Pilates...It's better than ibuprofen

 Imagine waking up, you feel stiff, a body part might even ache, but you have to get to work so you pop a couple ibuprofen just to get on with your day.  Why must we rush to mask pain without trying to figure out what message the pain is intending to give us?  Maybe its part of the productivity driven culture that doesn’t allow people to take a moment and notice, or maybe its because well pain sucks, so lets MAKE IT STOP!!!

 First of all, I am not anti-pain medication.  I feel that there is a definite space and time where medication is necessary and the best course of action.  Sometimes a break from pain is a great way to jumpstart the healing process.  I only wish that it wasn’t always the first strategy that comes to mind.  Pain is our nervous system’s way of alerting us to many of the goings on in the body.   It is a method of communication from body to brain and back again.  Pain should be listened to before it’s stamped out!  Then once it's heard the best course of action can be determined from a mindful and aware place.

Imagine if rolling your feet out on a ball could relieve pain from plantar fasciitis as well as anything else, or if stretching your Psoas could relieve back pain, or if breathing with an awareness of the expansion of your ribs could help release shoulder tension and even make a headache go away.  Oh wait… these are all strategies for pain relief, and even better they require no tax on the liver.  What if movement was our first line of defense?  What if we noticed a new ache, crick, strain, stress, and we turned to movement first and foremost?  You can tell from this article that I don’t work for a pharmaceutical company…Maybe Advil wants me to stop typing right now, but I can’t I am officially on my soap box.  Movement is better than ibuprofen.  And I teach Pilates, so let’s just say it.  Pilates…It’s better than ibuprofen.    

The other day I watched my client who, for a multitude of reasons, has spent much of her life in pain.  This client has the ability to listen to her pain in ways that are quite admirable.  In fact she does more than listen to her pain.  She asks it questions; she asks her body what it needs, and then listens for an answer.  I am not speaking rhetorically, in one session I witnessed her actually cradle her ankle in her hands and say, “oh you poor thing, what do you need from me.”  Then as if nurturing a kitten she looked up at me and said, “Well I think we need to rollout our feet, and then maybe a calf stretch.”  So then I got out the ball and as we were proceeding she looked at me and said, “It’s that *&#^$ing hip flexor reeking havoc again, I just know it.”

I could quote so many conversations that I have had with this client, and the most amazing thing is that as far as I can tell she has had no anatomy training at all.  Yet, most of her insights, as steeped as they are in imagery, personification, and metaphor, are right on the mark.  The myriad of reasons for her highly accurate and refined intuition could fill a dissertation, but for today I want to focus on her refusal of pain medication as a possible reason for her body’s brilliance.   She is a problem solver, she loves to figure things out, to find solutions…She uses movement, she tries to find balance, she will not take pain medication because it takes away her power.  She becomes a victim of her pain, as opposed to a leader of her body.   It is this strength that combats her frailty and gives her the pistol of a personality that she has.  We could all learn from her movement.  Exploring movement with our body’s intellect keeps us strong and agile.  Pain is a message, and sometimes its message is so strong that our bodies need a break, but sometimes it's merely a signal that we need to go inside and say, “You poor thing, what do you need from me?”     

Katrina Hawley C.M.A.  R.S.M.E

Co-owner

The Pilates Studio

Articles from more people that are with me on this soap box

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/05/health/la-he-pain-exercise-20100705

http://www.miraclepainrelief.com/healing_with_movement.htm

Take a Breath and Step Back.

Sometimes we see the world clearer from farther away.  Assessing any situation is easier when the entire picture is in view.  We spend so much time in our lives looking forward, moving forward, dealing with things in front of us.   It’s almost as if our bodies are in tunnels moving forward.  We forget to check the periphery of our space and lives.  And heaven forbid that someone should move backwards…Literally and especially figuratively.   Yet all of this forward motion leaves us without awareness of so many parts of our lives in movement.  Our breath gets stuck in our sternum, our oxygen levels decline, our necks tilt forward.  Our spines compress as a gradual shrinking fits our bodies into the tunnel of forward movement. 

This morning I came into the studio to move…But it was early, the coffee hadn’t kicked in, and my motivations for coming to the studio were related to the fact that I thought I “should” get a workout in, as opposed to any inner desire.  This means that I came to the studio and lazily moved through a couple things exploring movement with a lackadaisical, yet obstinate approach.  On the Pulley tower, I moved through some of the Arch and Curl Series but I didn’t do the whole series because I didn’t want to (That’s the obstinate side) Then I did a little leg work thinking about my bones, instead of muscles (lackadaisical)…Then I stood up and started walking around the studio…Then out of my obstinate lazy mindset came a new thought.  I started walking backwards.  It was weird, and I had read something about it way back when…and well something shifted…

I became fascinated with the air that I felt on the back of my arms.  My eyeballs started shifting all over the place trying to see behind me. (I had made a mess of the studio and there was a little tripping trepidation.)  Then I felt a connection happen…I was taller, I felt my shoulders drop, my neck lengthen and I grew…The greatest thing about it is that I didn’t have to tell myself to drop my shoulders and lengthen my neck…My body did it.  The ironic part of this exploration is that nothing new happened.  All of the information my body was giving me was already there, but the situation just allowed for an aware body memory to resurface.  My lackadaisical obstinate distracted workout led to a lengthened spine with freedom for breath in the back of the ribcage.

Now why do I think this was worth writing about?  I had a dance teacher once say, “If you feel like you are having a bad class, then you are really learning.  On the days you are having a good class you are only showing off.”  I, of course, think this is a bit harsh, but it has stuck with me.  My grumpiness this morning led to movement that I don’t do very often.  I moved backwards.  And maybe next time I’ll move sideways or up or down or forward sideways and up all at the same time!  Exploration is exactly that and progress is not necessarily manifested in forward movement, forward thinking, or forward anything at all.  So let us all take a deep breath and step back.

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, R.S.M.E

As always anything new learned or realized has a history.  I knew I had read about walking backwards before...Here are some interesting websites that I found of people that are studying the art of walking backwards.

"Walking backwards fits the criteria for neurobic activity"

Walking backwards as rehab for lower extremities 

 Dutch Study about sharpened brain

The Psoas and World Domination

 My dear friend and client often comes into the studio and says, “It’s been a tough week so my Psoas is yet again vying for world domination.”  We laugh and then she heads to the Cadillac to stretch her Psoas.  What is the Psoas? And how might it vie for world domination…Let’s think about the metaphor.  Is the Psoas a dictatorial tyrant?  Controlling?  Powerful?  Can it be manipulative?  Is it stubborn? Can it change?  Well the answer to all of these questions depends on as many factors as there are people in the world.  There are so many opinions, and so many disagreements that sometimes when I think of the Psoas I think of it laughing maniacally in the background as our bodies try to organize themselves around it.  So yes, it is possible for the Psoas to vie for world domination, but there are also ways to empower the tyrannical Psoas into benevolence and diplomacy so that it gives up on such a quest. 

Ok…The first question to answer is what the &^$& is the Psoas?  I have found some pictures to illustrate the location.

So you can see from the pictures that the Psoas originates at the Twelfth Thoracic Vertebra and has a slip that attaches to each Lumbar Vertebra and then inserts at the lesser trochanter of the inner thigh.  There is no need to know all of the fancy words to understand the Psoas, so if you want to disregard the anatomical description picture this:  Close your eyes and picture your belly now imagine your way through the layers of abdominals to the visceral cavity (organ bag) behind this is the spine and running along the sides of the spine is the Psoas.  It is a large meaty muscle that swings the leg when walking.  Also remember two dimensional anatomical pictures often make us think that the Psoas is flat or linear.  Rather try thinking of the Psoas as a column of support for the spine; it has depth and thickness.  I also sometimes think of it as a triangular sail that is blowing in the wind. The Psoas gives the image of long beautiful legs an entirely different meaning.   Picture a graceful gait where the legs are swinging easily and the ribcage is floating in an easy rotation with the spine, and then pay homage to the power of the Psoas.

Now what strategies are there to create a benevolent philanthropic yet powerful and strong Psoas? Like I’ve said before the strategies vary from person to person, modality to modality, and personality to personality.   In my experience, the Psoas craves aware breath.  It needs the kind of breath that fills the body cavity with air three-dimensionally.  It needs the kind of breath that might make someone dizzy because there is so much more air.  The Psoas also craves a complete exhale and softening. It wants the kind of exhale that triggers a sudden inhale.  The Psoas also craves strength in length.  It wants to move through its full range of motion, and it wants to perform all of its functions in a balanced way.  The Psoas wants to be nurtured…cared for…released.  The Psoas wants to be benevolent.  Really I promise it does! 

There are many teachers out there who have written about the Psoas.  Tom Myers, Irmgard Bartenieff, Nancy Topf, Liz Koch are a few of my favorites. Check out their websites, and start your Psoas journey today!   

That's so "Typical"

I find the question “Who is the typical client at your studio?” rather impossible to answer.  Sure I have written a business plan and talked about our “Target Market” but all of this talk about demographics and how to reach which demographic best belittles the fact that there is no “typical” at The Pilates Studio, and trying to create a typical client really puts all of the amazing and creative personalities that we encounter in these tiny little boxes.  This to me seems antithetical to our mission, which is to personalize a Pilates practice for every individual.    SO I will say this.  The “typical” client at the Pilates Studio has a body…that’s the truth, no floating heads at our studio…At least not yet.   

Where did this crazy demographic hungry typical idea come from?  Well, let’s consider where we hear about Pilates most…Oh yeah the celebrity media.    For instance, we always hear about the “celebrity mom of the month” that lost all of her baby weight in two weeks because she did Pilates, or the professional athlete that is having the season of his career due to his off-season Pilates practice.  Let’s not forget Pippa Middleton does Pilates and clearly it’s the only reason that she looked so stunning at the Royal Wedding.  Well don’t you worry at all because none of these clients are typical at The Pilates Studio.

Don’t get me wrong, we do have moms at the studio that are getting back into shape after childbirth, but these moms have their babies with them at the BYOBaby class or in small group sessions.  These moms aren’t really talking to us about their figure, they are talking about how heavy their beautiful child is getting, or how hard it is to lug the bucket seat into the grocery store.  We laugh at the body multitasking predicaments that a mom might find herself in.  For instance, have you ever tried to shut and lock the car door with your foot, making sure that your toddler is holding onto your leg, while carrying an infant and a bag of groceries, which contains a gallon of milk?  Usually the mom tells us a story like this and follows it with, “I am so glad that you made me do the step ups on the chair.  Otherwise I would have fallen on my…” This may not be the glamorous “celebrity mom of the month” vision of pilates, but what can I say this is our “typical” mom client.

We also have athletic clients.  We improve games and prevent over use injuries.  I’ve often talked to people about the golf swing, and I have improved the rotation and flexibility in person’s body so that the power with which he could launch the ball is so much greater, but all of that seems so serious.  I remember in this particular session we ended up throwing around the soft balls to implement the increased rotation and then after that of course we had to start aiming the balls (you know to test the accuracy of the increased rotation) and well the rest is history.  Don’t worry nothing was broken and everyone left the session intact.  But let’s be clear, we don’t just improve games outside of the studio we make games of our own within the studio.   Have you ever tried to play catch while sitting on a stability ball without letting your feet touch?  It’s a proprioceptive challenge that I would love to extend to anyone who’s interested.  Really if you’re interested this is one of my favorite games and I will be happy to play it with you.  I don’t keep score though. 

Well here it is my essay about the “typical” client.  Ok so there isn’t any such thing as a typical client at The Pilates Studio and the fact that I come in contact with such varied and creative souls everyday is something I relish and enjoy. SO there!  Take that marketing professionals!  


Katrina Hawley, C.M.A. R.S.M.E.
www.thePilatesStudioinHadley.com


If you are interested in Pippa, celebrity moms, or athletes check out the links below

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1388006/Pippa-Middleton-bum-Pilates-secret-toned-derriere.html

http://celebritybabyscoop.com/2010/04/27/workouts-of-the-stars-celebrity-moms-love-yoga-pilates?quicktabs_1=1

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2003-08-17-pilates_x.htm

Pilates is perfect for everyone? Really? Everyone? Come on!

You are reading the words of a skeptic.  I am a skeptic of the “one size fits all” phenomenon that permeates the marketing world.  I am a skeptic of anyone that says “_______ is perfect for everyone.”  And in the midst of such conversations I find myself thinking, “Wanna Bet.”  And then I dutifully try to figure out exactly how whatever it is that is being sold to me is NOT perfect for me.   Friends call me stubborn, and I own it. (kind of)  But now as I write this, I find myself in a dilemma., Because I actually do believe that Pilates is for everyone…Hmmm, considering my own skepticism I feel the need to tell you that I teach Pilates, own a Pilates Studio, and am trying to sell a Pilates session to you.   But for my fellow skeptics my only hope is that the following paragraphs might trigger some curiosity.  I will explore the basis for the assertion “Pilates is for everyone.” Why might the marketing world put this out into the world?

Pilates helps many people balance the core.  I say balance as opposed to strengthen, because Pilates is more than just abdominal work, and the core of the body consists of more than just the abdominals.  And while we’re on the subject the abdominals consist of four or more (depending on who you talk to) different muscles with a multitude of functions.  Then there are all of the myofascial connections between the abdominals and other muscles of the core.  Therefore when a person spends time at the gym doing  “crunches” to “strengthen” the core.  He is only strengthening one motion and one activity to the neglect of other myofascial connections and functions.  Pilates balances the core.  At the Pilates Studio the cyclist that spends hours of his time in spinal flexion will do very different “core” work than the gymnast that spends hours of her time moving in and out of spinal extension.  The tennis player who has a brilliant tennis serve and equally brilliant tennis swing will have very different “core” exercises than the swimmer who wants to improve his butterfly.  The person who spends his day sitting at a desk in front of a computer will do very different  “core” work than the person who stands all day.  Pilates balances the muscles of the core.  Everyone needs more balance right?

My next thought is who are my clientele?  Do I teach everyone?  Well no, but I’ve taught people between the ages of 10 and 86.  Clearly the workout of a 10-year-old boy differs greatly from that of an 86-year-old woman. Yet, each workout was created with Pilates principles.   Maybe the previous assertion is based in the variety of exercises that can be done in a Pilates Studio.  With the ten-year-old boy we made use of the balance balls for coordination and balance, and we spent a lot of time on the mat moving through quadruped practicing getting up and down from the floor.  The 86-year-old woman came to me many years ago to prepare for a knee replacement surgery.  We worked to strengthen her muscles before the surgery and to help her recover after her surgery.  Now we continue to work on strength in her body and balance as she walks.  At the Pilates Studio progress is measured by the goals achieved not by number of exercises.  Everyone has goals right?

Finally, the assertion might find some truth in the Pilates principles for exercise progression.  Often when an exercise becomes “too easy,” the assumption is that adding resistance will make it “harder” and thus increase the progress towards strength and flexibility.  At the Pilates Studio, adding resistance is only one possibility of many to progress an exercise.  When a client says to me, “this exercise is feeling too easy” I get to be creative.  I might decrease the base of support.  If someone is doing an exercise lying on his back, I might have him do the same motion sitting or standing.  I could also destabilize the base of support.  Maybe I’ll put a squishy ball underneath someone’s pelvis and then ask her to continue as if the ball weren’t there.  Maybe I’ll ask someone to repeat an exercise while balancing on the balance board.  The principles of exercise progress in Pilates increase functional strength, which makes the effects of a Pilates workout more apparent in everyday lives.  At the Pilates studio exercise is not happening for exercise sake, but for the sake of life improvement. Everyone wants his life to improve right?

So to my fellow skeptics in the world, the people that have read this entire post dutifully looking for reasons that Pilates is not perfect for them, I salute you because you are my kindred spirits.  Believe me when I say that I am not looking for your blind faith, but give Pilates a chance.  Pilates may not be for everyone, but from the mouth of a skeptic, it certainly comes close. 

Katrina Hawley C.M.A R.S.M.E

Pilates Instructor

Co-Owner of The Pilates Studio

Strengthening community one core at a time

Pilates! Core! Strength! These words have made it to main stream media. People finally know what it is, or at least they know that it is some form of exercise with lots of abs. It is now a rare occasion that I tell someone that I teach pilates while receiving that blank "Are you from Mars?" kind of look in return. Now I get questions, and people tell me that there are pilates classes at the gym. Or they say, "Wow I've heard that Pilates is really hard." This is so exciting, but there is something in this dialog that is missing, and it is this missing piece that, while it is hard to articulate, makes me love my work.

I love my work, but not because I am making people exercise really hard. I love my work because I get to see people's body's change as they learn how to move. I love my work because as I am teaching, people are telling me about their kids and grand kids and pets. I love my work because people get stronger and thus can do more...people begin to take pride in their knowledge about movement. People begin to theorize with me about their posture. I love my work because I get to see friendships grow. I love my work because people that would never meet each other in their everyday lives, spend an hour together every week. I love my work because people who don't feel comfortable at a gym find a space that makes exercise possible. These are some of the many things that make me love teaching pilates.

It's true if someone learns pilates they will increase strength, improve posture, increase flexibility, increase coordination, improve balance in musculature and proprioception. Pilates can relieve pain, aid in injury prevention and recovery, create functional strength, and improve lives. But beyond all of these things, Pilates is one of the many avenues that can return us to movement, return us to our bodies, and bring us friendship and laughter.

Katrina Hawley, C.M.A, R.S.M.E
Pilates Instructor
the Pilates Center of Western Massachusetts in Hadley
www.thepilatescenterofwmass.com

Where the women are strong and the men are brave

Something very unusual happened to me last week. During one of my sessions there were four people working out in the studio and they were all men! Why is it unusual for four men to be doing pilates at the same time? Joseph Pilates the creator of the method was a man. He was a boxer and a gymnast. He originally intended his work to be for men. So once again why was it weird to have four men in the studio working out at the same time? Well it's simple really because right now more women practice Pilates than men.

Pilates is booming. People have heard of it, studios are everywhere, it's even making it into dialog in movies and tv shows. Yet, somehow in the brilliant marketing of recent pilates studios and teachers Pilates has become known as exercise for women...what? First of all, I've always wondered why someone would think that one kind of exercise is for women and another is for men. Whether it's hockey, volleyball, running, swimming, or Pilates. Luckily, we now live in a world where any man or woman can do any activity they want...but still there is this social stigma about men and Pilates. (ok the word stigma seems a little strong, but there I said it.)

In my practice most of the men I see were brought to Pilates by their partners or wives. We even have a running joke that it takes about four years for a client to convince her husband to come to the studio. Why? Well, it is not because Pilates is easy. Pilates is hard work. People who do Pilates correctly are strong and that's that! People who practice Pilates also gain flexibility and increase range of motion. People who practice Pilates are better at the sports they want to play.

As I was thinking about this post, I was surfing the internet and I found this interview of Rael Isacowitz:

http://pilates.about.com/od/teachersandstyles/a/Pilates-Interview-Rael-Isacowitz_3.htm

He is a world renowned master teacher. He was asked a question about Pilates and men, and his answer was wonderfully eloquent. He spoke about the history. That Joseph Pilates originally intended his work to be exercise for men but then when he moved to New York most of his students were women. He spoke about the different energies that men and women bring to pilates, and how those different energies need to be acknowledged and honored. This made me think back to the session that I taught last week, it certainly had different energy. It was new for me, but so exciting!

I was talking to another friend last night and he told me that Rob Bradford on WEEI was talking about Josh Beckett the Red Sox pitcher, who is starting out what is going to be a phenomenal season. He did Pilates in the off season to rehabilitate injuries that kept him out for nine weeks last season.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view/2011_0405righty_starts_2011with_plenty_to_prove/

I think the tide is turning...Which brings me to the title of this post. To all of the men out there who ignored the media and came to Pilates before Josh Beckett, thank you for changing the face of an evolving system of exercise. And to my four dear clients that inspired this post, thank you for a fun hour, and thank you for informing me about the NFL strike that is looming.

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, R.S.M.E

Pilates Instructor