Practice What You Teach: Hip Hop Pilates & a Proud Mom moment!

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IMG_8208My absolute favorite movement experience this week was taking Duane Lee Holland’s Hip Hop Groove class with my 7 year old daughter Aubri.  Like most 7 year olds Aubri loves to dance, do cartwheels and handstands, jump on the trampoline and do just about anything where she is active.  When we’re home she will spend hours listening to music, creating her own choreography or “shows” as she calls them and of course performing them for my husband and me.  Many days the two of us just put on music and dance and often she coaches me and teaches me a dance.  To me, this is how movement should be – creative and fun!

I have to admit that even though I love to move like this at home in the privacy of our house, I’m usually the last person you would find doing something like dancing (especially hip hop dancing) in any sort of public location! Somewhere in my life I started believing that dancing wasn’t really my thing and that I was way too uncoordinated to dance (especially in public, in front of people who might think the same thing). So for many years I’ve avoided it! Which really has made me feel like a little bit of a hypocrite. I mean I have a whole life and business built around teaching people to empower their body through movement and I was nervous and avoiding dancing in public because of what I might think others thought when they saw my dance moves!

This leads to one of the wonderful things about having children- they teach you a lot about yourself.  I really believe in leading by example and so in my heart of hearts I knew that I wanted be a good example for my daughter of loving yourself, being willing to try new things and being willing to get outside your comfort zone. So last week I put myself out there and tried Hip Hop Groove Class with Duane…and it was super fun, a great workout and no one laughed or made fun of my dancing abilities(at least in front of me!)

A mother who radiates self love and acceptance actually vaccinates her daughter against low self-esteemWhen I had the chance to take another class and bring Aubri with me I knew it would be a great experience for her.  Not only would she get to meet a professional dancer and learn from him, but she would have the chance to be in a room full of women who were being vulnerable enough to try something new, dance and move their bodies, and just plain have fun moving.  I also had a super proud Mom moment when we got to the portion of class where Duane added in the beginning of the Pilates Mat sequence and I looked over to see Aubri doing all of the exercises with great form and control! I love that she is learning Pilates in her body and will have that practice that she can incorporate into the rest of her life.

I want to thank Duane for bringing his love of movement and dance to the studio and creating such a supportive, non-judgemental atmosphere for everyone to learn and move. Also a big thank you for all the women that showed up for class that night and just enjoyed the experience, moved their bodies and had fun!  Just by being yourself and trying something new you helped shaped my daughter’s ideas on what movement can look like and how it should feel…. fun!!!

 

Practice What You Teach: Picking up Nerf bullets with my toes!

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One of the many bonuses of being a Pilates teacher and working with bodies day in and day out is that you become very aware of your own body, it’s alignment and how it functions.  Over the years one of the areas of the body that really stands out to me as so important (but often neglected) is our feet.  The function of our toes, feet, and ankles are so important to how the rest of the body moves yet we often don’t even think about them unless they hurt or have lost some of their function.

Lately I’ve been noticing in my own feet how my pinky toes are often collapsed in and how I just don’t have the strength, flexibility and movement in them as I do my other toes.  So I’ve made a conscious effort to use movement to change that!  Joseph Pilates created a couple of pieces of equipment, specifically the Toe Gizmo and the Foot Corrector that are really great for working on adding strength, flexibility and functionality back to the feet and toes.  But I know myself and honestly it’s too easy for me to forget to get these little pieces of equipment out and use them as regular as I would like, so I’ve been doing a few simple things( that require no equipment) and have been trying to incorporate them into my life.

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See how the pinky toe doesn’t move as much!

1. The first one I’m just calling: Spread your Toes. Just like it sounds I have been challenging myself to periodically throughout my day spread all of my toes( especially my pinky toes) and then relax them and repeat at least 5 times.   I’m trying to make it a point to do this whenever I sit down.  As a Pilates instructor I honestly don’t sit for very often, but I do drink a lot of water throughout my days and take plenty of bathroom breaks where I of course sit…so most of my Toe Spreading time happens during these breaks! (Just what you wanted to know right?)

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Max is snoozing away as I work to pick up that Nerf bullet (not that easy!)

2. I try to pick things up with my toes(and specifically my pinky toes).  This most often happens when I’m running around at home picking up after my kids and pets.  Luckily we seem to have an abundance of things to pick up like Nerf bullets, dirty socks, hair ties and random dog toys laying in the middle of the hallway that are perfect for challenging me.

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The Original Foot Alignment Socks (or Happy Feet Socks!)

3.  I’ve been trying to wear my Happy Feet Original Foot Alignment socks around the house more and even to bed to help stretch and realign my feet and toes.  I’ve tried a lot of different toe spreading socks and equipment over the years and these are my favorite because the are comfortable enough for me to wear around the house or to bed that I actually use them on a regular basis and hence can feel and see a difference in my toes and feet!

4.  I am also trying to just be aware of how my whole foot and all my toes are working and moving during all of my Pilates workouts.  It’s kind of fascinating to me(#pilatesnerd) how many times I was catching myself not using my pinky toe and outer foot and how much that awareness can change the work of an exercise or movement.

Do you have any favorite foot, ankle or toes exercises that you incorporate into your life?  I would love to hear about them in the comments!

 

 

Practice What You Teach: Chair, Chair, Chair

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This weekend I’ll be teaching the Body Precision Instructor Training Chair Module, which means I’ve been prepping for the workshops all week long( and last week too…).  My favorite way to prep for teaching is to start by re-reading through the training IMG_6953manual and then doing each exercise along the way.  At this same time I always dig out my original notes from when I went through the training program and read through them as well.  And for Chair one of my favorite reference pieces is the Chair book from the Pilates Center that features pictures of Joe doing all the exercises himself.  My manuals and notebooks are covered with notes and nuggets of wisdom that I’ve learned over the years.

This process of prepping for the workshops is almost as much fun as teaching the workshops for me.  And it never fails I always learn something  and re-remember somethings I haven’t taught or used in awhile.  I also rediscover exercises in my personal practice that I really should be doing on a more regular basis and start adding them in!!  I find myself taking notes as I go through the exercises for clients( things like this would be good for this client, great for balance work, try this with client so and so this week..).    If you are a client of mine and we’ve been doing a little more chair than normal this week….this might be why!!

The act of preparing to teach this material to other students of the Pilates method really re-lights my passion for what the Chair can help someone do in their body as well as my own.  It reminds me of my love of not only the Pilates method, but of teaching movement in general.  I’m pretty thankful that my work time and my Pilates practice time this week included playing on the Chair!!

Practice What You Teach: A little bit each day…

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“The question is: Did you know you can practice a little bit of ‪#‎Pilates‬ everyday and really change the way you feel? ‪#‎JustSayin‬‘” ~ Gina Jackson

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My Pilates friend Gina Jackson posted this quote on her Facebook page this week and it really spoke to me.  Probably because it had been one of those weeks that just kind of flew by and even though I was doing Pilates every day it wasn’t ever a full 30 minute or more workout.

It was a sneak in 5 or 10 minutes before my next client, stretch and play on the floor while I watched my daughter dancing in the living room kind of week.

 

careyOne of the best things about this kind of week is that the little bits of Pilates I did throughout my days really did change the way I felt.  I always felt better after I moved both physically and mentally!

The reminder this week from Gina was just what I needed to change my attitude from I wish I had time to fit more in to…wow, I’m grateful to have a consistent Pilates practice in my life that makes a difference even when it’s just a little bit each day.

The idea of incorporating Pilates into your life and making it part of your daily routines is something I talk to clients about all the time so when I have those a-ha moments in my own life about how amazingly effective and helpful it is… it just makes me smile! #Practicewhatyouteach

 

 

Practice What You Teach: Pilates Detective Work

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One of the things I love most about teaching Pilates is the “figuring it out” part of the work.  I’ve learned over the years that by using movement to create balance in your muscles and your body often times you can get rid of pesky aches and pains throughout your body and you can just plain feel better in your body.  So when a client has something going on(whether its a tight low back, foot pain, or whatever) I love being a detective who looks for clues as to what might be imbalanced in the body and then figuring out what we can do from a movement perspective to create more balance.

This type of detective work is not always a quick process as often times the solution is not an easy answer…like we need to strengthen your bicep muscle.  Many times the solutions come over detectivetime as clients learn to pay attention to their bodies and notice their own alignment and movement patterns.  By regularly moving in alignment the whole body starts to realign and become more balanced. My goal is to give people a toolbox of skills so they can learn to use movement to work toward a more balanced body.

As an instructor I find myself not just cuing clients and helping them with this process in their session but often times I spend my own movement time playing with ideas and movements I’m teaching them so that I can better help them.  Which leads me to my movement practice this week.  All week long I have been playing with movements related to the gluteus medius and gluteus maximus.  During some “client detective work time” I started thinking that my client wasn’t activating these muscles properly and/or there was an imbalance and so I started playing around with the best cues and movements to encourage proper engagement and strengthen those muscles.

So I’ve been playing with movement specific to these muscles in my own body and also just thinking about how I use these muscles in everything I do so I can better relate that to my client.  The result….a sore butt( in a good way) and some awareness in my own body that I have some imbalances in my own gluteus muscles.  I know this as I have really been working on awareness and firing both sides together and my left butt has been much more sore than my right!!  #awarenessiskey #jobperk #PilatesInstructor  #PilatesNerd

 

 

 

Practice What You Teach: Getting outside my Pilates comfort zone…

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One of my goals in my own practice is to pick one new to me Pilates Anytime video and do it each week.  And I made a deal with myself that once I picked one and started it…I would finish it.  You see many times I find myself picking something to watch and workout with and if I don’t like it ( ie it’s not what I expected, it’s more challenging than I wanted that day, or it’s a style of teaching I don’t love) I just stop the video and do something else or maybe even call it good for the day.

I decided that there are so many reasons I shouldn’t do this like:

  • Getting outside of your comfort zone is good( as a teacher it’s a good reminder that this is what a new student feels like in my class…)
  •  The stuff we don’t like is often what we need most( following my own advice…)
  • There is always a takeaway, a lesson, something positive in any situation ( again…following my own advice)

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This week I happen to be scrolling through Facebook and saw Pilates Anytime had posted a new little clip of Portia Page doing Single Leg Stretch with a big ball promoting her latest class.  I thought….” I need to sneak a workout in and I do love a little Pilates Mat and Big Ball”.  So I opened up my Pilates Anytime app to check it out.   It was a 30 minute workout which was perfect for my schedule so I started it up on my phone.

Right away as the video started I knew it was not what I expected it to be.   We started with some standing squat like movements and Portia was talking about getting your cardio in, music and having to coordinate to the music(ahhhh…coordinating with music is not normally my thing!) I really wanted to stop the video and try something else. This was definitely not the style of class I was thinking it was going to be, but I could stand to get some cardio in and I had made myself that promise, so I stuck with it.

2 minutes later….This was not your traditional Pilates workout, and I clearly was not doing everything exactly right or getting all of the choreography(I’m a little bit20160519_112434 of a perfectionist so this drives me a crazy!!) but I was getting a workout!  My heart rate was up and once I just let myself not worry about being perfect…it was fun!  Portia is a great instructor and as I was doing the workout I was thinking that there were definitely some things we were doing that would be fun to add into my TGIF Mat class where we often played on the big ball.  I really loved her positive attitude and just plain enthusiasm to move and have fun!  The unexpected cardio and Pilates based movements ended up being a perfect workout to start my day.  Lessons learned and noted!