Parallel vs. “Turn Out”/External Rotation

Thank you, Troy, for requesting a blog on this topic!

When shall we work with parallel legs?  When in External Rotation?

Mr. Pilates intention is that legs are parallel and together in most exercises except when we bend our knees out shoulder width (to the limit of our Box) in which case we are in External Rotation:  Heels together, toes a fist width apart and parallel.

We work Parallel and Together creating a connection from the heels up to the inner thighs to create a core of the legs.  We create a core of the torso with our abdominals and spine, a core of the legs from our heels, up through our inner thighs that leads in to the core of the torso.

At first, it may be difficult to connect the heels with parallel legs.  If it is impossible, we may modify with a tiny bit of external rotation:  Heels together big toe knuckles (bunion knuckle, not the toes) 2 finger widths apart.  NO MORE THAN THAT.

Why no big external rotation or “turn out”? 

-First, let’s not call it “turn out”.  That is a ballet term.  Mr. Pilates was neither a dancer nor did he enjoy what dancers did to his work.  He didn’t like how “dancey” dancers made his workout.  They turned his technique in to a flowery dance.  It’s not a dance.  It’s a flowing workout, but not a dance.  So, let’s call it External Rotation because that’s what it is.  Let’s not use ballet terms in Pilates.

-Next, if you spend your workout in External Rotation all of the time, you make yourself sorely imbalanced.  only ballet dancers live in External Rotation all of the time and the find themselves needing hip and knee replacements.  No other athlete works in this odd rotation.  It is imbalanced.  With that constant External Rotation, you end up tightening your lower back, adding to compression, over work your rotators that are overly developed any way, and ultimately changing the shape of your pelvis…and not for the better.  From the top, your pelvis ought to be an ellipse.  When you rotate all of the time, and probably squeezing your glutes/sitbones, etc., then you change your pelvis to more of a triangle:  wide in the front and narrow in the back.  That compression in the back is the opposite of what we’re working to do in Pilates.  And who wants to be wider in the front? 

Where did this extreme rotation come from?  Well, I remember Romana always telling everyone to rotate as a tool and that eventually everything ought to come to parallel and together.  But then, the truth is, she never reminded anyone to go to parallel and then, over time, I never heard her mention parallel and together any longer.  I think I heard the last of it.  And…Romana and most of her students were/are dancers.  What do dancers know and think is proper alignment?  External Rotation/Turn out. 

Oh!  It suddenly makes sense!  When you don’t know answers to questions, you dig in to your bag of tricks and habits.  External Rotation/Turn Out was an uneducated answer to a question.

Wait!  But don’t we sometimes work in this External Rotation?  Sure!  Because we ought to externally rotate in life!   But…not all of the time.  Just some of the time.  Rarely in our workouts.  We need to work out the smaller muscles.  Isn’t that what we do in Pilates?  Let’s work the Adductors/Inner Thighs! Little muscles that need to balance out the big ones!

So, when do we Externally Rotate? 

1- When knees open the width of the shoulders:  i.e. First Footwork/Toes, Frogs, Pelvic Lift

2 – When we need greater support in standing.  We do “Military Stance”.  Heels together, big toe knuckles a fist width apart.  Some people call this “Pilates Stance”.  Let’s not forget that there are 4 Pilates Stances…so that one is not it!  Military Stance is what Mr. Pilates called it…so we shall, too.  It is a way to increase the surface area under us so we have greater support, yet still keep legs connected (of course, parallel and a fist width apart would be even great surface area, but doesn’t have the heel connection support).

3 – When we need a tool to connect the heels:  Heels together, toes 2 finger widths apart at the big toe knuckles.  And then make sure that you find your way to closing it up over time until you’re parallel and together.

4 – When we need a tool to lengthen the hip forward: i.e. Single Leg Circles, Side Kicks (Front/Back, but only use it for the front portion), Tree.  This little external rotation equivalent to 2 fingertip widths between the big toe knuckles assists a client to reach that side of the pelvis forward to square the box and/or to get out of hip flexors a bit.  Eventually at the solid intermediate level, less rotation, more parallel!

What about this parallel and together?  It’s a false parallel, isn’t it?  Sure.  True parallel has the middle of the heel behind the 2nd toe joint.  We work this false parallel.  And…eventually, after you’ve mastered the heel connection (and I mean master it!), then you connect heels and big toe knuckles strongly!  Yup!

Come take a session with me…take many and see how you grow over time!  As a teacher we must know where we are to be now and where we’re going in the future with our clients!  We mustn’t forget that if we use a tool of rotation, it’s supposed to become parallel at some point!

***As always if, you wish to comment, please do!  I welcome your thoughts!  And if there is something that you’d like me to blog on, please ask!  I’d love to answer your questions or give you my thoughts!  Enjoy!***

Back to Basics: Honor Every Position…especially the last part!

“Honor Every Position” is a phrase I grew up with in Pilates.  If you haven’t heard it before, then welcome to it!  If you have heard it…use it and use it well!

“Honor Every Position”  That means give value to every bit of every exercise:  Set up, Each movement and Ending.  No part of any exercise is a “Throw Away”.  If it was…it wouldn’t be there.

Every movement in every exercise is necessary and important.  Give value to each movement.

Let’s just focus on the last part of an exercise.

What if…what if the last part of the exercise, any exercise, is the entire reason the other parts exist?  What if?  What if count #6 of Backstroke is the entire reason we do Backstroke?  Here it is:

            1 Inhale, reach your arms and legs up to the ceiling.

            2 Exhale, open your arms and legs the width of the carriage.

            3 Inhale, circle your arms and legs forward.

            4, 5, Hold your breath; curl your chest up higher to the base of your ribs.        

            6 Exhale, bend your arms and legs back in; keep curling up.

Take a look at every exercise…finish it to the end!

***As always, if you have thoughts or comments or questions, please send them my way. 

Back to Basics – Part 2 – Would Mr. Pilates Recognize That Exercise?

Would Mr. Pilates recognize the exercises that you’re teaching.  Maybe they actually are the movements he created.  Maybe you are teaching his exercises, but are you teaching them with his dynamic and his intention?

Would Mr. Pilates recognize what’s going on in your studio?

I ask myself this over and over again.  I want to make sure that what I’m doing, what I’m teaching has the energy and the effort that was intended.  When I do…I see great changes in my clients.

As most of you reading this know, I teach only the exercises Mr. Pilates created and some tools that his disciples (i.e. our Elders) created to get to the heart of the actual exercise.  With that, I make it my great effort to do teach the workout with a strong intention:  That this is a workout at the level of the client in front of me that focuses on core strength.

What makes that happen?  The energy that you put in to your teaching.  The tone of your voice.  The manner of movement.  The rhythms.

Energy.  Your intention must be strong.  Your persona must be about strength.  This is a workout created by a man for men.  German Man for German Men.  That’s a very different persona than a petite woman from California or even me…from New York.  Different.  So, when I teach with the intention of an exercise by a man for men, even my frailest woman works differently.  She strengthens.  She “steps up” to the challenge. 

Voice.  When I use the lower tones of my voice, the exercises come alive.  When I get in to my higher tones…the exercises lose some of their value.  Dig in to your voice.  Find the lower register that sounds like Strength, Stability, Stamina.  Even Stretch can have strong tones to it.  Remember that Pilates is a workout.  Even if it’s for rehabilitation…it’s still a workout.

Manner of Movement.  Here’s where I wonder what Mr. Pilates would think if he saw what was going on!  While Pilates is flowing movement, it is not flowery movement.  No.  Pilates is not dance.  Remember that Mr. Pilates called it “Contrology”?  Does that sound like dance to you?  No.  Mr. Pilates was a boxer, diver, gymnast.  He held strong poses for long periods of time like a human statue.  He was not graceful in the dance way.  He was graceful in the strong-man way.  And that is the intention behind the exercises.  Please, work with strong arms and legs.  Read “Return to Life Through Contrology” and “Your Health”.  He describes how he wants the body to move.  Do not stray so far from his work because you’ve seen a lot of dancers do Pilates.

I’m a dancer…I dance in dance, I workout in Pilates.  It’s different.

Now, if you watch film of Mr. Pilates teaching…it is not pleasant.  He is rough on his clients and the movements are often ballistic.  I do not suggest that teach in that manner.  Without Mr. Pilates’ understanding of what works and what doesn’t, we may hurt our clients.  Let’s not.  However, I do suggest that we consider the strength behind his movements, especially the way he moved.  I return to this next suggestion:  watch film of Mr. Pilates!  You can find him all over the place now!  Go to Power Pilates’ website and buy the Archival Footage.  It’s incredible!  If you haven’t seen Mr. Pilates in action…it’s important that you do!  It’s invaluable!  www.powerpilates.com  (no…I do not get a percentage of the proceeds!)

Rhythms.  Do you know the actual rhythms to the exercises?  Did you know that each exercise actually has it’s own rhythm?  They do!  And they are important to do in order to get the most out of the exercises. 

How will you learn the rhythms if you don’t already know them?  Go to a great classical Pilates teacher, watch the films, contact me and ask!  I will give you the rhythms.  It’s important to use the correct rhythms.  You’ll find that the exercise changes…for the better…because of them.

If you’re playing music in the studio while you are teaching…that takes away from the workout.  It does.  If each exercise has it’s own very specific rhythm as they do, then the music conflicts.  See if you can challenge yourself to do and teach Pilates to it’s own music!

So, would Mr. Pilates recognize what’s going on in your studio?  If you question it, and you’re in Los Angeles, come take a session with me.  I work hard to do what I hope he’d approve of and respect.  If you’re not in L.A., consider your teaching and ponder what’s dance or yoga and what’s Pilates/Contrology.  Try to re-work your session.  Ask me questions…I’m happy to answer them!  Let’s do more Pilates in the Pilates studio!

****As always…please feel free to e-mail me at info@TheVerticalWorkshop.com or comment here on the blog and let me know what you think as well as ask me any questions or pose a topic to have me blog on!  Enjoy!  ****

Back to Basics – Part 1 of The Series

 

Back to Basics is something we discuss and practice in Power Pilates all of the time.  I have the enormous luxury of revisiting the basics over and over again because I get to teach apprentices throughout the year.  I return to the foundation of Pilates constantly.  You can have this luxury, too!

Where do we begin with Back to the Basics?  How about with the obvious:  What is Pilates?

What is Pilates?  Let’s remember that first and foremost, Pilates is a person.  A man.  A German man, Joseph Hubertus Pilates.  We all can read about him on every website.  Every site states the same thing.  Everyone has copied and pasted the same material year after year.  But stop and think about who this man was and what he was about.  What if you were in his shoes?

If you grew up “sickly and weak” with rickets and asthma in a family who was all about health and fitness.  How would you feel?  Wouldn’t you feel small?  Wouldn’t you feel out of place?  Wouldn’t you feel like you didn’t belong?

Rickets.  Do you know what rickets is, even?  Rickets is a disease whose symptoms are weak/softened bones.  It comes from a lack of Calcium and Vitamin D.  It comes from malnutrition.  That’s so interesting to me.  His mother was a naturopath.  His father a body builder.  How did this child develop rickets?  Often times, children who are breastfed by mothers who are not outside enough develop rickets because it is Vitamin D that helps us absorb Calcium.

Asthma.  It’s a common problem these days because of all of our pollution.  Was it common back then?  I bet with coal and wood as the main sources of energy it was.

So…weak bones, weak respiration…Joseph Pilates had to create something that cured himself.

Contrology.

“Contrology” is what Mr. Pilates called what we now call “Pilates”.  The study, the art, the science of Control.  A child felt as though everything was out of control.  A man created Contrology.

When I consider Classical Pilates with this germination…everything is clear.  Pilates is about the balance of stability, strength, stretch, stamina…it’s all very clear.

How will you look at the breath in Pilates?  Will you work your exhale completely?  If you do, then you will work in to your clear your lungs of “stale air” and allow for more fresh air to enter.  Oxygenate your body and increase your health, your stamina, your strength.

How will you use your limbs and incorporate them in to the torso?  Will you remember that great strength comes from the torso and from there your limbs will develop.  No exercise is just an arm or leg exercise.  Every exercise is full body with the focus on the torso/core/Powerhouse.

Will you work for balance?  Balance of body and mind?

Will you work to increase stamina?

Will you work with Mr. Pilates’ intention?  If you do, then you will find the work with appropriate effort in the appropriate place in your teaching and in your practice.  Why waste your effort?  Be efficient.  This knowledge aids your efficiency.

This is a multi-part series:  Back to Basics.  I will build this from week to week.  One basic thought at a time.  Now, please consider this basic knowledge of the beginnings of Pilates.

Half Effort is Wasted Effort

Half Effort is Wasted Effort.  It takes Full Effort to make great changes.  Both as a client and as a teacher we must give full effort.  Nothing significant changes for the better without full effort.  And isn’t this case in Life?

When your client is just “going through the motions” and you let her do it…you are both doing a disservice.  Encourage your clients to do exercises full out.  Encourage your clients to not just show up to the class, but be in the class; be in the session.  Don’t just show up to Life.  Be Life.

Your time is precious.  Your client’s time is precious.  Make the most of it.

Now, how do we do that?  How do we encourage our client to do more than they think they want to or can?  It’s what we say and how we say it and with persistence.

For example, your client is doing Side Kick Series:  Front/Back.  She is kicking her leg and it’s going just fine, but there is limited effort.  There is limited energy.  Tell her, “Give a stronger effort to the front and actively reach to the back”.  Get your clients to work harder.

You client is doing Teaser.  She rolls up and she rolls down, but there is no deep muscularity to the movement and there is no effort to lift the spine and separate the vertebrae.  Tell her, “Deepen your abdominals in and up as you roll up.  Stay there!  Life higher!  Scoop deeper!  Roll back with length and control!”  Teach!  Encourage!  Bring them to new heights!

Teaching is cueing precision, cueing stabilization and encouragement!  Encourage your clients and drive the workout!

Your client is doing The Hundred.  She’s pumping her arms, she’s inhaling and exhaling, but there is no vigor, there is no exercise happening.  Tell her, “Vigorously pump your arms!  Bigger pumps!  Deepen your abdominals to exhale!”

Just doing an exercise is not enough.  They may go through life giving Half Rffort to much of what they do, but when they are on that apparatus in front of you, you must encourage them to give Full Effort!  Then you are giving them what they came for and your own hour was of value.  Yes…your hour must be of value not just because you spent 60 minutes in the studio, but because you changed their lives for the better!

Half Effort is Wasted Effort.  It takes Full Effort to make great changes!

4 Teaching Tips

Take these 4 tips and fly for a while with them.  See what you learn from them and let me know how you fare! 

1 - Don’t be afraid to teach!  You are the reason your clients are coming to the session.  You’re the authority.  Make sure you command the session (with kindness) and do not let the session be over taken by your client.

 

2 – Honor what your clients say, but limit story-telling.  When they want to talk the session away, remember that the through-line has got to be the work out.  I tell my clients who need to talk (and some really do need to talk) that they can keep talking as long as they keep moving.  Usually this makes them stop talking and we can get down to the business at hand:  their Pilates workout! 

 

3 – Teach thematically.  Within the first couple of exercises you already know what your client needs for the day.  Perhaps you even figured it out beforehand based on the previous session.  With that, pick one thing to work on for the session and do not overwhelm your client and yourself by picking on everything.  Maybe it’s just working the Powerhouse in every exerecise or that and shoulder girdle or opposition, breath, precision.  Pick one thing to focus on in every single exercise and you will have a successful session.

 

4 – Late clients.  Sometimes your client actually needs to be late.  Sometimes they can’t handle a full 55 minute session.  First, talk with your client and remind her that she will benefit so much more if she can get in the full session.  If your client continues to be late all of the time, be compassionate and realize that either physically or emotionally she can’t do more than what she’s doing.  Be glad that she’s do that much.

Hips Up…Shoulders Back!

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

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!

Classical Excitement!

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)

Keep the Common Exercises Uncommon! – Will Wonders Never Cease?

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!***