How Yoga Can Wreck your Body in New York Times

There is a wonderful article this week in the New York Times about yoga.  There is also a bigger issue to address.

 A lot of students think pushing hard to almost an injury is a hard workout.

Many new students trying Pilates for the first time complain about being not hard enough.  The majority lack awareness and deep internal connections of how to stabilize.  If you are doing legs in straps or leg springs with no center control,  you can be pushing from your back.  Rudoph Laban had a wonderful concept of Stability/Mobility.  To mobilize a part of your body, you need to stabilize somewhere to facilitate any simple movement.

When you are weak and you increase the load, a lot of times you will initiate your poor habits to do the exercise.  When I do leg springs with a quiet spine, it targets the legs.  I have had many clients complain that their back hurts in legs springs.  One has to look at their form and retrain how they perform the movements.

The majority of new clients coming in, have no clear idea of how to stabilize the torso.  When you find it,  it has a lot of lightness.  They are very much into the more superficial mucles of the torso and body.

More does not equal more.  Awareness, concentration and precision in form is key to any fitness routine.  This is the “MORE”

Whether it is your own body or teaching others, movement and fitness should make you feel better mentally and physically. The wrong fitness will make the body rigid. If your exercise regime does help change your posture, why are you doing it?

In my own private sessions with my Pilates teacher, I am amazed how great I feel afterwards. Sometimes it is not a lot of exertion that would be expected in a workout.  What it does create is BALANCE.  We all have issues of imbalances and overwork issues.  The biggest overwork issue these days is how much we are sitting at our computers.  Even as I am typing this, I realized that I was slumping.  Even though it is effort to sit well,  my body thanks me in the long run.  My back and neck feel better as I sit up well.

By E.Yen Zak and Dr. Martha Eddy  In Epoch Times

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who would cut you off and respond to what they thought you were saying? Have you tried to have a conversation with someone who wasn’t listening?

In observing the relationship between the mind and body, it often becomes apparent that similar patterns happen—the conscious mind is not listening to the body.

Listening to and caring for the body are important. With the fitness revolution, there is a blossoming wealth of knowledge about the body and endless voices suggesting how we should exercise and take care of our bodies.

Even if fitness is prioritized and consistently scheduled into the day, caring for the body is often relegated to just those limited times—a handful of hours per week when the body gets a workout. During those times, the body is often forced and strained into some kind of preconceived “shape“ or into attaining a goal such as besting a time or winning a game.

This is to say we can actually stifle the beneficial effects of exercise by being obsessively goal-oriented in activities. Sayings like “no pain, no gain” still permeate attitudes toward physical fitness, and there is an idea that the body needs to be forced and disciplined into conforming to how it should look or perform.

How many people do you know who have injured themselves lifting weights, running, playing sports, or even dancing or doing yoga? Although the health benefits of an active lifestyle are undeniable, injuries during sports and working out are disturbingly common. They make up over 15 percent of all unintentional accidents leading to emergency room visits and over 3 million sporting injuries annually.

Injuries speak to a cultural habit of abandoning the body for goal-oriented use, often unconsciously. Our bodies can do a lot without conscious control. It is possible to let the deeper brain centers take hold while working, studying, shopping, or cleaning as well as while working out or pursuing sports. This is a good thing.

If we set healthy intentions, the body can flow into patterns that are controlled by our “low brain” but meet positive, right-brain goals. With a focus on the end goal, productivity, fitness, accomplishment, winning, or finishing, we are letting the left brain take an unbalanced, dominant role.

The end goal becomes more important than the means in which we treat our bodies. The results are harsh movements, repetitive use of the body, activities that are often not in accord with the structure of the body.

These rituals and practices lead the body to getting worn out or breaking down. Repetitive motion and stress-based injuries resulting in bone, tendon, ligamentous, and muscular strains all result when the quantity and intensity of activity or a goal are seen as more important than quality of technique and the experience of doing.

We don’t want to discourage anyone from working out or engaging in physical activity but rather to encourage the possibility of turning inward (tuning-in) and listening to the body’s cues as we move at work and at home, in leisure, household chores, and fitness or sports activities.

Embodied practice, in our case Dynamic Embodiment TM and BodyMind Fitness is an activity that places the felt, first-person experience of the body as primary. This process is a somatic process.

Somatic education techniques such as Alexander, Bartenieff, BodyMind Centering, Continuum, Feldenkrais, and the like all teach people to enhance their proprioception as well as their kinesthetic sense—two senses you may or may not know you have.

Proprioception is our ability to register the body’s positioning. Kinesthetics is the ability to feel how we are moving. Somatic education relies upon each and therefore teaches skills to heighten sensitivity to these systems.

What does somatic education have to do with fitness? Being “fit” can refer to meeting a predetermined set of criteria, or it can imply that there is a good match between an activity and the person engaging in it. We contend that true fitness increases by paying attention to bodily cues while engaging in any or all of life’s activities.

Somatics teaches you to listen into your body and respond with informed choice (freedom) based on the information coming from within. Dynamic Embodiment includes practices to transform any daily activity into an opportunity to feel and experience yourself with more consciousness.

Whatever the activity, we can support ourselves, enhance our systems’ function, and feel better by deepening the awareness of our body, allowing moments of self-inquiry to permeate our days and empowering us to take care of ourselves more fully.

Noticing your body, asking questions, and listening to it brings awareness to bodily cues. How does this relate to actively working out?

While working out, you can ask yourself: Is that sensation a discomfort of pushing the edge of my strength in a good way, or is that my joints, tendons, and ligaments sending warning signals, or is the sensation simply information and energy passing through the system?

It helps to have a baseline, to know what is “normal” and comfortably familiar. Somatic exercise is designed to be integrated with your life. Setting aside time for the body is vital to health and wellness, but it’s also important to check in again and again to cultivate this relationship with your body.

The work is slow and subtle. Slower and more-subtle movements allow the sensitivity of the nervous system to deepen and become more receptive toward internal cues. Fitness levels increase as we are respectful of our bodies and work more deeply within our healthy capacities.

Activity 1. Take a moment to feel the forces (muscular, energetic, skeletal) holding you up right now. How would you describe your breathing? Gently turn your body to look over either shoulder. How far you can see easily? Are you holding onto any part of your body that doesn’t seem necessary? Is there any particular sensation that stands out for you?

This can be done any time (right now, sitting at the computer; at work, home, waiting in line) whenever you notice your body feeling a little tense—or particularly good!

Activity 2. Here is an exercise to build coordination and neurogenic strength while staying somatically aware. Use a small 0.5- to 10-pound weight. A book can even work. The light weight is specifically chosen to provide a small amount of resistance to assist in locating your body’s space.

The emphasis is on ease of breathing and the subjective quality of movement. The goal is to disengage from habitual strain patterns and to access an awareness of the fluid self to support your activities. Once this baseline starts getting established, vigorous exercise will be more effective and safer.

1. Holding the weight in one hand, slowly and gently draw it close to your navel center where it may be held with minimal effort. Notice the support of the earth pouring up into your feet, through your skeleton, and into the weight.

Gently allow that flow of support to slowly push the weight further from the ground as high overhead as possible without straining. Balance the weight on your palm. Feel that vector of force from the center of the earth pushing up into the weight.

2. Shift your coccyx (tailbone) to point at different areas of your feet shifting weight from side to side and drawing tiny figure eights. Allow these small movements to travel up your spine. Notice where you feel the cleanest path of support rising out of the earth, through your skeleton, and into the weight. Allow this to be easy and only do as much as you can without holding your breath.

3. Slowly draw the weight in the direction of your core, allowing your elbow to continue to point downward. Check to see if you are keeping your elbows released. They may feel heavy. Repeat three times on one side. Place the weight down and take a small walk to feel the difference between the two halves of your body. Repeat on the other side.

4. Now how would you describe your breathing? Gently turn your body to look over either shoulder. How far you can see easily? Are you holding onto any part of your body unnecessarily? Is there any particular sensation that stands out for you? Exhale deeply with a soft sound. Pause.

5. Drawing up from the earth through your legs, with breath support, feel your head float upward as your shoulders widen and release downward.

How can this quality of deep listening carry into whatever you are doing—work, leisure, or exercise?

Activity 3. Many people find that music is a fantastic support for exercising. We do too. Music can be carefully selected to support different goals. A disc jockey mix created with the intention of supporting a half-hour workout can be found at http://soundcloud.com/somatic-eye.

The first 7 to 15 minutes are quiet and offer space for a personal check-in like the one described above. Then you can feel how the music will support you to progress toward a more active mobilizing energy.

The second half has a slightly elevated heart rate for whatever else might feel good to you—using cardio equipment, dancing, or working out in a whole-body, rhythmic way on your own. Enjoy!

E Yen Zak is an exercise physiologist, movement educator, martial artist, and disc jockey practicing in Berkeley, Calif. He studies with Dr. Eddy and can be found at Somaticeye.blogspot.com

Dr. Martha Eddy, CMA, RSMT, is an internationally renowned author and lecturer who founded BodyMind Fitness and Dynamic Embodiment Somatic Movement Training and currently directs Moving On Center-NY.

MovingOnCenter.org/DynamicSMTT

Start your education this year to become a Pilates Teacher through Balanced Body.  Here is Movements Afoot’s Upcoming Schedule

49 W. 27th St. Mezzanine B, New York City 212-904-1399 www.movementsafoot.com

“Good Morning BBU!!

I am proud to say that I passed the BBU PilatesTeacher Comprehensive Exam on Friday night at Movements Afoot!!

I am writing to thank you and everyone at Balanced Body University.  The program is excellent.  The information is written wonderfully and organized beautifully!  I received great support from you, and everyone at BBU whom I contacted, as well as the Customer Service Representatives that I spoke with to order my equipment, DVDs, etc..

So, again, THANK YOU!

I also want everyone at BBU to know what a tremedous asset you have in  Lesley Powell as your New York, New York  BBU Educator.  She is truly a gem.  Her knowledge is unparalleled and her feedback is essential.  She ran the BBU program seamlessly!!

I am the mother of three small children, I teach classes/train clients in the mornings/evenings/on weekends and care for my family when I’m not “working”.  Having the ability to take the modules at Movements Afoot once a month allowed me the time to do everything I needed for BBU, for my family, for my profession and for myself.  I love the way Lesley set up the program!

She made me a better teacher AND a better student!  During my observations at other studios, I found my appreciation and admiration for Lesley grow.  Most Pilates Teachers, while good in their own right, do not have the extensive biomechanic/body-mind knowledge that I have gained from doing my training with Lesley!  It takes an incredible teacher to make great teachers and BBU has that in Lesley Powell!

I look forward to doing my continuing education as a Teacher and Student with Lesley and BBU!”   With gratitude, and, Kindest regards,  Cheri Wild

• Mat I        11/19-21/2011
• Mat II        1/7-8/2012
• Reformer I    2/17-19/2012
• Reformer II    3/24-25/2012
• Reformer III    4/21-22/2012
• Apparatus I    5/19-20/2012
• Apparatus II    6/23-24/2012
• Apparatus III    7/21-22/2012

To register, go to www.bbupilates.com 
or call 877-PILATES (745-2837).

BodyMind Fitness May 20-22 2011:

Revolution of Hand-Scapula & Shoulders 

$476
 Please call office for this deal and register for entire weekend

• Friday:     Revolutionary Shoulders 5-7 pm
• Friday:  
Fitness Coaching: Matching Learning Styles 7-9 pm with Dr. Martha Eddy
• Saturday:  Anatomy in Clay® with Doris Pasteleur Hall
• Sunday:  Scapula Revolution: Hand-scapula Relationship with Lesley Powell

49 W. 27th St. Mezzanine B, New York City 212-904-1399 www.movementsafoot.com


Revolutionary Shoulders 5-7 pm
With Dr. Martha Eddy
Friday May 20 5-7 PM $60 Early Bird discount by 5/14 $50

Learn how shoulder carriage and movement is improved by attention to breath, spinal use, and overall posture. Find out how baby movement is still important for adults in our fitness regimen!

Fitness Coaching: Matching Learning Styles 7-9 pm
With Dr. Martha Eddy
Friday May 20 5-7 PM $60 Early Bird discount by 5/14 $50

This is a laboratory for wellness professionals. Do you wonder how to better motivate your clients? Learn to match your style to those of each of your clients. Learn the theory of Multiple Intelligences. Get great results in motivating, dealing with complex issues and feelings, improving alignment and fitness, and activating healthy habits. Holistic fitness is important and current, be on top of the wave.

Anatomy in Clay®
with Doris Pasteleur Hall
Saturday 9 AM -5 PM  $275  
Early discount see dates below

Building the muscles of the body on a Maniken® model allows you to observe movement from a 3 dimensional perspective. Placing, sensing, and observing the layers of muscles will help you integrate their relationship. Going back and forth between the model and movement, we will become aware of the layering of the deep to superficial muscles.

• May 21: Shoulder Girdle Early discount $250 sign up by 5/14
• August 6: Knee and Feet Early discount $250 sign up by 7/29
• October TBA: Spine

SHOULDER WORKSHOP: 
Scapular Revolution 

with Lesley Powell
Time:  9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Sunday 5/22  $200
Early registration by 5/13  $175 PMA Approved 6 cec

The arms connect to the torso through the shoulder girdle, shoulder blades, clavicles and humerus bones. Each bone moves in different degrees of rotation and timing. The timing and the control of these motions are essential to a healthy shoulder. This “scapular-humeral rhythm” is like a symphony—each bone is an instrument playing a different variation of a melody.
When the shoulder girdle moves correctly, great function is invited.  Each bone of the shoulder girdle; the clavicles, the scapulae and the humerus bone, have a unique rhythm of movement to facilitate the arm moving in space.
A great scapular-humeral rhythm will invite the correct phrasing of the arm and core muscles. When you get a client to better use her shoulder girdle, her arm strength, posture and connection to the core will improve. Learn how this rhythm works and how to help your clients improve theirs.

49 W. 27th St. Mezzanine B, New York City 212-904-1399 www.movementsafoot.com

Ditch the workout and join the party

ZUMBA® at Movements Afoot

with Alexandra Lutchman at Movements Afoot
Starts Tuesdays ZUMBA®Pilates Combo 4/5 12:30 PM
Fridays   ZUMBA® 4/29 at 6:30 PM

All skill levels, shapes and sizes are welcomed to this fun, easy to follow and uplifting dance work out.

ZUMBA® at Movements Afoot
Zumba® is both a dynamic and fun cardio workout. Moving to the intermittent rhythms is like intervals training to your metabolism that help you burn up to 450-1000 calories an hour! Aside from its undisputed weight loss benefits, this class is an excellent way to greatly improve your coordination, ROM and isolation. It’s a danced-based cardio option to supplement and apply your Pilates training.

Zumba® is not only great for the body, but is also great for the mind. It’s a “feel-good” workout. I encourage your creativity to flow which leads to more fun and intensity. This class will be sure to develop an openness in the hips and spine while keeping the core engaged. My Pilates-inspired arm variations work wonders to tone the upper body.

Alexandra Lutchman
I have spent 20 years in the performing arts community as performer, instructor and choreographer. Five years ago I was certified by Lesley Powell while working as the Apparatus Course Manager for the PhysicalMind Institute.  Since then, I have moved on to enthusiastically teach many lovely women of all ages, physical conditions and fitness levels in my various dance, Pilates and Zumba classes.

49 W. 27th St. Mezzanine B, New York City 212-904-1399 www.movementsafoot.com

Teachers,
Movements Afoot has an exciting season planned to help you with your education.  We  have a variety courses for different needs; PMA approved Courses, Anatomy in Clay®, Balanced Body’s Pilates Arc, Somatic courses and courses about teaching.

Dr. Martha eddy is teaching 4/11 on teaching different learning styles.  She is quite familiar with Pilates.  She had worked with Mary Bowen.

I am also in discussion with Shelly Studdenberg, my teacher who helped me understand muscular imbalances and using Pilates rep to make positive changes.  We would like to have a monthly lab for teachers (2 hrs during the day only once a month) to learn how to see muscular imbalances and to make use Pilates for rehab.  Let me know if you are interested.

BodyMind Fitness Certificate Program
LOWER: April 8-11 2011: underSTANDing $450 for entire weekend

• Friday:     ReEvolutionary Legs with Dr. Martha Eddy
• Saturday:  Anatomy in Clay: Muscles of the femur and movement with Doris Pasteleur Hall
• Sunday: Pilates Upright with Lesley Powell
• Monday:  Fitness Coaching with Dr. Martha Eddy

See below for more info about each workshop
ReEvolutionary  Legs:  Evolution of Fitness from Crawling-Standing-Running
With Dr. Martha Eddy  Friday April 8 5:30-8:30 PM  $85
Early registration by 4/1 $75
The next wave in fitness takes you back to go forward. Work out w crawling, hopping, and leaping. Learn how your earliest movement skills affect your current muscular tone, posture and coordination. Practice special developmental movements to strengthen you core and activate your limbs in a safe and integrated way. Gain better alignment for walking and balance.

Anatomy in Clay®
with Doris Pasteleur Hall
Saturday 9 AM -5 PM  $275  
Early discount see dates below

Building the muscles of the body on a Maniken® model allows you to observe movement from a 3 dimensional perspective. Placing, sensing, and observing the layers of muscles will help you integrate their relationship. Going back and forth between the model and movement, we will become aware of the layering of the deep to superficial muscles.

April 9:  Femur  Early discount $250 sign up by 4/1
May 21: Shoulder Girdle Early discount $250 sign up by 5/14
August 6: Knee and Feet Early discount $250 sign up by 7/29
October TBA: Spine

PILATES UPRIGHT
with Lesley Powell
Dates: Sun   4/10/2011
 Time:  9:00 AM – 4:00 PM $200  Early registration by 4/1 $175
PMA Approved 6 cec -

Taking a stand

Pilates Upright is a dynamic workout that incorporates the training of Pilates mat with weight bearing exercises in standing. Pilates Upright gives you a new underSTANDing of the coordination of your muscles & bones in standing, which is very different from exercising on the floor

Fitness Coaching: Matching Learning Styles

With Dr. Martha Eddy  Friday April 11 1-4 PM  $85
Early registration by 4/1 $75
This is a laboratory for wellness professionals. Do you wonder how to better motivate your clients? Learn to match your style to those of each of your clients. Learn the theory of Multiple Intelligences. Get great results in motivating, dealing with complex issues and feelings, improving alignment and fitness, and activating healthy habits. Holistic fitness is important and current, be on top of the wave.

Balanced Body’s  PILATES ARC
With Lesley Powell 4/24/2011  9:30-4:30 PM PMA 4 cec
$199 plus $25 for manual
Sign up is with Balanced Body 1-800-PILATES
Create exciting new Pilates workouts with the Pilates Arc. It’s a lightweight Pilates Step Barrel and a whole lot more!

Balanced Body's Pilates Arc

Balanced Body’s  Pilates Arc instructor training includes an introduction to the history and principles of Pilates, the features, function and safety precautions for the Pilates Arc, the complete repertoire of exercises on the Pilates Arc with modifications and lectures on class order and programming in a studio or fitness setting. Whether you are an experienced Pilates professional or a beginner, this course will provide you with everything you need to start teaching Pilates on the Arc.

The Pilates Arc:

• Increases core strength and stability
• Improves the mobility of the spine
• Strengthens the upper body
• Develops balance and coordination
• Plus its fun, easy to use and provides exercises to challenge anyone from the beginner to the most advanced Pilates practitioner.

SHOULDER WORKSHOP: 
Scapular Revolution
with Lesley Powell Time:  
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Sunday 5/22  9:00 AM- 4 PM $200
Early registration by 5/13  $175
PMA Approved 6 cec

The arms connect to the torso through the shoulder girdle, shoulder blades, clavicles and humerus bones. Each bone moves in different degrees of rotation and timing. The timing and the control of these motions are essential to a healthy shoulder. This “scapular-humeral rhythm” is like a symphony—each bone is an instrument playing a different variation of a melody.
When the shoulder girdle moves correctly, great function is invited.  Each bone of the shoulder girdle; the clavicles, the scapulae and the humerus bone, have a unique rhythm of movement to facilitate the arm moving in space.
A great scapular-humeral rhythm will invite the correct phrasing of the arm and core muscles. When you get a client to better use her shoulder girdle, her arm strength, posture and connection to the core will improve. Learn how this rhythm works and how to help your clients improve theirs.

Gait Workshop
with Lesley Powell
Dates: Sun  8/7/2011
Time:  9:30 AM – 4:00 PM
6 hours PMA approved 6 cec  $200
Early registration by 7/29  $175

We take walking for granted. When we lose the ability to walk comfortably, we lose our freedom to do things. Poor posture, lack of strength and mobility and diminishing balance skills affect our gait. This course is an introduction to how the body moves in gait and how as trainers we can plan a workout that encourages better walking skills.

We will learn observation skills about how the body moves and applications using the Pilates repertory to improve mobility and strength in relationship to gait. Applications to the Pilates repertory will also include modifications with diminished range of motion.

Section I The spine Posture is key in walking. Poor posture can affect the mobility of our hips and legs in walking. We will look how the spine moves in an ideal healthy walk. Learning observation skills about walking and simple movement exercises can help us evaluate our client’s movement patterns. Lesson plans will evolve around how to increase mobility, coordination and strength using the Pilates equipment and balance tools.

Section II The lower body This is an introduction how the lower body moves in gait. Pilates is a wonderful way to train for better tone and mobility. The coordination of our muscles is different with closed chain in standing than open chain and close chain lying prone, supine or side. Observation skills and program development will be learned to help the senior improve their gait skills.

Stand poorly with your pelvis in anterior tilt
(stick your Butt out )
Feel the tone of your abdominals.

Now stand with your pelvic over your feet and notice how the tone in your abdominals changes.

Now not all gluts are the same.  There are glutes that when you squeeze them, will tuck the pelvis under.  We want to target the glutes more on the sides sometimes with the coordination of the hamstrings.

Many clients with glut weakness compensate by tightening the hip flexors, and back.  Learn how to target the correct muscles that will change your posture, body tone and relieve your backs.

Come Swing your Butt into Action 3/5

A fun(d) raising 
Pilates class to
Swing your Butt into Action for 
St.Jude”s Children Research Hospital

with Lesley Powell Sat 3/5/2011 from 1:00-2:15 PM
Minumum $20

All checks/cash will go towards St.Jude”s Children Research Hospital.  No class cards can be used for this event.  
For donations by credit card,click here

BodyMind Fitness

BodyMind Fitness Takes off Feb 4.

Sign up before 1/31 for entire certification and receive a special discount.