Your rates aren’t competitive!”
Posted on June 14, 2023 by pilatesnative
As I’m writing this newsletter, I’m listening to a training module for Pilates Instructors. In an excellent moment of universal synchronicity, the host is talking about all of the mental and emotional reactions we have when it comes to our rates. Whether it’s setting our rates, actually charging our rates, telling people our rates or raising our rates.
Rates have actually been on my mind for several months.
A few months ago, a comment was made in a passing conversation with someone that my rates “weren’t really competitive”. Rather than getting upset or feeling confrontational or racing to do market research (my usual go-to reactions with any perceived criticism), my reaction was more amused. “Well, who am I competing with?”
Pilates Native was not built on competition, but on the idea that there was great value in sharing the things I know and love with others. And let’s be honest, teaching Pilates is way fun!
That love of movement and passion for the Pilates work makes Pilates Native a power house of modalities and offerings. In twelve years as an instructor, I have learned, studied and certified in so many fun things, meaning the sessions offered at Pilates Native are a blend of:
Hatha Yoga
Energy Work (Reiki, Psych-K)
Sports Therapy
Injury Prevention + Injury Recovery
Mat Pilates
Equipment Pilates (Reformer, Cadillac, Chair, Spine Corrector)
Standing Pilates
Running Shoe Analysis
Gait Training
Fascial Stretch Therapy
Life Stretch
Trauma Informed Sessions
DEI, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ Informed Sessions
Somatic Movement
TRX
Spreadsheets (seriously can’t forget those!)
and now…RYC – Restore Your Core
On top of all of this fun stuff, I’m also a Yoga Alliance E-RYT and a Physical Mind Institute Certifying Instructor. (in an unrelated but amusing aside from my past life, I’m also a Certified Welding Inspector lol)
With all of that being said, rates will be assessed annually. Monthly subscriptions will give the best deal on sessions.
If you’ve been wanting to start your Pilates routine or get back into it, Laura and I are both accepting new clients right now!
Laura has her own amazing list of certs and experience. Most notably she is a classically trained Pilates instructor and is also certified in Thai Yoga Bodywork.
As always, making this work accessible to as many people as possible is super important to me, so equity sessions and scholarships will still be available for the Pilates work and the instructor trainings.
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
Cheers to our first 3 years!
And just like that…it’s October!(and we’ve been open for 3 years!!!!)
What is up? How is it going? How are you?
This month’s newsletter will be short-n-sweet. I had a great post on Recovery started in my brain, but September was crazy pants and I’ve yet to put words to paper. And I can’t stop outside-ing while the weather is this nice! We’ll catch that thread when it swings back this way.
Oct 11th marks Pilates Native’s official 3rd bday!
While I’ve been teaching for well over a decade, I took my first three clients as an independent studio in my own space on Oct 11th, 2019. What an amazing three years it has been! So much fun!!! There’s nothing quite like looking at the schedule and knowing that I just cannot wait to see every single person on that list. Thank you all so very much for making the studio a part of your lives!
While we’re marking milestones, July was the one year anniversary of me leaving a full time engineering job and going full time Pilates! Hah! What a wild ride!
Thank you for your help!
I’d like to extend a great big heartfelt thank you to everyone who has joined us so far as practice clients for instructor training! When planning the program, I knew I wanted to teach using real bodies with real movement patterns. If nothing else, I hope to teach that there is no “normal” and every body has its own way of moving.The power of the Pilates repertoire is just how much of the work is applicable and available to bodies across the spectrum of ability. We do still have quite a few hours to fill and the schedule is curlet me know.
On a side note, if you’re interested in instructor training, shoot me an email. I run a rolling training program, meaning we start when you’re ready.
Have a great day!
-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 101
Posted originally on May 4, 2022 by pilatesnative
Seeing as I am a Pilates instructor, we should probably learn about some Pilates around this joint. So let’s dig in.
The majority of my clients are injured athletes. This is my wheelhouse and where the entire duration of my Pilates career has focused. This means that a lot of my clients are complete newbies to Pilates. They walk in the door without really knowing what the heck Pilates is because their doctors have prescribed Pilates for their injury recovery.
The first reaction on seeing the equipment is amusing. Lots of jokes paired with a little apprehension. In this post, we’ll be doing a Pilates 101 and giving you all the info you need to walk into your 1st Pilates class prepared and confident.
The Core Principles of Pilates
Regardless of whether the work is Classical or Contemporary, all Pilates classes will include The Core Principles of Pilates: Centering, Concentration, Control, Precision, Breath and Flow.
Your Pilates classes will also be Mat Pilates, Standing Pilates, Equipment Pilates or a mix of all 3.
Classical vs Contemporary Pilates
Do you practice Classical or Contemporary Pilates?
Should you practice one over the other?
What does that even mean?
From the 8 original instructors, over 50 different types of Pilates instructor trainings have branched!
These many different styles are broadly categorized as either Classical Pilates or Contemporary Pilates.
Classical Pilates
Sticks as closely as possible to the way Joe taught
Utilizes a set ordered sequence of exercises
May also be called Authentic Pilates or True Pilates
Pros:
Great for people who need routine and stability
You know what you're getting and that it's Pilates
Cons:
May get boring for folks who like variety
Rigid dogma can turn people off from the modality
Contemporary Pilates
Based on Joe's exercises and methods and maintains the general essence of his work
No set sequence
Pros:
Freedom for the instructors to interpret the work and include their other modalities as part of their Pilates offerings
Modernized to fit with advances in research, biomechanics and PT
Cons:
The work may get so diluted it's not recognizable beyond the name
Mat, Standing and Equipment Pilates
Mat Pilates
Pilates that is done on a mat. Lately, people have been referring to this as “floor Pilates”. The proper name is Mat Pilates.
Most common type of Pilates taught in gyms or videos.
Exercises utilize body weight.
Focus is on building core strength, posture, proper breathing technique, and functional flexibility.
Classes may use props: blocks, bands, straps, Magic Circle, balls, hand weights, etc.
Standing Pilates
Pilates exercises that are done standing. Excellent for pairing with activities that don’t always have available floor space, like weight lifting, running, mountain biking or in the office.
Exercises utilize body weight.
Focus is on building core strength, proper breathing technique, posture and functional flexibility.
Classes may use props: blocks, bands, straps, Magic Circle, balls, hand weights, etc.
Apparatus or Equipment Pilates
Pilates exercises that are done using the Pilates Equipment: Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Tower, Barrel, Spine Corrector + more
Typically taught at a studio, either in privates (also called one-on-ones), doubles or group classes.
Exercises utilize equipment spring tension + body weight.
Focus is on building core strength, proper breathing technique, posture and functional flexibility.
Classes may use props: blocks, bands, straps, Magic Circle, balls.
Regardless of the type of Pilates you are doing, the benefits are huge:
Improved core strength
Improved posture
Improved flexibility and range of motion
Improved balance and proprioception
Improved spinal stabilization
Better coordination and control of your body
Rehab and/or prevent muscle imbalances and/or sports injuries
Improved focus, concentration and mind-body connection
Improved breathing technique and lung capacity
Somatic movement as stress management
The Method Behind the Madness…part 4
Posted on March 5, 2022 by pilatesnative
Unlocking the Body
I tend to think of the body as a puzzle or a video game. With our Pilates practice, we’re unlocking levels as we go. If we don’t successfully unlock level 1, we can’t fully access level 2.
Unlocking the Body with Muscle Memory
If your IA or previous exercises have shown that you currently do not have the ability currently to access or understand movement related to the ribcage, I’m not going to cue you during footwork or bridges or whatever else to “close the ribcage”.
If I cue you to “close the rib cage” and you have absolutely no idea how to execute that cue, or how to even connect to the part of the body that moves the ribcage, that’s a wasted cue. Instead of guiding you to a connection and a deeper understanding or communication with your body, we’ve guided you towards uncertainty, frustration, or self-consciousness. Or you’ve completely ignored the cue and it’s meaningless anyway.
However, if I observed you naturally closing the ribcage during certain movements in the IA or during other Pilates exercises, we can use those exercises to help develop further understanding of “closing the ribcage”.
The first thing we do is develop muscle memory by repetition. We utilize the exercises you can properly execute to develop really strong muscle memory. We do them over and over and over. When both the brain and the body understand the movement, then we can start cueing that movement in other exercises.
Unlocking the Body with Exploration
Secondly, we may need to address stability, mobility, strength or brain connection before we can access certain movements. This is where things can get tricky.
We may find we need to develop all four to execute an exercise. In that case, we need to prioritize. Do we need to focus most on stability? Strength? Mobility? Brain connection? And how do we best do that?
After addressing form and safety, I tend to lean towards brain connection first. Humans are kinetic learners. We learn by doing. Sometimes we need to explore a movement and just roll with it until we understand how that movement works.
Once we get the basic mechanics of how a movement operates, we can start focusing on stability, strength and mobility.
Frequently, as clients explore different exercises, they themselves find the “missing piece” and are able to identify what’s needed to properly execute a movement.
I’ve found that it’s best to wait a breath or two before cueing or allow a client to fully explore a movement until they verbalize a question or an understanding.
Allowing exploration of movement, without external cues from an instructor, gives clients a chance to unlock the body themselves. This is what creates understanding between brain+body and gets those neural connections firing.
See you in the studio soon!
-Rubecca
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.
Rejecting hustle culture
Posted on October 26, 2021 by pilatesnative
Running a business + honoring my own needs
Good morning lovely people! Just a quick reminder that this is my week off from the studio.
When I first started down this path as a Sports Therapist for a Chiro clinic, I was working 40 hours a week and seeing patients on 30 min intervals. It was fun and I learned a ton, but man…between the patient notes, individualized planned sessions and demonstrating, it was mentally, emotionally and physically exhausting. After work, I’d get home and just sit on the couch just staring into space for an hour before gearing up to take the dogs running or doing normal life activities. One of the reasons I went back to engineering was because I needed something that was a little less energy intense.
When I opened the studio, I knew 3 things:
burnout was the number one reason fitness professionals move on from the industry
overwork and underpay killed the passion for most small business owners
my own energy limitations
Unlike most small businesses where we jump in 100% working 24/7, this little studio was designed with strong boundaries around my energy, including the number of clients and hours worked. My first openings for availability was limited to 3 clients per week! That sounds CRAZY, right? Who starts a business limited to just 3 clients?!?!
But here’s the thing. When I honor my own energy needs and limitations, I can give my clients 100% every session. I LOVE being in the studio, I LOVE creating that safe calm space for you guys. And I LOVE every minute we are together.
When I was working 40 hours a week, I didn’t love my job after about 20 hours. And that sucked big time.
As my ability to take on studio hours increased, I wanted to make sure I was honoring my own energy needs and decided my business plan would include limited hours/clients per week AND the ability to give myself a week off every 6 weeks.
This was a HUGE decision. It meant I had to be brave enough to walk the walk and talk the talk, following all of my own advice to clients on the importance of self care, prioritizing your needs, and knowing when to take a break BEFORE you break.
It meant going against all conventional small business advice of hustling, nose to the grindstone, don’t stop ‘til you get enough.
And it meant either closing the studio for a week every 6 weeks and no income that week or finding a dedicated sub that I could trust to keep things rolling.
In theory, it was a terrible idea.
In practice, it’s been the BEST business decision ever.
My clients were amazingly receptive and supportive of the idea.
I’ve found two amazing subs who have started to create relationships with regular clients and provide incredibly valuable insight and variety to the client practice.
And I’ve even found that some clients will schedule their own trips, appointments or other self care things during that week break. Together, we’re walkin’ the walk.
Long story short? Rejecting hustle culture, honoring my needs and building a business with strong boundaries around those needs has allowed the culture of self care to thrive in the studio. It’s not just some catch phrase we throw around. It’s what we do.
Hell ya.
Have an awesome week! I miss you already and can’t wait to see you next Tuesday!
Honoring all the good stuff,
-Rubecca
Taking your body on a stretch date
Posted on September 30, 2021 by pilatesnative
Stretching should feel good. Lemme say that again.
STRETCHING SHOULD FEEL GOOD.
None of that “no pain, no gain” bullshit. I’m serious, folks. When stretching, you want to aim for a pleasant tension. Any burning, stinging, ripping, tearing or pain while stretching is a sign that you’ve gone too far. So back it up (waaaaay up) and apply “The First Date Principle”.
The First Date Principle…Or how to take your muscles on a stretch date
1 Go slow. Sloooooooow. Even slower. Take your time and ease into each stretch slowly and gently. Move too quickly and date’s over!
2 Be gentle. If you are aggressive, your muscles are going to metaphorically run away from you and hide. No second date for you!
3 Be a good listener. Listen to the signs your body is giving you, whether it’s telling you to slow down, back off, or proceed with caution. How well you listen to your muscles is going to determine how well this stretch date goes and whether or not you’re getting that metaphorical 2nd date. You want that 2nd date. You NEEEEED that 2nd date.
What if it’s awkward and uncomfortable?
By rule, all 1st dates are awkward and uncomfortable. If it’s been a while since you’ve taken your muscles on a stretch date, you may feel some new sensations. Some positions may be tight, uncomfortable, feel a little awkward, or have an “increased awareness” around them. You know the difference between these things and pain. It is your job to listen and pay attention and make sure these sensations never dip into the pain pool. Remember, pleasant tension.
Cheers to you having an amazing stretch date!
-Rubecca
Intentional Rest
Posted originally on February 20, 2021 by pilatesnative
Today is the last day of my “intentional rest” from my business. Aside from some instagram posts, I didn’t allow myself to do anything business related for an entire week. (Not even a single trip to the studio to clean or organize or anything!)
Tomorrow bright and early, it’s back to the studio! I am so looking forward to it.
I was grumpy/cranky all week, super disorganized and forgetful. I felt directionless and spent the whole day Thursday wandering around wondering what I was forgetting to do. The funny thing is, I’m on fire when I’m busy! Slowing down was unsettling!
Today was finally warm enough to inventory the yard and see what work needs to be done for spring planting. That dirt planning was important and finally settled me. Going fwd, I think my intentional rest days will be planned gardening and yard projects or mini trips instead of TV binges.
This is my 1st round and I’m proud for following through with the whole week as planned and am stoked to hit the ground running tomorrow! Ya girl was meant for action! But I’m learning to honor bear medicine and rest so I can keep showing up as my best self everyday!