By request - here is a short workout video that I do and say the Powerhouse Cues as I move! This video is the best way to start your Pilates practice - enjoy!
Moving Forward, Together
Socially distant, but close in my heart.
I've been spending the last few weeks talking with the teachers I've trained that have already opened their Pilates studios, talking to experts in science and health professions, and looking closely at the guidelines from our governor to prepare for our opening, hopefully mid-June. Here's what you need to know:
When will you open?
Multnomah County needs to apply to reopen, and JSP will fall under Phase I of the reopening plan, so it looks like June 12th will be the earliest we will be allowed to open again.
Will you still offer virtual classes?
Yes! The feedback has been amazing from the virtual classes, so if you do not feel safe to return, please feel free to stay virtually connected to us until you are ready to return.
How can we keep the studio safe, together?
Reduced Numbers and More Space
Classes will be reduced to two people and one instructor (only the two Reformer/Cadillac combos will be used, and they have been moved so they are more than 12 feet from head to head).
Waivers
Waivers that you and your household are symptom free need to be signed and sent via email before your first in-person class. Waivers can be downloaded here.
Personalized Bundle
If you want to purchase your own handles and straps before you visit, Peak Pilates is offering them at a reduced rate here. When you enter the studio, you will have a sanitized box for your personal items.
Ventilation
Windows and/or doors will be left open for extra air flow. Please wait outside before entering the studio at your lesson time.
Hand Washing and Cleaning Protocols
Staff will wash hands before each session, and clients will be expected to wash their hands before beginning a session. Extra time will be left for cleaning, using a 75% alcohol and water mixture as recommended by the CDC for killing viruses. Antimicrobial medical film will be used over handles, bars, and poles, and replaced at the beginning of each session.
Masks and Gloves
Staff will wear masks and gloves during your session. We will also provide masks you can use that will be washed between visits.
Cancellation Policy Relaxed
If you or anyone in your household have a fever or cold symptoms, please stay home. You will not be charged for your missed session.
COVID-19 Waiver
Before visiting our studio, please download our Waiver here.
NEW Mat Class Offering
It’s March Matness at JSP!
Join Amanda for our Thursday night mat class! 6-6:45pm $105 for 5 classes. Book with us in advance via our schedulista page as the class size is limited to 5 people.
Basic Mat 3 Rep Drill
Three repetitions of the Basic mat order wth transitions.
Top Three Tips to Conquer your Teaser on the Reformer
Move the carriage out with your arms, move it back in with your butt.
There is a rhythm to the Teaser on the Reformer, and if you cannot find it, it is next to impossible to perform. Press into your arms to get the carriage moving, If you use the muscles of your upper back to get the carriage moving you will have the support to work with the resistance of the swings to lift. This will actually help and make the exercise easier. Next, make sure your eyes are in line with your toes as you lift. If you legs start to spend ahead of your eyes, you will start to tip backwards. So if you cannot come up because you are stuck back, use more upper back strength to move the carriage, and it you’re coming up too fast and fall out of the Teaser when you lift, slow down and make sure your legs are at eye level.
It’s also super important to move your carriage back in with your butt. Using a pelvic curl to close the carriage, try to keep the carriage still until your waistband is on the carriage. People often focus on coming up into Teaser, but if you don’t focus on slowing down the carriage on your return, you won’t build the strength to come up into Teaser.
2. Plan your exit strategy.
Teaser on the Reformer is scary. I kept my knees bent for a long time in this exercise, and at one point, my Master Instructor asked me why (as my legs were straight when I did Teaser on the Mat). I replied that I was scared. “Why?” she asked. “This is lower than your car.” Yikes. So true. But I was scared. A lot of Pilates is scary, maybe we don’t like to be upside down, or balancing on our tailbone on a moving carriage. So plan your exit strategy. What if you start to fall? What do you do? You put your feet down. You stand. So if fear is making you pull back and not try your best, plan what to do if you start to fall, so you can try Teaser on the Reformer with confidence. If we’re scared, we won't really try. Maybe it’s the mind part of the mind/body exercise that you need to conquer.
3. Do Teaser III on the Mat.
In this age of Instagram, it’s easy to see videos of exercises and we want to try them, maybe before we’re ready. Pilates is visual, and fun, and we can sometimes feel like a kid on a playground. But don’t skip the steps that lead up to the fancy stuff. Can you do Teaser III on the Mat? Backstroke on the Box? Jumping into a new exercise before you’re ready can lead not only to frustration, but to injury.
So be safe, be confident, and enjoy the rhythm of the Teaser on Reformer!
Shoulder Stretch Sequence for the Foam Roller
This sequence helps open the shoulders, stretch the pecs, and improve humeral scapular rhythm to avoid pain in the shoulder joint. Enjoy!
How to be Friends with your Client's Physical Therapist
Many of my teacher trainers have mentioned to me that sometimes they feel nervous when their clients start appointments with a physical therapist. They feel like their client might prefer the physical therapy to Pilates and eventually drop their Pilates classes. In my experience, the opposite is true. A talented physical therapist can effectively communicate the unique needs your client has so you can personalize their workouts. With subtle adjustments, based on feedback from the physical therapist, you can help your client get stronger and avoid injury. But how do you do this?
#1 Understand your Role
Unless you have additional training, Pilates instructors are not physical therapists. We work in studios, not clinics. (Even when my husband asks me a question about a nagging injury, I preface my response with “I’m not a doctor.” “I know you’re not a doctor,” he says, “I would know if we’re paying back loans to medical school!”) So yeah, I have a habit of letting my clients know the limit of my knowledge. I’ll say things like “In the past, I’ve worked with (fill in the blank injury or condition)” or “in my experience, that can indicate a (tight muscle or condition), but a doctor would know for sure.” Lying or misleading a client to make them think you have experience you don’t have is never a good idea. Googling a condition does not mean you have experience with a medial condition. I’ve found the more upfront I am with what I know, the more a client with respect and want to work with you. Your reputation is your calling card, and being honest with your certification is of the upmost importance.
#2 Use the Physical Therapist’s Secret Power to your Advantage
Physical therapist have a secret power that Pilates instructors don't have: They have training in diagnosis of injuries. If I have a client with pain in their ankle, I’m not sure it it’s coming from ankle instability or hip tightness (I’ll look at both). But a physical therapist, with the medical training they have, will be able to correctly diagnosis what is causing the pain. I can then use that information to help the client get better.
#3 Know the only question you’ll ever have to ask a Physical Therapist
Physical therapists are busy people. They see people everyday like Pilates instructors, but also have to dedicate time to charting as well. All physical therapists I’ve reached out to have taken the time to help me make sure what we’re doing at the Pilates studio also follows their protocols and recommendations, and I try to make sure they know I value their time by only asking one question: “What muscles do we stretch and what muscles do we strengthen?” It’s so simple, and will only take them a few minutes to jot down a few notes or send quick email. Sometimes I tell my clients to ask that question and have the physical therapist write the answer down. I’ve found this is often how a physical therapist will plan a client’s protocol, and if you know the answer to this question, you can easily work their recommendations into a session (even following the traditional order). For example, for knee injuries, it is commonly recommended to strengthen the lateral muscles of the hip and stretch the IT band and Hamstrings. I now know a basic Reformer Class would be:
Footwork (with the O-ring in parallel or the Power Circle on the outside of the legs to work the lateral muscles)
100 (Keep the ring)
Front and Leg Circles (add IT band and Hamstring stretches)
Stomach Massage (add band or ring)
Short box (cue lateral muscles to hold the strap, add IT and Hamstring stretches after Tree)
Long Stretch Series (no contraindications)
Kneeling Knee Stretches (cue lateral muscles)
Running in Place (band works here, Power Circle not so much)
Pelvic Lift (could narrow foot stance to add band or circle)
****Recommendations only, I am not a doctor :)
****Notice I also used my super power as a Pilates instructor: I worked the entire body, not just the injury.
That specialized lesson for my client took no time at all. I didn’t google exercises I’m not trained to teach. I didn’t pretend to have knowledge I didn’t. I simply took the Physical Therapist recommendations and translated it into my existing base of knowledge. The client will make more progress, work out safer, and make more progress. Meet my new best friend: the physical therapist! We’re part of the same village, making our client stronger!
Why You Should Take an Advanced Training (Even if you Don't have Advanced Students)
Look at those lovely ladies!! Trainings are so much fun!! But something I often hear is “I don’t have any advanced clients. So I don’t need to take the Advanced training.” (And don’t even get me started on “I don’t need to take the Advanced Training. I can just learn the exercises from a video.” That’s another blog post).
So, why should you take an advanced training if you have clients that mainly do beginning work?
Your personal practice. Our work as instructors is our commitment to our practice. That does not mean that we judge ourselves or our self worth by how we look or compare ourselves as to who is doing Snake and who is not. It means that to teach Pilates we need to be challenging ourselves to progress to the most challenging exercises for us. Taking a training at a higher level will push you to learn new exercises (and probably practice for assessment). I haven’t taught an advanced training without seeing new exercises open for people that they thought were too difficult or even impossible to open up for their bodies. I find we are often overly focused on one exercise (like Snake) but are skipping all the exercises that lead up to Snake. Taking a training will help break that exercise you’ve been working toward down to it’s mini pieces and pre-exercises so that you can add more exercises to what you’re already doing with confidence.
You need to know the whole system. If you know the entire system, it’s easier to teach it. Many of the questions I get from beginner teachers are because they don’t know the entire system, and when you know the entire system, the beauty of it begins to unfold. For example, many people ask why we’re so picky about transitions, but if you’re not trying to get the advanced work done “in and hour and in the shower,” the transitions may not make sense. If you don’t know the entire order on Reformer, it doesn’t make sense why Spine Stretch moves in the order. When you see how all the exercises work in the complete system, you are able to see the overarching organization and am better able to choose which exercises to teach as your client progresses.
It will make you a better teacher. When you know the full expression of Joe’s work, you know where the journey takes your clients. Maybe Snake is something that will never be the best choice for your clients’ bodies, but if you know the purpose and goal of that exercise, you may know a pre-exercise or mini exercise that will meet that same goal (maybe on anther apparatus). If you know the fluidity and strength that the advanced work requires, you will teach your clients to that higher level, even if they never learn the more challenging exercises.
Working with your peers will inspire you. Sometimes it’s the little conversations that happen on breaks that will help solve a problem you’re having, a business issue, or a client issue. I always learn something from a training, especially from the more advanced trainings since the teachers have all been teaching for a longer time so they have so much to share. New ideas and solutions to problems and more peer help happens the more you advance in the system. These friendships and teaching moments will then continue to inspire you. It’s so important to help share in each other’s accomplishments, frustrations, and creative solutions. We carry this work together. Before I was an educational training center, I worked by myself and without advancing in the system, I could have easily started to teach “Jessilates.” Seeing the work of the Master instructor and my peers always helped to keep me working not only within the system, but also to it’s highest potential.
Feeling inspired yourself to level up? Check out our next Trainings here.
Posture Exercises for Standing
I was a guest blogger at GetCorrectPosture! My clients often tell me that they have standing desks (because sitting is the new smoking) but standing with bad posture isn't that much better for you than sitting. Check out my tips and why I love the Power Circle so much at the link above.
And if you want more Power Circle, check out my abs and glutes video here.
P.S. credit to my son for the photo :)
Top Five Differences Between Pilates and Yoga
So what is better? Yoga or Pilates? That is a difficult question to answer, and it does depend on your workout goals. Keep in mind, too, that there are many different types of yoga and even different styles of Pilates, so these are general guidelines.
The goal of yoga is spiritual enlightenment. That does not mean that Pilates cannot be a spiritual practice, and it does not mean that yoga is not a workout. It does mean that at the heart of a yoga practice is a spiritual component, and that usually involves mediation or other techniques to quiet your mind. I consider my Pilates practice a moving meditation, but I don’t spend time meditating as a component of my practice. I do meditate, but it is separate from my Pilates work.
The goal of all Pilates exercises is the strengthening of the Powerhouse. This is true no matter what style of Pilates you practice. The Powerhouse is a centering concept, but it is also a physical place. It is the two inch band that runs above and below your navel. Every exercise in Pilates is trying to connect you to this part of your body and tone and strengthen this area. This does not mean that yoga does not work your core or that Pilates does not work and tone other parts of your body. It means that Pilates exercises are always focused on this area, no matter what else is working.
Pilates was made for the modern body. Joseph Pilates created his system of exercises between 1912-1967, and moved to New York City in approximately 1933. That means he knew what concrete was, and cars, and buses and chairs. His work cannot help but be influenced by the wear and tear and stress these modern conveniences place on our bodies. The development of yoga is over 5,000 years old. It was not made for a mainly sedentary population. Most people 5,000 years ago walked everywhere, much more than we do now and sat on the floor. They got more movement preparing their food than some of us get in an entire day. That is a different body than Joseph designed his work around. This does not mean that yoga has never been updated or that Pilates does not tap into ancient wisdom. It means that Pilates was created for people who live in the modern world because it is a modern invention itself.
Pilates was not made for a yoga mat. Hey, even yoga wasn’t made for a yoga mat (see the 5,000 year old practice mentioned above). But Mr. Pilates made his own mats, and they are way thicker than your average yoga mat. They usually were a raised platform with much more cushioning for your spine. They had extra boxes at the sides to place your legs wider than a yoga mat. They had straps for your feet to help keep your feet stationary as you rolled and poles to help stabilize your shoulder girdle for inversions or open your chest for extensions. If you’re doing Pilates, you should at least double your mat to cushion your spine. Pilates has more spinal articulation and rolling (see the focus on the Powerhouse listed above) so if you’re doing Pilates at a health club, please find a thicker mat or hack one yourself to protect your spine.
Pilates has equipment. I’m not talking props like bands or bolsters. I’m talking about the Reformer, Cadillac, Barrels, Chairs…. Mr. Pilates saw the mat as the foundation to his work, but without the support and aid of the equipment, it’s really hard to progress in your Pilates practice. Equipment and mat really are meant to go together (see also Mat vs. Equipment Pilates). The Reformer and the mat are the cornerstones to the Pilates work, and Mr. Pilates always intended for his students to do both. The stretch, support, and resistance work on the Pilates equipment with the springs really has no equal in any exercise format. It combines open and closed chain work, tempo variations, and deep stretches you cannot find if you only have a mat alone.
What are your thoughts? Do you teach yoga and Pilates? How do you think they compare?
Top Eight Tips for Working with Pilates and Osteoporosis (the Condensed Version)
So many of us are working with Goldeners (the Active Aging Population) that I thought it would be helpful to list a few of the Dos and Don’ts of working with Osteoporosis, especially as it concerns Pilates. (Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, and this list is not medical advice, nor should it be used as such), but I weeded through a few studies so that you don’t have too.
****The most important tip is first
Don’t use spinal flexion. Yes, that is a lot of the Pilates repertoire, but flexion puts pressure on the anterior surface of the vertebral bodies, and that is usually the weakened part of the bone. Flexion increased the risk of fracture in 89% of osteoporosis cases in this study.
2. Do use spinal extension. The posterior vertebral bodies have a higher degree of cortical bone and are at less risk of fracture. A study found that stronger spinal extensors led to increased bone density and less occurrence of spinal fractures.
3. Don’t side bend. Pressure on the vertebra are also excessive during side bending.
4. Do teach a hip hinge instead of flexion. It is imperative osteoporosis clients know the difference between spine and hip flexion (see #1 above).
5. Don’t twist. Again, excessive pressure on the vertebra.
6. Do teach isometric work. This is one of the best ways to get strong (and by now, you may be asking, “What can I do with a client with osteoporosis?”). Most of the isometric work can be found in the Pilates Fundamentals and are great for teaching control and strength in the core so clients don’t accidentally do little tiny twists or other contraindicated movement when moving their legs to the front or side.
7. Don’t work with a client if they can’t tell you their T-Score. Clients who have taken a Bone Mineral Density Test should be able to tell you their T-Score. A Standard Deviation of -1 to -2.5 indicates osteopenia, and -2.5 or more indicates osteoporosis. Why is this important to know? For every one point below the mean, fracture risk doubles.
8. Do teach these clients to stand and balance. They need to be weight bearing if possible. Standing weights, standing power circle, standing leg swings, and single balance work on one leg is very important. If these clients fall, they are likely to fracture, so they need to be taught how to stand tall.
Working with someone with osteoporosis can be a bit scary (and when in doubt, refer out), but it can be safely done with a knowledgeable Pilates instructor. The extension work, chest openers, standing series and the ease of adding weights to our work makes it a natural fit for the osteoporosis client. Remember, it is a silent disease, so your clients won’t have symptoms, but don’t let that stop you from following safety guidelines. Some clients like flexion because it feels good, but you need to be firm in your knowledge and confidence to tell them why that movement needs to be avoided.
Leave any additional questions in the comments below. I’ve been working with clients with osteoporosis for years and would love to help. Its a population that needs Pilates!
Self Care for Pilates Instructors
So how do you teach 6-8 or 9 hours straight? This question was recently posed to me and I thought I would add my ideas here on the blog. These techniques could be applied to any job that doesn’t have standard breaks, and in the gig economy, that applies to many of us. I should add that I am my own boss and I decide to teach these hours. I stack my schedule back to back from the hours of 6am-2pm so I can utilize my time effectively and then get home to take care of my children after school. I’m not looking for sympathy for my working hours. I understand that what I teach is my passion and an privilege, and I am not trying to say that this work schedule works for everyone, I’m just trying to share what works for me.
So…. the first tip is what you do the night before a long teaching day. I have gotten super disciplined about getting to bed. My usual waking time is 5am, so that means I try to wind down by 10pm. Sometimes 10pm is my first opportunity of the day to workout if my schedule has been stacked and my kids need me, so sometimes my workout is 5 minutes of wall or 10 minutes on the roller. I try not to skip Pilates any day of the week, but I will shorten the duration of the workout so I’m fresh to teach the next day. I also don’t drink alcohol the night before I teach. I find it disrupts my sleep and I have a hard time getting focused to teach. Finally, I will look at my schedule and make a rough plan for the next day. I don't write anything out formally, but I’ll take a few minutes to look at my semis and think what would work best for the group (for some people its the second or third workout of the week and I don’t want to repeat), and I have a small studio so sometimes I have to plan how to use the props or the space, and sometimes I’m just reviewing who is injured and making sure I’ve looked at what we did last time and making observations to see if they are progressing or showing signs of readiness for additional exercises. This mental preparation is key so I’m not caught unprepared. A client walking in you haven’t prepared for can take a lot of mental energy and I wan’t to make sure I’m conserving what I have for the entire day.
Second…I have a plan for what I’m going to eat. If I teach longer than five hours in a row, I have a smoothie at hour 3. I can drink the smoothie during transitions and I get more than water but protein and fat to keep my brain working. My smoothie is a banana, sugar-free sun butter, matcha, and greens. This is what works for me, and I’ve found over time that fruit in my smoothie gives me a sugar crash. What you may need to eat may be different, but I like getting the smoothie as a meal replacement that I can gradually drink (instead of trying to gulp down a protein bar all at once). If I have a break, I make a green tea. If I have time to eat lunch, I do a salmon salad with kale (I put salsa on top. It adds nice flavor and softens the kale). I always have snacks on hand, and eat while the clients clean if I feel brain fog coming on. My favorite snacks combine some fat with protein. I usually have dried buffalo bars, Trader Joe’s Coconut Clusters, RX Bars, chocolate covered almonds, or dried fruit on hand. I also like dried chickpeas and beat chips. I love dried seaweed, but I’ve found it’s too messy for a quick grab (and I have a bag of snacks in my car for the ride home in case I crash then).
Thirdly, water is super important. I’ve found that drinking enough water really helps prevent brain fog. I generally take a sip from my water bottle during the big transitions on Reformer (another great reason to teach your clients to do their own transitions). I have a water bottle I just tip and sip (no covers or lids to slide) so I can watch my clients do the transition after I say it. I won’t use a water bottle where I can’t keep my eyes on the clients for safety reasons.
And my last tip is…I try to stay off my phone. If a client is late or goes to the bathroom and I have a few minutes, it’s super tempting to check my phone. But that takes me out of the room, and most importantly, out of my body. If I do have the shortest of breaks, I first check in: Do I need to eat? Drink? Stretch my calves? Lay over the barrel? The phone will always be there after the session, and it can be a big energy suck, or I might get an email that will distract me from my next lesson. And I often remind myself, there is never an email emergency. People call or text in those situations so I don't need to keep checking email while I’m teaching. It’s better to do that at a separate time (and usually not when I’m with my kids either).
So there are my big tips. I hope they help. I’ve found the more disciplined I am in how I structure my time and nutrition, the better I can serve my clients. And the most important thing is that I am present and available to lead them through the best session I can give them that day. And with a little bit of planning, I can do that.
New Training Offerings for 2019
Do you need CECs or are you looking to up your skills? Join one of our Continuing Education Courses. These are open to all certification programs and levels and Pilates enthusiasts. We will be offering the Prop Shop Workshop and MVe Chair Course this winter at JSP.
Are you looking to jump start your Pilates career? Then our Peak Pilates Comprehensive Level I Training is what you are searching for. This is the foundational course to the full Comprehensive Certification, and covers all beginning exercises on Mat, Reformer, Tower, Small Barrel, Ladder Barrel, High Chair, Low Chair, Power Circle, and Wall. It’s the best way to expand on your knowledge as a Pilates practitioner and take it to the next level.
Check out all the details here.
How are your Resolutions Going?
So it’s February…how are your New Year’s Resolutions going? Now is a good time to reevaluate them. How consistent have you been? Are you meeting your goals? And maybe, most of all, are you set up to succeed?
If you’re not preparing your New Years Resolutions around your Tendency, you might be setting yourself up for failure. Some people will resist internally a resolution, so it’s actually better not to have one at all.
Gretchen Rubin’s new book, The Four Tendencies, has been a major help in our home and lives to help us meet any goal, not just health and fitness goals. I strongly recommend it, especially if you’re not doing well committing to your New Years Resolutions.
You can take this short online quiz to discover your tendency. Once you know your tendency, then you can set yourself up for success so that you can meet your goal. For example, I’m an Upholder. That means I’m intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. I love goals, challenges, and charts. I give myself a gold star when I do my Pilates workout each day. Watching the gold stars increase and grow makes me happy. I want to workout so I can see the list of gold stars grow bigger. I do Pilates every day (even holidays and vacations). That’s my rule. I set up the rule so I can succeed (it has no specified amount of time, so 10 minutes counts). That way I can meet my goal, my success pattern increases, which helps me keep doing Pilates.
That rule would not work, however, for my son, who is a Rebel. He is the opposite of me - he is neither intrinsically or extrinsically motivated. My husband and I are trying to encourage him to practice piano. However, the more we encourage him, the more he resists us. Stickers don’t work. He needs to feel like he has the freedom to choose to practice. So, he now chooses when he practices. He still needs to practice each day, he just gets to choose when. That little bit of flexibility helps him to feel like he has some control over his goal, and when Rebels decide they want to do something, they can be very successful.
So for Rebels, resolutions sometimes just don’t work. If you’re a Rebel, like my son, they have the opposite effect. Maybe that’s why you can’t meet your goals. It’s not an internal fault that lies within you. It’s better to try to match your resolution to your Tendency.
This is the perfect book to read before you give up on your New Years Resolutions. It’s full of great ideas how to motivate yourself or the people in your life to make healthy changes. It’s helped all of us in my home relate to each other better. Now I know when my son is trying to negotiate a rule, it’s just his tendency. He’s more likely to follow the rule if I give him some control. As an Upholder, that’s hard for me. In my head, a rule is a rule. But now I’ve learned that a little bit of flexibility on my part can give him some control, and then the task will be accomplished. More peace insures, more practicing happens.
How about you? Do you know your tendency? What tricks have helped you to know yourself better so you can motivate yourself to meet your goals? And don’t forget, you can always have a Non New Years Resolution.
Pain, Pilates, and a Tool to Help
One of the things I love about Pilates is how it gives us permission - permission to listen to our bodies. I feel like when I was younger I was all about pushing myself and pushing my body to perform. In order to do that, I had to ignore signs of fatigue and pain.
Then I found Pilates, and my teacher would ask me questions like "Where do you feel that?" Nobody had ever asked me that before. As long as I was performing well, nobody cared. Now that I've found Pilates, I use my workout time to not only improve the performance of my body, but to also check in. It's one of the things I love about traditional Pilates that follows Joe's order. If you repeat the order of the exercises each day, they become a barometer to check in and see how your body is doing. The consistency acts as a guide to see how my body is feeling each day. If the 100 is always first, then if it feels different, better, or worse, I know I need to adjust. I need to listen. So if I feel a twinge or a pain, it matters.
The other thing that Pilates taught me is the difference between good pain and bad pain. Discomfort that lasts during an exercise but goes away when I'm done? Good. Discomfort that lasts hours later? Bad. Muscle pain? Good. Joint pain? Bad.
And that joint pain leads me to that little bottle above (housed in front of my manuals and research and general to-dos).
I was sent a sample of the Banja Balm by Khroma Herbal Products, so if I was working out and felt a twinge or pain, I would apply the balm to the area after I worked out. I would massage it in and I always felt better. So better, in fact, that applying the balm is now part of my ritual after my Pilates practice. Usually, I workout at 8 or 9pm after the kids are in bed, so I use Pilates as a way to unwind and check in after a long day. After my workout, I'll apply the balm, and really massage it in. I've found it also helps relieve the over-stimulation that nighttime workouts can give me as well. It smells super good, and is full of vegan and organic yummy ingredients. I've been recommending it to my clients who want a sore muscle rub without camphor because some of them are adverse to the smell. It is a little grainy, which concerned me the first time I used it, but the balm melts on contact and absorbs well.
So how about a little self-massage after your Pilates session? Don't mind if I do.
Disclaimer: I was given a free bottle of the Banja Balm, but all opinions expressed above are my own.
All the details on our Donation Mat Class
Who can come? Anyone who wants to help support hurricane relief by doing what we love - Pilates!
Where is the class being held? The Pilates Barre Portland, 1515 SW Sunset Blvd, Portland, Or 97239. There will be a link on their mindbody class software to register for free. Class is limited to 15 people.
When is it? Saturday, October 21st. Doors open at 10am to register and donate. Class begins at 10:30 and goes for an hour with Master Instructor Jessica Schultz.
How do I donate? Bring a check to send in or show a copy of your donation on your cell phone or even bring an old school paper print out of your donation.
How do I get 1 Peak Pilates CEC? Just donate, join us for class, and Jessica will send your name in.
Donation Mat for Hurricane Relief - and get a CEC
Join us at The Pilates Barre Portland October 21, 2017 at 10:00am for a Donation Mat Class taught by Master Instructor Jessica Schultz. Donate what you can. Every dollar will be given to the American Red Cross to aid continuing hurricane relief efforts. Any Peak instructor attending will receive 1 CEC no matter what they donate. This class is open to the public. Love wins!!! Let's do this people!
Powerhouse Cues!!
100 - Imagine there are bricks on your hips, Like a statue, Like birds flapping, bouncing a ball
Roll Up - Roll a marble down your centerline, Like quicksand, melting chocolate, merging with the floor, like a gear
One Leg Circle - Balance a glass on your hips, strong like a tree, pelvis nailed to the mat
RLAB - Tuck your pelvis and roll like a doodlebug, Like a rocking horse, make a fruit wedge
SLS - Knee to nose, Steady as a rock, like a mountain, steady and unchanging, anchor into the mat
DLS - Hold a pencil in your inner thighs, Body is anchor, extremities are sails, body is like concrete, whoosh sound while rowing arms
Scissors - Mat is mud to sink into, root spine, legs are branches, legs cut through fabric
Lower and Lift - Lower like an elevator, steady foundation as elevator rises
Criss Cross - Twist like a pretzel, wring out lungs, folding origami, twist doorknob, dog-ear a book, gaze out lighthouse beacon, twist tie
Spine Stretch Forward - Scoop ice cream out away from yourself, someone pulling you with a rope, pull your sticker-self off the wall, fiddle-head fern, articulate spine like a wave
Saw - Move upper body like an owl's head, sawing body through PH, twist like a cinnamon roll and lick the frosting, cutting like a knife
Swan I/Neck Roll - Smell the cookies in front of you, pushing a marble
Rest Position - Like a hollow log
Shoulder Bridge Prep - Roll spine like train cars, like rain drops falling one after another, feeling each vertebra, rusty door hinge
SK: Front and Back - Torso between two walls/Nail through hips, Leg like a pendulum
SK: Up and Down - Pull your toe down through wet sand, Closing legs like a fan, pushing down through mud
SK: Inner Thigh Lifts and Circles: Balance a teacup on ankle, Drawing circles on the wall with heel, draw a donut or pizza
Seal: Be a hedgehog, Applause with your feet
Standing Roll Down: Balance soccer ball on the back of your neck, Hold like the space before thunder, snaking under a door
Check out more Powerhouse Cues here
Foam Roller Workshop
Did you miss our Foam Roller Workshop last year? Only $100 if you BYOR. Check out the details in our latest newsletter.