Tag Archive for: Pilates at Work

Crohn’s, Pilates & Life : Have you been to the hospital since I saw you last?

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book-3Let’s start with the hospital question. I’m not sure how many times it has happened over the last 15 months that Kelly just never told me she had spent the previous night or day at the ER, the hospital or all day at doctor’s appointments before our session. The first few times when it happened I was in complete disbelief when I found out later. I haven’t been in the hospital for myself since my eight year old was born…. so to think that someone would spend a night in the ER and then come to their Pilates session and not even mention it to their Pilates instructor… was kind of unbelievable to me. It drives me a little crazy when someone forgets to write on their health intake form about the arm they broke 8 years ago….so forgetting to tell me you were in the hospital yesterday or even 2 or 3 days ago seems inconceivable.  Could someone possibly think that my planning of what we were going to do in a Pilates session wouldn’t be at all affected by a hospital trip?!

I’m what someone might call an intuitive teacher. So usually I make decisions about what my client’s session will be like as I’m working with them.  I pay attention to how they are moving when they walk in the door, how their body moves as we warm up and always adjust as I go.  So looking back on the days when Kelly “forgot to tell me”  I’m always hopeful that my intuition served me well and I didn’t do anything that left Kelly feeling worse!

Needless to say, I always start my sessions with Kelly with a quick check in question, “Have you been in the hospital or saw the doctor since I last saw you?”  It’s a little bit of a joke between us now and of course she knows me well enough that she is pretty good about keeping me updated on those things (like hospital visits) that could affect her movement!

The more I get to really know Kelly…. I finally am starting to get it.  I am starting to understand better why she might not even have thought to tell me or maybe just didn’t want to tell me about her hospital time. It’s a great lesson for me as a teacher in empathy and the value of truly getting to know someone so you can start to see things from their perspective.

Hospital time and doctor time is pretty much part of Kelly’s life. She’s in pain every day.  As much as she tries to just live a “normal” life, she can’t.  The effects of the Crohn’s are always there.  She doesn’t really know what it feels like to not be in pain or to not have to worry about her health.  Her amazing positive attitude and her drive to succeed in everything she does goes along way in hiding her struggles with Crohn’s, but it is always there.

What Kelly probably wants more than anything is to just be able to move, workout and live life without having to deal with all the crap that goes along with dealing with Crohn’s.  And I can’t blame her for trying to just keep going, thinking that maybe if she ignores it all it will just get better or go away.  As her teacher I try to remind Kelly that part of “our work” in life is to learn to deal with what we are given and make the best of it.  When it comes to her movement practice that means that she has to pay attention to her body, acknowledge how it’s feeling on any given day and she needs to think of movement as a tool to make her life better and not just a workout.  That’s all a lot easier said than done, and I know that.  So I’ll just continue to remind her and we’ll practice in our sessions incorporating these ideas into everything we do!

Be sure to check in to our next blog where I talk about the second question I always ask Kelly at the start of each session: “How much running and biking have you done since I saw you last?”

 

 

Worried about your plank?

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plank4A common question I get from clients new to Pilates is, “Are we going to be doing a lot of planks? They really hurt my wrists or my back or….fill in the blank.”  The quick short answer is no.  You do not have to be able to do a plank to practice Pilates.

You see Pilates is a system of exercises that is designed to strengthen the entire body from the center out.  As you begin your Pilates practice you’ll find that the majority of the exercises are done lying on your back or your belly and focus on you figuring out how to engage from your center.

As your body starts to figure out how to engage from your center the method will continue to challenge you by asking you to do whole body movements the engage, strengthen, and increase balance in your musclature.  As you continue to progress in your own strength and balance these exercises will progress to continue to challenge you.  You will naturally progress to more challenging exercises.  Eventually you may find yourself strong and balanced enough to do exercises that require you to support your body in plank-like or side-plank like position.

I promise by the time you get to these exercises….you will be ready for them and we’ll teach you how to do them without pain or injury.

#PracticeWhatYouTeach: Getting Down and Back up

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Can you sit on the floor and stand back up without touching your hand or knee on the floor?  Last week when I took Benjamin Degenhardt’s Upright Pilates workshop he started by talking about this ability. There has been some interesting studies done on life expectancy in older adults being directly correlated to this ability.  The first thing that popped into my head when this discussion started was….Can I do it?    When I got to try it during workshop time I was a little embarrassed at how hard it was for me (I am a Pilates teacher after all….). ..and I have to tell you I had to use a hand on the floor.  This bothered me and I made a pact with myself to practice and master this!

Have I mastered it yet? Nope. Have I been practicing…you bet.  Almost every time I practice Pilates I take a little time to try out my ability to get down and stand back up. Somewhere in that practice I learned a lot about my teaching and about what I can do to help others move better in their life. Here’s a quick video of my 8 year old daughter and I practicing!

I had been practicing the crossed leg sit and stand which is often shown as the example of getting down and back up. I found myself getting creative and exploring what was so hard about the movement and what I needed to do to be successful at it.   I discovered if I added a little rolling like a ball in once I sat down I could use my momentum to help get me back up.  I learned that the position of my feet and ankles made a big difference in my success of standing back up.  And then at some point as I practiced I had an aha moment.  It went a little something like this in my head:

Most of my clients are probably not going to be able to do this. Is there any benefit to training them to get up and down exactly like this? Does it really matter if one hand or a knee touches the floor?  Probably not.   Is there benefit in helping them strengthen and balance their bodies in a way that allows them to safely get down and up from the floor? Yes of course!! Do we do this type of work in our sessions?…ALL THE TIME!!   What can I do as a teacher that would benefit my clients the most when it comes to getting up and down?

My conclusion:  Talk about the benefits of Pilates more! The Pilates exercises are so well designed to help us live life and do little things like get up and get down to the floor. Sometimes I need to be reminded as a teacher that my job is not just to teach the correct way to do an exercise or movement but to motivate, inspire and educate clients on why this work will help them live life better. I don’t know about you, but I’m much more motivated to do the detailed work of an exercise when I know why I’m doing it and what it will help me do in the rest of my life.

As a quick example, we often have specific foot and ankle positions that we use in Pilates exercises.  Sometimes I feel like these adjustments seem small or insignificant in the big picture of the exercise to clients.  I have found though that when I talk about how important it is to have flexible, strong feet when you want to get up off the floor or at that moment you need to catch your balance….clients seem to connect to that more, something clicks and they make the effort to work on that detail of the exercise.

Don’t be surprised if you hear me teaching a little bit more about not just how to do an exercise but why we do it! I would love to know from you: is this type of teaching helpful for you as a student? Are there any particular exercises or pieces of the Pilates exercises that standout for you because of what they help you do in your day to day life?

Add an occasional private session to spice up your Pilates practice….

I love small group classes.  I love teaching them and I love taking them! I am a firm believer that every movement experience you have is a chance to work on your own movement practice, learn new things about your body, and just plain keep your body healthy.

What you’ll find in a small group class setting is that instructors will be guiding the whole class through a movement, watching bodies and giving cues that everyone can benefit from, and making sure that no one is doing anything that might be unsafe in their body.  From a learning atmosphere there is so much benefit to this type of atmosphere where students are empowered to explore their body’s movements, listen to cues, and adjust to find what works in their body.

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If you are someone who normally takes group classes I want to suggest that every once in awhile you take a private lesson.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised and excited by the things you can learn!

By taking a private session every 3 or 4 months you’ll find your instructor can help you find some things in your movement practice that you can focus on and practice in your small group classes.  This fine tuning session can really help you to keep progressing and working your way toward any movement goals you may have.  It’s a great chance to ask questions about exercises that challenge you or maybe you don’t feel like you are doing quite right.  And if you are feeling  a little “blah” about your Pilates practice, some individualized tips can really add new life to your practice and leave you inspired to keep working on things!

Share and Win!

Book-15As an instructor, I am inspired by my clients every day.   Every day I work with amazing clients who have used Pilates to keep their bodies and souls strong so that they can live their lives to the fullest.  There is nothing I love more than when a client comes in and tells me little things about how their Pilates practice has infiltrated into their life.

Things like:

  • I walked around the zoo with my grandkids without pain!
  • I can bend over and touch the floor!
  • I just realized I haven’t had back pain in months!
  • I found myself thinking about my posture in the car!

I could go on and on, but what I want to do today is to ask you about you Pilates story!  We want to know what Pilates has done in your life so we can celebrate and share your story with others.  We’re pretty passionate about sharing Pilates with the world and we know there is nothing more inspiring than hearing from people just like you who have used Pilates to make changes in their life.

Have you told your Pilates story-Do you have a Pilates story?    Will you share it?   You can send via email or just bring it in on a piece of paper and we’ll type it in!  It can be as short as a few sentences or as long as 3-4 paragraphs.      We’d love to hear from you!     Share your story and be entered to in a free private Pilates session!  Entries must be received by September 5 to be eligible for the drawing!

I need to get into better shape before I start Pilates again…

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I’ve been teaching Pilates long enough that I have clients that have been seeing me for years which quite frankly I find pretty amazing!  I adore that clients have found a love for Pilates and incorporate it into their life and am super honored that they continue to choose me as their instructor throughout their journey.

Recently I had a client come back in after being away for awhile.  This is a client I knew quite well and who I knew had been battling some health complications over the years I’ve worked with her.  When she came back in we had a pretty honest talk about why she hadn’t been back in sooner and I really appreciated what she told me.

She mentioned that she kept telling herself that she needed to get in better condition before she came in.  She said she was embarrassed at how far out of shape she had gotten and quite honestly didn’t want to disappoint me.  I can tell you she’s not the only one who has thought something like this or told me this.

My heart kind of sank when she said these things. All I could think of is that just like I tell my kids, “I’ll love you, support you and will be there for you no matter what”…..I have the same sense of non judgmental support for my clients.  Part of what I love about my job is being part of people’s health and wellness journey no matter where they are in their bodies or their life.

Mindful movement can be so healing, energizing and life changing in so many ways.  Movement can help you from a physical and spiritual stand point when you are going through “stuff” ( you know… the stuff that happens to everyone at some time like injuries, illness, family problems, life problems, etc).

As an instructor I love showing people that you don’t have to be doing the hardest, most grueling exercise for it to be an effective tool in your life.  Learning to move safely in your body where you are at any given day is a gift that can change your life.  Learning to listen to your body and find movement that feels good and is effective can change your health and your happiness.

So I have to tell you some amazing things happened within just a week of this client starting Pilates again.  First of all the second time I saw her, she was moving amazingly better and was already feeling a difference in her body (and I could see the difference!).  By the second week it was a dramatic enough difference that she sent me this note:

WE received a compliment tonight!  My husband has been really busy the last couple of weeks. He has been going to work really early and coming home super late.   The first thing he said to me tonight when he arrived home was, “Wow, you are moving so much better since you started Pilates.”  Yeah for us!

(I love those type of notes by the way!) You might be wondering what kind of amazing exercises and sessions we did to get such great results?  Well, we had done three 25 minute sessions( which included some talk and discussion time) over 2 weeks.(Yep…that’s it!)  We did a lot of breathing, fundamental Pilates movements and some exercises using the Pilates equipment.  We started with the basics and did exercises that helped her body find a sense of ease of movement while working in a space she was comfortable.  Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary…but the difference it made in her body and her life was pretty amazing.

So if you’re feeling like you need or want to get back to your Pilates practice but maybe you have some similar thoughts going through your head about why you’re not coming back in……know that I would love nothing more than to help you get started again wherever you are in life and in your body!

P.S. If you’re reading this and I’m not your Pilates instructor I can tell you that your Pilates instructor feels the same way I do!