my new trainees and how much their own Pilates practiced just changed in one short day- I was excited!!  Excited to see how their thinking about their practice had started to change, excited to see how their belief of what their own bodies could or should do changed and what they could guide others to do changed!  After I got over my excitement I had to find my concentration skills and focus on my own practice so I could continue my own journey.  #Practicewhatyouteach!