Meet the Instructor: Shaina

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Happy Monday!     It’s Meet the Instructor Monday, and today we’d like to introduce you to Shaina, who recently moved to the corridor.

10922646_3212700633473_6873223768443032675_nWe heard you are moving from New York City to Iowa — can you tell us a little bit about why you are moving?  Moving from Queens, New York to North Liberty, Iowa.   BIG CHANGE.    Making the move to be with my boyfriend who I met through mutual friends who also live in North Liberty.

How long have you been practicing Pilates?  I am relatively new to Pilates.   I took my very first class in June 2013 and fell in love immediately.   I practiced for about a year before starting my certification program.

What made you decide to be a Pilates Instructor?  I became a Pilates instructor for a number of reasons.

  • It helped me SO much with my own spinal injuries that I wanted to be able to pass that on and help others.
  • I was an athlete all my life and played volleyball in college so exercise was always part of my day to day life.   I struggled finding a form of exercise that I enjoyed and that was safe for my spinal injuries in my adult life and Pilates was definitely the answer.
  • It seemed like the perfect time in my life to start something new and it gave me a sense of freedom that I could go anywhere in the world and be able to teach.
  • The extra cash doesn’t hurt!  :)

What was your favorite part about living in New York City?   It would be impossible to pick just one thing.    First of all I have lots of family in NY so it has been reallly nice having everyone so close.   The city itself provides an energy that is indescribable.   Not to mention you can do, see, and order anything you want at any time you want.   It truly is the city that never sleeps and I feel very lucky and proud to have lived there and made it my own for 5 years.

Favorite Food?     Like a true New Yorker:   Pizza and Bagels.   I’m a sucker for a good carb!

shainapuppyHobbies?  I work in digital marketing so Pilates is my hobby!  Outside of the office or studio you can find me hanging out with family and friends, playing with my new puppy Samantha, or binge watching tv shows!

Hometown?   I moved around my whole life so I don’t really have a “hometown”.    I have lived in Michigan, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Ohio, Vancouver, Phoenix, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York and now Iowa in my short 27 years!

Twitter Handle?    Not very active on Twitter but you can follow me on Instagram @shaybo6.

Favorite Pilates Exercise?   Probably a tie between Short Spine and Semi-Circle

Do you have a favorite Pilates teaching moment?     Not too long ago I had a woman come in for her first sessions at my NYC studio.   She had done Pilates years ago and she was trying to get herself back into shape.    I could tell she was uncomfortable with herself and a little overwhelmed by everything.   We took the session slow and when we started doing planks on the Reformer she was very tense and was using her traps to do the work rather than her lats and serratus muscles. We stuck with the exercise and on the last rep she finally made that lat/palm connection and her whole face lit up!   She felt exactly what I was saying and she was so excited and proud of herself.   After that she was so much more relaxed and confident.   The rest of our session was fun, upbeat and productive.   Every time I see a client have an ‘ah-ha’ moment it motivavtes and inspires me to continue teaching and pushing my students!

#1 Job Perk

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Can we talk about inspiration? Through my own self discovery process I’ve learned that I am motivated by inspiration (big surprise for those who know me…).  I love to inspire others to live their best lives, inspire others to add more movement to their life, inspire them to be happy, and just to see their full potential.  The beautiful thing about teaching Pilates is that most of the time I get the better end of the deal!  The more I get to develop relationships with clients and help them in their movement journey, the more I’m inspired to work on mine.  Let’s face it – it doesn’t matter what you do for a living,  we could all use a little extra motivation to take care of ourselves and our health!

IMG_4249Case in point?  My morning workout today.  It was a beautiful fall morning and I was super excited to get up and get a morning run in.  When I got home I decided it was way too nice to plop on the floor to do my Pilates, so I threw a mat(actually it was a blanket folded in half…) on the deck and decided to do some mat work.  I decided to do the full advanced Pilates mat work order (similar to what I had just taught the day before in my Return to Life Mat class).  I have to be honest – I don’t often do the entire mat sequence for many reasons.  First of all I often don’t have time to get the whole thing in and second it’s hard!!  Sometimes I start to do the entire sequence and stop part way through or just do my favorite exercises skipping those that are more challenging or I don’t especially like.

But today I was inspired to do every exercise and not let myself skip things.  When I even considered skipping something I reminded myself of my inspiring clients.  I have clients in classes who have been coming since I started the studio over 6 years ago and I could count on one hand the amount of times they’ve missed their regular Pilates class, they are truly dedicated.  I have clients who have have had knees replaced, hips replaced, back surgeries and countless other injuries or obstacles but they continue to come back and do amazing things with their Pilates practices!  I have clients with insanely busy professional and family lives yet they find the time to make their health a priority!  I have clients who really just hate to exercise and/or sweat but they do it anyway!  I didn’t skip an exercise, and as I finished I realized how grateful I am for clients that inspire me and allow me to mentor them in their Pilates practice.  As a Pilates instructor, my inspiration and my #1 job perk, is all the clients that come to Rivercity Pilates.

To all of my amazing, inspiring clients:  Thank you for motivating and inspiring me!!

If you love movement and inspiration and are considering a career teaching Pilates I would love to connect with you!  Contact me today and set up a time to learn more about instructor training programs at Rivercity Pilates.

 

photo credit C. Cummings-Peterson

No Cookie Cutter Private Pilates Sessions Here!

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IMG_7104As a professional Pilates instructor I see a variety of clients with a variety of needs concerning their movement programs. Here’s a short list of why clients come to see me:

  1. Learn to move better
  2. Create a regular Pilates practice
  3. Stress Relief
  4. Overall Better Health
  5. Finding exercises suitable for their bodies even when they have injuries
  6. Accountability to exercise on a regular basis
  7. Core Strength
  8. Variety in their exercise program
  9. Positive body image
  10. Create balance in their body

As a someone who might be considering taking private sessions with a Pilates instructor we want you to know that your sessions will be tailored to what your body can do and to your “why” for coming to see us.  As an example, I have a client who is a busy mom and has a hard time fitting cardio in so we always start her sessions with a 15-30 minute walk and then spend the rest of the session doing a Pilates workout.  Rivercity Pilates is conveniently located right near the North Liberty biking and walking path and we love to use it when we can!  I have another client who is the caretaker for her husband and we spend a lot of her session time focusing on strengthening and stretching in alignment, and also practicing functional movements (like how to lift something properly or how to push a wheelchair with proper body mechanics).

 

During your first complimentary private session at Rivercity Pilates we’ll have you fill out a health intake form where we also include some questions about your health and fitness goals.  We include this as a way to start the conversation with you about what you want to get out of your experience with us and how we can best help you.  Please don’t skip this question!!   We know that having a regular workout program that you actually enjoy and is meeting your goals can make all the difference in the world and we’re excited to have the chance to work with you and help you find that!

Click here to learn more about our instructors!  Sign up for a complimentary session today and let us help you with your health and fitness goals!!

 

How Target and Ana Caban inspired the start of my Pilates career…

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Ana Caban

Ana Caban

Little did I know, that a videotape that I picked up shopping at Target would change my life.  As a personal trainer, those workout videos that Target puts on the ends of the aisles, always attracted me, and one day I picked up a Gaiam Beginning / Intermediate Pilates Mat Work videotape with Ana Caban.

My journey started in my living room in Pennsylvania watching the video and doing mat work on the living room floor.  I was 24, a runner, a personal trainer and I wanted to try this Pilates thing that people were talking about.   I remember how I enjoyed Ana’s VCR video class.  I was able to add it in to my workouts on a regular basis and it made me want to do more.  I honestly had no idea how much more there was.  As a personal trainer I thought, ‘This is good stuff and I can do it pretty well – I should learn how to teach it so I can share it with my clients”.

[tweetthis remove_hidden_hashtags=”true”]How did @Target and @AnaCaban inspire the start of my #pilates career? [/tweetthis]

I did a little research (the internet was not quite as developed way back then) and found an instructor training course in Philadelphia near where we lived and I signed up.  It turned out after I signed up there were IMG_3856requirements you had to do before the class started.  Who knew?  One of the first requirements was taking a certain number of classes or lessons from qualified instructors.  So I figured I’d better try to find somewhere to take a class or a lesson if I wanted to be able to take this course I paid for!  It turns out there was a studio a few miles from our house that offered classes.  I stopped in one day and asked about the class schedule.  The woman at the front desk explained that usually they recommend everyone starts with a private introductory lesson before a class. I of course told her I had been practicing regularly with my video at home and was a personal trainer and she agreed I would probably be fine in class. Thank goodness as I really didn’t want to have to pay for a private lesson-they were expensive!

I remember taking my first class with Mariah and doing fairly well (or at least in my eyes I did) and I really felt like I recognized most of the exercises as I had done them on my video.  So I started attending on a regular basis so I could get ready for my instructor course (or so I thought…).  It turns out Mariah was an apprentice instructor in the Body Precision instructor training program at the studio and we became friends.  When she found out I was a personal trainer she asked me about trading personal training sessions for Pilates sessions, which of course sounded great for me.  As much as I had been loving Pilates, it was expensive and so if I could do it for FREE I was all in!

This is where the fun really began.  It turns out there was sooo much more to this Pilates thing than I had even imagined.  After a few private sessions with Mariah I realized I had no idea what I was doing (and no business trying to teach) and quickly cancelled my reservation for the Pilates training course I originally signed up for.  I realized I might need to learn a little bit more first before I entered a teacher training course. I also started to get to know the instructors at the Body Precision studio where I was taking classes and sessions and really wanted to train with and under them if I was going to pursue this Pilates teaching thing.

I continued to take sessions with Mariah and signed up for the Body Precision training program as soon as I possibly could (and as soon as they gave me the approval!).  Looking back I probably could have used more time practicing Pilates before jumping in to teaching, but I was anxious to learn and an eager student and it all worked out!  Teaching Pilates was exactly what I was looking for in my life.  I have always loved to move and exercise and the Pilates method made so much sense to me.

Even though I was a certified personal trainer when I found Pilates I felt like I really was not very qualified to teach and train people.  I had read the personal training book, studied the materials and took and passed a test.  I worked out myself but always felt a little unsure of my ability to train others.  I had no experience working with clients and really didn’t understand the body and how it moved.  I had no idea how to adapt exercises for different bodies or how to truly help people move better and make progress in their bodies.

When I found Pilates as a profession I knew it was for me.   I was so, so excited by the extent of the comprehensive training program.  This was not a program where you read a book, take a test and you’re certified.   This was a program with workshop time and I would spend hours (& hours & hours) watching trained instructors and learning from them.   I would have to take private lessons and classes and learn the work so deeply that I could pass a performance test at the end, and I would have plenty of hours to practice teach.  Then as a bonus I could actually make money doing all of this!!

Little did I know 16 years ago, that watching that video would lead me to a new career I love, an opportunity to own my own business and teach at my own studio, and most of all, the opportunity to do what I love every single day.    I’ve not ever met or taken a real session with Ana, but I am grateful for her video that inspired me in my Pilates and life journey!!

Interested in exploring Pilates as a career or maybe just a part time passion?  Learn more about the Body Precision Pilates instructor training programs that we offer at Rivercity Pilates by clicking here!  Maybe you are pretty new to Pilates and just want to try it out?  Check out our Youtube Video Library and you too can try this Pilates thing out in the comfort of your living room!

 

Unintended Benefits! A Hamstring Stretch During Tricep Dips!

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This is a great version of your tricep dip and can be a great prep exercise for long back stretch on the reformer.  If you keep a neutral pelvis and flex your feet you can really lengthen your hamstrings and feel a nice stretch as well!

Meet the Instructor Monday — Shannon

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Shannon Ottoson teaches Pilates mat and equipment classes at Rivercity Pilates.

Twitter:    I recently joined Twitter and am working on learning to use it.   My handle is @sotto586.   Tweet me and I will figure out how to reply!

Where are you from?   I grew up in Des Moines with my 4 siblings and I moved to North Liberty in ’99, to work in Cedar Rapids as a mental health nurse.

Favorite food to prepare? I’m not a cook at all! My favorite thing to make myself is my daily Isagenix shake, really!!

Favorite sport or sports team?  I love baseball, I grew up with it, I understand the game, and it is played during the warm months! My favorite team is my son’s team. :)

Why did you choose to practice Pilates?  I started mat pilates in 2001, after my son was born. I had read an article about it and it sounded different. I was hooked after my first class!  The work is so subtle, so deep, and so evolving. It never gets old or easy, and it requires a presence of mind that I really enjoy.

Why did you become an instructor?  I fell in-love with how I felt physically and mentally after I started a regular Pilates practice, and I couldn’t stop talking about it! I felt it was something that has to be experienced, and I truly wanted everyone to feel as supple and as “inside” their bodies as I felt.

Is there something about you that would surprise the students that have attended your classes?  I doubt it, I’m pretty much an open book! I’m really struggling with this one, I’m pretty boring!

What is your favorite song/ group/ genre of music? I grew up on John Denver and love him! For listening I am loving Dave Matthews, and for working out I have been listening to current pop music and it’s like a guilty pleasure!