Am I going to get hurt doing this?

Do you ever wonder when you are doing an exercise or a movement program if you are doing it “correctly”?  Do you worry that even though you are trying to do something to improve your health that you might actually end up hurting yourself? This can definitely be a concern when it comes to fitness and exercise.  Not all exercises are designed for all bodies and doing something beyond your body’s abilities or doing a movement that aggravates a current condition can do more harm that good. This is why it’s important to learn movement and exercise from a knowledgable, experienced teacher.

At Rivercity Pilates our Pilates Mat teachers have all completed at a minimum a 150 hour program that takes most participant 6-12months.  Most of our teachers have continued their teacher training beyond this initial training and have at least 400-1000 hours of training under their belt.   During this teacher training program, future teachers take workshops where they learn how to break down each exercise into its components and modify exercises for individual bodies based on each body’s tightnesses, weaknesses and any special conditions or injuries they may have.  Future teachers also study basic anatomy and how it relates to movement so that they understand what needs to happen in the body to be successful in each exercise. Part of the training includes knowing common ailments and injuries and knowing what types of modifications and adjustments need to be made for each condition in each exercise.  

What this means to you as a client is that whether you have a knee replacement, fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain or are recovering from a rotator cuff injury in your shoulder….your teacher will be familiar with the condition and be able to give appropriate exercises that will help you gain strength and flexibility and not cause injury!  

Future teachers are also required to spend 40 hours simply observing experienced teachers teach and 50 hours practice teaching.  These 90 hours are key to helping future teachers bridge the gap from just knowing the exercises and the variations to learning the skills to actually teach others how to do the exercises and stay safe in their bodies.  Future teachers learn how to use their voice and their physical cues( ie putting a hand on someone’s shoulder) to help clients make adjustments in their body and get more out of each exercise they are doing.

What this means to you as a client is that your teacher can quickly see if you are doing something unsafe in your body (even in a group class) and gives you adjustments to make the movement safer and just plain more effective.  

If you are looking for a way to move and exercise in your body that is safe and effective – we would love to introduce you to Pilates!  We suggest starting off with a complimentary private or semi-private session (maybe with a friend?!) that will give us a chance to introduce the method and some of the exercises to you in a very individualized way so that we can help you choose the best sessions or group classes to get started!  Call us today at 319.665.2499 or send us an email at rcpilates1@gmail.com and we’ll help you schedule something today!