Practice What You Teach: The Power of Words

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This week I did a Tower Class workout on Pilates Anytime with Pilates instructor Benjamin Degenhardt(which was amazing!) During and after the class I was reflecting a little on how much harder I worked during my workout just because of the words and imagery Benjamin used.  The exercises themselves weren’t anything new to me yet I did some of them differently just because of how he taught the exercises and the words he used.  Sometimes a cue he used would have me doing “more” or getting “more” out of that exercise than I would have been doing had I just been practicing on my own.

A cue he used a couple of times that really worked for me was to roll through the space behind your heart.  I usually think about IMG_7013rolling through my upper back but there was something about the heart cue that immediately gave me a sense of more movement in my spine. As a bonus, all week long I could hear his words when I was practicing on my own and it really helped me move better!

As an instructor this reminded me of how powerful our words can be in helping others find movement or create change in their body.  As a student it made me grateful for the opportunity to learn from a variety of instructors over the years. I feel like each teacher shares their own gifts and their own words and they are all important in keeping my movement practice evolving, which in turn keeps me healthy and happy!

 

Practice What You Teach: Don’t take the rules too seriously..

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Do you ever wonder if your Pilates instructor just comes in and hangs from the Cadillac or maybe hangs over the high barrel to stretch their spine when no one else is around?  We do!!  ItIMG_7456‘s the day before our Pilates Day celebration and I had an hour break before my last client of the day and I have to be honest I really just wanted to take a nap!  I got up at 3am this morning to come into the studio for some news coverage for our Pilates Day event and by the afternoon my body was feeling tired and tight!

Instead of sitting at the computer being unproductive and tired, I went to my favorite place- the Cadillac and did all my favorite “feel good” exercises.  I hung in Half Hang( for quite awhile..), did some nice stretchy Roll Downs and did a few of my favorite Rolling Back exercises.  I went to the High Barrel and did Ballet Stretches.  Today’s Ballet Stretches consisted of me rolling down through my spine over my outstretched leg and just hanging out and breathing. Then I hooked my feet on the high barrel and just extended backwards over it.  I also flipped onto my front side and just hung over the barrel in flexion. When I got done….I felt better and more energized- ready to tackle the rest of my day!

You might wonder why I’m telling you all this?  As a Pilates instructor I find myself teaching movement that seems like it has lots of rules…..Pull your belly in, don’t scrunch your shoulders, inhale here, exhale there.  The ideas and concepts that seem like rules are really what help people learn how to move better, more efficiently and help them start thinking about movement and alignment in their life, but many times people take the rules too seriously.  People think they have to be lying on a mat doing things perfectly to be practicing Pilates or any type of movement.  They think they have to follow the rules and the order… and the rules all the time!  I like to think of the “rules” as guidelines for how to move better not as an “all or nothing” rules to movement.

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Instead of focusing on all the rules of my Pilates practice I like to focus on all the tools my Pilates practice gives me.  One of the biggest gifts of my Pilates practice is probably just being able to pay attention to my body and then being able to use movement to make me feel better(like I did today!).  I find that one of my biggest challenges as a Pilates teacher is convincing and reminding clients that they have the ability to change how their body feels through movement any time!  The tools they are learning at the studio can be used practically anywhere( at your desk, on your living room floor, in the car…).  You don’t always have to move at 110% effort, do the hardest version of an exercise or do an hour workout for movement to be an effective health tool in your life!

[tweetthis]You can use #movement anytime to help your body feel better! #practicewhatyouteach[/tweetthis]

 

Practice What You Teach: Nothing Special and why that’s amazing!

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When I committed to writing a weekly blog about my Pilates practice I knew it would not always be easy to write and I knew it would make me honestly look at my Pilates practice in my life.  I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been to blog about my practice.  Usually something in my practice sparks an idea and the writer in me has no problem finding something to write about.

This week was not so easy, probably because there was nothing special about my Pilates and movement time that popped out as being unique or worthy of a blog!  I worked out and played at the studio and did some small bits of mat work at home like I usually do,but honestly I can’t even remember exactly what I did.

Since we have a Pilates Day event coming up in another week,  I had a busy “studio business” week (I consider my “studio business” time all the time I’m doing everything else besides teaching to keep the studio running and hopefully growing!).  As always this time of year, the kids were busy with school projects and activities. Our family had a somewhat stressful week at home as we were taking care of our family dog who was unexpectedly having health problems.  All of this(life stuff) though didn’t really affect my Pilates practice.

As I’m writing these words I’m realizing,”All of this( normal dealing with life stuff…) didn’t really affect my Pilates practice.”  And that makes me pretty happy and grateful!  I’m grateful to have a movement practice in my life that is always there and that is so part of me and how I live on a daily basis, that I don’t have to think about it.  I love that when life gets a little chaotic I don’t have to add to the chaos and stress by worrying about if I got my exercise in.  And I’m grateful for the opportunity to write this week about my Pilates practice as it truly made me appreciate what a gift Pilates is in my life!

Practice What You Teach: Pilates Anytime Inspiration…

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My favorite workout this week has a little story behind it! My story starts with Shelley, one of the trainees in our Comprehensive Teacher Training Program coming in for her private lesson.  When I asked Shelley how her body felt and if there was anything in particular she wanted to work on she said she was hoping to do Reformer as she had just watched a couple of Amy Taylor Alpers‘ classes on Pilates Anytime and really had some “aha” moments!  I was asking her about what she watched and we excitedly talked for a a few minutes ( OK..maybe 7 or 8 minutes because as Pilates instructors this is exciting stuff….).

We talked about some of the ideas Amy was incorporating, how she taught certain exercises and how it changed how Shelley saw certain exercises.  One of the key ideas that Shelley was talking about was an idea I’ll call  “standing in your feet” throughout all the exercises.  Shelley kept saying,” I know you’ve told me these things, but for whatever reason how she said it just clicked!”.  This is one of the many reasons you should try to take lessons at least occasionally with different instructors: we learn different things from different teachers and sometimes just hearing something a different way helps ideas or movements make more sense in your body!!

Our conversation made it easy for me as an instructor to decide what Shelley would be doing that day in her session with me.  I had Shelley do an intermediate Reformer workout (one she knew well as far as order of exercises) and we focused on “standing in her feet”!  I took the idea that she had been introduced to and tried to incorporate it into every exercise she did and really incorporate it into her body.  Needless to say our focus and my cues and interpretation of this idea really changed how Shelley was thinking about each exercise and made her fine tune each exercise in a way that she hadn’t done before(aka- everything was more work!).

IMG_7354It just so happened that the very same evening Shelley and I were both at the studio and I ended up having an unexpected break due to a cancellation and Shelley did too as she was supposed to observe that session.  So I told Shelley it was a sign that I should work out (and she should teach me!).  I told her we could do some Reformer and she could be as picky as she wanted with me! So I did a intermediate Reformer workout and Shelley taught me giving me lots of cues about “standing in my feet” and just fine tuning my alignment.  It was a great workout that had me, just like Shelley earlier that day, working harder and moving better just from changing how I was thinking about each exercise.

If you practice Pilates or are a Pilates instructor and are unfamiliar with Pilates Anytime– you should check it out!  For a very small monthly fee (like what you would pay to take one Pilates class!)  you’ll have online access to hundreds of amazing classes, workshops, and tutorials with some of the best instructors in the world.  One of the things I love about my Pilates practice is that it is always evolving and it’s a continuous process of learning and incorporating things into my body. Every teacher that I have taken classes, sessions, workshops or continuing education classes from contributes to the evolution of my understanding of movement and the Pilates Method in my body and my teaching.   The video classes and workshops on Pilates Anytime allow me to learn from incredible instructors that I wouldn’t normally get to take sessions or classes with on a regular basis.

As a teacher of Pilates instructors I encourage all my trainees to use Pilates Anytime as well.  Our trainees have to get in quite a few observation hours as part of their training process and we allow some of those hours to come from watching classes and workshops on Pilates Anytime.  Although very different from observing a live session I do think it is so important for trainees to get exposed to different teachers and different teaching styles to help them learn things best in their body as well as learn how to teach it to others.  When you are in small town Iowa there aren’t a ton of options for finding multiple instructors to observe, so I really find Pilates Anytime an invaluable tool for training future Pilates instructors.

Are you a Pilates instructor or practitioner who watches Pilates Anytime?  I would love to hear about some of your favorite classes and what you’ve watched lately!!

Practice What you Teach: Neck Pain and Practicing Swan

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I woke up Sunday morning and my neck hurt!  I could tell immediately after I woke that I had slept on it funny or something and it was not happy.  In general my body feels pretty great and I don’t have a lot of aches or pains, so when I get one it drives me crazy! (and I’m a little impatient!)

So my Pilates practice started this week with lots of neck and upper back releasing as I attempted to get rid of my pesky neck pain.  I got out my foam roller and used some small balls to do some focused release and breath work and it did help although the pesky little pain didn’t completely go away until the end of the week!  I did a Reformer workout one day and a Tower workout another and really just focused on balanced work in my body and specifically not overworking or engaging in my neck and upper shoulders.  The movement always made me felt better and by Thursday the pain was completely gone(thank goodness!)

I ran across a great video this week of Pilates instructor Brent Anderson fine tuning someone’s Swan and it inspired me to do some extra play time with my own extension.  Brent gives some great explanations in this quick video!  (It’s a must watch especially if you don’t like swan!!) Throughout my workouts I took time to really pay attention to my extension movements and incorporate some of Brent’s teaching.  One of the things I love about the Pilates work is that something as simple as watching someone else teach and listening to how they explain something can spark  fine tuning in my own practice and movements and help me get more out of what I’m doing.

Practice What You Teach: after MarchMATness…

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I’m not going to lie…I’m kind of glad MarchMATness is over!  As much as I LOVE the daily celebration of Joseph Pilates Mat exercises I was getting a little bit tired of creating daily video, pictures and blog posts!  My Pilates practice in March definitely revolved around March Matness.  Much of my free time at the studio was spent doing the daily exercise, getting pictures and video of the exercise of the day, blogging about the exercise and also playing with ways to incorporate the daily exercise into my classes and sessions(that was my favorite part!).

As April begins I’m finding a new appreciate of just being able to work out, focus on the exercise at hand and not have to worry about how to present it on our blog and social media sites!  I’ve snuck in a few full workouts on the Cadillac and the Reformer which felt great! I really just did Pilates mat work all month long other than random playing on the equipment so I found myself missing those workouts!! We’ve also had some beautiful springs days where I’ve been trying to get out and enjoy the nice weather with walks and trips to the park with the kids!  Of course I always sneak in a little (creative, playful) Pilates at the park when we’re there!

 

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