Goal Accomplished! All 50 states!
Posted on July 18, 2025 by pilatesnative
Hi there, what’s up, what’s going on, how are you?
Things are settling in nicely in the new studio space. Laura and I have had some overlap with sessions, which has been fun and the 4-week trial with group classes went well. I’ve added two more classes to the schedule, the hubs did a great job hanging the barre and at some point I will get around to painting the back wall. Adding a main door has proven to be bit more involved than originally thought. Not only are the walls offset from each other by about 1.5”, the entryway is also wider at the top than the bottom by about 1.5”.
In super fun news, with our family vacation to St. Louis and Lake of the Ozarks last week, I completed my 50 state challenge!
This was a goal set when I was 15 years old and tagged along on a trip to Hawaii with my aunt. At the time, I had only been outside of Colorado to buy fireworks in Wyoming or visit my Grandma’s people at the pueblos in New Mexico. I had never seen the ocean, never been on a plane and had never gone on a vacation that wasn’t dispersed camping with the fam. My parents didn’t have send-a-kid-to-Hawaii money, so I got a work permit and spent a year working the 6am Sat/Sun drive-through-window shifts at Burger King, mowing lawns, picking up dog poo, babysitting and saving every penny. Despite spending my weekends with hair smelling like French fries and calling it an early night every weekend, being able to take a 10-day trip to Oahu was so worth it. I’m so grateful to my Aunt for changing my entire life with that experience.
While it would have been easy to bag all 50 states in a two week road trip, I wanted to really experience each place, so it took me 25 years.
My rules for a state counting were that I had to eat or do an activity in each state, not just drive through. This led to a lot of awesome meals, a lot of camping and a lot of exploring of hidden gems around the country.
My bff asked what’s next for travels and I think the next big adventures will be the Grand Canyon, visiting the Redwoods and taking trips to Belize and Costa Rica. Hopefully I can teach some Pilates in one of those locations!
What I Learned from a Year on Hard Mode
Posted on December 15, 2023 by pilatesnative
Leaving 2022, I was feeling fat, lost, alone, old and frumpy. For the first time in almost twenty years, my identity wasn’t tied in some way to engineering. I was at my heaviest non-pregnancy weight, managing food allergies felt like an endless losing game of whack-a-mole and the only peace was found at the studio. When thinking about how to shake out of those ugly feelings, I decided that I was going to jump off the deep end and spend 2023 doing all of the things that I’m really bad at or afraid of. While I anticipated doing a few challenging activities that shook off the funk, I did not anticipate the total shift of my world view.
From learning simple things like how to play chess and taking River fishing with just the two of us, to much heavier and challenging things like one-on-one Life Coaching, public speaking, dance performances, and attending a party alone, this year really ran the gauntlet. Here’s a quick list of what I learned from an entire year spent intentionally on hard mode.
1) There are so many people to thank.
The expectation of this challenge was that it would be a solo project. The reality is that there were so so many people who were ready and willing to help and who happily contributed to this year and helped me reach, push and enjoy the year. Thank you all so much!
2) Fear Patterns quickly emerged.
Pretty quickly, it became very apparent that I struggle with 3 main things. Heights, water and people came up over and over again this year. The more I immersed in these things, the easier they got. While I still may not be ready for a ski lift, I did have a blast doing a high ropes course, practically lived on the paddle board this summer and I actually went to multiple parties solo this year. (We won’t talk about the total foot in mouth moment I had when meeting a friend’s girlfriend for the first time. hahaha)
3) A little vulnerability pays off big time.
Turns out vulnerability opens a lot of doors. Every time I reached a plateau or hit a door, the key was vulnerability. There were times when the last thing I wanted to do was be vulnerable or take that next step. But, time after time, reaching out, being honest, and following up really really changed the way this year operated.
4) I didn’t die.
This sounds silly, but nervous systems aren’t always logical and mine loves to live in the BUT THAT’S A SCARY THING PANIC space. By doing scary or hard things over and over again, my nervous system actually calmed down. Surprisingly, the anxiety and panic attacks have almost completely tapered off. Yes, leaving a stressful job situation probably helped with most of that, but facing scary things and surviving has built in an extra layer of resilience into my nervous system. In clinical speak, these are corrective experiences. And man oh man, did I have plenty of those this year.
5) I’m a lot stronger than I think I am.
I am so very privileged to have a strong healthy body. This realization hit hard anytime I was doing something and realized that while my mind and nervous system were losing their shit, my body had quietly taken over and was doing the thing with relative ease. There’s nothing quite like realizing this when you’re 50 feet above ground and strapped into a ropes course harness. We tend to take our bodies for granted and this year really highlighted how capable and strong my body actually is. I am very grateful to Pilates and to my personal trainer for pushing me in a way that allowed this to be true.
6) It’s totally ok to try and fail.
There were a few times this year where I set out to do a thing and then just totally bombed. Or I set a goal and just missed it. While it was disappointing, nothing bad happened and no one died. “Failing up” is something I got real comfortable with this year.
And finally, the big one. It’s ok to be bad at things. (Yes, seriously.)
Prior to this year, my inner type-a perfectionist would have shuddered at the casualness of how I just typed this sentence. Prior to this year, I would rather not do something than to do something badly and risk any possible embarrassment. Here’s the thing. That mentality kept me locked up in a very safe (and sometimes boring!) box. Spending an entire year doing things I’m bad at gave me permission to be bad at a whole lot of things. And with that permission came freedom. Freedom to look stupid, freedom to ask a ton of questions, freedom to be silly and just in general a freedom to try things without any expectations at all.
While this year has not been easy and there were times where it was incredibly frustrating and made me cry, it has been a ton of fun. I’ve learned, grown, failed and embarrassed myself thoroughly lol. 10/10 would recommend. 10/10 would do again.
Thank you, my friends, for reading and for those of you that held space for the challenges of the year. I am so grateful for all of you.
Have a great December.
-Rubecca
No pain. No Gain.
Posted on June 14, 2023 by pilatesnative
No pain, no gain.
These words are on nearly every gym wall in the country. On t-shirts. Motivational posters. Popping out of every fitness instructor’s mouth when things get tough.
No pain, no gain.
But who equated pain with progress?
Since the dawn of time, humans have pushed our bodies to their very edges. Pheidippides, a Greek messenger ran 300 miles in 3 days to successfully deliver his message, before keeling over and dying. The Tarahumara Indians of the Copper Canyon in Mexico hunt by chasing their prey until the deer die of sheer exhaustion. Ballerinas en pointe are frequently pushed to the point of blood, foot bone disfunction and severe muscle instability to create the shapes required by their sport. Rhabdomyolysis, a once obscure condition of excessive and toxic muscle breakdown that can cause kidney injury or death, has become well known thanks to Ultrarunners and Cross Fitters who push their bodies to the literal point of failure.
For fitness hobbyists like myself, pulled muscles, strains, tears, and pain are accepted as just par for the course. Spending hundreds (if not thousands) on the latest recovery tools, PT programs, massages, and gear is seen as a badge of honor. It’s normal for fitness folks to circle for a pre or post workout pissing contest, sharing battle stories of how they got various injuries and how they pushed through despite their body’s resistance to continue.
But why?
Why are we so conditioned to push our bodies to the point of failure, for fun?
I’ve been an athlete for over 35 years and running for more than 25. I can tell you that dealing with a super intense level of training and the aftermath of injuries is anything BUT fun. Along with my physical health, my mental and emotional health suffered, and so did my relationships. There are certain injuries that I ignored, dismissed, or never properly healed that have haunted me for years, through muscle imbalances, compensations, and mental state.
When I finally backed off and really started to focus on healing and having fun, rather than pushing through to another PR, I learned a few things.
First, “no pain, no gain” is bullshit.
Pain is the body’s way of very very clearly communication that something is wrong. If you are actively in pain before, during or after a workout, something is very very wrong. If a trusted fitness pro is pushing you to work out through actual legitimate pain, they are doing something very very wrong and they are actively causing damage to your body. If YOU are pushing your body to work out through actual legitimate pain, YOU are doing something very very wrong and YOU are actively causing damage to your body.
Pushing through actual pain isn’t admirable, heroic, or badass. It’s dumb and it’s toxic for us to keep buying into a culture that keeps us chained to an injury treadmill.
Second, “no pain, no gain” doesn’t mean what we’ve been brainwashed to think it means.
When a really good fitness instructor talks about “pain”, they aren’t talking about physical hurt or body damage. They aren’t talking about running so far you puke or lifting so heavy you tear muscles or herniate disks. They aren’t telling us that we need to push so far past our limits that we break our bodies down with irreparable damage.
They are talking about the pain of dedication, the pain of consistency, the pain of starting at the bottom and working to the top of our ability. They are talking about the pain of prioritizing, the pain of making decisions and the pain of following through. They are talking about the pain of building emotional stamina and breaking through mental barriers. They are talking about the pain of starting something and not giving up.
They are not talking about physical, mental or emotional pain. They are talking about the discomfort that comes with growth.
Unfortunately, “dedication, consistency, priorities and discomfort from growth” isn’t catchy and it doesn’t rhyme with anything. It’s not exactly inspiring and it’s a terrible catch phrase for marketing.
If you’re tired of being in pain all of the time and bouncing around between injuries but you also aren’t ready to quit training, I get it. I full intend to run until I die.
At Pilates Native, I can teach you how to work with your body, instead of against it.
I can teach you how to get strong without sacrificing mobility, how to get mobility without sacrificing strength. I can teach you how to tap into your nervous system to help heal the physical, mental and emotional damage caused by your sport. I can teach you how to protect your body from further injury when you are going full throttle.
If you’re ready to step out on pain and try on “dedication, consistency, priorities, and discomfort from growth”, come on over. I got you.
-Rubecca
The Power of Practice, Patience & Consistency
Posted on June 14, 2023 by pilatesnative
This week, I had the immense pleasure to watch three separate clients perform incredibly advanced Pilates moves without even breaking a sweat.
The first, lifted beautifully, seemingly effortlessly into a graceful and strong teaser. The lack of gripping and tension in the muscles and face was notable. The move was organic, natural and the culmination of years of work.
The second folded back into a thigh stretch and noted how easy it was. The strength of the posture, the noticeably long neutral spine and ease of movement was apparent. The move again was organic, natural and the culmination of nearly a year of practice.
The third, in a powerful exhale, performed the most beautiful pushup that I have ever seen. The move was so powerful, so strong and yet so effortless, it looked like they had levitated from the floor to the plank position. The strength, the organization of the spine, the control of the entire body, the focus…all were equally demonstrated in a way that was organic, natural and the culmination of months and months of work.
The exercises performed by all three clients were new to them. And yet, they nailed it on their first try. How is it even possible to perform such advanced moves, so flawlessly, when we’ve never done it before?
Practice. Consistency. Patience.
Each of these clients has spent months and even years working with me.
We have spent hours and hours working on foundational basics: stability, proprioception, balance, control, focus.
We have spent hours working on strength, range of motion, coordination and mastering their biomechanics.
We have taken countless “detours” in their Pilates practice to work on something that caught my eye in their patterns.
Seeing them nail these poses yesterday was exciting! It was like watching hours of work align into one beautiful perfect moment.
In November, I started taking private ballroom dance lessons. Every Thursday at noon, I am put through the paces of stability, proprioception, balance, control, focus, strength, range of motion, biomechanics and coordination, as it applies to dance. In the last twelve weeks, I have yet to make it through a full dance without the instructor stopping to correct something, introduce something, connect something. It’s quite similar to how I teach Pilates. Piece by piece.
At times, it can be maddening. I want to GO! To dance, to just keep moving. But Todd, my hilarious and good natured instructor, pumps the brakes and we spend 45 minutes working on foot placement, or hand holds, or trying to get one hip to move in a way it most stubbornly does not want to go. Very frequently, we spend a lot of time unlearning a lifetime of bad habits. (more on that later)
Being on this side of the instructor/client relationship is always a powerful experience and a great reminder of the client journey.
On Friday night, we joined the group party at the dance studio. In this laid back setting, I found myself able to dance through an entire song, following cues without even thinking about it. I also was able to follow a new dance partner in a dance style that I have never heard of. Like magic, all of the pieces we’ve been working on for 12 weeks, just clicked.
Practice, patience, consistency.
It takes the human body 6-8 weeks to start adapting to something new. It takes 7 repetitions of something to turn it into a noticeable habit. It takes 6-12 weeks to recover from the physical act of childbirth, and sometimes years to recover from the body changes caused by pregnancy and the birthing process. It can take months, sometimes years, to heal the body after a traumatic injury/event. It takes months, sometimes years to lose the weight, to gain the muscle, to train and compete at the level we want to perform at.
And yet, most of us quit after 2 weeks without results.
We do one round of classes and give up because our life long patterns have not been resolved.
We discount or discredit the instructor encouraging us to commit to the process and allow our minds and bodies time to grow, change and develop.
As a general rule, society expects immediate gratification and scoffs at anything that requires commitment, consistency and delayed gratification.
While technology and the rest of the world moves at light speed and two day turnarounds, the body is not wired that way. Humans, after all, are still just cave-men. Our systems are still bound by the laws of evolution. And evolution moves slowly.
If you’ve quit your movement practice for lack of results or feel like your progress is too slow, I’d encourage you to keep going, but embrace the slow. Allow yourself time to unwind years of patterns and muscle habits. Embrace the foundational basics. Allow yourself time to build a strong foundation. Allow yourself time for practice, patience and consistency.
Doing so may find you doing things you never thought possible…in a way that is natural, organic and injury-free.
Hope to see you in the studio soon!
-Rubecca
January 13th- Quitter’s Day +SMART Goals
January 13th- Quitter’s Day
The 2nd Friday in January is known as “Quitter’s Day”, as it’s the day we’re most likely to give up on our new year’s resolutions. This year’s Quitter’s Day has very aptly landed on Friday the 13th, a day known for it’s unusual association with bad luck. The most common reasons for tapping out on resolutions include loss of motivation, lack of time, change of plans and “other”. (I think “other” might be my favorite reason lol.) Before we get into the why’s behind the high percentages of quitting, let’s check out some data.
New Year’s Resolution by the Numbers
4000 years – how long folks have been makin’ and breakin’ resolutions.
38% of American adults set New Year’s Resolutions.
48% of resolutions include exercise.
70% of resolutions are related to physical health.
The top 3 resolutions are typically: exercise more, eat better, lose weight.
64% of folks quit their resolutions by the end of January.
Just 9% of people successfully keep their resolutions.
81% of resolutions are considered “fails”.
Most people quit their resolutions on the 2nd Friday of January.
Why are so many folks giving up so soon?
If you’ve ever tried to make a big life change (or heck, even a small one) you know how hard it can be. The bigger the change, the more work required to make it happen.
When I worked in corporate, management required every employee to set 3 yearly goals, which were then audited by our supervisors who would determine if our goals were SMART or not.
SMART goals are ones that were: Sustainable Measurable Attainable Realistic Timed
SMART goals are big business in Corporate America and there are entire careers and companies built around helping folks make, create and achieve SMART goals.
If you take a look at that list, SMART goals look like boring corporate nonsense. There’s nothing big, wishful, creative, fancy or big dream in SMART.
Sustainable…Measurable…Attainable…Realistic…Timed…BOOOORING.
Here’s the thing. Over the course of 15 years, I hit every single one of my SMART goals. That’s a successful completion of 45 goals.
SMART goals work.
The power is in making things sustainable and realistic for your situation.
Sustainable goals are ones that fit your current lifestyle. Not your ideal lifestyle. Not the lifestyle you wish you had or the lifestyle you’re working towards. The lifestyle you have RIGHT NOW.
One of my favorite advices to give to folks asking how to maintain their fitness routines is that “10 minutes a day is better than 0 minutes a day”. Having measurable and timed goals is important, because it gives us metrics and data for what we are doing (you know I love data!) and it gives us a container within which to operate.
Open ended goals tend to float in the winds of “someday”. Having an end time anchors us to the goal and provides a little more stability to work with.
Attainable and realistic are probably the hardest pieces to reconcile, and after sustainability, this is where a lot of us lose traction. Setting attainable and realistic goals requires us to come back to Earth and truly assess where we are and what we can do in our given time frame.
Can we actually really and truly make $1 billion this year with a startup that hasn’t started up yet?
This is the humbling part of the SMART process that most of us hate. But it’s extremely important.
2 minutes a day…12 hours a year
All of that to say we have very round-about-ly landed on my favorite talking point this month. It’s extremely pertinent after all of those depressing stats about quitting I just laid out above.
So, y’all know I only give 2 minutes of balance work homework per day. Why?
Because it’s so stupid easy, it’s SMART.
2 minutes a day is totally sustainable. No matter how busy you are, you can find 2 minutes to practice balance.
2 minutes per day is measurable.
2 minutes per day is attainable.
Anyone can do this work for two minutes.
2 minutes per day is realistic. No matter what you have going on, 2 minutes is a very realistic time commitment.
2 minutes per day is timed. While the “timed” in the normal SMART goals is a little different, knowing we have just a 2 minute commitment per day makes it happen.
Here’s something else really cool about 2 minutes of homework per day.
Turns out, that just 2 minutes a day for 365 days actually ends up being 12 hours a year.
12 hours! Wild right?
Get this. Doing something every day for 4 minutes a day is 24 hours a year. So next time you’re thinking those small things aren’t worth doing or don’t bring much value, think again. If you were ready to jump off the resolution wagon, take a moment and think SMART. How can you apply SMART to your resolutions and make them happen? Do you need to be a little more realistic? Add a timed component? Dial in on the sustainability?
My 1000 year challenge
If you’ve been wondering what my SMART goals for 2023 are, I am having a 1000 year challenge. This year, as a family, we are joining the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge. Each of us will be tracking our outside time with the goal of 1000 hours each. At the same time, I will be aiming to return to my running roots and log over 1000 miles on the trails this year.
Good luck, happy SMART’ing! Feel free to shoot me an email if you want to talk further SMART goals.
– Rubecca
The Power of NO
Posted on August 1, 2022 by pilatesnative
I said no!
Last week, I went into Ulta for the first time ever. As I was checking out, the cashier asked for my phone number. When I declined politely, she asked if I’d like to sign up for a rewards account. I declined again. She sighed, made a face and proceeded to ring up my items. With the total, she again asked if I wanted to sign up for an account based on how many points the purchase would get me.
With a stronger no, I declined. At this point, she became almost hostile and demanded a phone number for a friend or family member so they would get my purchase points credited to their account instead of wasting them.
At this point, three minutes into our transaction, I had said no four different times in four different ways. With each no, the cashier became less and less friendly and more and more frustrated while I became increasingly agitated and less and less polite.
Her resistance and hostility to accept my no locked us into a weird power struggle. In the past, I would have caved, rattled off my phone number while staring at the ground and feeling like a chump. Instead, I held my ground, accepting that my weird obsession with privacy and data mining was more important to me than this cashier’s feelings.
No wasn’t always easy for me and it’s a skill I’ve had to develop.
Whether it’s saying no or accepting a no, there is a complex internal struggle built into no.
When we say no to someone, it can trigger guilt, shame, and fear.
Am I a bad person for declining the $1 donation to a charity? Will the cashier treat us differently if we say no to their rewards program? Will our friends still like us if we say no to the midnight showing? Are we letting down our friends/family/selves if we say no to the expensive holiday activity? Will our kids be scarred for life when we say no to the extracurricular activity that requires getting up at 5am? Will my no to overtime cause the boss to skip over me at promotion time?
Saying no can also trigger FOMO (the fear of missing out). With the rise of social media, FOMO has run rampant and can cause a whole list of terrible things like depression, anxiety, feelings of loneliness and low self worth.
On a more serious note, no can also be a dangerous word. Many folks, particularly young women, have learned to dance around no as a means of self preservation. A passive or flakey answer can diffuse a situation in which a strong no would only escalate.
It’s not only our personal relationships that struggle with no. Entire industries, particularly sales and marketing, are built around manipulating us to say “YES!”.
With each no we want to give but override, we’re telling ourselves that what we need doesn’t matter.
With each yes we give, when we really want to say no, we’re accepting less sleep, more doubt, more weight, less health, more debt, less free time. We’re also telling ourselves over and over, that what we need doesn’t matter.
What does this have to do with Pilates?
With 30+ years experience as an athlete and 12+ teaching fitness, I’ve learned that most of us have been conditioned from a very young age to override our own “check engine lights”.
Instead of turning internally to guide our training, we have been taught and encouraged to depend on external sources like coaches, teachers, doctors, training plans and our sports dogmas to tell us when we take a break, when we get water, when we rest, when we eat, how much we sleep, what we eat and how we treat our bodies.
We’ve also been taught to override any feelings (mental/emotional/physical) that go against what our training plan says.
Feeling tired? Too bad. It’s tempo day.
Mentally burned out? Too bad. Lace up and get on the field.
Knee pain? Suck it up and run through it.
Jump too scary or too dangerous? It’s going to be effing awesome if you land it, so do it anyway!
The worst part, is that most of the time, it’s not even our coaches or trainers. We do this to ourselves.
Two things happen in this environment.
1) We’ve never been taught how and when to say no, so we don’t know how to do it. Often, we don’t even know that saying no is an option.
2) We lose the ability to listen to our own intuition and take care of our bodies.
As a runner, coming from a culture of “no pain, no gain” and “just run through it”, this is where 100% of my injuries came from. While a few days off could have easily helped manage Achilles tendonitis or shin splints, “running through it” meant severe pain that lasted for months and in a few cases, major issues that changed my life.
On a broader scale, the inability to say no can cause burnout, frustration, resentment, depression and fatigue. It also robs us of our ability to direct our time and energy into things we enjoy and frequently leaves us out of alignment with our priorities.
Luckily, saying no is a skill. And like all skills, we can start small, we can practice and we can strengthen the skill until we master it.
As a Pilates instructor, a mom, and an aunt, I pride myself on being a safe-no.
In fact, I am completely honored and internally cheer when one of my clients tells me no.
That no means:
they are listening to their body
they are advocating and communicating for what feels safe and what doesn’t
they are taking charge of their own Pilates practice and not just performing a “monkey see, monkey do” routine.
they are strengthening their “no muscle” along with the rest of their core muscles
they trust me and know that I’ll accept their no
As a safe-no, my job is to ensure that clients feel safe, empowered and confident that their no will be respected.
By offering a safe no, clients have a chance to check in with themselves and decide whether or not they are ready to take on the next challenge.
The true power of a safe-no is taking back our autonomy and intuition, in having the confidence to know when we need to back down and when we’re ready to scale up.
Injury prevention is rooted in scaling up appropriately.
If you’re up to it, allow yourself to say no to one thing today. Guilt free. Enjoy it!
-R
Pilates & Prevention
Posted on March 1, 2020 by pilatesnative
For the last decade, my career as a Welding Engineer has focused primarily on quality analysis and quality control (QA/QC). The majority of the equipment I encounter is pressurized and a failed weld could cause a lot of damage.
My days are spent ensuring that any potential problems are flagged and resolved before the welder even strikes an arc.
Occasionally, despite all of my best efforts in the home office to prevent failures, a weld will fail quality testing in the shop or something will start leaking before installation.
On rare occasions (thankfully), a weld will fail in service, and cause serious damage. Usually, the weld has shown symptoms of failure prior to this point and the serious failure is the final sign that things have not been right for a long time.
In addition to that original QA/QC check, my job includes finding the symptoms that lead to the leaks or the failures and figuring out how to fix the issue and prevent it from happening again.
By now, you’re wondering what all of this has to do with Pilates and Stretch Therapy.
The answer, my friends, is Prevention.
Just like a weld, there are early symptoms in a body that show increased potential for failure.
Poor balance
Lack of coordination
Lack of core strength
Lack of flexibility
Overall lack of fitness
Poor or improper posture
And surprisingly, over training
These are the things “flagged” in the initial QA/QC check. If repaired, the potential for damage caused by these issues can be mitigated and frequently avoided all together.
If we ignore these flags, we reach the next phase, the smaller annoying injuries that make us grumpy and prevent us from doing what we love.
Stress fractures
Knee tweaks
Sprained ankles
Pain in joints and muscles upon certain movement
Back pain
Decreased range of motion
Muscle strain
These things are the “leaks” in our welding analogy. The body is giving us flags to indicate that something has gone wrong and needs to be addressed asap.
Unfortunately, many of us ignore these “leaks” and we move right along into serious failure territory. Severe pain that limits our physical abilities.
Frozen shoulders
Dislocated knees
Rips, tears, or pulled muscles
Herniated disks
Broken bones
It is the catastrophic failures that usually get us to slow down and pay attention. They’re expensive. They hurt. They can be life changing.
As a recovering chronic over-trainer with a history of two dislocated knees, a wonky left hip, and micro-tears in one shoulder, I’ve ignored my fair share of flags and leaks and found myself on the sidelines, frustrated and bored.
Like so many of you, I discovered yoga, Pilates and Stretch Therapy as part of the overall injury recovery process. Along the way, I discovered a passion for body mechanics and how yoga, Pilates and Stretch Therapy can help mitigate and prevent that final stage of “catastrophic” failures.
Focusing on prevention as a Pilates Instructor fits right in with my technical training in QA/QC. It’s why everyone of my clients goes through an Initial Assessment. And it’s why my main focus as a Pilates Instructor is always on what you’re doing, what’s being flagged, what’s causing your “leaks” and finding the best proactive solution for your body, whether it’s balance work, stretch therapy or correcting muscle imbalances.
Pilates and Stretch Therapy can’t solve every body problem or prevent every ache and pain, but it can give us a good foundation to help prevent those catastrophic failures.
With the beautiful spring weather and sunshine, I know many of us are itching to hit the trails. Enjoy yourselves but remember to mind your “flags” and “leaks” and take time to take care of yourselves!
.Happy March!
-Rubecca