Tuesday, October 23, 2007

"My strength and overall fitness has improved dramatically, and it makes me want to take my Pilates mentality into other parts of my life."



Stephanie Klitz is the client of the month at Conscious Body Pilates for October. She is enthusiastic, committed, eager to learn, and takes her Pilates beyond the studio into her everyday life. The results have been dramatic. Here is her inspiring story. It is an amazing testimonial to the power of Pilates to not only make positive changes in your body, but also in your life!

Pilates Story
by Stephanie Klitz

Every year I try to do something new for myself that promotes my overall health, whether physical, mental, or emotional. A few months ago I decided to call CBP to inquire about classes, and since then I've been at the studio twice a week doing a combination of mat classes and private sessions. Pilates is a great workout because it doesn't end when you leave the studio; it's something you can take with you everyday. I think about my core at work, at home, when I run and do other physical activities. After a few weeks I started to notice the difference in my posture, how I walked, and how I carried myself in general. I realized that not only was I maintaining my Pilates workout, but I looked forward to it!

The combination of mat classes and private sessions has allowed for my body to obtain maximum exposure to different types of workouts. I enjoy the variety between to the two types of sessions. My private sessions have been particularly beneficial because my instructor has gotten to know my personal strengths weaknesses, and gives me a comprehensive workout accordingly. For the first time, I can truly feel my body beginning to heal from previous surgeries and car accidents. My strength and overall fitness has improved dramatically, and it makes me want to take my Pilates mentality into other parts of my life.

At CBP, I feel like I am the only client. Although this is not the case, it is truly a rewarding way to exercise. Heather has brought together an amazing group of people in the perfect Pilates studio for an altogether you-can't-miss experience. Every instructor at CBP is a walking example of how Pilates can change your life in more ways than you can imagine!

Friday, October 19, 2007

New Move - Rollover!



The New Move is Rollover! This is a great exercise. If you haven't seen it, there is famous a photo of Joseph Pilates doing the rollover. Click here to see the photo on the Pilates Method Alliance website.

We offer an Intermediate Mat class on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm where you can learn to master this move! Check the mat class schedule on our website for more information.

Rollover

Lay down on your back with your arms resting by your sides, your knees bent and feet flat on the floor, pelvis in neutral position.

Exercise:
Inhale to prepare (breathing through your nose and taking the breath wide into your ribcage.)

Exhale contract your abdominals and bring your pelvis into "imprint." (drawing your abdominals in further and tucking your pelvis slightly, but avoid flattening your back down to the floor.) Bring both legs up to tabletop position (knees bent at 90 degrees). Now reach both legs straight up to the ceiling, holding your legs together. Inhale stay.

Exhale reach both legs out at a diagonal down towards the floor (stopping at about 45 degrees). Maintain your "imprint" (drawing your abdominals in further and tucking your pelvis slightly, but avoid flattening your back down to the floor.)

Inhale hinge your legs straight up to the ceiling again.

Exhale contract your abdominals, scooping out your belly and shoot your legs up over your head. Tip: Try not to use momentum and use your core! Also, try to avoid going any farther than your shoulders or you could strain your neck.

Inhale open your legs shoulder distance apart. Exhale start to roll down through your spine while you draw your legs down, keeping them straight. Keep scooping your belly and exhaling. Roll your entire spine down and continue to exhale. Reach your legs away at a diagonal once your tailbone reaches the mat. Stay in imprint (abdominals shortened and pelvis slightly tucked.)

Inhale bring your legs together.

Rollover Explained

Rollover is considered an Intermediate Matwork exercise. It is challenging! It requires a good amount of core strength and flexibility. Just being able to hinge the legs away and hold them at 45 degrees is a challenge for some. Then bringing both legs over your head also requires strength and flexibility.

This exercise can be modified in a number of ways. If you are a beginner, it is best not to try rollover until you've mastered the basics. It's also not a good exercise if you have neck or shoulder problems because of the weight placed on the upper body as the legs reach overhead.

I enjoy rollover because it stretches my whole body and I really feel it in my hamstrings!

Saturday, September 29, 2007

New Instructor - Jamien Cvjetnicanin

It's been a busy month this month! We have four new instructors - all starting this month. All of them are great.

Here is a brief bio on one of our new instructors, Jamien Cvjetnicanin:

Jamien Cvjetnicanin just moved here from New York. She holds a BA with distinction from UNC-Chapel Hill in Human Movement Science and has taught Pilates for nine years.  She also teaches dance and Gyrotonic and performs professionally in ballet and modern dance. Originally from North Carolina, Jamien has been dancing since she was 5. She started doing Pilates when she was a teenager as part of her dance training. Jamien has extensive teaching experience and her students at Conscious Body Pilates, so far, all say she's great! She teaches both privates/duets and group mat classes.

She is available Tues 8am-3pm, Wed 5 to 8pm, Thurs 1pm to 8pm, Fri 5 to 8pm, Sat afternoons and Sunday mornings. To book an appointment or class with Jamien, please contact the studio at (206) 709-2673.

Friday, September 7, 2007

A Walk in the Park with Pilates

For one of my clients, a walk in the park will never be the same for him.

I had the most inspiring conversation with James, a client who has been coming for private sessions once a week for the past 3 months. He walks to work everyday and he was describing to me how it almost felt as if he was gliding as he was walking down a certain path the other day. He says he walks differently with a new awareness since he starting coming to Pilates. (He's now on his 8th session and I can already see the difference in his core strength.) "I walk differently when I know I'm coming to Pilates," he told me. "If that's what it takes, I said, then that's great!"

What amazes me is how much of what he learns in our work together he takes into his daily life.

We worked on standing and squatting in our last session. I described how he could be doing Pilates just while he's standing at work, by keeping his weight evenly distributed over the center of his feet, slightly bending his knees (not locking them), keeping his belly pulled to his spine to engage his core, and keeping his shoulders relaxed and pulled back slightly. Then we learned how to squat - which he found revolutionary.

The squat is often done incorrectly - usually by putting too much weight into the knees. I showed him how to first engage his core, then bend at the knees, and then hinge at the hips, reaching his arms forward and maintaining a neutral pelvis while he squats. (James bends and lifts a lot for his work.) The knees should never go too far over the toes - if they do, it can put too much pressure on the knee joint. By hinging at the hips and sticking out your butt (think of the last time you used a port-a-potty) you distribute your weight differently, taking the weight from the front of your body to the center of your body. When you return back to a standing position, consciously press your weight into your feet and use the "ground force" to help you stand back up. (This is a concept from Aston Patterning that I've begun to incorporate into my teaching.)

We did about 3 squats this way and he said it totally changed his understanding of how to squat, bend, and lift. Wow! These are the moments every Pilates instructor looks forward to - the moment a student changes their awareness and discovers a new way of moving -- the moment that a person's "walk in the park" will never be the same. :)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Beginners Mat Classes

We teach a number of Beginners Mat Classes at our studio. The beginners classes are Mon 11am, Wed 6pm, Thurs 6:30am, and Sat 10am. Check the mat class schedule on our website for more information.

The beginners mat classes are for total beginners and for students who want to hone their Pilates "chops" before moving onto the more challenging Intermediate classes.

I find that the great thing about teaching beginner classes is being able to see the rapid progression that most students go through. Each week I add a few more new exercises. By the last two classes, some students are breezing through the warmup and giving me a look of "OK, that was easy. Show me what else you got."

I try keep the class challenging, while at the same time focusing on the basics. While I understand the desire for even more challenge, it's always a good idea to take it slow and master the basic moves before moving onto the next level. I think of the basic matwork exercises as scales for warming up on an instrument or the basic rudiments for a drummer. If you want to master your instrument, you never abandon your scales or rudiments. The great dancer Mikhail Barishnikov once said that he always returns to the basic barre routine he learned as a child in his warmup. The further you progress, the more you realize it's these basic moves that contain the building blocks that allow you to perform the harder moves. So even if they get a little boring, it's good to keep doing them.

Here's an example of a basic Pilates matwork routine that I teach:

Warmup:
Breathing
Neutral Pelvis
Imprint & Release
Hip Release
Spinal Rotation
Hip Rolls
Cat Stretch
Arm Circles
Scapula Isolation
Head Nods

Mat Exercises:
Ab Prep
Breaststroke Prep
Hundred
Half Roll Back
Rolling like a Ball
Twist
One Leg Circle
Single Leg Stretch
Obliques
Shoulder Bridge (Prep)
Side Kick
Side Leg Series
Spine Stretch Forward
Swimming (Prep)
Swan (Prep)
Side Bend (Prep)
Push Up (Prep)

The "Preps" are beginner versions of the full exercise. Once you master the preps, you can then move on to the more challenging, full exercises in the Intermediate and Advanced levels.

Can Pilates Really Strengthen, Stretch, and Balance Your Body?

I wrote an article on Pilates for the Madison Park Times which should be published in their next issue. Here's a preview of the article...

Eighty years ago, a German-born immigrant named Joseph Pilates came to this country and brought a revolutionary new form of exercise he called “The Pilates Method.” He believed so strongly in this method that when he was 86, he proclaimed “the whole country, the whole world should be doing my exercises. They’d be happier.” While the whole world isn’t doing his exercises, they’re definitely starting to take more of an interest in Pilates. But few people really understand what it is. So as a Pilates Instructor, I’d like to offer a brief summary and hopefully shed some light on this not-very-well-understood method of health and fitness.

History
Born in Germany in 1880, Pilates was a boxer, skier, and gymnast. A sickly child who worked hard to overcome his physical limitations, he studied everything from yoga to circus performance. He developed his own system over 20 years, drawing from both Eastern disciplines like yoga and Western traditions such as ancient Greek regimens.

During WWI, Pilates was placed in an internment camp in England where he developed the system now known as “matwork” which he then called “Contrology.” He later took the springs from a bed to invent his first piece of equipment to rehabilitate wounded and bedridden soldiers. This was the first Pilates “Reformer”, still used today. Today, his contraptions, with names like the “Universal Reformer”, “Cadillac”, and “Wunda Chair” still haven’t changed very much from his original designs. The ingeniously designed equipment provides support and resistance to the body as it learns to move with greater efficiency and ease.

Many years later in 1926, Joseph Pilates and his wife Clara came to this country and settled in New York City. He opened a studio and it was there that he taught students the method that has been passed down by his original students, known as “the Pilates elders” since then.

What is Pilates?
Pilates is a system of movement and exercise designed to strengthen, stretch and balance the entire body. It combines slow, controlled movements, coordinated with precise breathing patterns. The breath and movement together focus the mind, relax the body, and develops greater mental and physical coordination.

Core Strength
A key principle in Pilates is learning how to properly engage and strengthen the core. The “core” consists of deep postural muscles that include the Transversus Abdominis and Internal Obliques, as well as the deep spinal stabilizers called Multifidus and the pelvic floor muscles. When all of these muscles are engaged, they act as a kind of girdle, forming a cylinder from the base of your trunk to your lower ribcage. From this starting point, you learn to move the rest of your body with greater control and awareness. Pilates does not isolate muscle groups – instead it trains the whole body, starting from the core and integrating the movement of the arms and legs while maintaining this core stability. Another key Pilates principle is the concept of “neutral pelvis” or “neutral spine”, which is the ideal spinal alignment maintained by engaging the core muscles to hold the pelvis and lumbar spine in proper alignment while moving the rest of the body.

Stretching
Pilates exercise also increases flexibility and supports a healthy back by using gentle stretching and slow, articulated movements of the spine. A balanced Pilates workout incoporates stretching and movement of the spine in all planes of movement: flexion (bending forward), extension (bending back), rotation (twisting), and lateral sidebending (bending sideways). Many Chiropractors and Physical Therapists recommend Pilates programs for their patients for this reason.

Balancing the Body
Another major benefit of Pilates exercise is improving posture by correcting muscle imbalances.This re-balancing is achieved by lengthening muscles that have shortened and strengthening weak and elongated muscles. Think of a person who sits at a computer for long periods (like you for instance!) Sitting in a bent knee position day after day, year after year, you develop shortened hamstrings and elongated and weak quadriceps. Your Pilates program would include stretches for the hamstrings, and strengthening exercises for the quadriceps – all while maintaining core stability.

Now, if someone ever asks you “What is Pilates?” just remember these three things – strengthen, stretch, and balance.

To find out more about Pilates, visit the Pilates Method Alliance web site.

Monday, August 13, 2007

New Move - Rolling Like a Ball


Jana Broecking demonstrates Rolling Like a Ball

This week's new move is another classic Pilates exercise: Rolling Like a Ball.

Imagine a group of wounded WWI soldiers doing this exercise in a prison camp. These are the first students of Joseph Pilates while he was a prisoner of war held in an internment camp in England. Instead of marching in unison, I imagine them all rolling in unison and sitting up poised on their sits bones. Now THAT I would like to have seen.

btw, if you've never heard of "Sits bones" they are the two bones at the bottom of your pelvis that you sit on. :)


Starting Position:

Start sitting tall on your sits bones with feet on the floor, hip distance apart, hands on your shins or behind your knees.

Inhale to prepare, Exhale go into Imprint (slightly tucked in your pelvis, and pulling your hips closer to your ribcage). Roll slightly behind your sits bones and onto your tailbone and bring one foot off the floor. Inhale stay. Exhale and bring your other foot off the floor. You should now be balanced on your sits bones in a ball shape, with your hands on your shins or behind your knees, and your elbows wide, shoulders wide, upper body relaxed.

Exercise:
Inhale and roll back as far as your shoulder blades.
(Try not to let your head touch the floor.)

Exhale and pull your belly button to spine as you roll back onto your sit bones.
(Try not to let your feet touch the floor.)

Repeat 8 to 10 times.

Rolling Like a Ball Explained:

Rolling Like a Ball is like an abdominal workout along with a massage for your spine and your back. When you do it correctly, you'll hear a nice smooth rolling sound with no "bumps." When you stay in a tucked, rounded "C curve" position by pulling your belly button to your spine, engaging your core, and keeping it engaged, it's surprisingly easy to keep rolling -- and it's fun.

I always enjoy seeing people learn Rolling like a ball for the first time. The look on their faces as they come up to balance on their sit bones is "Wow - did I just do that?" It provides comic relief to an otherwise serious workout.

If you use your legs to give yourself some extra momentum by kicking up in the air - you're cheating! The correct (and, of course, harder) way is to keep the legs in close and use your core to roll forward and back.

If you have a flat area on your spine, you will also hear and feel bumps in your roll. A flat lumbar spine makes this exercise more challenging. If you continue to do this exercise and keep your lumbar spine flexed so that you maintain a "C curve" shape, you can eventually encourage more curve in that area.

Key Benefits:

Teaches you to keep the core engaged while maintaining lumbar flexion (a curve in your lower back).

Teaches you to move from your center rather than from your periphery (your arms and legs).

Improves balance.

Fun when you master it.

A good exercise leading up to Teaser - the hardest of all Pilates mat exercises.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

New Instructor! Olivia Corrado

Olivia Corrado just started at Conscious Body Pilates a few weeks ago and already she has a pretty full schedule on Mon. Wed and Friday mornings! A Seattle native, Olivia trained at Vitality studio in Mount Baker (where she grew up) and she is a Level 1 Certified Pilates instructor. This means she completed her training in Matwork, Reformer, Cadillac, Chair, and Barrels and is qualified to teach at the Beginner and Intermediate level on all pieces of Pilates equipment.

Olivia spent the past year teaching Pilates in New York City at Erika Bloom studio. Trained as a dancer, she is currently pursuing her degree in Urban Planning. She hopes to continue her studies in Pilates while she finishes her degree.

Olivia is teaching the evening mat classes on Wednesdays at 6pm and 7pm. She is also available for private and semi-private lessons on Mon, Wed, and Fri from 8am to noon To book a session with Olivia, please call 709-2673 or email heathers@speakeasy.net. You can also check the website www.709core.com to check the mat class schedule.

We are very happy that Olivia Corrado has joined Conscious Body Pilates Studio!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

New Move - Roll Up!

I've decided to start posting a "New Move" so I can talk about the Pilates exercises that I love - each week.

This week it's the "Roll Up." This is one of the classic Pilates exercises that Joe Pilates taught in his original matwork routine, and it has not changed much since he first taught it. There are modifications now with the help of flexbands and fitness circles, but overall the exercise remains the same.

Roll Up

Sit up tall on your sits bones, with your pelvis in neutral, your legs straight out in front of you, toes either pointed or flexed. Your arms are reaching straight in frot of you with hands at shoulder height, palms facing down. (You may choose to bend your knees or you can use a flexband around your feet for more support as you build up to the full Roll Up.)

Exercise:
Inhhale to prepare (breath into your ribcage)

To Roll Down:
Exhale contract your abdominals, pulling your belly button to your spine.
Begin rolling off your sit bones, curling your tailbone under you. Continue
rolling back slowly, one vertebra at a time until you are laying flat on your back.
Keep pulling your belly button to spine and thinking of forming a big "C curve" with your body. As you roll down, your arms should still be reaching out in front of you, then above you as your upper back rolls, down, and then reaching over your head when you finish.

To Roll Up:
Inhale and nod your chin to prepare, reach your arms up to the ceiling.
Exhale and contract your abdominals, pulling belly button to spine. Stabilize your shoulders (using your serratus anterior muscle - the one that wraps under your armpit and behind your shoulder blades) and start to roll up slowly one vertebrae at a time. Try to imagine yourself as something sticky peeling yourself off the mat (i.e., a fruit roll up or a piece of taffy) Return to a sitting position with your legs straight out in front of you.

Roll Up - Explained
The Roll Up is all about spinal articulation. Spinal articulation is used a lot in Pilates. It is the motion of rolling one vertebrae at a time through your spine. Think of a slinky, a caterpillar, or one of those long articulated buses. As you roll back, you feel your hip flexors working like crazy - especially the Psoas Iliacus muscle. This is because the muscle is working "eccentrically" or during the lengthening phase of the muscle contraction. Most of us concentrate our work on the "concentric" phase of a muscle contraction - the shortening phase. The reason Pilates gives you long, lean muscles rather than short bulky ones is because it focuses equally on both the concentric and the eccentric muscle contraction phase.

When To Do this Exercise
This is a great exercise to do when you first get up in the morning or before you go to bed at night because it stretches out your spine and relaxes your entire body!
I tend to be stiff when I wake up in the morning, so this helps loosen up my back before I start my day.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Mom and Baby class


I invited photographer Barbie Hull to shoot some pictures of my Mom and Baby class last week.

The picture above is my personal favorite. Baby looks like she's trying to do "The Hundred" with mom! How did Barbie capture that? It almost looks posed! Barbie's specialty is weddings, but she also does pregnancy and baby photography. Check out her website to see more of her work: http://www.barbiehull.com/


The Mom and Baby class is one of my favorite classes to teach because I get to see moms and their adorable babies and it's so much fun to watch them change from week to week. It also challenges me as a teacher. I usually have an idea of what exercises I plan to teach and in what order, but I invariably end up changing it. It's a lot like being a mom - you do your best to make a plan, stick to a schedule, figure things out, but when it's all said and done - baby decides how it's going to be.


I teach the Mom and Baby class Thursdays at 4pm. A new 6 week series started last Thursday July 19th and continues through Aug 23rd.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Heat wave

Yesterday was hot. It was a toasty 97 degrees in Seattle. Today it's supposed to be even hotter.

Yesterday was also stressful. I put my 2 yr old daughter in her new jogger stroller and forgot to lock the wheels. I turned around to go in the house and lock the front door and left her on the patio. Next thing I heard was a crash. I ran outside and discovered - to my horror - that the stroller had rolled down three steps and tipped forward onto the cement patio - with my daughter in it. I screamed and ran to pick up the stroller, fearing the worst. She was crying, her face red, and she had dirt in her mouth. Oh no no no! Oh my god! Oh my god! I picked her up and screamed. I have to take her to the hospital, I thought. But my car was in the shop. This is a nightmare. How could this be happening? I took her straight to her daycare a few blocks away - and it turned out she was OK. Just a big bruise to her forehead. She seemed back to normal. Of course, I felt terrible and figured I would go home and cancel all my appointments for the day.

My husband came to take her to the hospital, but we ended up picking up my car at the shop. I cancelled my 10am appt and instead went home to do some last minute preparing for my 10 minute presentation at 1 o'clock. I was tempted to cancel and explain that my daughter had an accident, but I decided to go ahead with it.

I'm glad I did. Somehow, I pulled off the presentation and it felt good to know that I had the strength to do it.

My worst fear is something terrible happening to my daughter. My second worst fear is getting up in front of people to give a speech. I faced two of my worst fears in the same day - and survived. At 4pm I taught the first of a Beginners mat class series to a group of 4 eager clients. It felt great. My stressful day melted away and I was able to focus on something else - Pilates. I felt SOOO much better! And the 97 degree heat was an added bonus....maybe the next new exercise phenomenon will be "Hot Pilates."

Monday, July 9, 2007

Thoughts on a Tagline - "Strength For Life"

My challenge for the last few months has been trying to come up with a tagline for my business. How could I, in a few short words within a catchy phrase, communicate the essence of what I'm trying to do at Conscious Body Pilates? After months of thinking and obssessing, I finally came up with this:

"Strength for Life"

It seems to fit. I like it because it's short and gets to the point. What "Strength for Life" means to me is this: Pilates gives me a method to strengthen my core, which provides the strength and support I need to face my daily physical challenges. Since my car accidents in 1993 and 1996, I have always dealt with some level of back pain. In the beginning, it was so debilitating I couldn't sit, stand, or walk for more than a few minutes without pain. It wasn't until I discovered the Pilates Method (because of a wonderful Hellerwork practitioner and physical therapist named Linda Knickerbocker who was working with a Pilates studio called Erskine Fitness in Queen Anne) that I was able to overcome my back pain through Pilates exercise. After that, a new world of possibility opened up to me again. By gaining strength and control over my body, I also regained my confidence and my ability to enjoy life.

"Strength for Life" has a very personal meaning for me, but will it resonate with others? I'm testing it out this week. My focus group is a group of about 21 entrepeneurs in my BNI networking group. We meet at the Madison Park Starbucks each week. BNI (Business Networking International) is the largest business networking organization in the world and their motto is "Givers Gain." We give and receive referrals each week with the idea that the more we give, the more we get. Each week we stand up to give our 60 second commercials. Everyone ends their commercial with the name of their business and tagline. Some of the taglines are pretty catchy. Barbie Hull, a portrait and wedding photographer who captures the details of special moments in life says, "Barbie Hull Photography. Capturing the moments that matter." Another BNI member, Sarah Gaspar, who runs Gaspar's Handyman, ends her commercials by saying,"Gaspar's Handyman. We do your homework." Somehow my tagline had to live up to this level of catchiness.

For me and many others, "Strength for Life" means having the strength to to live a daily life free of pain. Through regular practice, Pilates provides the strength to literally "hold up" in our daily lives. We have endless To do lists, doctor appts, shuttling kids to school, doing the dishes/laundry/picking up messes/getting dinner ready, keeping in touch with friends & family, going to community meetings, keeping current on the news, reading the must-read novel, seeing the must-see movie, oh - and don't forget preparing your presentation for the mtg on Wed. People think I spend all my time exercising, but much of the time, when I am not teaching, I am at my computer sending emails. Now that I'm a busy mom-of-a-toddler-and-business-owner, I look forward to my Pilates workouts - it's my time for myself to connect with my body. And now that I teach Pilates - to connect with others. I cherish that time more than ever.

Pilates gives me strength for my busy life. I hope that I can help my clients discover the same strength for their lives.

"Conscious Body Pilates. Strength for Life." Sounds pretty good. I think it's a keeper.