The Vertical Workshop’s Blog

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!***