Flow

After auditioning countless instructors in the last few years, what I notice the most, is that there is no flow.
There are a ton of ‘exercieses’ and a lot of cuing, but no real strand that threads through things. When I sit down to do feedback, the response is usually ‘Oh’ and a blank stare or ‘I really want them to FEEL the workout’. Meaning, I’m going to go back to old school ‘ No pain, no gain’ in order to convince them to do pilates.

hmm. Well. That’s one way to get clients. One of the wonderful pieces of the pilates method is that it isn’t ‘no pain,no gain.’ It’s smart concious movement that that connects you on a deep level to produce lasting, functional, excellent results. If you want to pound someone into the ground, please send them or teach Bootcamp.

It’s based on your core, work the core, flow out from there. Teach the essence then get in to the bells and whistles.
Part of teaching pilates is truley and artform. I belive that’s why dancers can be so strong with it. They get sewing choreogrophy together in a seemless way. If we want movement that is exerise to exercise , we chooes a different format. Valid, but different.

Check in with your session and teacher. Does it flow? It should.

Holding your clients accountable to their practice

My posts usually are spawn out of my experiences and feedback teaching during the week. In the last week I’ve had the privlidge to teach multiple clients from the east coast. Visiting clients who made a point to come see me. A compliment that does not go unnoticed.

Why? Is always my question. You can take pilates anywhere. And they do. They come to me for clear cueing. An eagle eye that won’t let them get away with anything less then 100% of their effort. I’m not looking for perfection. Part of why I started teaching is that I wanted to say nice things to people, tell them what they were doing right and what they were succeeding at. We all get plenty of the opposite. But in that, I want people to learn and get better. I hold them accountable to my standards of practice. High.

Over the years my clients are either fascinated or stunned at how much cuing I can get out in an hour. I am finally taking credit for it. They ask why I can/do cue so particularly and why others don’t.

I finally have an answer, but one that pertains to the fitness environment. I think instructors THINK that all the cues and really getting it right, is too much for a ‘fitness’ class. They run them through choreography and routine, thinking that is what will attract and keep them in class or in a private without ever really leading them to connection. Dumbing down pilates.

Joseph’s idea was that Pilates was a mindbody connection. You didn’t need to demonstrate, by allowing the student/body to listen and follow verbal cuing it would lead them to mind- body connection. Completely valid. Except now our culture is very disconnected from our bodies. Magazines, computers, billboards….all of the uber-stimulation that leads us farther from our home base, our bodies. We are a culture of sound bytes and information collectors. Our children think that a paragraph in a magazine is truely ‘educational’. Education is a much longer, richer process. So. *phew* pilates instructors in a fitnedd environment miss the richness. their thought process is that it’s ‘too much’ for most people to truely get connected and that if they cue the exercises they’ve done their job. Fair enough. they have guided you through a class, burned some calories and kept it pretty clear and simple. What people respond to in my teaching is the deeper richness. The point now is stil to guide them to body balance, but it may take more. That’s what I do. take tehm time. hold them accountabel to a high standard. Maybe today in our quick and dirty sound- byte society it take s more to get people and bodies connected. So what. that’s the point. Balance. Loosen what’s tight, Tighten what’s loose is truely the only point of pilates. How you get theri is the art and finesse of the journey.
Pilates instructors are highly educated and skilled instructors. It typically takes 300 hours of work before you are certified to teach. Commitment and effort is engrained in the system. What isn’t and should be, is an understanding of society and culture and what it means today to balance and conect.

Casa Del Mar

My new favorite Summer Spot! OUr Tuesday night class was super gorgeous on the pool deck overlooking the ocean! We have 7 more weeks to whip the class into shape. By the last class, everyone will be taking in their swimsuits;)
If you’d like to come, shoot me an email 24 hours in advance. Tuesday nights at 6:30pm. You do NOT have to be a hotel guest and the class is totally free. There. you now have NO excuses….unless you need a babysitter, like i do.

ROCKSTAR CLASS

CYNDI LAUPER took my class this past friday! And yes, I was slightly awstruck. She is a doll and an icon of my lifetime. It was a true treat to not only have her take class but stay for a lengthy chat after! If only she lived in LA, I’d train her full time I truely had trouble cuing the first 4 exercises because I kept singing ‘ Time after Time…’ in my head. The very first song I ever performed was ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. Cyndi, who knew you would literally walk into my life.

This was certainly a moment to savor. She’s in LA to record, we should see her again at Century City. Now…if we can just get P!nk to committ to private sessions………

Why Pilates and not Another Format?

Pilates works the body from the inside out, the method teaches proper, healthy body alignment and form that translates to any other format.

Pilates teaches conscious movement and connectivity.

The body learns to initiate at the core, not the appendages, creating more strength, stability and less risk of injury.

Mind- Body work should not be synonymous with relaxation as opposed to muscular work.

Pilates is the thinking persons exercise, similar to doing crossword puzzles, the transition of verbal cuing to doing can improve your cognitive functioning (it makes you smarter ☺).

It is based on Quality not Quantity, at an advanced level only 3-5 repetitions are performed

Each exercise works a minimum of 3 muscle groups at a time

Pilates and speficially personal training do DIFFERENT things. The culture offitness is built to generate results based on member specific “prescriptions’ and cutting edge science. Know where to start clients in order to get them to their personal goals. In a perfect world, all clients would be training both on the lifting floor and in the Pilates studio. Clients would have the most efficient results. Learn to weave them together. It is not a ‘One or the other’ mentality, only a ‘when or which one first’. Personal training and pilates are not competitive they are complimentary.

Disc Jockey

Starts this week at Santa Monica Equinox on Thursdays at 12pm and at Century City Equinox Wednesdays at 9:30am.

We also have another training today for instructors in Pasadena….it’s their turn to cue it! Can’t wait to hear what my format sounds like out of other peoples mouths!

What do I have to offer for the fitness world?

The question came up, why not answer it? I offer a compassionate support system, with real sweat, work, effort and results.

Sculpting, aesthic and self empowerment.

I realize it sounds a little hippy dippy. But our bodies are so much more than bodies. We truly need to stop warring with them and work with them. As trainers, behind the scenes, we all know that clients (bodies) will not change until the client is ready. Regardless of the amount of training, nutrition etc.
What separates us from the animals; cognitive thinking. It proves to reason that our cognition is our realitiy. It’s no different for fitness. If you’ve made up your mind to have the body that you want, if you can clearly see it in your mind every time you make an effort towards it (pilates, llifting, stretching, yoga etc.) it will happen.

That’s why the question of ‘What workout is best?’ is so tricky. They all work. Movement is movement, there are only so many ways to move your body. 3 planes of motion. That’s it. And all of the kooky late night infomercials….they work too, if you use them. Consistancy is truely all you need. As humans we make things very complicated. Things aren’t. We either do, or don’t do. that’s why ‘trying’ can be so trying.
Do what keeps you consistant. Do what you enjoy. Novel idea…

If your focus is clear and intentional, it will happen. Cardio is my favorite format in some ways, because there is a sustained period of time of repetative motion in which you can repeat a mantra. Mine, for years, was ” I am slender , muscular and strong”. SImple enough. Keep telling yourself who you are.

I offer support, with as much or as little fluff and etheral experience as you need. I say nice things to my students to build them up, just like you do with children. More flies with honey then vinegar. If you are told you are strong and capable, you become strong and capable. Simple.

Nutrition, Food, Diets and such

Just like my favorite infomercial toys, anything works, as long as you use it. Obviously it’s a matter of opinion what is better or best.
You can Cut carbs and blend smoothies and cleanse to your hearts delight. It could work. For you and your body.
This post is about what I recommend. As in all things, keep it simple. I am NOT a dietician or a nutritionist. I’m a fitness professional and enthusiest. This comes from reading and being in the trencheswith my clients over the last 8 years. I’m not a fan of cutting any food source frmo your life completely. We are physically bdies here to experience life and I do beieve anything in moderation is ok….moderation is always the hang up

So here we go, short sweet, simple and to the point, a bit like me….

Eat fully and often.
Drink water, 1/2 of your body weight in ounzes is the guidline. You could lose 3-15lbs simply getting hydrated. We are 70% water. It flushes and plumps all the right things. so drink up!

3 Meals 2 -3 snacks 3 hours apart

Imagine a 9 inch plate for your meals….and FILL IT —> but quadrant it off. 1/2 of the plate should be fruits or veggies (NOT drenched in dressing or fats), 1/4 of the plate is lean protein (or frankly, to ge this launched, just protein, don’t fret over what kind in the beginning) and the final 1/4 of your plate should be a dark grain. Yes, I said it, CARBS. rice, bread etc. The darker the better. Carbs fuel your bran and concentration, they also burn first. This can be a topic of discussion depending on where you are in your fitness journey….this post is an overview, and jus tlike anything is up for discussion depending on the particular situation.

The snacks are a smaller version of a meal. Imagine a teacup saucer and build it from there. OR take a half of bagel, slice or bread or english muffin (that becomes your saucer), through a piece of cheese on it and then top with tune. You get the idea. They could be a bar, when you’re on the go. Watch the calorie count and the sugar ration. Some bars might as well be candy bars when you start to look at the sugar grams. Try to keep it under 15g…that will be hard enough.

Feed your body like you would a baby, every 3 hours. even if you aren’t hungry. The theroy is you are fueling your body so that it will burn calories and support the functioning of all your systems.Insulin crash comes within 4 hours. So the non scientific way of explaining it is; if you wait longer than 4 hours to eat, your body begins to store calories as fat. Your body says ‘ I have to breath, walk and thing..I don’t know when I’m getting fed again, I’m KEEPING everything…in case I don’t get fed again.’ Your body hits a type of ’starvation’ mode.
If you are putting food in just shy of every 4 hours, your body learns to BURN the calories you are putting in and take some of the old ones along with it.

Again, all of this is truely particular to the person and the body. This only takes in to consideration completely healthy bodies with no issues. Meals are approximately 350-500 calories, snacks in the 200 range.

Notice that caffine, sugar and alcohol are absent from the above blurb. I drink coffee 1-2 cups a day. ( we all have our vices, i’d liek to get back to 1 cup, but i do love it so). I also drink a glass or two of wine when the occasion arises. You CAN have deserts etc, but the portion and the frequency is what gets most of us. small nibbles of dark chacolate are great antioxidents and can fulfill that urge to splurge. It’s a matter of retraining your brain, emotions and body. Take one step at a time. the lates are a great, non stressful way to start changing your eating habits without feeling like you have to never leave your hous ein order to eat.

My suggestion is whole feeds that occur in nature, if you can’t pronounce it, probably shouldn’t eat it. If the color did not naturaly occur, perhaps not the best choice to ingest.

Life is a journey. Your feeding (just like a babies) evolves. This template is an easier way to become aware of what is going into your body without having to count calories and trade strange cards in order to eat. Our selves are not a game, but it can be fun to treat it better and see real, staying changes.