Halfway!!

Morgan and I are halfway through our Power Pilates comprehensive training!!  We took our second test at this 300 hour point.  There was a massive written test requiring much memory work.  I didn't realize how much it was stressing me out until I didn't sleep well for two nights before the test.  We also had a practical where we had to teach each other the intermediate system while being evaluated.

We teach this work all the time.  We know it.  We own it.  BUT, call it a test and we get nervous!  Minus a couple mistakes (me more than Morgan!), I think we both did fine on the practical.  We both did great on the written with A+'s!!

We are already trained, so why the additional training?  Let me tell you, this is different from what we had before.  Power Pilates is an awesome organization and Julie is an excellent, thorough teacher.  So far, we have had four training weekends that total 72 hours of training that are in addition to the 300 apprentice hours we've completed.  We meet weekly for two hours to go over what we're learning.  And, we practice, workout, and observe 20-25 hours per week.  How do you become outstanding at doing something?  By practicing, observing and apprenticing for many, many hours.  This training reminds me of what you see in movies set years ago when people are trained for a trade.  It's not just classroom work.  It's getting out there and doing the work supervised by a mentor.  We are so much more equipped to teach than we were before, even having gone through a training program previously and having taught for two years.  We found this training to be so valuable to us personally that we both severely cut back the hours we were teaching for pay in order to free up time to take this program.  It's *that* good.

We have learned how to teach people at their level and help them progress to the next level.  We have learned how to deal with special cases, ie, knee problems, back problems, older clients, younger clients, pregnant clients, etc.  In short, we have learned to tailor the workout for the person rather than a cookie-cutter workout for a group.  It's awesome!  Come try it out.  If you aren't sure it's for you, let's have a mini-session at no charge to you .... we'll spend about 20 minutes showing you the equipment and talking about a workout plan special for you.  Give us a call!

How many days a week should I do a pilates workout?

This is one of the most commonly asked questions!  My short answer is, three or four times per week is ideal.  So you can't afford to come in three or four times per week, is it still worth doing at all?  YES!!!  We have had clients who have only worked out once per week total and still saw results.  Is it ideal?  No.  Did it work for them?  Yes!

What if you're motivated to workout every day but can only afford one or two sessions per week?  Well, we can work with that because that's the most common situation .... we can give you mat exercises that you can do at home daily!  With your one or two sessions per week, you're getting that personalized attention when you come see us, then you can take that understanding into your home workout and continually improve your work at home.

Can you overdo it?  Sure.  You can overdo anything.  What works for me personally is two really hard, working at my full potential workouts per week, and two or three moderate workouts per week.  If I do five full potential workouts in a week, I start getting fatigued outside of my sessions.

Can you do pilates every day?  Sure.  It's a moderate level of strength training so is different from heavy weight lifting which cannot be done every day.

And, last, but not least, my favorite question .... can I take more than one class in a day?  My answer, if you're being worked to your full ability, you won't be able to!!  This is where we're different than reformer classes.  Reformer classes are taught to a group at an average level so that everyone can participate.  In the beginning, a person will find reformer class very difficult because it's above their level.  As time goes on, the reformer class is the perfect workout in every way.  Then later, as the client's ability grows, the reformer class is easy, so the client wants to take more than one class in a day.  What's different about having personalized attention is that you are worked out with exercises appropriate to your own personal level.  You wouldn't dream of needing a second hour.

Schedule your session today!  We're trying to build our business, so we've lowered our prices temporarily.  Come see us and see how we're different!  You'll love it!

Update on training after our second intermediate weekend

An update on training:

1) Pilates is fun!

2) 600 hours is a lot.  We practice teaching on each other, so if one of us is practicing, the other is working out, thus, we usually get in more than an hour or two of exercise each day.

3) Pilates is fun!

4) We take mat classes when they're being taught at the studio even if we have our semi-private lesson later that day.  On days like today, we've done an intermediate mat, practiced on each other, AND had our semi-private!!  Okay, maybe on days like today we practice the easy exercises on each other .... will someone please pass the turmeric?

5) Pilates is fun!

6) As we learn to teach the more difficult exercises, putting in the hours we put in with the beginner exercises becomes much more challenging.  

7) Pilates is fun!

But we're doing all this because we're passionate about pilates and what it does for a person.  It makes you stronger, leaner, more fit.  It makes your musculature work in an integrated way.  And it's efficient so, unless you're in training to become an instructor, you don't have to spend more than an hour about three days a week working out.  

We had some great client feedback this week.  She was wondering if after so few sessions it's normal to already feel a difference.  Well, here's what Joseph Pilates said, "After 10 sessions you will feel a difference.  After 20 sessions you will see a difference.  After 30 sessions you will have a new body!"

Give us a call, we think you'll like it, too!

Power Pilates Intermediate Training Weekend!!

We had a blast at the intermediate training weekend!!  It's wonderful to be able to incorporate new material into our practice.  So wonderful that I think I've overdone it this week, I'm exhausted!!  Here are some pictures.

First is flexible Morgan.  A big part of pilates is developing a flexible spine.

In this one, I look like I'm sitting.  I'm not!!  I'm holding myself up, it's really hard, look closer!!

Part two of this movement, more work on spinal flexiblity.  In this exercise, there's a lot of arm work, but it's also about being able to move the pelvis.

Both of us still doing the same exercises.

I'm finally taking a break.  I plopped back onto the bar as you can see from my hair.  I am having how the pelvis is supposed to be when I come into the bar demonstrated to me ... butt sticks out.

Now my turn to teach.

How tall is Nancy?

Adam got in on the fun!!  He's going to try the exercise Morgan was working on.

A great psoas stretch!!  If you don't know where your psoas is, come see us and we'll show you how to stretch it.

Ha, Adam finally understands how to get into position to start the exercise!  I bet he's glad he stopped in after his mat class to see how we were doing!  "Quick!!  Come here!  We need another body to practice on!!!"

And, back to, "How tall is Nancy?"

Still not sure, how tall is she?

Morgan's healthy lunch.

My healthy lunch.  I'm really into brussel sprouts lately.  Weird, huh?

Thanks for reading our blog and checking out the pictures from our weekend!!

* Please note, all photos on this blog post were taken at Body Mind Balance, the Power Pilates training facility in Cincinnati.

Who will be in good shape at the end of my training?

Our 100 hour test out is coming up! Can you believe it?! Time is flying by! Before you know it, it's going to be June and we will be finished with the 600 hour training! At least it will probably be June for me with taking time here and there off and enjoying the holidays...

Mom and I have been practicing and studying all the time. And of course, every conversation we have, Pilates is the subject for, at the bare minimum, 5 minutes. And I mean every conversation... Even came up when we went to see Footloose last weekend. Ridiculous. I know.

Back to the studying... I wish I had studied like this back when I was in college. Classes would have been a whole lot easier! Each week night I read through the principles of Pilates and the anatomy charts. And what do you know? The information is sticking! I now know the basic muscles and bones of the body. Sternocleidomastoid is probably the most fun muscle to say!

When it comes to practicing, I can't spend as much time as I would like to at the studio downtown. I'm still teaching a few group classes and I'm teaching at The Pilates Club. But I need someone to regularly practice the new stuff on. So, I got my boyfriend to be my practice client. Hehe. Poor guy! What a life... free Pilates classes for him. He committed to 5 hours a week! Needless to say, HE should be in good shape by the end of MY training.

50 Hours Down, 550 to go!!

When I put it like that, it sounds like I've barely started!  Morgan and I have been enjoying the first two weeks of training.  We are studying the foundational work for the first month.  We've learned, in detail, almost 40 exercises on the mat, reformer, tower, and high chair.  We have been observing these exercises being taught, we've been doing these exercises, and we've been teaching them.  We are living in the foundational work, or beginner systems.  Morgan even dreams about it, but I'll let her write about that.

We are also studying, studying, studying!!!  There is so much to learn that we didn't have to learn in our first certification.  We have to have all the exercises, the order of them, the number of reps, and the form memorized, which you would expect of us, but that's not all.  We need to know the basic bones of the body and the muscles.  We need to know the principles of Power Pilates teaching.  In other words, lots of memory work.  But this is GOOD!!!

It is amazing to me how even though I've been only doing the beginner systems myself for my own workouts, I've still managed to feel that I've been working out (ie - I'm a little sore!).  There is so much rich material in this work.  In observing Julie, our instructor, teach this system to clients in her practice, it's amazing to see how she can even push an advanced student hard in the "beginner" system.

In my own teaching, I've noticed that this is a challenge for both brand new clients and clients who have been working out with pilates for months.   I had the pleasure of teaching this work to a client I've been working with for four months.  Prior to today, I had only worked with this client in the more contemporary form of pilates, so it was fun to challenge her with this work in the order Joseph Pilates intended ... well to be technical for beginner systems ... Romana's order.

So what's the big deal about order?  Pilates is a method.  It's not designed to be a bunch of separate exercises performed in any which way you want.  It's not designed to isolate various muscle groups as if they all work separately.  No.  Pilates is meant to be a sequenced order of movements that integrate the body to work as a whole.  In this way pilates transforms the body creating improvement in posture, strength, stamina, flexibility, and an overall feeling of wellness.

In only 50 hours, I have become a better instructor.  I am still teaching a little, but I am practicing a lot.  I am working out a lot.  And I am observing a lot.  I have taken a step back from teaching so many hours per week to teaching only a few so that I can focus on my own education as an instructor.  On days like today when I work with clients instead of practicing on other instructors in the training program, I wish I wasn't taking this step back because my passion is in helping others progress through their practice, but I know this will benefit me and my clients alike.  If I didn't have this passion for teaching, I would be happy right where I am.  Pilates was life-changing for me (maybe sometime I'll tell you about that, but the short version is on our website), and I know that it is life-changing for others as well.

Training Update: Side Effects of Pilates

I am eating, living, and dreaming Pilates. Is that even possible? I already spent a lot of time with Pilates before, but now that I have entered additional training, I spend even more. I want to take the 100-hour test out in four weeks, but this means I am trying to fit in 25 hours per week of practicing, observing, doing, and teaching the method. (I do have a part time job) It's a good thing I love this crazy Joseph Pilates guy and his work. 

My first week is officially over: 21 hours done. Here are my top three side effects:

1. I'm dreaming about Pilates. Seriously... I dream that I am teaching past instructors and they are giving me feedback. The ironic thing is that I already know all the feedback... after all, I am the one dreaming. It's weird.

2. I am sitting taller at my desk. High on my sitbones.... or ischium as they are technically called.

3. I caught myself pulling my abs in and up as I pressed the clutch down while driving. (I was trying to keep my hips still as I pressed my foot away.) It's seriously almost just like the exercise "pumping" on the chair. 




This is normal right? :)

Until next time... 
Happy Pilates!

Morgan

Foundational work is important, too!

Our first weekend  of training is done! Wow! In 18 hours I learned so much! And now I have the next 100 hours to practice, observe and do what I learned: the beginner systerm. Yes. That's right! Only the beginner system. But let me tell you, this isn't only for beginners! By the end of the weekend, I was curled up in the fetal position because it was the only position my abdominals would be in without screaming at me!!! 

...Let me start at the beginning and explain a little.

Early spring or end of winter, I started taking duet or semi private classes at the Power Pilates training studio. First, I did this because I loved it and I couldn't get enough. Second, I knew I wanted to enter the training program in the fall! I took once a week from my favorite instructor (sorry, Mom, you're my second favorite), got 33-50% of her attention, took mat classes (whenever I was in town and not teaching), and then worked out the rest of the time on my own or in Mom's classes. 

Somewhere in the middle of summer, I stopped practicing on my own. I was traveling, I barely had time to do anything. My once-a-week class was no longer helping me advance in my practice, I was just maintaining what I had. I finally got my butt into gear after a-month-and-a-half slipped away from me and got myself back into classes. My schedule was never the same. At least I was working out 3-4 times a week, however random it was. 

And guess what! I wasn't about to change that routine in order to prepare for a weekend of constant Pilates! Eighteen hours to be exact. Nope. I worked out Monday through Thursday as per usual and then, on Friday, our comprehensive training began. And we learned, practiced and did (multiple times) the "beginner" routine. 

Our instructor was right, it is the foundation of Pilates!!!! Every more advanced, or as I like to say, "fancy" exercise is prepared for by this group of excerises. It's amazing. No wasting time. Just my style. But just because it is called beginner, does not mean it is only meant for beginners. Everybody can step back and get a whole lot from this routine. Especially if you do it multiple times! Yikes! Your abs will be screaming! And plus, my upper legs, or more specifically butt, was already on fire from whatever Pilates routine I did during the week.

Let me be serious for a second. The foundation of Pilates is one of the most important things your body needs to be capable of, not only doing, but also perfecting and getting deeper into. I am so excited to put the brakes on my own practice, step back, and really dive into the Pilates method, starting at the beginning .... the foundation. I hope you feel the same way, but don't expect this to be easy!


Morgan

Power Pilates Comprehensive training

Morgan and I started our comprehensive training with Power Pilates this weekend.  We are already certified by another organization and have been teaching for close to two years, but are really excited to pursue more training.  Pilates is a discipline where you can continue to learn indefinitely.  If you feel that you have mastered the discipline, quite honestly, you are taking from the wrong instructor.

Yes, we are both pilates instructors and we guide many people through challenging workouts.  We have a great rapport with our clients.  We look forward to seeing them, and they look forward to seeing us.  Just this week, a client who had been out of town for a couple weeks came to my class.  I had her working hard and smiling while she was doing it.  When I said something that made her smile, she said, "Oh yes, this is what I've missed!"

I gave this same client homework one day.  She is so excited by her own pilates practice, that the next time she came to class, she gave me her report on what she learned.  She puts a lot into her practice and she gets a lot out of it.  She is gaining strength from week to week.  She is learning more all the time, and is never getting bored because it's always fresh.  She is always being challenged at her level.

Even though Morgan and I are both instructors, we are also both students.  Unless your name is Joseph Pilates, and I know it's not since we lost him many years ago, you are a student and never stop learning the method.  In fact, I really don't think he ever stopped learning, or maybe in his case, his genius creativity is what never stopped working.

As pilates students, Morgan and I take pilates from someone with more experience than we have.  She always asks us how our bodies are doing that day, so if we have a limitation, she can adjust our workout accordingly.  We always leave feeling better than when we went in.  Like my own clients, we are also challenged each week to reach new levels and the material is always fresh, even though Joseph Pilates invented it many years ago.

We are taking our Power Pilates certification from this same instructor.  It is wonderful.  We are learning so much, and it's always a treat for us, and for our clients, when we spend time deepening our understanding of the method.