Movements Afoot’s Blog
A BodyMind Think Tank – Taking fitness to the next levelArchive for Personal training Certification
Pilates Forum for teachers – Last month and this month
Six teachers and myself gathered for our first Pilates Forum for teachers. It was a wonderful event with discussion about how to teach and motivate clients. We talked a lot how to motivate clients and how to change their concentration to do real Pilates. Real Pilates is having a full mindbody connection. We all have had clients who just come in to have a hard workout without concentrating.
Please come to our next Pilates Forum for Teachers and bring your ideas, questions, journeys to the discussion.
with Lesley Powell
Dates: Fri 6/5 $20 5:15 PM – 7:15 PM
Pilates Forum Come together. Pilates teachers. Share. Workout. Problem solve. Laugh. This meeting will be moderated by Lesley Powell. Come with ideas, questions about the body, problem solving about professional issues (i.e. Difficult clients, non-payment by clients, burn-out, etc.)
At a staff meeting, there was a request for a time that teachers could get together, share ideas, questions, working out and problem solving. Especially with this recession, I would like to offer a monthly meeting time at a very reasonable price of $20 for a two hour session.
Pilates Practice vs Running a Business
By Lesley Powell
“I feel frustrated at the aerobics-type mat class experience where everyone is doing the same work, and no one is really ‘doing’ the Pilates Method. Eve Gentry said you can know every Pilates exercise and still not know Pilates. I agree completely.
In my mat classes I educate. My students are not in my class for a ‘work out’ they are there to learn how to do and deepen the Pilates Method on their own. My goal is always helping my students be able to understand the Method well enough in their own unique bodies that they can go to any class and have a good experience, or do it on their own.
I sometimes have students grouch at me that they want to go faster in the work, but I politely point out this is a practice, something to cultivate over a life time, and not to rush into, as they are best off creating good movement patterns from the beginning, and not have to reset poor patterns later.” Pilates Teacher
It is hard to get people to slow down, get conscious and think about their bodies. Many people think hard work in exercise is about speed and a burn. We have an expression about those people as “A+++” personalities.
Sometimes to teach humility, one needs to teach an exercise beyond their capacity. Safely of course! Then you reteach the importance of the slow building blocks to get to this point. We also have to teach concentration and patience.
On the other hand, I can understand the fusion classes as a business incentive. With so many pilates mat classes out there, how do you built a class and make it different and appealing to clients. I do not have the answer. I have talked with many Pilates owners throughout the world about their businesses. Many are dropping the mat classes, because they are not making money. The competition from the gyms and their ability to have cheap classes as part as their membership has changed our business. The ironic thing is the mat work is much harder than the machines. The machines can give the client information how to initiate into the more difficult exercises for example the “rollover” vs the “short spine”.
As a woman going into menopause and weight gain, I have to find a way to get aerobics in. I tried running, but the injuries from dancing, my knees and my SI can’t handle it. At the studio, we have come up with a fusion class Pilates: Heart & Core. We start out with a mat with legs springs and props. It starts out slow with the building the core. Then we end with a very simple aerobic bouncing on the balls still using the Pilates concepts. I can’t tell you how great I feel. Many aerobics classes whack my body out. The workout with the reconnecting to core support and strengthening the legs gives me a safe aerobic workout.
How many people are not exercising because they get hurt. I think that there is a place to teach how to connect to Pilates principles in our movement loves. It still needs the foundation of the practice and its detailed connections. I find many people do a great Pilates workout and not know how to connect it to their lives.
Beginner’s Mind – Advanced Mind
By Lesley Powell
Last week a new student dropped into one of my equipment classes. Ten minutes into the class she asked what level was the class. It was obvious that she was used to a very fast Pilates class. When I gave feedback to the class, she was obviously too bored to hear the cues for better connections. Speed represented being advanced.
I do like to be challenged. But to do an exercise with bad form is a waste of time. You are working on your habits, not creating better function. I do teach exercises that are sometimes beyond the ability of the student. One; it teaches humility and the importance of the prior warm-up as the building blocks for more difficult exercises. Some students organized better when challenged. For instance a student with back problems organizes her spine better in downward dog and plank pose than in double leg stretch.
This weekend I was teaching Balanced Body University’s Pilates Mat I. I had a variety of students, from new to teaching and professionals teachers bridging over to BBU. It was so amazing to see how all the students were absorbing the information of movement principles. We spent the entire morning exploring biomechanic principles.
Kylie, who has done the BBU’s reformer training with me, said her Pilates practice has totally changed with understanding how the body moves. Before in taking a multi-level class, she would get bored when the class had to slow down to accomodate new beginning students. Now with this deeper knowledge, she welcomes working at a slower pace to explore finding deeper connections. By going deeper into the movement principles, she found that she is working even harder than before. One workout at a slower pace, her abdominals were sore the next day from this deeper concentration. Kylie was a competitive swimmer in college.
For some beginners, they don’t have the concentration skills to go as detailed as the students of this weekend. As a teacher, you have to find the balanced and the flow in your structure of your class. Too much information and perfection to detail can be deadly as well. Concentration is a skill. A good teacher will give guidance to the student how to center their mind to better thoughts.
Teaching a Group Pilates Mat class
by Lesley Powell
Teaching a group class is a totally different experience than teaching privates. It can be very exhilarating, but frustrating with teaching a multi-level students. Coming up with a structure is very important to keep the flow.
A beginning teacher’s mistakes is trying to give too much information and stopping the flow of the class for too much perfection. Remember everyone has different learning curves. For some, just learning the choreography of the exercise is hard enough.
I am going to teach how to teach breath into an exercise as an example.
- Establish first the exercise and the rhythm of the exercise.
Inhale for 5 counts, exhale for 5 counts
Repeat the set 3-4 times before adding another cue. - Place your hands on your belly.
Inhale and widen your back ribs, exhale and narrow your lower abs towards your navel.
Repeat the set 3-4 times before adding another cue. - Inhale and widen your back ribs, exhale and narrow & SINK your lower abs towards your navel.
Repeat the set 3-4 times before adding another cue. - Inhale and widen your back ribs, exhale, narrow, sink & LENGTHEN your lower abs towards your HEAD.
Repeat the set 3-4 times before adding another cue. - Add this breath rhythm to thigh lift. Repeat the set 3-4 times before adding another cue.
Add this breath rhythm to single leg stretch. Here in the picture are 3 levels of single leg stretch.
Now that you establish the principle of breath and the use of the abdominals. Pick up the speed and related it to other exercises. When someone is not getting an exercise, I either let it go to the next time or …
This is your homework to practice.
For real change to happen, a student must take responsibility about their bodies.
Pilates- A Hard or Soft Approach
By Lesley Powell
“One of my students that I teach private reformer with has brought up the following comments a few times…
1) She is not used to thinking of soft abdominals during Pilates practice and she is having a hard time understanding how her abs are working if the are softer rather than tight and gripping…and
2) She has been sore (good sore) after a few my sessions with her, but not all–and she has this hang up that she needs to be sore the next day, like if she’s not sore she didn’t work as hard…any thoughts on how i should respond??”" BBU Teacher In Training
There are many ways to use muscles.
Make a fist with your hand. Feel how you create a lot of tension in your muscles. But…now try to move your fingers!
Now extend your fingers and wiggle your fingers! You are using a different quality of tone that allows movement.
Dynamic movement requires a constant dance of muscles around the joints to stabilize. If we get too rigid in the muscle tone, we lose movement. The deep stabilizers of the body work in coordination with other muscles groups. The coordination of muscles is phenomenal, but it is never going to feel like a bicep curl. Look at weight lifters flexing their muscles. They have to create a static position to bulk the muscle up. These positions have no relationship to how we move.
To get to the deeper muscles of the core, will never have the same quality of tone as flexing and hardening the rectus abdominus. Remember the way to develop the six-pack is crunches. The transverse abdominus will have more of a feeling of a corset. Pilates is training the abdominals in relationship to movement and posture.
Some client’s pathway is that they must learn to release into strength. Tightening superficial muscles is not the answer to improving core support and posture. Also Pilates does not work on the same overload principles as traditional exercise. Traditional exercise works on doing many reps at one time to fatigue a muscle. Pilates has you do smaller reps with different variations of using the body. By the end of a Pilates session, one might have done the similar reps of a body part as traditional exercise.
Sometimes we must challenge the client into realizing their poor connections. Put them in plank pose for a longer period time. SAFELY put them in an exercise a little above their level. Then bring back the importance of the beginning work to create this kind of strength.
Rotation- getting around to the essence of being
By Dr. Martha Eddy and Lesley Powell
Lesley: When I was working at Dr. Bachrach’s Center of Sports Medicine, one of the client with a back injury came to work with me. He asked how long would it take to get back to playing tennis. I didn’t answer, I just started doing the Bartenieff Fundamentals with him, particularly the knee drop, diagonals and arm circles. 
This client had very little rotational ability in his body. When a person is unable to move well in one plane, they will often overuse the other planes. It was clear how he misused “his body in space” had led to his back injury. His rotation improved immensely as well as total body mobility.
The rotary factor is an important in all of our movement. To rotate is to be human. First look at the human body. There is not one bone without some kind of curve and/or spiral. The pull of the muscles on the bones must follow along the lines of the bones. Rotation is underlying in all of our movement. The movements of the bones are usually rolling, gliding and rotating. Rotation has enabled us our mobility and strength. It is rotation that enables us to make level changes and move through space. The simple action of getting out of bed requires internal and external rotation of the thighbones and the pelvis rotating on the femur heads. Observe a baby lying on the floor and its transitions from the floor to sit, crawl and eventually stand up. You will see gradated rotation of the thighbones and the pelvis to accomplish these tasks.
Martha: I am glad that you talked about babies Lesley. We all begin as babies and babies usually begin their movement workout on the floor. On the floor we can spread out, relax, and see the world. Judith Kestenberg – child psychiatrist and movement expert noted that children gain movement repetoire first on the floor and during this time they gain spinal flexibility and perceptual flexibility.
As we go grow older, the LMA systems believe, that this flexibility transfers to the ability to explore options. In our BodyMind Fitness approach we encourage clients who have lost their capacity to twist and spiral physically to find the horizontal plane again AND to re-engage in exploring options within their environment and attitudes. 
Our approach to rotation has nuances as well. We use phyiscal therapist Irmgard Bartenieff’s brilliant concept of gradated rotation to activate muscle chains in a sequential fashion. This awareness gives equal power to all of the joints along the pathway (from vertabra to vertebra or from finger tip to elbow). By equalizing forces we balance muscles and realign joints. Then we ask clients to note what feels different and how this new way of movement may bring out a new attitude or choice, or not. Options are always options. To quote Bartenieff – “there are always multiple possibilities.” In our fast paced forward moving world the pressures of life sometimes block out our sense of options.
At CKE our motto is “relax, feel, move, take action.” In our BodyMind Fitness work we often also take the somatic approach to finding rotation by getting down on the floor. On the floor we take time to breathe, widen, release, spread out – letting go of the intensity of gravity. Then we activate core and distal muscles with awareness of our movement through space. Instead of just crunches we provide movement options in many different directions. Rotation is just part of the picture but one that is often missing. Our3D Fitness series puts all the pieces of the puzzle together. Join us on April 12 or send a friend at Movements Afoot
Go to online scheduling and workshops to sign up!!
Pilates- What is classical?
by Lesley Powell
The other day someone called asking what kind of Pilates is at Movements Afoot. There seems to camps now, Classical and sometimes refered as West Coast Pilates. As a teacher of Pilates teachers, I always felt that every student needed to know the classical form, historically. When you understand the original form, it is the springboard to how to structure a session.
In the classical form, the rollover is usually the third exercise. 
The rollover is a fantastic exercise, but not so great for certain clients with back problems. I now in my 50’s, need a lot more time and other exercises to warm-up my back well. I usually need about 15-30 minutes before I can do a roll up or over properly. I use the mermaid alot to help open my back.
Joseph Pilates’ earliest clients were ballet dancers and deconditioned women in high heels. Both populations had more problems with hypermobility and hyperextension. With our culture changing, too many people are in flexion all day with computer, driving cars and sitting in front of a tv. Being in flexion all day, there is weakness and tightness in the back.
In the back of my head is the structure of the classical form. With each client, I restructure the session in accordance to their needs. My goal might be the Upstretch on the reformer for the beginning client. What do I need to do to create the foundations of strength and mobility for this exercise?
If you are just beginning as a Pilates teacher, I do encourage you to practice the classical form. Come to understand what works for you and not. If not, why and what do you have to do to perform an exercise well? In the Balanced Body University manuals, there are examples of different kinds of workout. Go and practice these formats! What do you like or not about these structures? As you get clearer in your thoughts about how a structure feels on your body, this will take your teaching to a new level.
Abdominals come in many Flavors
“Abdominals come in many Flavors” Doris Pasteleur Hall
“I do have a question – on the KNEE STRETCH & KNEELING ABDOMINAL SERIES – why would you choose the rounded back vs the flat back — would it be for body type, body issues, difficult/easier, different focus? Could you explain.” Kris
For a healthy body, training the abdominals with the spine in many positions of neutral, flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation is very important. The core muscles coordinate differently for each position. Training core muscles for dynamic movement is essential. This kind of training supports the physicality for good posture and necessary for our movement loves. This will also teach clients how to use their spines without unhealthy compression. A healthy spine should be able to move through all planes: flexion-extension, lateral flexion and rotation.
Knee stretch is the preparation for Advanced Knee Stretch, plank pose, downward dog, Long stretch and Up stretch. It teaches the client the coordination of the all the limbs with the core.
Advanced Knee Stretch
Certain health conditions require modifications. With osteoporosis of the spine and disk problems, knee stretch in flexion is contraindicated. With Stenosis and spondylolisthesis (go to BBU’s Movement principles – info about neutral spine), knee stretch in flexion is a great exercise. As with Stenosis and spondylolisthesis, you might have the client perform a neutral spine with a imprinted spine or supported neutral.
3-D Core
by Dr. Martha Eddy & Lesley Powell
Traditionally in fitness “core” use to refer just to the abdominals. When someone has back problems, the traditional approach has been to train the “abs” and then the back separately. In our BodyMind Fitness training, one has to train the spine 3 dimensionally for posture and daily movements. First a person has to get in touch with how the spine moves in different directions – moving front-back, sideways and rotating.
3-D Spine with Dr. Martha Eddy & Lesley Powell at Movements Afoot
Dates: Sat 4/12/2008
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Somatic Saturday with Dr. Martha Eddy & Lesley Powell
April 12 4-6 PM $60
In our upcoming workshop at Movements Afoot, the 3-D Spine the 3-dimensionality refers to the anatomy of the spine as well as to these various movements of the spine. Part of the lack of effectiveness in overcoming back problems is that people do not understand how the spine moves. So in our workshops, we get you to experience how the spine works. We look at the shape of each vertebra and the Sliding action of the facets in movement. The 3-D core refers to the volume of the torso and the internal contents. This awareness gives you a different understanding of your body. We learn some of the organ anatomy and how to breathe into the torso to feel supported.
IN our upcoming workshop at the BodyMind Expo called Laban Space Harmony: Bringing 3-D to your Session we will incorporate concepts from the 3D Spine, 3D Walking, and 3D Swing. Perhaps you will join us in New York or in CA!
View Lesley Powell's profile
