The Method Behind the Madness

Posted on February 21, 2022 by pilatesnative

Why Pilates Native runs the way we do

If you’ve been in any gym or studio of any kind, you’ve noticed that Pilates Native is operating far outside the fitness industry norm. We don’t offer group classes and we don’t focus on weight loss. We also follow the “Engage to Serve” method, meaning we focus on your needs, not ours.

Extensive Intake Form

We have a wicked long client intake form that asks a bunch of random questions beyond the usual emergency contact and injury history. You are much more than your knee pain or back surgery and the questions on this form are designed to give me a better idea of who you are as a person and how the studio can best serve you.Often, the answers to these questions help me prepare for your Initial Assessment and give me a chance to create a list of recommendations for chiros, massage therapists, PT’s or personal trainers that may benefit you and your situation.

Fitness Tests, PT Evals, and Pilates Native Initial Assessments

Since day one, Pilates Native clients have been required to complete an Initial Assessment before signing up for any of our Pilates packages. This is probably the strangest experience for most of you as you wonder what the hell me watching you balance on one leg has to do with anything.

A normal gym fitness test typically utilizes dynamic exercises like pushups and sit-ups paired with a cardio test to determine your overall “fitness”. Unless you are working with an extremely skilled and educated trainer, this fitness test doesn’t usually tap into injury or disfunction and focuses primarily on “fitness”. Reps, weight lifted, heart rate, body composition, body weight and measurements may also be included as part of a fitness test.

A PT evaluation, on the other hand, will typically focus on the point of pain or injury and use muscle testing, range of motion tests or other PT tools to pinpoint the dysfunction at that exact spot. PT tends to be extremely focused on the area of interest, so you may spend an entire evaluation focused on just the knee or just the shoulder. Subsequent sessions will again focus primarily on the area of interest. PT isn’t typically designed to be a full body focus. This is targeted recovery work.

The Pilates Native Initial Assessment is a series of static exercises that assesses your balance, core strength and functional range of motion. Each of the balance and core strength assessments are composed of 4-5 levels, with each designed to provide insight on how your body is functioning as a whole and how systems are interacting with one another.

Your form, effort, posture and muscle recruitment during each level tell me what’s working and what’s not.

The “probable suspects list”

By pairing your symptom profile with the IA results, we can create a “probable suspects list” for the root cause to injury, pain, irritation or lack of mobility.

For example, many clients seek out Pilates for back pain, hip pain, hip tightness or lack of mobility through the back and hips. What I’ve learned over the years, is that dysfunction at the hip shows up as poor balance. Poor balance is typically associated with weak or under active hip stabilizers. This in turn causes the rest of the hip girdle to have to over compensate, leading to over-use in muscles who are taking on an extra job. That overuse and over compensating then causes tightness all around the hips, which can then cause pain, irritation or injury in the hips. It may also creep into the low back.

By simply focusing on balance work, we can turn on the hip stabilizers while also turning off the rest of the muscles who are over working, allowing them to rest and return back to their normal function. Adding targeted range of motion work to the balance work ensures that the functional balance between the muscles pairs is restored.

Even more reasons to love balance work

Because I like efficiency more than anything else, the targeted balance work also improves proprioception (body’s awareness of self in space), which keeps us from bumping into things, falling, or stumbling down stairs and cleans up dysfunctions at the foot and ankle, which allows for proper utilization of the muscles and joints in the feet and ankles. When our feet and ankles work properly, we can stabilize in mud, ice, and snow and prevent further hip issues that may be caused by weird stuff going on in our foundation.

Proper standing posture can also provide relief from global tightness or stiffness in the body. Practicing standing balance and standing Pilates in the studio, gives us a real world scenario to practice in. We don’t have mats or reformers strapped to our bodies all day long providing tactile feedback to relax the shoulders, soften the knees, untuck the pelvis or pull in the ribcage. By practicing standing balance in the studio, we learn how to tune into these things on our own. This is probably the most valuable component that the standing work brings to our training.

But what about my issue?

You may be thinking, “ok great, you explained why standing balance works for hip and low back pain, but what about my issue? Why the hell am I doing XYZ when my issue is ….?!?”

That’s a great question. The first and easiest answer is we’re not doing PT. Again, PT is extremely valuable and targeted work for a specific location and a specific injury.

We, on the other hand, are looking at the body as a whole. Simply put, when talking about non-traumatic issues, pain, injury or irritation occur because something is not working while something else is overworking.

Neck and shoulder issues are typically because the neck, upper traps, and rotator cuff muscles are overworking while maybe the obliques, abs, lats, and other larger muscles have stopped working or are delegating their work way too frequently. The smaller muscles aren’t designed for this work and that’s what leads us to injury.

You may find that when you have an injury or a complaint, we completely avoid the area. That can be absolutely maddening!

For example, if you have shoulder pain and scored low on your lateral core strength assessment, we have to strengthen the abs and the obliques while also breaking overactive neck muscle memory, before we can even get into any shoulder work.

What we’re doing is focusing on strengthening the area around the injury, turning under active muscles on, while also turning over active muscles off and purposefully giving the cranky area a break.

Working in this way is what helps break old muscle memory patterns and prevents us from reinforcing the bad habits that led to the initial problem.

Muscle Work + Brain Work!

While the majority of what we do looks like it’s just muscle work, it is also a lot of BRAIN work. We are constantly re-creating neural pathways and teaching the body new ways of understanding movement.

This is why we do six weeks at a time, to give the body and brain time to adjust and adapt.

It’s why we run a trauma informed studio, so your brain and body feel safe and able to grown/learn/change.

It’s why we use the 80/20 method, building sessions off of 80% familiar material and 20% new material.

It’s why we move slowly and focus on quality of movement and proper muscle engagement.

Now, I get that this can feel like an extremely round about way to get what we want. And I get that this method just isn’t for everyone. And that’s ok.

But if you’re like me, and you love solving puzzles and you fully intend to keep your movement practice going until you die, you are welcome to join me here in the studio, geeking out over biomechanics and how we can best hack them for better strength and mobility!

The Method Behind the Madness…part 3

Posted on February 21, 2022 by pilatesnative

Cueing for Maximum Impact

People always ask how a self proclaimed “ambivert” manages to run a Pilates studio and teach 20-25 hours a week.

One of my favorite ways to exist in this space as an ambivert while also prioritizing client needs, is to utilize mindful cueing. What this means, is that instead of a constant stream of cues, I am very mindful and aware of how and when I’m cueing clients.

Enhancing the Mind+Body Connection

We talk a lot about proprioception and the mind+body connection in Pilates. As a Pilates instructor, my job is to help guide you into deeper connection and help you develop those neural pathways between your body and your brain.

Every Pilates Native client starts their journey with an Initial Assessment. During this assessment, I learn a lot about your body and how it works. Each exercise is chosen because it allows me to assess specific movement patterns and reveals imbalances, compensations, dominant patterns and how you engage your brain to move the body. During the assessment, I learn whether or not you can actively engage muscle groups or control your body during specific movements. I also learn whether or not you have the current functionality, whether it’s stability, strength or mobility, to perform certain movements.

When cueing, I rely on what we found in the Initial Assessment to set cueing priorities.

I’ve found that the best way to cue, is to

1) make sure you’re aligned safely and

2) focus on what you can currently connect to and control in the exercise.

Our first priority is always safety. Prioritizing proper alignment as our first cue ensures you’re engaged in a safe practice that won’t damage the body.

Focusing our second cue on what you can connect to and control, develops confidence and body awareness as you are able to follow and execute the cues.

Being able to connect to a muscle group and execute a cue properly is what helps us develop or strengthen the neural pathways between brain and body.

Cueing with a 2 item priority list creates an environment in which you’re maybe getting 1-2 cues over a course of movements. This is intentional. If you are being assaulted with a constant barrage of words, it’s going to be nearly impossible to connect your brain to your body.

Cueing to Accommodate Individual Anatomy & Ability

Every body’s anatomy is different. Spines, for example, are unique to each individual, with their own unique curvatures. A deeper lumbar curve doesn’t necessarily mean someone is not in neutral spine. Their neutral spine may just have a deeper lordotic curve. Cueing this person to a flat back or a “neutral spine” may actually cause harm or misunderstanding of their own body. Likewise, cueing someone with a naturally flatter spine to exaggerate their curves, would be equally inappropriate.

Frequently, we bump up against an exercise or a position that just isn’t accessible for one reason or another. Depending on your IA results, we may need to spend time developing the strength or mobility needed or we might just need to spend some time building awareness around the movement.

Other times, we may just be built a certain way. As an instructor, I’m always mindful of not cueing what a client cannot currently control anatomically.

Cueing to your current abilities allows us to work in a space where we can slowly open up the stability, mobility, strength or brain space needed to get into other movements.

Developing Stronger Intrinsic Body Awareness

When cueing, an instructor is providing external feedback. If a client becomes dependent on instructor cues and external feedback, they lose the opportunity to trust themselves and develop stronger body awareness.

One of the most powerful aspects of mindful cueing is creating space for you to experience Pilates intrinsically. During your sessions, you should always be given room and time to think, feel and move on your own.

Without external cues to validate every movement, your brain and body have to work harder to connect with one another and you really have to focus to build the body awareness.

We want the work we are doing to become intrinsic to your body, so we (safely) remove as many sources of external feedback as possible.

Trauma Informed Safe Space

Pilates Native is a trauma informed studio. This means the studio space is purposely designed to be a safe space for folks dealing with various forms of trauma.

In addition to the usual culprits we associate with mental, emotional and physical trauma, there can be a lot of trauma involved with everyday activities; injuries, surgeries, child birth, falling, work stress, or returning to exercise after illness.

When done mindfully with intention, Pilates is a type of somatic practice. The repetitive gentle movements can provide a safe space for folks to physically release residual stresses and complete the stress cycle.

Pilates can also provide a safe space to start accessing and reconnecting with the body after trauma.

Being overwhelmed with cues that may or may not be accessible totally inhibits the ability to release somatically. If you’re coming in to the studio wired to the ceiling or stressed to the max, you will not be getting a lot of cues. Your practice will prioritize somatic release. You will be getting a lot of familiar slow repetitive movements and a lot of space to explore and play in your practice.

Similarly, if you are joining the studio as a way to heal from a body trauma, your practice will focus more on creating safe and positive interactions with movement.

Distractions

Some instructors cue every movement from head to toe.

“Take a big strong inhale through the nose, being mindful of the ribcage flair, activating through the core to initiate, doming up through the arches, balanced across the feet, hips and shoulders are stacked, pelvis is neutral, allowing that doming at the foot to come up through the pelvic floor and moving up through the diaphragm, shoulders down away from ears, shoulder blades pulling down towards one another, head up, chin lifted, as we exhale, we extend.”

I HATE this style of cueing, both as a student and as an instructor.

What is the priority in that long list? Which of those cues were safety or form related? Which of those cues was relevant to the listener in the moment? What is the focus? How do we make it through that big long list checklist before exhaling into another long checklist?

Over-cueing sucks because it’s distracting, doesn’t provide a clear priority, disrupts focus and pulls you away from your ability to tune in.

If you need this type of instruction, that’s totally ok. We just won’t be a good fit to work together!

Different Instructors

If you’ve taken other fitness classes or Pilates classes, you know without a doubt that each instructor is different. We all have different styles and while we try to be well rounded, depending on our individual backgrounds, we may be more inclined to watch and cue specific areas more than others.

One of my favorite things about taking a week off is having one of our wonderful team members work with my clients for the week. Having a different instructor with a different eye, a different style and a different focus can really enhance your practice!

Your brain may have to work a little harder to connect with their speech patterns and cueing style. They may describe familiar movements differently, prompting different brain patterns to sprout.

They may have a cue that really resonates with you or puts the final piece into the puzzle, allowing you to unlock another level of movement.

Putting it all together

Cueing is an important part of a Pilates practice. A clear communication pathway between client and instructor is paramount to setting a good foundation. Cueing mindfully allows your instructors to give you cues that matter and add value to your practice, rather than just filling the room with words. Intentionally allowing space for clients to explore and understand the movement on their own terms allows room for growth and true development of body and brain connection.

This wraps up part 3 of “The Method Behind the Madness”, a monthly blog series focused on introducing you to what goes on behind the scenes at Pilates Native. Join me next month for Part 4, where we’ll talk about “Unlocking the Body” with muscle memory and intentional exploration of movement.

Take care and see you soon!

-R

The Method Behind the Madness…part 2

Posted on February 21, 2022 by pilatesnative

Mirror, mirror on the wall…

Normally, when you walk into a gym, yoga or Pilates studio, there is usually one long wall with floor to ceiling mirrors.

There are intentionally no mirrors in direct movement eye-line in my studio.

Developing Stronger Proprioception

The first reason has to do with proprioception, or the body’s awareness of self in space. Proprioception is about 75%-80% visual, meaning we use our vision to tell us where we are, what we’re doing and how close we are to other objects. The other 20%-25% is non-visual.

As a Pilates instructor, I am highly interested in that 20%-25% of non-visual proprioception because that’s where we see the body + brain connection really show up. How well do you perform when you can’t see what you’re doing?

Without mirrors, there is no external feedback to rely on to tell you what you’re doing. You have to think, feel and move on your own. What this means, is that your brain and body have to work harder to connect with one another and you really have to focus and build the body awareness.

This is also why we only teach private sessions. In group classes, it’s very easy to copy your neighbor and mimic what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. The problem is two-fold. One, by watching your neighbor, you’ve lost your brain-body connection and any proprioception work. Two, is that your neighbor’s body moves and responds differently than yours and it’s easy to train yourself into habits that don’t belong to your body. Our instructors do not demo entire classes physically with their own bodies for this same reason.

We want the work we are doing to become intrinsic to your body, so we remove as many sources of external feedback as possible.

Trauma Informed Safe Space

Pilates Native is a trauma informed studio. This means the studio space is purposely designed to be a safe space for folks struggling with various forms of trauma.

Mirrors can be highly triggering for people who are actively engaged in or are recovering from eating disorders, body dysmorphia, gender dysmorphia or negative self image.

Exercising in front of a mirror can be especially triggering and/or intimidating.

Distractions

The third reason we don’t have any mirrors is because they’re highly distracting. Instead of focusing on our form, posture or connection, we start analyzing what we look like or what we’re wearing. How many times have you gone to the gym and mid-rep noticed that your hair’s a mess or your socks are different colors? Maybe you use the mirrors to covertly copy the person next to you.

We live a very noisy world visually, so the less distractions we have, the better we can help train our focus and give our nervous system time to settle.

By removing mirrors from the studio space, we can focus on developing proprioception without external feedback, provide a safe space to practice and limit our distractions.