The Vertical Workshop’s Blog

Hips Up…Shoulders Back!

There are many reasons to keep your shoulders on your back.  Even more reasons than the obvious:  Because they belong on your back…not on your front.

One other great reason to keep your shoulders back:  When you lift your hips up off the ground in any exercise, if your shoulders are not on your back, then you will use you neck to lift…and that’s bad for your neck.  Sounds obvious, but almost everyone lifts her hips with shoulders forward and neck back.  It’s got to be shoulders back and work hard to maintain the length and curve of your neck.

Maintain the curve of the neck?  Yes.  Your neck needs to keep it’s lordotic curve when you go over-head with your legs and hips.  So what then supports you?  Your shoulder blades!

Breathing, Shortspine, Longspine, Rollover, Jackknife, Corkscrew, Tower, Airplane and any other exercise where you lift your hips off of the mat must be with broad collarbones, shoulders on the back, maintain that curve in the back of the neck and keep the chin and eyes up to the ceiling.  Do not lift up with your chin in your chest.  Do not look at your hips while you are over-head.  Do open your collarbones/get your shoulders on your back.  Do look up to the ceiling.  Do look at your feet.  Again, I say, do not look at your hips.  You will compress the front of your cervical spine and bear weight in your neck and head.

How did I learn this?  Well…I kept wondering why my neck was continually going out.  I knew that I had to use my shoulders to assist my over-head work, but I didn’t realize how much…and how I had to keep my chin up.  I figured it out as I worked very hard to keep it all out of my neck.

So…Open your collarbones/find your shoulders on your back before you go to lift your hips and to do the action of lifting hips  and to roll through your spine for the rest of any of the exercises.  Basically…every part of this exercise needs those shoulder blades for support.

Yes, of course, every exercise ought to have shoulders on the back.  But today we’re just talking about over-head work.  And you’ll find that this support will save you and help advance you (and your clients).

You’ll find that you can’t lift as high as you have before.  You’ll find that you can’t get your hips up as high…yet.  As you practice these shoulder blades on the back for the lift, you will gain greater support and strength and find that with very little effort, far less than before, you will lift up high with great support of your shoulder blades rather than the support of your compressed neck!

Try it.  Struggle through how difficult it will be at first.  It will be humbling.  Enjoy the strength you will develop!

***As always, if you have any questions about this or any other topic, please feel free to write to me or call me at the studio.  If you have any topic you’d like me to blog about, let me know that, too!  Enjoy!***

Don’t be afraid to teach.

Hmm…what ever could I mean?

Well…don’t be afraid to command the sessions you teach, drive the workout, cue what needs correction, develop the client’s future in Pilates. 

Don’t be afraid to teach.  It’s your job!

Command the session.  Well, with kindness you must direct your client to do what you want them to do within the realms of Pilates.  Why?  Because you’re the one with the knowledge and that’s what they’re paying you to do.  Your client is there to learn from you.  So…teach.  With kindness and grace.  With strength and authority.  Because you are the authority.

Use active verbs, command forms instead of passive verbs.  For example:

Do say this, “Scoop your powerhouse in and up” as opposed “Scooping your abs”.  Or “Lift your spine tall” as opposed to “Lifting tall”.

Teach.

Drive the workout.  Your clients are coming to you for a workout.  That’s what Pilates is.  It’s not physical therapy, it’s not meditation, those things are great, but they’re not Pilates.  Pilates is a workout.  A workout at that clients’ level, designed for that client that day.  Still…a workout.  So, don’t be afraid to drive it with flow and strength.  Again, with kindness, we must demand that our clients move forward through transitions.  If there is conversation, we converse with the through-line of the workout always apparent.  Even if our client needs breaks because she is pregnant or he is elderly, the moments for breath are not full out coffee breaks…they are pauses in preparation to continue the workout.

Cue what needs correction.  Always state the good, but also give correction that will both improve your client’s form and ability to stabilize.  And repeat those corrections.  You must repeat your cues over and over again in every way possible:  With words, images, metaphors and hands on cueing.  If your client doesn’t improve by the last repetition, the onus is on you, the teacher.  You must teach in a way that the client improves from repetition #1 to repetition #5.  That does not mean that they get it perfect.  Perfection is impossible to achieve and we must never strive for that.  But we do strive for improvement!

Remember you’re not there to watch them workout.  You’re not there to count.  You’re there to help them get stronger and more supple, healthier and more fit.  You’re not there to babysit or pass time.  You’re there to teach!

Develop the clients future in Pilates.  You are the one who can see where your client needs to go physically and you can guide them there within the realm of Pilates.  So, craft the session and craft the ensuing sessions.  Plan the future for your client, leaving that plan open for change depending on the situation, but see the future.  If you’re working on the shoulder girdle…teach thematically by teach shoulder girdle cues in every exercise throughout the session and keep doing that for several sessions thereafter…5 or 10 or more until they are making strong strides in improvement.  Then…when they’ve got it in a good working way, you can start to layer on the next stabilization cue.  Develop their future by caring about the present and remember what you did so you can repeat it with them again and again until they get a great grasp of the work.

Don’t be afraid to teach.  It’s your job.  That is why your client is coming to you.  Not to be friends, not to hang out, not to hear about your life, but to exercise at her/his level with her/his particular physical limitations or expertise!

When you command a session with kindness and confidence, your client feels safe in your hands and knows that she/he’s getting exactly what she came for in Pilates.

Enjoy!

As always, if you have any topic you would like me to blog about or any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know!  info@TheVerticalWorkshop.com   Thanks!

This goes for every conference I teach in, but it becomes more and more apparent with each one; this week’s Pilates Style conference in L.A. this past week was no different:  When teachers learn Classical Pilates with purpose and appropriate intention…they get excited about the work!

 The light bulbs I saw go off in the participants’ brains were beautiful, brilliant…they could light Los Angeles and Manhattan…just from Wednesday morning’s seminar!  The excitement over Mr. Pilates’ work is wonderful!

 I encourage you to find Classical Excitement!

How do you do it?  Where to begin?  Well, you came to Pilates for a reason…something about it intrigued you.  So, study up!

1 - Learn about Mr. Pilates - Joseph Hubertus Pilates.  Read “Return to Life Through Contrology” and “Your Health”.  Mr. Pilates grew a lot after he wrote these works, but there is much to be learned from what he writes in terms of intentions of exercises, style of movement, purpose of the whole system.  Read what Mr. Pilates wrote.  Go to the “PPOL Store” at www.powerpilates.com and get yourself a copy of each.

2 - Work with The Elders!  Some of them are still around!  Get yourself to the conferences and meet them!  Sure, they will tell you that they have changed what they learned from Mr. Pilates.  But they will happily show you what they learned directly from him, too!  Romana Kryzanowska, Lolita San Miguel, Ron Fletcher, Kathy Grant, Mary Bowen.  While Romana doesn’t participate in conferences, you can get DVD’s of her teaching.  And even though Eve Gentry is gone, there is great film footage of her teaching in her later years.  Again…most of the elders have altered the work…but take a look at it!

 3 - Watch Mr. Pilates!  What?!  Yes!  There are wonderful archival videos (film transferred to video) of Mr. Pilates teaching, practicing, showering, even!  You must not go another year (let alone week) teaching without ever having seen him in action.  If you’re in L.A., ask me to put together an event…we’ll watch him work and discuss why there are differences today.  Go to the “PPOL Store” at www.powerpilates.com and order the Joseph Pilates Archival Footage.  It’s a great $60 investment!

4 - Train with the finest of classically trained teachers.  Power Pilates is clearly the leader in educating teachers because of the technique of teaching…and…because we only teach classical work.  We teach only what is supported in photos, film and directly from working with The Elders.  I love nothing more than to teach what I have learned.  I wish I had learned it directly from Mr. Pilates, but I am very fortunate to have learned Pilates from Romana and Bob.  But that’s not enough.  I study my archival films, read Mr. Pilates books, seek out as many photos of him as I can, talk to anyone and everyone who will discuss their work with Mr. Pilates and practice practice practice!

 Dig in to the classical work:  Joseph Pilates’ actual exercises, order of exercises and intentions (a strong workout focusing on abdominal strength)!  You’ll have a lifetime of incredible discoveries ahead of you!

 (As always, if you have anything you’d like me to BLOG on, please write to me and let me know.  I’m more than happy to answer any of your questions or delve in to any topic!  Have a great week! - Shari)

Will Wonders Never Cease?  I certainly hope not!  I hope we never stop finding new and interesting angles to the most common things we meet up with in life.  I hope a bright sunny day with pure blue skies always remains a wonder.  I hope the smell of freshly cut grass in the spring and summer always remains a wonder.  I hope the first sight of my true love’s eyes after some time apart always remains a wonder.  There are so many usual things that must always be unusual!

And doesn’t this apply to Pilates too?

Of course it does.  It must!

Every time you start a session to do that same old Hundred on the mat or that same old Footwork on the reformer…find the wonder in it!  Even the most basic exercise is full of special delights each time…if you seek them out…if you try…if you want it!  Perhaps I ought to say “especially the most basic exercise” because it’s in the basics that we best find pots of gold over and over again!

The basics are repeated every day and in every exercise…so let’s find new things in the same-old every time you approach that exercise!

How do we do it?  Now, there’s the catch!  There are many ways.  Here are a few:

1 – Want to find new things in the old. 

It’s your mind-set that’s most important.  If you want it, if it’s your goal, then you can have it.

2 – Pick a theme.

           Work thematically.  This means that in the first few exercises you need to find what’s special to that day for that particular client and work on that within every exercise.  It becomes the theme of the workout!  Keep the through-line from start to finish…do not drop it!

3 – Workout!

Yes!  You knew it was coming!  You must do your own workouts to remain excited about the work you teach!  Of course!  If you do your own Pilates workouts with strong focus (not just “going through the motions”) then you will find new and interesting things in your work.  Perhaps you’ll even recognize ideas and cues you’ve heard from other teachers around you or your own teachers and be able to apply them well…and then pass them on to your clients who need them!

4 – Humble yourself.

Find humility.  Mr. Pilates was a genius!  He was brilliant!  Look at what he came up with.  The man was no dummy.  Could you have created it?  Doubtful.  And that’s wonderful!  Be an interpreter of his work and play with it on the body in front of you.  Don’t try to make up new exercises because you’re bored.  If you’re bored, then remember that you’re the one who’s not looking deeply enough in to the work.  Humble yourself and find the depth of this genius’ work!

5  - No 2 people are the same

See each client as an individual.  If you see the differences in every client you have, then you will see that each client needs something different.  A different cue at a different time, a different hand-spotting, a different image, etc.  Honor the differences!

Give it a go!  Find something new every day!  Try something new every day!  Get out of your rut and go for it!

Will wonders never cease?  I sure hope not!

***If you have any Pilates questions you would like answered, please drop me a line here at the website:  info@TheVerticalWorkshop.com  I’d be happy to answer them!***

Remember what it’s all about.

It’s just Pilates…

We’re just teachers.  We’re just interpreters of Mr. Pilates’ genius.  That’s it. 

It’s not brain surgery.  It’s not astrophysics.  Sure, it’s not either of those things, but it is deeply interesting, beautifully specific, remarkably curative, fantastically dynamic!

It’s just Pilates…

Why do our clients come to us?  To exercise!  To feel better!  To look good! 

What do we need to do in the studio?  Give our clients what they need in terms of Pilates.  Who figures that out?  You…the teacher…the interpreter. 

Keep your through-line for the session.  Keep it about the workout.  It’s easy to slip in to just doing exercises while you talk about what’s been going on…especially now after the holidays…but work hard to keep the through-line of driving the workout forward.  And this goes for all levels at all abilities.  Never forget why you are there and why your clients is there:  Your client is there to exercise.

Sure, some clients need to talk to get through the hour.  Keep the through-line.

Some clients need to rest because of age, fatigue, pregnancy, etc.  Keep the through-line.

Some clients get so rapt in their issues; spinning in their “Stuff”.  Keep the through-line.

You’re not rude by keeping the through line.  You’re doing your job.  You’re teaching!

Remember what it’s all about.

Give your client a true workout at their level and you will have a satisfied client.  In order to build your business either as an employee or in your own studio or at a client’s house, the end-result better be a great Pilates workout that satisfies the client’s need for Pilates.

It’s just Pilates…but it’s a special hour…just for Pilates.

Enjoy!

I wish you all a very happy New Year!  Enjoy 2008!  Work hard, play hard, don’t be afraid to ask questions, be open to the answers!

Confidence:

In Power Pilates, we talk about working with the 5 C’s:  Caution, Compassion, Clarity, Creativity, Confidence.

Let’s talk about Confidence.

Sometimes we feel on top of the world!  Sometimes we feel like there so much more to learn!  Why does it waver back and forth?  How do we find the balance?  (And isn’t it always about trying to achieve balance!)

A wonderful teacher called me the other day.  She told me that she’s having trouble maintaining her clientele.  What is she doing wrong, she wants to know. 

My heart goes out to her because it’s about confidence.  It’s about believing in what you know and what you do so strongly that when you are in front of your clients, you can give them all that you’ve got without fear, without hesitation, but with your full heart and knowledge that what you’ve got is something that they want!

But you have to believe that – first.

Sure, there are times when we all, me included, feel low on the confidence scale.  There are times when we are nervous and unsure.  So, take those times as signs to learn more.  Call a senior teacher and/or a doctor to ask questions about an issue you need more education on.  Hop on the apparatus and practice (you knew that was coming!).  Take a session with another teacher.  Take a continuing education.  Take a break…just go get a tea or browse around the shops or sit back and read or something else that let’s you chill out.

You’re doing great! 

Our confidence in ourselves directly affects the confidence our clients have in us.  In fact, they are only as confident in you as you are in yourself.  So, look in to all pertinent parts:

1 – What do I need to do to improve? – Am I missing something that is vital?

2 – What am I getting from my studio? – Do I get positive or negative feedback and is there open communication?  If you don’t feel a good connection with the manager/owner of your studio, face it head-on with kindness and set up a meeting to discuss…to connect.

3 – What are the clients like and what seem to be their issues that are getting in the way?  We can’t change our clients, but we can open ourselves up to seeing them as human beings when they are seeming to challenge us.  We can try to see where our issues and our clients’ issues are colliding and not benefiting anyone.  It is the teacher’s responsibility to find solutions (just like a parent to a child).

And have fun!  Yes…have fun!  Pilates is not brain surgery.  It’s important.  Very important.  But it’s just Pilates.  It’s a beautiful workout.  It’s a strong workout.  It’s wonderful!  It’s not a punishment.  It’s fun!  Enjoy!

***If you have anything you’d like me to write about (i.e. specific injuries/conditions, workplace issues, apparatus questions, client issues), let me know!***

This Thanksgiving, I say my great thanks to Pilates.  How fortunate I am to spend my life teaching Pilates!  It’s remarkable, really.

How fortunate I am that I pursue my passion everyday.  You’re lucky, too!

What we do is truly challenging.  More than most people know.  But we know it.  Still, we are truly fortunate. 

We spend our lives doing something so very luxurious.  Training other people in this incredible method.  And most of us teach people who are financially fortunate.  It’s a true luxury. 

Pursuing your passion is a gift.  Most of the people around you don’t pursue their passions.  And I won’t speak for you, but I will speak for myself:  Pilates is my great passion.  I never take it for granted and I do treasure every hour that I teach.  I even treasure the administrative work.

Not everyone knows his/her passion.  Not everyone knows how to seek it out.  Perhaps Pilates is not your passion, but maybe it will lead you to whatever is.

If Pilates is your passion, then I implore you to remind yourself on a daily basis how special it is.  You are probably working in a high-rent district, with very wealthy clients.  You probably don’t have to work very many hours a week.  Your hourly wage that you sometimes complain about is far higher than the minimum-wage; it’s far higher than the hourly temp-wage you used to work for.  Take a moment today to remember why you became a Pilates teacher.  Take a moment to be thankful that you were able to pursue it.  Even if this is not your be-all-end-all job…it’s a pretty great one!Thank you for reading my blog!  Let me know if there is something specific about Pilates that you would like me to write about…and I will!  I’ll post a new blog in a couple of days!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Practicing what we preach is essential as a teacher.  Whether we teach Pilates or any other discipline, we must practice what we teach.  Of course, life is busy.  We all get incredibly busy, but to be great teachers, we have to practice what we teach.

It’s no surprise that this second blog is about responsibility.  The responsibilities of a teacher are vast.  We not only must instruct, but teach.  We must not only teach our clients, but live what it is that we teach. 

But how when there’s so much to juggle and life is so busy?  How?

           Start by practicing Pilates 3 times a week.  (Yes…I just wrote “3”.  Not 1, but 3.)  If we encourage our clients to do so, then we must, too.  Why?  Because it works. 

If we teach or practice Pilates, a workout that balances Stability, Strength, Stretch and Stamina, then perhaps we can attempt to bring that balance and those 4 points in to all parts of our lives.

Yes, you have a busy schedule.  Yes, you have children.  Yes, you have errands to run.  It can be done.  Your clients do it.  You can do it, too.

Schedule your Pilates sessions in to your week.  Schedule your own workouts around your clients.  Yes, it’s a well-known fact that I go a little beyond what I would expect another to do.  Every day that I teach Pilates, I do Pilates.  I don’t expect or encourage anyone else to do that.  That’s my practice, but doesn’t have to be yours, but I do encourage you to work yourself out 3 times a week, your full 55 minute session.  As a teacher, when you do your full workouts 3 times a week – 55 minutes each – then you will keep rediscovering what you thought you already knew…and that’s exciting!

Maybe I’m just simple-minded, but I prefer to think of myself as dedicated:  I find new and interesting things in each exercise every time I do it…and apparently I do it every day!  If I only taught the exercises and never or rarely practiced them, I wouldn’t make the discoveries that I make on a daily basis!  These discoveries I pass on to my clients and my apprentices.

Pilates is a physical workout.  It’s not an intellectual endeavor to be theorized.  It is to be physically practiced and physically discovered over and over again.

This is harsh, but you know it’s true:  When we get bored, it’s because we’re boring ourselves.  So…if you find yourself getting bored, then hop on the apparatus and give yourself a session.  Follow that up with a phone call to your favorite teacher and schedule yourself to take a session! 

And enjoy!  Enjoy what you teach!  Teaching is a large part of your life  If it’s not in weight of importance, then it is in hours…make something of it for yourself on a very personal level.  Practice what you teach!  It’s fun!

     This is my very first blog!  I hope you will return to read on about Pilates, Health and Fitness for some time to come.  I will add a new blog once a week.  It will always relate to our business.  I hope you find it informative!  If you have any questions about what I write or about Pilates in general, contact me here!

     A lovely coincidence, my first blog coincides with the 2007 PMA Conference! 

     What a wonderful community we work in!  And it truly is becoming a community.  There is less and less in-fighting, more and more working together.  The PMA Conference is a wonderful place to see this all come together.

If you’ve never gone before, then I encourage you to be part of the 2008 conference.  It’s in Phoenix in 2008.  If you’re a Pilates instructor, it’s important to go!  And Pilates enthusiasts, too! 

     What’s so special about it?  The Pilates Method Alliance Conference as well as all the other conferences (Body Mind Spirit Expo and Pilates Style to name two) encourage us all to learn from each other.  Share our knowledge.  Respect our differences. 

     Years ago, I was part of Pilates community that worked very hard to exclude anyone who was different.  We coveted The Method, we coveted the history, we coveted knowledge.  That’s terribly sad.  So sad.  How can we be true instructors, let alone teachers, and covet knowledge?  Exclude?  It’s shameful! 

     The truth is that I didn’t know anything else then, but I do now.  And now that I do…I work to make up for the past, create a better present and open up more for the future.  It is mine and truly our responsibility to share…to help…to create a community of help.

     “A Community of Help”.  It’s my greatest desire and I think my biggest passion these days.  Those of us in the service industry of Pilates work to make sure we’re giving our clients what they need, not what they don’t need.  We have to put our minds and hearts in to considering what will help them in Pilates and that particular day…for that particular person.  Then we also have to make sure we give ourselves what we need.  Take time to consider what you truly need in yourself and in life.  Only when you know your own needs can you then give purely to another.

     If we wish to help another; give help, then we must be able to ask for help, too.  Yes…ask for help.  In small ways and sometimes in big ways, we must be able to ask for help.  That doesn’t mean that you are weak, lacking in ability, stupid…no…it only means that you are human and part of something bigger than yourself.

     You ask for help…you give help…you create a community in your studio where that is the value system.  You give information freely.  You do not covet.  You teach from your heart.  You try not to resent or react. 

     Now, don’t get me wrong, we’re all human!  We sometimes don’t have the energy to give that day.  We sometimes fear competition.  We sometimes fear giving it all away.  That’s normal.  That’s ok.  But it’s not ok to take action that works in to those fears!  You must take action that works against those fears!

     Give more freely!  Create “A Community of Help” in your studio.

     Join the PMA if you haven’t already.  Be part of this Pilates community.  Make it your Pilates community.  It’s incredible! 

     Talk with people who do not work within your style of Pilates.  See them for their value.  You don’t have to like or agree with what they teach, but you still may learn something;  you still may find them likeable people.  Get to know your community.  Open yourself up!

     What an incredible gift of a life we have in Pilates!  What a beautiful luxury!  Take the greatest advantage of this luxury and create “A Community of Help”!