Practice what you teach: Sometimes I surprise myself…

As someone who teaches movement for a career I have to tell you sometimes I am honestly surprised at how strong, flexible and functional my body is.  I’ve been keeping track of my Pilates practice since the beginning of the year for this blog and I have to tell you I don’t workout in the traditional sense very often.  It’s pretty rare that I take a class or spend an entire 40 or 50 minutes doing Pilates.

The other day ago I challenged my 12 year old son to a plank off as our staff was trying to do some extra planks as part of the studio’s 6 week Challenge designed to motivate clients to move more.  I managed to hold a plank with pretty good form (or so I think) for 3 minutes and 48 seconds.  If you’ve held a plank before you know this is not easy!!  Considering how little I actually “workout” in the traditional sense…I was pretty happy with that and it made me really look at what I’m doing for my movement practice and why it’s so effective.  Here’s what I decided….

I play….. a lot.   I sneak in little sequences of movement through my days doing things like practicing what I want to teach to clients, laying on the floor while hanging out with my kids and sneaking in some exercises or movement, I go for walks and runs with the dog and my kids, and sneak in occasional squats or planks leaning on my kitchen counter and of course I teach Pilates 5 to 8 hours a day (which if you are a Pilates instructor you know does not mean I get to workout 5-8 hours a day!!)  My teaching time is kind of like the rest of my life…play time.   I’m generally teaching with my words, walking around clients giving feedback and cues and occasionally am showing a movement or exercise.

So what’s my secret?  Here’s what I discovered by accident!  Last week I had a day where my teaching schedule included Return to Life Mat Class ( a class that goes through Joseph Pilates’  mat sequence as he laid out in his book) and also some private sessions.  As I was teaching a private client later in my day I had a moment where I got that intense feeling of work in my abdominal muscles much like I get when I’m doing the work myself.  At that moment I had a little aha moment where I realized how much I often “do the muscles engagement and probably sequencing of muscle engagement” part of the movement with my clients as I’m teaching.  When I’m teaching I often find myself trying to put myself into my clients body in my mind so I can help them figure out how to move better and obviously as I’m doing that I’m engaging muscles with them.  When I’m teaching a class I often use my body to show a movement without actually getting down on a mat and doing it.

This is just a theory, but I have to believe that this engagement of my body while I teach only helps to strengthen my body and also just plain helps me make moving a continual part of my life.  It also reminds me of how lucky I am to be able spend my days doing something I love that keeps my body healthy and strong!  #jobperk

P.S. I would love to hear what other instructors think about how their teaching hours effect their overall health, strength, etc.!!