June 2008

This one’s great.  I have been working with it conscientiously for the last month and it has been fantastic!  Do things with both sides of your body.  That’s it, just be aware when you are doing something with one side of your body and then try doing it with the other side as well.  I first started doing this while picking up horse manure.  But then I started swapping between arms when I vacuumed, brushed my teeth, stirred cake mix in a bowl and carried my little girl on my right hip as well as my left.  One of my physical struggles has been an imbalance in my waist and hip muscles, most of us have this, one side stronger than the other, and it used to cause me a lot of discomfort.  Pilates has changed that, but what I found was that even when I wasn’t able to work regularly, I have been able to maintain the strength of muscle balance in my waist just by doing things with both sides of my body!  Give it a go, you will probably feel awkward and a little silly in the beginning but your body will love you for it.

There are a lot of Pilates products available today.  With all these books and instructional dvds you might be thinking that’s all you need to do Pilates.  Why bother spending money with an instructor when you can just use a book in the comfort of your own home?  There are many benefits to having lessons with a qualified instructor, probably the most important reason is that what feels correct or well aligned to you when you position and move your body is often not.
 
I have been observing bodies move for 4 years as a professional Pilates Instructor, and for 10 years as a Shaolin Kung Fu practitioner.  What I have seen is that most people are unaware when their bodies are positioned badly, because what has become habitual to them also feels correct.  Most of us have developed bad postural habits, the funny thing is that most of us are, to some extent, also aware of this.  It’s a common reason people give for wanting to do Pilates in the first place!  The problem is that even being aware of it doesn’t help when it comes to positioning your body because the habitual position will always feel more correct.  It’s been my experience both in my own workouts and as a teacher that most people are surprised when they are placed in a good position because to them it feels crooked.  
 
This is one of the most important things to keep in mind if you are trying to workout by yourself.  With no one to observe your body, how will you correct something that doesn’t feel like it needs adjustment?  I recently travelled to Sydney to have a session with my mentor, Cynthia Lochard.  After no more than a five minutes into the session she commented that I was carrying my baby on my left hip all the time.  She was absolutely right, I was carryign Evie on my left hip all the time, and doing a million other things with my right arm.  My hips were becoming quite crooked and it was starting to affect my freedom of movement.  I could feel that something was wrong, I just hadn’t been sure exactly what it was.  What might have taken me months or years to figure out myself took a 1 hour session with Cynthia and I was back on track.  
 
Even if you can’t get to regular sessions with an instructor, try and do a session with someone whenever you can, the results will be far superior.  If you are working out at home, the quality of those workouts will also improve. 
 
The better the quality of the instruction you receive the better the results will be.  I have included a couple of links in this issue to great sites that keep registers of authentically trained instructors all around the world.  They also have some other great information as well so take a look.        
     

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How often do you pay attention to the way you stand? 
 
If you are like me you aren’t often standing still, and if you do find yourself with a few spare moments you are probably not thinking about your posture.  But here is a really simple exercise you can do right now that will change the way your body feels and moves. 
 
Stand up with your heels together and your toes apart.  Squeeze your legs together and pull your stomach muscles strongly towards your spine.  Take a few moments to feel the weight in your feet.  Stand so that you feel even pressure on both feet.  You shouldn’t feel
more weight in your left foot than your right foot or more weight towards the front of your feet than the back.  Place your weight EVENLY on both feet.  Enjoy how balanced your body feels and do this as often as you can.
 
Most of  us stand with our posture all over the place.  We carry our children on one side all the time and try to do 101 things all at once.  We are usually leaning on one leg with all our weight in one hip.  When we do this over years it creates imbalances, which leads to pain.  We stand a lot in our daily life, brushing our teeth, waiting in line or at work.  All these times are great opportunities to use this exercise and begin developing your strong ‘after baby’ body.

Your body goes through a lot of changes when you have a baby.  Although there is a lot information available for women leading up to birth, there seems to be next to nothing for the months and years after.
 
As a professional Pilates Instructor I have met many women who have ‘problems’ with their back and or hips after having children.  The most frustrating thing is that generally speaking, most women are unaware that they can do something about it.
 
One women I know went to her GP because of back pain and was told that ‘she had three kids, what did she expect’!  I hope she wasn’t charged for that appointment.  That particular story was a big reason why I am now writing this ezine.  Yes your body goes through a lot of changes when you give birth, NO you shouldn’t have to live with pain and discomfort the rest of your life.
 
I found Pilates to be an invaluable tool to help me get back into shape after having my daughter Evie and there are 3 main reasons why.
 
1) The Pilates’ exercises work all the right muscles.
Pilates works your body from the centre out.  Your centre is the area most dramatically affected by having a baby, making it the area that needs the most attention after.  Pilates focuses on engaging all the muscles around the hip and abdominal region.  In Authentic Pilates this area is called the powerhouse.  We use this term because the powerhouse is the centre of functional strength in the body.  Powerhouse strength drives the development of strength in the rest of the body.  
  
2)  The exercises are designed to create balanced strength in your body.  During the nine months your baby is growing, your muscles are adapting to the extra weight all being concentrated in the front of your body.  After you have given birth you need to pay attention to working all those muscles around your hips and spine to get back into balance, in particularly your abdominal muscles.  One of the most common scenarios I see is that the muscles in the front of the thighs and hips, as well as the lower back have become too tight.  This pulls the pelvis forward and leads to lower back, hip and knee pain.  Pilates exercises are designed to rebalance these muscles ensuring that they have the strength and flexibilty to maintain good posture.
  
3) Pilates progresses in the right order!  Pilates focuses on creating a strong and balanced body, leaving no muscles behind!  Pilates works the body as a whole, it doesn’t split the body up and try to strengthen the separate parts.  Your body doesn’t function as separate parts so why would you try to strengthen it that way?  If you progress through the Pilates exercise system in the correct order, your whole body will be improving in strength and flexibility.  This approach is fantastic for helping your body cope with the everyday demands placed on it. 

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I have been teaching the Pilates method full time now for over four years.  I have watched many people progress through this work, both under my own instruction and others and it has become increasingly apparent to me that the Roll Up, the second exercise in the Matwork, is one of the most important exercises for people today.  It is the exercise that most people seem to struggle with in the beginning and the one that appears to provide them with the most relief when they start to get it right. This is especially true if the mat work is all that they are doing.  The Roll Up is all about gaining control over the articulation of the spine, by increasing the strength and flexibility of all the muscles that move the spine.  If you are not familiar with the Roll Up I have included a photo and a brief description below.  People with stiff backs struggle with it, people with weak abdominal muscles struggle with it, and interestingly, people who look strong in their abs often struggle as well.  I think the that a lot of standard ab exercises done today do not move the body through a complete range of motion so the strength development is not always functional.  The Roll Up is also and exercise that many people do not pay close attention to, they just get up and get down as best they can and don’t take the time to really gain control of the spine.   

Lie with your back pressed flat into the mat.  Lift your arms straight up and bring your chin onto your chest (inhaling).  Slowly roll up of the mat (exhaling) as if your were curling under a very low ceiling bringing your head onto your knees.  Reverse the action and slowly roll back down to the mat. 

Modification - bend your legs and hold onto your thighs as you roll up.  

“This exercise strengthens the abdominal muscles, and restores the spine to normal.” Joseph Pilates, Return to Life Through Contrology.        

“…,each muscle should cooperatively and loyally aid in the uniform development of all muscles” 

This is a quote taken from Joseph Pilates’ book Return to Life Through Contrology.  For me, this quote really sums up one of the most fantastic things about the Pilates system of exercise.  The integrated development of strength, flexibility and control.  Every part of our bodies interacts with, assists, and effects every other part of our bodies.  Some interactions are direct and others indirect, but everything is connected.  How many of us exercise out bodies with a clear understanding, focus, awareness, and dedication to working our whole body?  The standard approach today is to work parts of the body.  People work their legs, their arms, their abs etc.  I can honestly say from experience that the results for improvement of whole body functional strength and flexibility is far superior if your focus is always on your whole body.  Pilates isn’t the only exercise system that has this focus but it is certainly a brilliant one.  If you have already been playing with Pilates then you would know how difficult it is to this kind of focus when exercising, and how rewarding it is when you do:)  If you haven’t experienced Pilates yet then what are you waiting for?  

Working with and observing people at our centre in St Helens has been interesting.  Because we’re a gym, many people who use our facilities come in with a typical ’gym’ approach to exercise.  Most people would agree that uniform development of the bodies muscles is ideal, but in practise it seems, most people don’t do it.  One of the most obvious examples I see is the use of the abdominal muscles.  I have people who start Pilates who look strong, have strong abs, but they can’t peform many of the Pilates exercises well.  What they don’t have is uniform muscle development.  What they don’t have is control over their bodies.  What they don’t have is an understanding of how to get both those things.  In Pilates we consciousley work our abs when we work our arms.  We consciusley work our abs when we work our legs.  We always focus on the whole body.  It is simple, and it is genius.            

This is a photo of my little girl Evelyn, it was taken months ago in the St Helens Studio.  She was playing with the magic circles and climbed in one to pose for a cute photo.  Evie is almost 2 years old now and has started imitating the Pilates movements.  She plays in the studio while I teach and now insists on having a roll back bar like everyone else, then she holds onto it and does roll backs:)  It is so interesting to watch.  She knows where all the equipment should go and has started handing mats and poles to people when she thinks they need it.  She is a wonderful influence in the studio.  All the clients seem to really enjoy having her around and they are great examples for her to imitate.  It has become more apparent to me over the last few weeks that she is also an example to us.  She is a constant reminder to me of the freedom and joy that comes with moving my body, and that if we looked at exercise as being more like playing and less like work we would all be better off.  I see so many people who approach exercise with the attitude that they have to fight against their bodies, I think that is a major reason why many don’t stick with it because fighting isn’t fun.  Try approaching your workouts like you are playing, have fun with them and see how that increases your confidence, stamina and desire to do it again.