Check it out
l came upon a very cool website a few weeks ago.
It’s called Pilatesanytime.com
It’s a microcosm of our world of Pilates.
The teachers come from myriad training backgrounds.
It’s a great site for teachers simply because it can infuse our teaching with new ideas. Especially when it’s difficult to come up with fresh ways of looking at the work because we’re overworked (okay – so I’m a bit overworked – happily).
But it’s a good site for students too. Whether you’re new to the work or a seasoned Pilates practitioner. The people who run the website take care to make sure movements are clearly understood and defined.
The cost is 18.00 per month.
It’s a fantastic way to stay in shape if you can’t get to the studio, or if you’re away. I suggest all my clients take a look see at it. You can peruse the site for 15 days before taking the plunge to continue and then pay your 18.00. Try it out.
MOVE FROM YOUR BONES
Move from your bones. It’s an interesting concept. Movement from the skeletal system: Imagine your long leg bone (femur) articulating smoothly in the socket of the hip as the leg swings back and forth in the walking motion, arms swinging naturally from the shoulder socket, gravity working with you.
This is the wonderful articulation of joints.
“Every joint, like the individual pearl, is vitally important in creating this sense of wholeness,” says Liz Koch. (Visit Liz’s great article: Dem Bones (Massage & Bodywork Magazine)
We want to be present in the joints. Be present in how the bones swing or hinge in the joint. It’s a beautiful thing.
Often times the response to movement is muscular, tense and hard.
It seems we don’t trust that our muscles will do exactly what they are meant to do in a movement - we have to direct them – constantly.
Become aware of where your bones lay in space — in movement — and you will begin the journey of self awareness.
Allow gravity to help right the bone structure of the body.
Trust it.
Be aware of your pelvis.
Make a mental note that the pelvis is part of the trunk, legs separate from the trunk. The movement of the leg begins in the hip socket. Free the legs from the trunk and let the psoas swing the leg freely- not the pelvis.
Liz Koch says, “…bones are wildly alive; regenerative, malleable dynamic, and responsive. Bone is living tissue; expressive of our genetic tendencies, ancient origins, and emotional
wellness. Bones tell us about who we are, what we do, and what we stand for”.
Work from a place different from what you know – what you’re used to. Play. Think differently in movement. You’ll be surprised how your body will react. Your body will take care of you if you’re aware of it!
PILATES FOR THE MASSES
When German born, Joseph Pilates, arrived from England, his dream was to have his work implemented in all the grade schools in New York City.
Imagine having the genius of Joe’s work at such an early age. Straight spines, balanced muscles, flexibility – all before we reached the age of 20.
Imagine a world without chiropractors, massage therapists, orthopedic doctors.
Imagine not working to sit up straight, walk correctly, move with grace, fluidity, confidence. Naturally. Without effort. This is what Pilates does for the body. We have to work for it because we weren’t trained early on.
What does this have to do with the masses? Well, if Joseph Pilates had been successful in integrating his work into the schools, we all would have had the privilege of his genius.
But, alas, this was not meant to be. So here we are, sixty years later, trying our best to right our bodies. What could have been natural and instinctive is now work. And pretty expensive work at that.
I WANT EVERYONE TO BE ABLE TO DO PILATES.
This is my dream.
There’s no reason why the laborer, factory worker, fireman and many others can’t work at Pilates. I don’t think Joseph Pilates intended for his work to become elitist. It shouldn’t be. It should cross all socio-economic stratospheres.
Which brings me to why I’m writing this entry.
I had the deep pleasure of working with two men today – these guys are the guys that keep the buildings where the studio is housed in tip top shape. They move their bodies every day in their work. And they hurt. I was happy to give them their first lesson.
What I loved most about the lesson was how these guys totally understood what they were doing. They felt the difference immediately in their bodies; they learned about how they move in space; how to sit correctly and improve their structural integrity, hence, less pain.
I want anyone who’s interested in learning about their bodies to come into the studio. This is why I’m implementing many more slots for group work: Group reformer work, group reformer/mat work, group tower/mat work. This will allow the studio to reach out to all who want to use what Joseph Pilates called his work, ” RETURN TO LIFE”. This is why he created this work. To return to life — a return to who we were when we were young, before our bodies became adulterated.
THE HUNDRED
Every once in a while I’ll delve into a Pilates exercise fully and completely.
We’ll start with the HUNDRED (just click on the word and a link will open that will describe the exercise - in case you don’t know what it is) since it’s the first exercise on the mat and it translates into every apparatus we use.
We know that Mr. Pilates created the HUNDRED to:
1. warm up the body up
2. fill the body with fresh oxygen
3. set the mind straight on how the body will function for the next 20 or 50 minutes of a workout.
And here’s where it can get a bit sticky. The mind is asked to scan the body as the arms are pumping, breath is flowing, legs are extended in space and the chest/head are curled forward. During the “body scan” most people will be having a conversation that’ll go something like this:
1. ugh – my neck is killing me – aren’t we past the 100 point yet – this is taking forever!
2. How can I get out of my hip flexors?
3. She’s telling me to breathe in while I’m breathing out.
4. Why is my lower back killing me already?
5. I HATE THE HUNDRED!
This could be the beginner OR the more advanced student talking inside her head.
We all have visions of moving fluidly, with ease and grace. Yet, often times, the session begins with tension, even if the body has been through a few warm-ups prior to the HUNDRED.
One of the reasons tension occurs in the neck, the hip flexors/quads, lower back is because the mind is not inside the body. If we allow the body to dictate and allow the mind to be overwhelmed, then, of course, the only thing available for us to feel is tension. It’s the body’s way of saying – look – whether you like it our not, I’m gonna use this set of muscle (neck, lower back and thighs) to do this work ’cause this is how I always work.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing Pilates for a few years or if you’re a beginner, either way, it’s not uncommon for a person to feel at least one of the above listed.
Here’s the secret:
Set up the body WITH THE MIND. Don’t just come into the prescribed position. It’s much more then: “on your exhale curl your chest/head forward and bring your arms and legs into the working position”. (this link is exactly the verbiage you hear all the time) The muscles have to be given direction in another way.
Joseph Pilates wrote, “IDEALLY, OUR MUSCLES SHOULD OBEY OUR WILL. REASONABLY, OUR WILL SHOULD NOT BE DOMINATED BY THE REFLEX ACTION OF OUR MUSCLES”.
Think of your body on a cellular level.
All of your muscles cells will stand at attention if you simply remind them to. Understand that your trunk muscles run, in a sense, circular around the trunk. This means that you will activate (not tense up) the muscles of your back, your sides and your front. It’s not a simple navel to spine idea.
Pilates begins with mind control over the body. This is why we call this work a mind/body experience. Notice that the word mind comes first.
Remember: Supple, Dynamic, Responsive. This is what you want the body to be.
If you begin your workout with this intention, you will, as Joseph Pilates wrote in Return to Life through Contrology, “reawaken thousands and thousands of ordinarily dormant muscle cells”.
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
We’re built to move. That’s a fact. The problem is we don’t move enough–and the body begins to deteriorate.
Ask yourself: how many hours in a day do I sit?
Chances are you’re sitting more hours then you are moving around. What happens when you don’t move enough is that the muscles in your body start to think your sitting position is the one needing the most support. Muscles shorten and weaken. They’re not being used in the capacity they were originally created for. This is why, when you get up from your chair, your hand might automatically go to your lower back – letting out a little cry of anguish. Or your knees feel stiff once you stand erect. Or your shoulders get achy. This isn’t what we’re built for. We’re built to move – to run, actually. Our survival depends on our capacity to move — to be always moving. To move is to be human.
Pilates takes the body and rearranges the musculature back to it’s proper form. Okay – so that’s all wonderful, right? But if you do Pilates once, twice, three times a week and then you go back to your life of sitting – what good are you doing for yourself?
Take the information Pilates gives you, in your mind and in your body, and use it constantly. Become aware of how you move in space knowing and feeling the work of Pilates. This is why we do Pilates: the work gives you bio intelligent information that can be used moment to moment, all day, every day. It may even make you get up out of that chair and move!
The Velvet Workout
“Strength is not Solid, Rigid, Dense
but Supple, Dynamic, Responsive”
That’s a direct quote from a workshop I’m taking with Liz Koch, the psoas officianado. “STRENGTH IS SUPPLE, DYNAMIC, RESPONSIVE”. A perfect description of what strength should feel like. It conjures up images of a tiger or a cat. This is how Pilates should be approached and how Pilates can make you feel. Like velvet. Not a creaky joint or achy muscle. I was able to experience that feeling because I let my psoas relax/release. My movements were fluid, not rigid; having a sense of freedom while moving through space. What a gift! And it’s a gift that lasted all through the day. Not just during the workout.
You might wonder how I relaxed that very deep muscle in the core. I did it by doing the Constructive Rest Position. Doing the CRP allows the psoas a bit of a break from it’s over working day. I equate an exhausted psoas to a tired baby. When a baby is tired, he cries out. And he’ll continue to cry until the parent lulls him to sleep. When the baby awakes he’s refreshed and responsive. That’s the psoas. We just don’t listen to it enough. But I’m giving you the chance here to explore another way of attaining physical and mental health.
What is Pilates?
This is the first, true beginning of my blog. Many of you reading this will have already been on lots of sites that give you information on what Pilates is. And below you’ll read another version. But before you read this version of Pilates, dotted with quotes from Joseph Pilates’ book, Return to Life through Contrology, I want to share with you my personal version of what Pilates is and include how I came into it.
When I began the practice of Pilates I was already 42 years old. I came to it by default. What I mean is that I was faced with the prospect of not having a career/passion in my life once my last child left the nest to enter full day school.
My sister Nancy Etnier had started a Pilates studio in Portland, Maine (where I too had been living) and asked me to come in for a session. Nancy was a dancer so Pilates came fairly easy for her — it’s familiar to dancers. She understood the tools of the movement trade. Not me. Not at all. I was shy about movement. I went in, took a lesson with her – couldn’t do a damn thing. Not one thing. I had zero flexibility, zero strength and zero confidence. I can’t explain why, given my ineptitude in the work, but I fell automatically in love with this strange thing I was doing with my body. It made me feel better. A simple word that holds a big bang: Better.
Who doesn’t want to feel better?
I was hooked. And so began my training 11 years ago with Romana Kryzanowska, Joseph Pilates protegé, at the Pilates Studio, in New York, where I learned the Classical Pilates Method.
Here’s what Pilates has done and continues to do for me and here’s what it will do for YOU.
Joseph Pilates created his “method” or methodology of exercise, not as a fitness regimen but, as a way of life. His method, called Contrology (the art of control), was developed as a way of helping all people stay young and healthy. His motto, “a flexible spine at 60 is a young spine and an inflexible spine at 30 is an old spine,” shows that there are no age barriers to who can perform his work.
Health, vigor and youth are attained and maintained through dynamically and intentionally ordered exercises integrating the whole musculature of the body with the intention of initiating the movements from the center (deep abdominal muscles). The body is simultaneously stretched and strengthened, developing a harmonious whole. This intentional order allows for exertion, relaxation, flexibility and endurance.
In the art and science of Pilates breath is stressed. As Joe said: “Above all else, learn how to breathe correctly”! Through breath and movement the blood is nourished with a constant flow of fresh oxygen. You then feel refreshed and positive.
Those with injuries learn to balance the body. injuries often occur when the body compensates for developmental imbalances or trauma. Pilates will correct imbalances, bringing back proper alignment to the body.
The list below is exactly how my body reacted to the work of Pilates. It will happen to yours too:
Improved Posture
Strengthened and toned muscles without adding bulk
Increased flexibility and muscle control
Improved alignment, coordination and balance
Increased lung capacity
Uniformly developed muscles
Improved range of motion
Improved body awareness
A more balanced body preventing muscle and soft tissue injury
Can you ask for more?
Welcome to the Vermont Classical Pilates Website
Welcome – you are viewing the Vermont Classical Pilates website and blog!
Here you will find relevant information about us — About, Team, Schedules and Costs — and you will also find our blog. On our blog I will create ongoing discussions about Pilates related topics, the goings on of the studio, i.e. new programs, and news and information about specials.
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