Tag Archive for: Pilates Iowa

March MATness 2016: #OneLegStretch

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The One Leg Stretch(also called the Single Leg Stretch) is part of the famous Pilates “Stomach Series”.  This term always makes me laugh as I consider my entire Pilates workout a “stomach” workout!!  In Joseph Pilates’ book, Return to Life,  he suggests, ” 5 times on each leg(Later on the number of repetitions may be gradually and progressively safely increased to twelve times with each leg)”.

  • Maintain your working level by adjusting how low the outstretched leg reaches.  Reaching it upward will be more supportive and allow you to work without strain
  • Try to keep your leg in line with your hip when pulling it in and stretching it out.
  • Traditional breathing is inhale on one leg and then exhale on the other.
  • If curling up your head and upper back forward off the mat strains your neck, leave your head on the mat.

#MarchMatness2016 #anybodypilates

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 From Benjamin Degenhardt:

Every day in March, participants across the global Pilates community share content related to Joseph Pilates’ traditional Mat exercises.

Using the connective power of the hashtag, all the magic will happen in the social media networks of those that participate in this unique campaign and want to share their love for Pilates. Each day is dedicated to one exercise from “Return to Life through Contrology”, the original book by Joseph Pilates.

IT’S NOT A CHALLENGE. IT’S NOT A CONTEST. IT’S A CELEBRATION OF UNIVERSAL PASSION!

Check out more details on Benjamin’s website!!

From Carey:

As a Pilates geek I absolutely LOVE the idea of March Matness!  A whole month to celebrate the amazing Pilates mat work and really the method that has influenced my life and the lives of others so profoundly!!  I love to see the content that other Pilates enthusiasts post and of course love to participate.

One of the things I absolutely love about the Pilates work is how adaptable it is for any body no matter what size or shape you are, no matter where you are in your movement practice.   As an instructor I often find the pictures and representation of what Pilates is in social media are often…intimidating, unrealistic for many bodies and doesn’t do justice to encouraging people to try this amazing work!

So I’ve decided that my postings and participation this year in March Matness will be geared toward highlighting how the Pilates Mat exercises that Joe created can be adapted to any body. I of course love the beautifulness of highlighting the Pilates Mat exercises in their ultimate form and will definitely be showing people where they are going with an exercise. But my goal will be to show you the benefits of each exercise in your body, in your life, and in your Pilates journey (even if you’ve never done Pilates!!).  Video instruction of course is never as good as in person work with an instructor but I’m hoping that you’ll be able to see how your body might be able to incorporate the Pilates work into your body and get excited about the possibilities!  I’m hoping you’ll join along and share your journey and include pictures and video of where you are at in your Pilates practice.

[tweetthis]Celebrating #MarchMatness2106 with #anybodyPilates ! #pilateslove #pilatesforeveryone #returntolife[/tweetthis]

I’ll be doing daily videos and pictures talking about each exercise Joe created and be giving you some tips and ideas on how you can adapt the exercise to where you are right now in your body.  Join the fun and use the hashtag #MarchMatness2016  and #anybodypilates and we’ll share and highlight you on our website and social media sites as well!!

See you on the Mat!!

 

 

 

Practice What you Teach: Getting to be the student

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My Pilates practice started off great this week with a private lesson with Cassie at Northwoods Pilates and Wellness in Ankeny.  Cassie is a PMA certified instructor who trained with me and now has her own studio in the Ankeny, Iowa.   Cassie is an amazing teacher and nothing could be better than getting to sneak in an entire session just devoted to my movement practice. I’ve taken many of lessons with Cassie over the years but it’s probably been almost a year since I’ve taken a private with her since she’s relocated so it was especially a treat!

As a teacher of teachers I always find it fun to take lessons from my students.   It’s fun to hear your own influence in their teaching but also to see how they have created their own style of teaching.

There were some moments during our session where I often just laughed inside because I found myself doing things I see my clients doing all the time or I found Cassie saying things that I would often say, or I was just reflecting on what it might be like to teach me! Here’s just a few that might make you laugh too.

  1. During the Hundreds I couldn’t help thinking,” Are we done yet? Isn’t that a hundred? I obviously am not doing this many during my daily Pilates practice!!”
  2. Sometimes I need help concentrating!  More than once I found myself not following Cassie’s directions!!  I would be one or two reps into an exercise and realize I was not doing what she was asking me to!  She was very sweet and would just gently remind me until I realized and got it.
  3. Tensing my shoulders!(yes teachers do it too!)  When Cassie was teaching me something new or I was paying attention to other details of an exercise she would have to remind me (often by a simple touch of the hand) or verbal cue to soften my shoulders or connect them!
  4. Since Cassie is 32 weeks pregnant she often said things like,” you get to do this exercise that my body is sooo craving to do!”.  I can totally relate to that place in pregnancy where you are missing being able to move like you are used to!!
  5. At least a couple of times I heard Cassie say, ” Let’s try this “fun” version of an exercise!”. {my favorite phrase when it comes to movement! I’m not sure where she get’s that from!}
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Finn stretching his spine!!

As always my session left me feeling refreshed and energized and wondering why I don’t make a commitment to get over to see her and take more lessons!! I also got to hang out with Cassie’s son Finn and watch him play in the Pilates studio!  I absolutely love to watch as kids naturally move and play and do things that us adults are trying to recreate in our movement practice!  The picture of Finn just laying down and stretching his spine over the Spine Corrector barrel is a great example! (and he totally did that without prompting from anyone!)

 

 

 

Practice what you teach: I need to take more classes!!

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I got to start off my week taking a Pilates Mat class this week and it reminded me of all the reasons I should take more classes with other instructors even though I practice Pilates on my own on a regular basis!!

#PracticeWhatYouTeach (1)

Side Leg Kicks….my favorite!

1. 50 minutes of me time!  It’s pretty rare that I take a full 50 minutes to do my Pilates workouts!  Often I flow through a workout in 20 or 30 minutes tops and sometimes I do smaller 10 or 15 minutes workouts when I can fit them in.  There is something very therapeutic about knowing for the next 50 minutes the only thing I get to do is pay attention to my body, breathe and move the best I can!

2. New cues and fine tuning.  Listening to someone else explain an exercise or give alignment cues helps me fine tune more and work deeper.  It makes me think differently about how I’m doing each exercise and I really get more out of each exercise.

3. Energy of the class.  I love being in a room full of people who are doing mindful movement.  It’s kind of hard to describe, but it definitely motivates me, keeps me focused and is just fun!!

4. Client perspective.   From a teaching standpoint being a client and taking a class reminds me what it’s like to be the student!!

5.  I do more than if it were just me working out!  Like most people I’ll admit that when I’m working out by myself I’m less likely to push myself or I occasionally skip things I don’t love!  (Which as I tell all my clients…the things we don’t love are often the things we need most!!) Case in point….side leg kicks.   The side leg kick series is sooo good for my body but they are also really challenging for me to do well!  So….. I often don’t do as many of them or I skip them.   In a class though, the energy of the class and my competetive nature kicks in and I do way more than I would on my own!!!

That all being said I’m going to try to take more classes this year!  Maybe I’ll see you in class this week!

 

Practice What You Teach: Pilates fuzzy strap revelations…

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Today’s fuzzy strap revelations were inspired by Andrea Maida and her insightful blog called:  The Pilates Exercises and the Lower Body: Strength for Life!

Andrea is one of my favorite Pilates bloggies as I love how she talks about the connections in the Pilates method and shares her own personal revelations along the way (and she’s pretty funny)!  After reading Andrea’s blog about the lower body I often find myself rethinking the lower half of my body, it’s purpose in the Pilates exercises and how what happens in the lower half of the body effects the body as a whole during each exercise.

IMG_5794During a reformer workout this week I had quite a few aha moments when exploring this concept but my favorite was on the short box.  I tell people all the time to be strong in their straps and use
their legs to anchor, but I found I wasn’t doing it myself( or least not doing it enough!)  When I do Flat Back on the Short box I often keep my range fairly small as I feel like if I go to far I immediately start to feel it in my low back.  So today I dug a little deeper and engaged like I had not quite engaged before.

I anchored into the fuzzy short box strap and found my lower body.  I engaged through my legs to pull the strap apart and reach into and found a place of length where I almost felt like my sitting bones were going to lift off the box (and it was an amazing amount of work).  The beautiful thing was that I felt amazingly stronger throughout my whole body and was able to hinge back to a much bigger range of motion without any strain or pain through my low back. The exercise was at least 20 times more challenging but I also moved about 200 percent better!!  This is what I love about the Pilates work!!

The next day I also reconfirmed my new found revelations as I was feeling worked muscles in places that I hadn’t felt for awhile or ever! I love it when that happens and yet another reason I love the Pilates work.

If you’re working with me this week don’t be surprised if I encourage you to find your lower body in new ways.  The only thing better than finding new engagement and understanding in my own body is sharing it with others!!

Practice What you Teach: Something is always better than nothing…..

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I was chatting with my Mom the other night and catching up on her day, which quite frankly was a crazy, busy stressful day that would have exhausted anybody!  She mentioned how she loved my blog announcing I was going to be blogging about my daily Pilates practice all year long(she’s always my biggest supporter so this was no surprise!!). She mentioned it was her goal to start doing her Pilates everyday too and how it just didn’t happen today.  She was going to watch and workout with a DVD in the morning but started working on other things that needed to get done and the day got away from her (we can all relate to that!).   This conversation is exactly why I’ll be sharing my personal Pilates practice all year long….

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Today’s blog inspired by Mom!

I want to change the way my Mom and you think about movement!  Sure it’s great to go to the studio and take a class or put a 30 minute DVD on and workout, but it’s not always realistic!  On those days, instead of beating yourself up because you didn’t do anything I want you to start thinking of how you can incorporate your Pilates movement throughout your day.  Can you do 10 squats standing in your kitchen after you loaded the dishwasher?  Could you lay on the floor and take 2 minutes and do your Hundreds exercise?  How about just doing some stretches while you are watching the news?

Could you take 7 minutes to do a mini Pilates workout? ( you probably don’t even need to change clothes…)  The video below is me teaching my favorite mini Pilates Mat workout.  It’s really just the first sequence of a classical Pilates Mat routine.  I make a daily deal with myself to always do something even if it’s just the Hundreds( and yes some days it’s just the Hundreds!!).   Many days though I continue on and do the workout below or some version of the Pilates Mat sequence.  Once I get started it feels good and I enjoy it.

[tweetthis]Adding Pilates to your life is easier than you think! #beinspired #practicewhatyouteach [/tweetthis]

If you are creating a Pilates practice at home you might find our little YouTube videos are much more convenient than a DVD.  You can easily put the YouTube app on your phone or tablet and bring up the Rivercity Pilates Channel so you can watch them anywhere, anytime.

I don’t know about you but just the thought of finding the DVD, getting the TV set up to watch it, and finding the time to watch it when I won’t be distracted is enough to make me not watch it or put it off to another day.  On the other hand I don’t mind starting to watch a YouTube video on my phone when I have a few minutes as it’s portable and I can sneak into a clear room and follow along and if I don’t get through the whole thing I know I can continue with it another time.

I’m super excited to share my Pilates practice journey this year and even more excited to hear from you and how you are incorporating your Pilates practice in your life!  Be sure to comment below or on social media and share your story!