Lies Within. If you cannot find your center, you cannot stand tall. Check out my latest video in honor of Toe Talk's Warrior Chick Sock $2 discount this Monday 12.29. Enjoy a wonderful sock discount and learn to work your Powerhouse in celebration.
The Top 3 Reasons Why Men Should Do Pilates
I know Pilates has gotten a girly reputation, but Joseph Pilates was not a dancer - he was a boxer! How more manly can you get? But I can't tell you how many times people have asked me if I have any male clients. Yes, and do, and here's why.
You get to stretch without taking a yoga class with a bunch of hyper-flexible women. Many of my guy clients know they need to stretch (and did you know that a tight psoas can lead to erectile dysfunction?) but they don't want to be surrounded by super flexible women (women tend to be more flexible than men) with their feet touching their heads while they struggle with straps and blocks to approximate the same position. In every exercise in Pilates, there is a stretch and a strength. So in Spine Stretch Forward, you're working your abs but at the same time you're stretching your hamstrings, but you get to move and flow in the position. You don't have to sit and hold something that may feel intense for 3 minutes.
It helps to open your chest. Many men focus on developing the muscles of their chest, but that can lead to overly tight chest muscles, even kyphosis (and hey, staring at that smart phone all day isn't helping!). Without stretching the chest, over developed chest muscles can cause lower back pain, and tight hips (see reason #1 above for a sneaky way to stretch without forcing yourself into Cobra). Pilates extension for the upper back focuses on opening the thoracic spine without loading the low back - it's more of a sternum lift than an arch of the mid-back. If you're really tight in your chest, deep back bends will only cause more pain. The smaller, more strategic extension in Pilates will help deeper postural changes take effect.
You'll perform better at your favorite sport. Many of my clients (male or female, for that matter) remark on how much more lung capacity they experience after starting a regular Pilates practice. The lateral opening of the side body coupled with the lift of the rib cage in forward flexion is unlike any other exercise system. This means that in your Pilates lesson, you are lengthening your ribs off your pelvis in two directions - to the side (which is easier and will give your body more stretch) and when you round forward (which is much more challenging). But if you can master that, you are training your internal, deepest abdominal muscles to support the carriage of your rib cage. If you can do that, you'll make more space to breathe, helping you increase your endurance for whatever sport you do.
By now, we all know that King James does Pilates.
Are you ready to join him? Or are you already a male student of Pilates? Share your story in the comments!
Breathing Video and Discount
Often, my clients ask me how they can breathe in Pilates. "If I'm pulling my belly in, how do I inhale?" Watch this short video to learn how to breathe in honor of my toe talk inhale/exhale socks which are $2 off this coming Monday 12.15!
More Powerhouse Cues
100 - Anchor your pelvis into the mat like an anchor on your PH
Roll Up - Pearls, Bone by Bone, Beach Ball, Candy Cane, Roll your Pelvis Like a Wheel
One Leg Circle - Paint the letter "D" on the ceiling; your leg is the brush
RLAB - Scoop to catch a ball in midair
Single Leg Stretch - Pull/Lengthen in leg like taffy; Reach opposite leg out to edge of cliff or edge of pool
Double Leg Stretch - Tuck like a diver
Leg Pull Front Support - Push the ground away and become the roof of a house
Mermaid Stretch - Don't touch the porcupine and come up and hug the puppy
Seal - You're a row boat filled with water, tip back and let water out for three
Push Up Series - Someone is playing tug-of-war with your head and your heals
Need more? Cues here and here.
Movement
Go big go long or go home?
I'm often asked by clients how far or long to reach a leg or arm during an exercise, and that's where my often spoken, "Range is determined by form" comes from.
It's most important to keep your critical connections in Pilates - so if by reaching your arm you cannot keep your ribs to your scapula and your scapula to your ribs, you've gone too far. If you don't feel your three anchors, your legs have dipped too low.
But how do you determine where this end range is? It can be different from day to day, and hopefully with improve with time as you commit to your Pilates practice. In general, stay where you are working in your Powerhouse, and let that connection build in a smaller range of motion before taking it bigger. Start at the center, at the Powerhouse, not in your arms or legs. You should feel your arms and legs lengthening out from your Powerhouse connection. Stop when you loose that connection.
My first Pilates teacher made me make the tiniest One Leg Circles I had ever performed, but when I did my hip stopped clicking. I kept working on my Powerhouse connection and one day she said, "I think you can make them bigger now." But it was important for me to keep them small so that the larger motion didn't distract me from my Powerhouse. Momentum is not a muscle group, and it certainly isn't one of the Pilates Principles.
So stay inside the exercise and your body. Really listen to see if you are finding your connection. And don't be afraid to make the movement small and controlled (that one is a Pilates principle)!
More Powerhouse Cues
100 - Box heavy like cement
Roll Up - String of pearls
One Leg Circle - Stir leg w/in hip socket, hips heavy into floor
Rolling Like a Ball - Keep chin to chest like a laser, Eyes focused on pelvis
Single Leg Stretch - Don't rock the boat
Double Leg Stretch - Scoop to reach out, Wrap your hips and scoop belly, Hold an orange between your thighs
Scissors - Scoop out belly with ice cream scoop
More Cues Here
Fall Training Schedule
We're gearing up for another busy fall at JSP! Do you want to start by tipping your toe into Pilates teaching or just firm up your personal practice? Join us for Basic Mat this September and December! And don't miss out on our full certification beginning October 3rd - this certification includes mat, Reformer, Cadillac, Barrel, Chair, and Small props like Wall and the Power Circle. Do you need CECs? Two fabulous ones to choose from are Lengthen and Strengthen with Elastic Bands and Jump Board Intervals, both October 26th. Hurry, space is limited! Make your passion your career!
Why I Don't Workout with my Clients
I can't tell you how many times I have had this conversation.
Someone: What do you do?
Me: I teach Pilates.
S: Wow, you must be in such good shape! You get to workout for your job!
M: Actually, I don't workout with my clients. I lead them through a workout.
S: Oh.
That's right, I do not get paid to workout. As a Pilates instructor, that is not my job. It's not about my workout, it's about my client's.
Here are some other compelling reasons why I continue to teach this way:
Head and Neck Issues. Most of Pilates is done on your back. If I'm demonstrating, you have to crane your neck, most likely to one side, to see me perform an exercise. That's really unsafe for your neck. A majority of the mat work is done on your back with your head lifted, and it's just not safe for my clients to try to look to see me while they workout.
Range of Motion. When I was teaching the New York City Ballet Workout, the instructor I was training under told us not to use our longest leg extension when taking class with our students. She said that it would lead the people in our classes to try to match the height of our leg. For most people in the general population, it's really hard to toss your leg up high in the air without crunching your back or rounding your spine. If your clients are watching you and you are really flexible, your clients may try to match your range of motion. Range of motion in Pilates is determined by form. But that means everyone's range is different, and a high leg may not be better, especially if you're using your quad to lift it instead of your Powerhouse. So it's better not to look around a room and compare yourself to anyone during a Pilates class, not even your instructor. It's better to stay in your body and make sure you are in the exercise, not performing the exercise.
Pilates Is Mind/Body Work. Many of us are visual learners, and rely on that part of our brains to learn movement. When we turn that off and really listen to our instructor's words, it forces us to go internal for movement correction, instead of external. This is the essence of mind/body work. I don't want to cheat my clients of that experience. It may take them longer to learn an exercise, but it will be better for them to take the time to figure it out than to just mimic my movements.
I Want to be Safe, Too. As an instructor, even if I'm demonstrating, part of me is watching the class and thinking about them. How do I stay connected in my body during my Pilates work if my brain is concentrating on myself and my clients? I'm more likely to injure myself if I'm not concentrating on my body, or worse yet, just jumping in and out of exercises to demonstrate. I'm not aware of my own limitations or flexibility or strength that day to be safe in my own practice.
It Makes Us Human. I have not discovered some secret to being in shape. I have to juggle my workouts like any other mother, teacher, woman, or student around work, life, love, children, school.... Making time to workout helps me empathize with my clients when they fall behind in their homework to keep up with their Pilates practice on their own. It also helps me help them brainstorm ideas as to how to stay fit and healthy in this world where we are all so busy. As a Pilates instructor, I don't have eight hours a day to think about my body and workout, but I do have eight hours a day to devote to the work of Joseph Pilates. For that, I consider myself lucky. That's what inspires me to pull out my mat at the end of the day, sometimes at 11pm, to do the mat work. That's what devotion to Pilates is. That's what I teach, and that is my job.
Powerhouse Cues
Can I share with you one of the best things about leading Teacher Trainings? There's a workshop Peak Pilates does that shows you how to create your own exciting, dynamic Powerhouse cues. Every instructor has moments where we feel like we're repeating ourselves, and Peak has a systematic way to brainstorm new ways to engage your client's core. And after leading a training, I get to keep all these new cues...but now I've decided to share them with you! They're just too good. So thanks to Jennifer, Emily, Tia, and Denise! I'll add more as I lead more trainings. Why not share your best ones in the comments? Words are important, they have power, and if we all get together and share the best ones we'll have more to choose from to keep the work alive for our clients! Enjoy!
100 - Low spine like lead
Roll Up - Bone by bone, button by button, unroll the mat and roll it back up
One Leg Circle - Body in Concrete, lead torso
Rolling Like a Ball - Roll like a wheel
Single Leg Stretch - Pulley the legs
Double Leg Stretch - Solid body with liquid movement
Spine Stretch Forward - Deflate and inflate
Saw - Upper back is the lid to a jar of jam and you want to get it open
Inner Thigh Circles - Teacup on your ankle and keep it upright
Inner Thigh Lifts - String attached like a marionette
Seal - bowl shape to your pelvis (don't change the shape or the water will fall out)
Standing Roll Down - Drip down like water out of a faucet
Have you checked your feet lately?
I was working with a client today, and she was mentioning how Pilates was helping her feel that her core was getting stronger, but it she still had knee pain when she was walking. We started our usual workout, then after some exercises on Cadillac, I asked her to walk across the floor, and what I saw on Cadillac was I also saw in her stride right away. When she was working on Cadillac, her springs were veering right, and so was her right foot when she was walking. So we started adjusting her gait by paying attention to how she was placing her foot, and guess what? It. changed. everything. Suddenly she had better posture and weight transfer as she was walking.
So what does this teach us about our Powerhouse? Change starts at the center. If she hadn't put the time in to strengthen her Powerhouse, it wouldn't have mattered how we placed her feet. But her strong center let the change happen. Without the lift in her core, we wouldn't have been able to adjust where her placed her feet. Without stability in her hips in leg springs, I wouldn't have been able to see that her feet were veering right, it just would have looked unstable over all.
Change in Pilates is systemic. It will start with one thing - some strength at center, some elongation in the torso, and then slowly change will happen. Not all at once. This client has been taking Pilates for about a year. She started her lesson saying that her knee pain hadn't gone away yet, even though she's stronger. But with a trained eye, a teacher can watch and see, and then gradually guide more change.
Pilates can change what we've done all our lives. The new foot placement was so unfamiliar, so odd to feel, my client thinks she's been walking out of alignment for years without noticing. A fun project is to look at pictures of yourself as you've grown up and watch for posture changes. When did your feet start to turn out? When did you start to slump? Do you see the same posture mirrored in your parents or siblings?
But no matter what you see, honor the journey that your feet have traveled, then take a closer look. What have they been up to down there?
So as you can tell by my feet, I'm getting excited for my brother's wedding because my toes never look this good, I've done some dance with my baby bunion, and been getting some sun with the kids. Some good space between the toes now, thanks to Pilates. What about your feet? What story do they tell?
Anatomy for Pilates Instructors Part Two
Posterior Muscles to Identify (some are repeats from Anterior):
Sternocleidomastoid
Trapezius
Teres major
Latissimus dorsi
External oblique
Gluteus medius
Gluteus maximus
Vastus lateralis
Biceps femoris
Semimembranosus
Gastrocnemius
Deltoid
Triceps
Extensor carpi ulnoris
Flexor carpi ulnaris
Gracilis
Semitendinosus
Soleus
Achilles tendon
For anterior muscles click here, bones click here.
Anatomy for Pilates Teachers Part One
Of the over 200 muscles that puts our skeletal frame into motion, focus your study on:
Anterior Muscles:
Frontalis
Orbicularis oculi
Orbicularis oris
Brachialis
Pronator teres
Brochiorodialis
Flexor carpi radialis
Iliopsoas
Gracilis
Vastus medialis
Sternocleidomastoid
Deltoid
Pectoralis major
Biceps
Rectus abdominis
Rectus femoris
Vastus lateralis
Sartorius
Gastrocnemius
Tibialis anterior
Soleus
Paroneus longus