Keeping Pilates Fresh

I’ve been teaching Pilates for 15 plus years and the whole journey has been filled with learning and growing (which is part of what I love so much about the profession).   People often ask me how I remain passionate about Pilates or if Pilates gets monotonous for me.

I’ve taken endless hours of continuing education, workshops, conferences and online training.  I’ve taken lessons and classes with a variety of instructors and master instructors.   As much as I love all of those learning opportunities I think the most important teaching tool I use in my teaching is what I like to call “playtime”.

Playtime for me is what some might call my own personal workout time, yet I see it a little differently.  Playtime is where I get to experience the work I teach day in and day out in my own body on any given day.  It’s a time when I get to explore the exercises deeper.  I get to try a variety of different adjustments to the exercise and find which one feels best in my body.

If a client has struggled with an exercise, my playtime is a time where I put myself into my client’s body and imagine what an exercise might feel like in their body.  I call it playtime because its fun and just like a kid playing times flies by and I barely realize that I’m actually “working my body”.

[tweetthis hidden_urls=”http://pic.twitter.com/nXPprcm21N” remove_hidden_hashtags=”true”]#Pilates #workouts should be #FUN! Love what you do! [/tweetthis]

For me having daily “playtime” is essential to my teaching.  It keeps my own body healthy, its refreshes my spirit and inspires my teaching!!  I often start my day with my movement practice but you’ll also catch me playing if I have some time between clients or classes at the studio.