Practice What You Teach: Chair, Chair, Chair

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 manual 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!!