A Recipe For Success

Guilt free dessert and drinks all night? Sign me up! Here's a quick recipe for success to make dessert and drinks available again, without necessarily dancing. Although dancing will maybe allow for that high calorie latte in the morning.

Here’s a quick travel workout to make it so you can eat more without packing on the pounds.  The recipe will need about 5 minutes of prep time and only 20 minutes to cook.  Prepare for 25 minutes now that will translate to drinks and dessert later.

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of soup, or similar sized/weighted object that you can hold easily with one hand.
• 1 carry on bag preferably with two handles for both lengthwise and horizontal lifting.
• Mat or towel unless you have a comfortable carpet and can lay on the floor
• Stopwatch (or clock with a second hand) so you can time yourself

Prep:

Holding your small weights (cans of soup) in your hands, start jogging in place for 60-120 seconds.  The goal is to increase your heart rate to about half of what we are going to accomplish in the session.  The better shape you’re in, the longer you’ll need to start to feel an increase in difficulty.  To increase circulation, take some deep breaths with your arms.  Lift both arms up overhead on your inhale, and let the arms open wide to come down for your exhales.  Incorporate 10 breathes somewhere in the middle of this beginning set.

After initial heart increase, jump up your heart rate even more by raising your knees up to your chest while jogging.  Lifting each knee as high as you can.  Try to stay light on your feet, so no one downstairs can hear you.  For an added challenge, raise your weights overhead during the high knees.  Stay at high intensity for 15-30 seconds before returning to your mid intensity jog for half the length from your warm up.  If it took you the full 120 minutes to feel any sort of change in intensity, your jog interval will be 60 seconds and your high knees interval will be 30 seconds.  If you felt an increase in difficulty at 60 seconds, your jog interval will be 30 seconds and your high knees interval will be 15 seconds.  Alternate 6 times.

Keeping weights in your hands, extend your arms to either side of the room keeping your elbows in front of your shoulders and at a height that is lower than the shoulders.  Your feet are parallel hip width apart and your knees are soft.  Start to make small little circles with your middle fingers, as if you are drawing a circle on either side of the room.  Your palms start facing down towards the floor.  Keep circling for 30 seconds.  Then, reverse the circles and turn your palms up towards the ceiling.  Repeat 4 times.

Place your luggage bag on the floor with the handle facing you.  Straddle the luggage.  When facing your luggage, make sure your handle is above your knee and below where a short skirt would hit your thigh.  The height in relation to your body will determine whether you keep the bag horizontal or vertical.

• Bend your knees, keeping them behind your toes, as you stick your butt out to grab onto the handle of your bag.  Make sure both palms face your body and elbows able to open wide.
• With a deep exhale, extend your legs and bend your elbows out to the sides of the room to lift your luggage.
• Carefully bend your knees keep your elbows bent to return the bag back to the floor.  Extend your arms, lift your chest and return to starting position.  Repeat 8 times.

Kneel on the mat with your right leg forward and your left leg back.  Both feet are hip width apart (even though they are not touching) and both knees are at 90 degrees with the middle of the foot lined up with both your knee and your heel.  Tuck your back toe under and stand up, keeping your front knee a little bent.  Keeping your chest lifted, your back knee leads the way as you lunge down, and on an exhale draw your back knee to your chest.  Inhale to lunge again.  For an added glass of wine, as you draw your knee to your chest, jump off your front leg.  Than land and press back to your lunge.  Do 20 on each side.

Lay on your mat and cross your arms over your chest as if you were a mummy.  Try to keep your arms crossed and your heels connected into the mat.  Nod your chin and curl all the way up to a seated position.  Then roll back down again one vertebrae at a time.  Try extending your arms if the mummy position is too much.  If this isn’t available to you yet, place a belt around your feet.  Slowly lower yourself one hand at a time down the belt as you roll down.  Then climb up the belt one hand at a time to roll up.  See how little you can use the belt to complete the exercise.  Complete 4 full roll downs.

On the last one, swing your legs around and come into a high pushup position.  Hold this plank.  Keeping your hips equal, bring your right knee under your body and point it towards your left elbow.  Do the same on the other side.  Keep going alternating sides 20 times each.  Then 10 times bringing the knee to the same side elbow as fast as possible for mountain climbers. Repeat 4 times alternating between opposite sides and parallel.

Congratulations.  You have officially earned yourself Starbucks and dessert!

So I wrote a blog for one of my amazing friends named Patricia.   Patricia has the best travel blog out there called Fresh Traveler.  It's all about promoting sustainable tourism.  She's been on a Yoga retreat in Mexico, Thailand and so much more.  This is a quick 30 minute work out you can use to re-charge your battery.  Use this after a trip holiday shopping to recover from Christmas music, or as a retreat from family and loved ones when you feel you've just been loved a little too much.

As I wrote this blog I began to realize how little I wanted to read the blog.  I wanted someone to read it to me, so I could actually relax.  I'v done just that and more.  I recorded myself teaching the class with my own original piano music playing in the background.  Enjoy and find your Zen.  Just click here or follow the link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/c1v7nczz22vjjnl/thankszennedmusic.mp3

Step 1:   Lay on your back, with your knees up, and feet flat on the mat.  Your middle toe should line up with your collar bone and your heels. Arms rest long by your side.  If your back is uncomfortable, you can place a pillow under your head or place your feet on a stable raised surface.

Step 2:   Focus on your breathing.  Inhaling through your noes, and exhaling through your mouth.  Feel the positive and fresh air of your surroundings fill your body, channeling your air where to the areas that you need the most.  Exhaling through an open mouth, feeling any tightness, or pain in your body release.  Focus on channeling the positive air in through your noes, and expelling the negative air out through your mouth.  Remember, in Pilates, breath initiates movement.  The next 20 minutes, everything you do, you perform with a purpose, deliberateness.

Step 3:   Place your hands on your low abdominal, even below your belly button.  Exhale really deeply forming the word Haaaaaaah.  Pronounce the H like someone from France.  See if you can feel your abs pull up and in.  It's not just in (although you can do that), it's up and in.  Think as if you are pulling your abdominal all the way up your spine, through your torso all the way up the crown of your head.  This activation, without even moving, will give you the ability to feel the difference between initiating from your core, verse simply using your brute strength.

Steps 4-6: Pelvic Rocking:  

4.  Now use this exhale to rock your pubic bone up towards your chest, flattening your lower back on the mat.  Try to do this without engaging your butt muscles.  Think all front of the body.

5.   Inhale and slightly arch your lower back.  While doing this notice your lower ribs.  You want to think about these as pulling down and together like a triangle.  We always tend to think about our ribs in front.  It's time to start to think about ribs as in back as well.  The ribs angle in opposite directions, encasing and protecting, your major organs like the heart and lungs, Think about two trapezoids, with the wider bottom being your shoulders, and the shorter bottom being your ribs.  They naturally sit as trapezoids, but if you think about it, you can exhale, and turn the bottom shorter line into a triangle point both in the front and the back.  Think about melting them together.  No, going back to our arch, try to keep your ribs down and together, like a triangle point.

6.   Now, find a place in between the extreme up and down of your pelvis.  This will be your neutral position.  I'm not going to define it as I want it to be unique to you; a place where you feel comfortable.  This is where your pelvis will remain.

7.   Repeat Step 3 maintaining your newly established neutral pelvic position.  Repeat and then use this breath to initiate the movement for the rest of the work out.

Step 8:   Marching:  Use your exhale to lift your right (R) leg to table top.  The definition is: Knee above the hip at 90 degrees with shins perpendicular to the floor.  This can be changed.  If you feel this in your lower back or the top of your hips/thighs, pull your knees closer to your chest.  This move can be more difficult for people with less flexibility or lower back issues so be careful.  Continue, alternating sides using your low abdominal to stabilize your hips.  Try to keep your weight equal on both sides of your body.

Step 9:   Table Top: Flatten your back with your abdominal the same as in Step 4.  Then exhale one leg at a time into table top.  This is when you may need to make some modifications. Here's a refresher: 

1.   Modification for Table Top: Pull your knees closer to your chest

2.   Modification for Table Top:  Drop your heels towards your bottom decreasing the angle at your knee.

3.   Modification for Table Top:  Place a small towel under your lower back

4.   Modification for Table Top:  Rest your feet on an elevated surface.  Some exercises will work here, others won't.  The only other alternative would be to skip table top exercises, which is totally possible without missing much at all!

Step 10: DOUBLE LEG TOE TAPS:  Now keeping your table top, hinge your legs towards the floor without arching your back or letting your stomach push into your tee-shirt.  Exhale to lift both legs back up.  Repeat as desired.

Step 11: SINGLE LEG TOE TAPS:  Now keeping the same range of motion, alternate sides.  Allow one leg to lower and exhale to lift it up.  Then do the other side.  Try to only move one leg at a time.  Repeat as desired.

Step 12: WINDSHIELD WIPERS:  Exhale both legs up to the ceiling.  Feel free to bend your knees if need be.  You want your ankles over your hips.  You can always do this next exercise in tabletop.  Keeping both shoulders and head pointed up towards the ceiling, drop both legs to your right side.  Use your exhale to lift both legs back to the ceiling.  Repeat on the left side.  Repeat as desired

Steps 13-15:  Abdominal Crunch: 

13.  Clasp both hands and place them behind your head.  Your feet can return back to starting position.  Lay on your back with your hands clasped behind your head, at the base of your skull.  Before even curling up, press your head back into your hands for a shoulder stretch.   Flap your elbows in towards your midline and away slowly for a shoulder stretch.

14. Find a place where you can see your elbows in your peripheral vision (while looking at your knees).  Now, press your head into your hands once more, but this time feel your shoulders releasing down your back.  Feel your underarms activate and your biceps.  Then, maintaining the activation of your arms (to support the weight of your head) curl up the head neck and shoulders. 

15. Inhale, pushing your head back into your hands feeling the back of your neck lengthening and any pressure releasing away from your neck.  On your next exhale curl up a little bit more.  Repeat steps 14 and 15 four times.  You will basically do an abdominal curl up in four installments, pressing your head back in between each extra lift.  Keep in mind; you don’t have to go very high at all.  By pushing your head back into your hands, you will be creating extra weight.  You can further intensify the exercise by maintaining your neutral pelvis from laying down to the full sit up.  You’ll notice it will want to tuck up.  This will do nothing for your lower abdominal.  It’s hard, but worth the extra effort in the end.

Step 16: Plank Prep: Come into an all 4’s position.  Place your hands under your shoulders, knees under hips.  Cat/cow a couple times to find your flat back or comfortable back position.  Once again, not too rounded, not too arched.  Tuck your toes under, so you can grip onto the floor with your toe creases.  Lift both knees the tiniest amount off the mat.  The lower your knees rest (without touching the mat) the harder the exercise.

Step 17:  To make your Plank Prep a little more difficult we can incorporate the same exercise we used earlier; Marching.  Float your knees of the mat using your abdominals, same as in Step 16.  Now simply float one foot off the mat, and alternate sides trying to keep your weight stable.  There should be no changes in the position of your lower back throughout the exercise.

Step 18: Booty Leg Kicks:  Knees stay under the hips as before, but you can rest your wrists. Place your forearms on the mat, but try to keep the back of your neck active and long.  Extend one leg straight back behind you, all 5 toes on the mat.  Place extra weight on the same side arm.  Use your oblique to keep from collapsing into your stabilization hip.  Below is the rest of the exercise series.  Be sure to repeat on both sides.

1. All 5 toes extended behind you.  Simply lift and lower your back leg keeping all 5 toes pointed towards the floor.
2. Keep your leg lifted in line with your hip (a little lower if you feel your lower back).  Without shifting your hips, pulse your leg in towards your mid-line.  Then extend the leg away from your center.  Nothing moves but your leg and it stays at the same level, or lower, than your hip.  Your inner thigh connects when you cross over your middle.  Your outer thigh works when you take it away from your middle.
3. Extend your leg straight back behind you. Exhale and lift your belly button to the ceiling as you pull your knee into the chest.  Round your back as you draw your knee in towards your stomach, pulling your belly button away from your thigh.
4. Bend your heel straight up to the ceiling, and raise the roof.  Flex your foot and pulse straight up without arching your back.  You should feel this in the gluteal fold and lower abdominal.  The gluteal fold is another word for your butt shelf, or the banana of your bottom.  Where the butt meets the thigh.

Step 19:  Full Plank: Keeping both forearms on the mat, extend one toe at a time behind you.  All 10 toes down and lift into your plank position.  Hold as long as possible.  Repeat on each side.

1. Side Plank Variation: Place one forearm on the mat so it’s perpendicular to your torso. You can either stack or stagger your feet parallel to your forearm.  Lift your hips and raise your opposite arm up towards the ceiling.  Repeat on both sides holding as long as possible.  The goal is 90 seconds.  Of course, feel free to start smaller and work your way up.
2. Reverse Plank Variation: Sit with your legs extended long in front of you, your forearms on the mat by your sides.  If you have knee issues, bend your knees and place your feet flat on the mat.  With an exhale, lift your hips off the mat so your support is your legs, abdominals and forearms.  For an added challenge, incorporate your marching from step 8.  Lift one leg at a time and alternate without shifting your hips or your torso. 

Step 20: Pilates Push Up:  This can be done in an all 4’s position, kneeling plank, or full plank on your hands and toes. 

1. Start standing against a wall with very little space between your butt and the wall.  Nod your chin and start to peel your spine away from the wall one vertebrae at a time without allowing your bottom to lean back.  If you need to start a little further away from the wall to make this possible.  That's fine.  Progressively get closer to the wall as you continue to advance through Pilates.  Just know, if you feel like you’re about to topple over face first, you’re doing this part of the exercise perfectly.
2. When you can’t roll any further, safely bring your hands to the floor and in three big hand-steps, walk out into your plank.
3. Slowly bend your elbows, coming into the bottom part of your push up for the count of 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, and 3 Mississippi.  Then hold at the bottom for the 3 Mississippi count.  Lift up again for the count of 3 Mississippi's.  The slower you go up and down, the harder the exercise.  Start with one push-up.  Then do 2 pushups the next time you walk into your plank.  Be sure to incorporate the roll up and roll down as this one of the hardest parts of this exercise.  Continue to at least 5 pushups.  Repeat starting at the number you finished, and continue back until you are at 1 push up again.

Pilates... with an injury

Summer is the time for injuries.  If your like me, you get one every year.  This year, it was a broken wrist, last year a sprained ankle, the year before dislocated collar bone...  Summer is the time we're active after a long winter cooped up inside.  It's expected that a few of us will over do it.  Below are some quick and easy modification so that you too can stay active, even injured.


MODIFY: To change an exercise to make it accessible to you.

Certain Pilates exercises are modified for ability, but you can also modify for injury.  A nice example is plank.  Obviously this will not be done on hands if you have a broken wrist.  A nice modified version is to place down your forearms instead.  This is nicer to the wrists and hands and disperses the weight more evenly throughout the arm.  If you are experiencing difficulty with toes, drop down to your knees.  If you are experiencing knee issues or lower back, feel free to take the plank to the wall.  Hands/forearms go against the wall.  The feet are as far away as you can support.  The closer together the legs, the harder the exercise.

Another option is to simply invert the exercise.  A common exercise we do in Pilates is in the all 4's position.  Opposite arm and leg extend at the same time maintaining your alignment in the back, shoulders and hips.  A nice way to make this accessible to knee injuries and wrist injuries would be to flip it.

Instead of being in the all 4's position, you can lay on your back with knees in table top and arms to the ceiling.  Opposite arm and leg reach away while the pelvis and ribs maintain neutral.  These exercises are identical.  Simply rotate the picture to see for yourself.  The flipped version may even feel harder at first since the floor provides nice feedback to feel your form.

Equipment can be harder to modify, although there are both ankle and wrist straps available depending on your studio.  In case those are not an option, you can use a yoga strap to help connect you to things like the roll down bar or the other straps.  Simply tighten the yoga strap both around your arm and the equipment.  You can also use the strap for climbing a tree or open leg rocker to help connect the leg to the arm.

If you are using equipment and it hurts to have your legs resting on the mat, simply let them dangle off the sides during tower.  You can also let them rest over a barrel instead of placing the feet directly onto the floor.  Try a lighter weight for footwork or feet in straps before omitting completely.  Sometimes just taking down the weight can make the exercise accessible.

Range of motion exercises, or ROM is a nice alternative for when certain exercises like rowing or footwork just don't work.  They can feel boring and easy, but ROM is so important. ROM exercises will give you the same muscle recruitment without any chance of injury.  It keeps you moving and makes it so you are less stiff when healed.  Most important, it helps maintaing circulation through the extremities.

At any point you feel pain while performing any exercise (even ROM), STOP IMMEDIATELY!  It's one thing to stay active while injured.  It's a totally different thing to cause trauma to an injury.  The ultimate goal is to help the healing process by integrating Pilates exercises to the best that they can be performed.  This is what Joseph (Pilates) did when he was in the prisoner of war camps with his German comrades.  That's what gave birth to the first piece of equipment ever invented; the Cadillac.  This was basically a hospital bed with springs to enable the injured to exercise.

Exercise leads to better circulation which can then lead to healing faster. Just know how far is too far and be sure to listen to your body!

Are you a Duck or a Pigeon?

No, I'm not talking about birds.  I'm talking about your feet.  Look down.



Do your feet turn out like a duck?

Do they turn in like a pigeon?

 Maybe one foot is duck, one foot is pigeon?

This is what my feet look like. Strange, right?  Not so much.  It actually has much to do with our pelvic stability (contrary to scientific beliefs).

Science says we are born like this.  Whatever direction our feet point is genetic.  Pilates, and other movement principles, tells us something different.  The direction our feet point in actually tell us a lot about our postural alignment. There are multiple reasons why your feet may turn out like a duck.  Some of them are:

1. You keep most of your weight on your baby toes.
2. Your inner thighs are not as strong as your outer thighs.
3. Your gluteus maximus needs to be strengthened.
4. Your outer thighs or IT band needs to be stretched
5. Your hips are externally rotated.
6. Your calf muscles are tight and need to be massaged or stretched to release the tension.
7. Bunions on your big toes getting in the way and/or making it painful to utilize the big toes.
8. A drop in the arch from your baby toe to heel.*

More often then not, your reason for duck feet is a combination of all of these possible options and possibly more.  Everything in our bodies is connected.  Therefore, one misalignment, like duck feet or pigeon toes, can cause other issues: hip, shoulder, thigh and ankle.

Some possible reasons for having Pigeon toes:

1. You keep most of your weight on your big toes.
2. Your outer thighs are stronger than your inner thighs.
3. Your inner thighs are really tight and need to be stretched.
4. Your gluteus medias, or side butt, needs strengthening. 
5. Your hips are internally rotated.
6. Your calf muscles are tight and need to be massaged or stretched to release the tension. 
7. Bunions on the baby toe getting in the way and/or making it painful to utilize the baby toes.
8. A drop in the arch of your foot from your big toe to your heel.*

If you are half duck, half pigeon, you are just like me and most athletes that mostly turn to one side. Golfers baseball players and  are the best example of this.  In both sports, you swing one sided.  Of course you'll have the few switch hitters, or switch golfers (not sure how true that is for golf), but predominantly the sport is one sided.  

When you twist, you utilize one inner thigh, and one outer thigh.  This is the lateral system of the pelvis.  Basically, think of your pelvis as a bowl being suspended by four sticks (your legs).  Your left leg outer thigh is one stick, your left leg inner thigh is the other.  Your right leg inner thigh is the next stick, and then the right leg outer thigh is the last stick.  

When you turn to the right, you stabilize your pelvis with your left outer thigh and right inner thigh.  When you turn left, vice versa.  If you only turn right, most likely, your left toe will pigeon and your right will duck.  This is me. A lefty will feel the inverse, right foot is a pigeon and the left is a duck.

If this is you, don't worry.  Believe it or not, this is the easiest alignment to fix.  Simply start turning the other way.

The goal in proper foot alignment is to have your knees and heels line up with the space between your first and second toe.  Your weight should be distributed between big toe, baby toe and heel (tripod of the foot). 

*To understand the three arches of your feet, check back next week.

My Journey towards Pilates

My journey began at 14 years old.  I was a gymnast and was constantly getting injured.  I had recently been hospitalized and diagnosed with RSD (reflexive sympathetic dystrophy, now known as Chronic Pain Syndrome).  It's basically a disease caused by trauma to an injury (I had been competing in gymnastics on two sprained ankles for over 6 years.)  My doctors were getting me into all kinds of weird medicine like Biofeedback, Acupuncture, Chiropractics, Massage and stranger things I'm probably forgetting now.

Biofeedback was weird.  It didn't help that the doctor's name was something very similar to Dr. Wacko.  The name completely described the person, slightly out there with a very strange sense of humor.  Considering Biofeedback is strange to begin with, having  him as my doctor didn't help me to take it seriously.

Imagine, you're a freshman in High School.  You are 14 going on 30 and ready to finally start being treated like an adult.  You have now been transferred to Children's Hospital in a ward surrounded by babies.  Doctors have been coming in by the droves and now you are meeting a strange funny looking man I've named Dr. Wacko.  He starts talking to you in that patronizing voice adults use with little kids telling you all the wonderful things you can control in your body.   He keeps using analogies really meant for little kids or complete tree hugging hippies.  I was neither.

Thanks to my mother, I did actually listen to a little of what Wacko said.  Since I couldn't move around the house easily with two swollen ankles, she forced me do a lot of things, including listening to the meditation sessions Wacko had given me.  Even though I tried as hard as I could not to take it seriously, I did actually learn a few things.  Surprisingly (even to me) it helped!

Biofeedback allows you to control your body and body functions that most people can't really control like blood pressure and body temperature. It was probably a good thing I never learned the Body Temperature thing or I never would have passed High School.  I did learn to control my blood pressure and have managed to have some fun with this talent.

My first year of College, I got really sick and needed to go to the school clinic.  One of the guys I was dating at the time was working as a nurse.  When he went to take my blood pressure, I made it super low because I wanted to impress him.  Someone had mentioned low blood pressure means you're in good shape or something like that.  After he finished the procedure he looked at me as if he had just seen a ghost and asked if I was okay.  I thought he was just impressed because I was in really good shape.  He then asked if I felt faint and I thought I'd ask him what was wrong.  Turns out I made my blood pressure a little too low.  I had him take it again, and it was too high.  He was really confused until I explained Biofeedback.

Acupuncture, massage and Chiropractics were great for immediate release.  I'd feel good for a couple days, but within a week I was back at the office in even more pain then I had started.  The chiropractor also treated my mom for scoliosis.  He had given her some exercises for her back that helped her to keep her alignment.  When I asked for exercises to help, he laughed at me and said I was too mobile and nothing would work for me.  I got frustrated with never seeing an end to constant adjustments and figured I'd just have to suck it up and live in pain.

I had always liked Pilates.  Growing up in the 80s, Jane Fonda's videos were pretty big.  I'd do exercise videos with my babysitters all the time.  Some of the videos were Pilates.  Because of gymnastics, I was obsessed with attaining a 6 pack and a strong core.  The more abdominal exercises I did, the better I was at gymnastics.  After being released from the hospital, I had negotiated with my doctor's to still do gymnastics as long as I could make it safe.  I created an entire bar routine with the easiest dismount ever, an under-swing off the low bar.  In order to do this routine, I had to get my kip up, a bar move needing abdominal strength.  I was so close, but not quite there and needed the kip up to make my new bar routine safe so I could compete.  Pilates was the answer.

I started practicing all the mat exercises I had learned from the DVDs.  I went to any gym I could to take Pilates classes.  I'd even watch the early morning TV work outs and infomercials.  I LOVED Pilates!  I was able to truly work my core and really see results.  My neck and back weren't as sore and I finally got my kip up!

Until I started working at Commonwealth Sports Club, I didn't even know Pilates was done on machines.  I had my first work out in what's now my manager's office.  It was a tiny space and we kept hitting each other's hands and running into each other.  I was terrible at it and hated it!  I didn't feel anything and couldn't understand how this was a good work out, let alone Pilates.

Thankfully, I tried it again a year later.  I remembered not hating the footwork from my first experience and knew that it would be helpful for my ankle stability.  I was constantly rolling my ankles and hoped a 10 pack of Pilates classes might help make my ankles better.    I pretty much forced myself to do it.  It wasn't really a challenge like the work outs I'd been used to doing.  I did the 10 pack over a month and noticed much more stability in my ankles and less pain than I'd experienced in a long time.

I waited a month before purchasing another package.  Within that month I noticed a significant difference in my body.  Suddenly all the old pains started coming back.  My ankles were rolling again even in sneakers.  Stupid me, I still didn't make the connection.

Soon after, I went to the doctor for an annual physical.  When the nurse measured my height, I was an inch shorter than I'd been the year before.  I'm not a tall person and every inch counts when you are under 5'5"!  I made her take my measurements 6 times.  I probably drove the poor woman nuts. I still didn't beleive her and forced everyone I knew to measure me.  Sadly the tape measurer didn't lie and it was official.  I had shrunk.  Now I had no choice.  I had to purchase another Pilates package.

Within 4 sessions, I was already feeling better.  I finally made the connection between my pain and Pilates and became obsessed!  I'd go as often as possible, 2-3 times per week for equipment and even more for mat classes. I felt so amazing I didn't want to stop!  I didn't want the pain to come back.  The following year, I had a physical, and I had actually grown an inch.  Again, I had everyone and anyone I knew measure me to make sure.

Pilates has changed my life.  It has taught me to be pain free.  It has given me exercises that have helped heal my injuries and give me more stability throughout my entire body.  Through Pilates, I've learned how my body works and what I need to do to stay pain free.  I became so passionate I wanted to share this with others. Thus I became a Pilates instructor.

Pilates has enabled me to help others with their Pilates journey and the discovery of their own bodies.  Learning how your body works is empowering.  Pilates gives you the tools to change bad habits, fix posture and rehabilitate stubborn injuries.  To get the most out of Pilates, you have to come regularly, more than one time per week.  If not, you have to relearn everything you'd been working on.  Every body is different.  Mastering how your body moves will give you the ability to grow in fitness and do things you never even thought possible.  I thought I'd never be able to go running again given my ankle, knee, and hip injuries.  I now can run pain free because of Pilates.

As an instructor, my goal is to help you understand how your body moves and learn to overcome obstacles that get in your way.  Nothing is impossible, you just may not be ready yet.

Please share your journey into fitness or into Pilates.  Thank you!

Yoga vs. Pilates EXPLAINED

Yoga and Pilates have very similar characteristics.  Saying that Pilates was influenced by Yoga is actually quite controversial depending on who you are talking with.  The general public may think that this is the case, but if you ask Pilates original clients (yes some are still alive) they will tell you first and foremost that Pilates never studied Yoga and didn't have any books.  That being said, unquestionably there are a lot of similarities.  However, there are hundreds of forms of Yoga.  There are far less different forms of Pilates.  Some of them are; Peak Pilates, Romana Pilates, Core Dynamics, Stott, Power Pilates, Balanced Body, Fletcher Pilates and probably a few more.   Different methods of both Yoga and Pilates are based on different interpretations of the original instructor.  Since Yoga pre-dates Jesus by a few hundred years and Pilates is only 80 years old, it's safe to assume there are far more interpretations of Yoga than there are on Pilates.

Each time Joseph Pilates taught a new move to what I like to call his "disciples", he taught it to each one with such fervor that they took his teaching as the only and best way to do each exercise. This is why you have such a different variety of styles.  His disciples, otherwise known as the primary teachers that carried on Pilates education after his death, are:

• Romana Kryzanowska
• Eve Gentry
• Ron Feltcher
• Carola Trier
• Kathleen Stanford Grant
• Lolita San Miguel
• Mary Bowen

Of these instructors, only Romana and Lolita were actually certified by Joseph Pilates to teach in his original studios.  However, without the attributions of all of these people and more, Pilates would not be known as what it is today.  In fact, Joe called it controllogy; the art of controlling your body through breath and movement.  

As I begin to explain the similarities and differences of both these disciplines, I'm going to make a quick disclaimer:  I'm not a yoga instructor and will be generalizing most Yoga's from my own personal experiences. From my experience Iyengar is the most similar to Pilates as it promotes postural alignment, body awareness and strengthening.  Any comments from true Yogis are greatly appreciated.   

Think of the "Yoga" version of the Pilates exercise having a larger ROM (range of motion).  This is what differentiates most Yoga forms from Pilates.  Also think of flexibility verses stability.  Some cross-over exercises that exemplify this are below.  Please note, some Yoga forms use the exact same form as Pilates.  It simply depends on the style of Yoga you are doing.

Pilates Rocking vs. Yoga Bow Pose:

Although these exercises are very similar, there are two distinct differences:

Pilates Rocking

Yoga Bow Pose

1. First look at my lumbar spine, the lowest part of my back.  In the Pilates example you can see the extension.  My abdominals are pulled up to lengthen the lumbar spine.  In the Yoga version, you can see the compression on my lower back.  I'm simply using flexibility as opposed to flexibility controlled through core strength.
2. Now look at my upper body.  In Pilates Rocking, I'm extended through the crown of my head.  There are no wrinkles behind my neck and I'm sustaining length throughout the entire body.  You can even notice the shoulder position.  Because I'm extending through the crown, my shoulders are in the proper position, resting down my back.  In Bow Pose, my head is looking up causing compression on my neck.  My shoulders are pulled up as a reaction to my unnatural neck placement. This is exercise is promoting flexibility as opposed to length. 

You will begin to see a similar theme as these exercises are dissected. Next position:

Pilates Inversion vs. Yoga Plow.

Pilates Inversion

Yoga Plow

In this instance, the difference is simply the abdominal connection verses the flexibility.  In a Pilates inversion, you can see the space between my abdominals and my thighs.  Maintaining this space requires the back to be in a safe C curve and forces me to engage my core, protecting my lower back.  In Yoga Plow, my abs are not engaged creating pressure on my lower back.  Although this is extremely difficult for flexibility, my abdominals are not engaged and the flexibility isn't protected.  Maintaining the space between your abdominals and your thighs allows controlled flexibility.

Bridging:  Pilates vs. Yoga:

This position exemplifies the difference between a safe neck position verses a less safe neck position.  In the Pilates bridge on the right, you can notice the back of my head heavy on the mat.  My abdominals are engaged drawing my ribs into a neutral and my knees are reaching long.  This is a safe position for all clients.  

The Yoga bridge on the left is a less safe position as it is not something that will translate to all clients.  You can see the strain on my neck, shoulders and ability for lack of engagement through my core.  It's easy to see the ribs popping open here making it impossible to connect with my upper abdominals.  Although this will add to flexibility in the back, it is not done so in a way that allows me to stabilize through my core. 

Pilates Swan vs. Yoga Cobra

Pilates Swan (Full Exercise)

Yoga Cobra

Pilates Swan (Modification)

Notice the extension through the lower back on the Pilates Swan.  My abs are engaged and pulled off the floor.  This is what causes the extension through my lower back.  The only reason my arms are fully extended is because I can support the full pose both with my shoulders and my abdominals.  Most clients should and will do a modified version represented in the picture to the right.  Even in this photo, my abdominals are pulled up off the mat allowing the further extension in my lower back.

Yoga Cobra does not encourage lengthening.  Instead, it works the flexibility and can cause compression in the lower back.  This will give full extension through the chest, opening up the collar bone.  The only difference is in Pilates, we try to keep the neck long, no wrinkles.  In Yoga Cobra pose, the chin is turned up, which can cause strain on the neck and shoulders.  

Pilates stretches are the same as in yoga: Rest Pose, Child's Pose, and Happy Baby.  The only stretch we use differently than in Yoga is the cat/cow stretch.  Pilates uses extreme positions to set a neutral for your body.  By going into a round back and arched back in all fours position (cat/cow), one can establish a happy neutral between those two extremes to get the most out of the next exercise in all 4's.

Pilates works through stability and core strength with modified ROM while some Yogas tends to go for flexibility over  stability and strives for a larger ROM.  Work within your own means and see if what you notice as differences between Pilates and Yoga.  Your comments are welcome!

Equipment Vs. Mat; Better or worse?

A lot of people always ask me, "What's better? Equipment work outs or Mat for Pilates."  The answer is it depends...obviously!  You wouldn't think I'd waste a blog about it if it was a simple answer.  The reason why it depends is actually an easy one.  It depends on the person and the person's strengths.  Mat can be more challenging when done in a class, but in a private session; mat may be easier.  Sometimes equipment may make it easier to keep form in an exercise because it offers resistance.

Joseph Pilates created a series of exercises.  He created the mat work first.  He then was getting frustrated with his patients (at this time it's the WWI veterans in England).  He was really helping them, as a physical therapist would help patients today, to regain normal ROM (range of motion) and regain strength.  Pilates started by spotting his patients, but this way he could only help one person at a time.  By inventing a machine with springs to act as a spot, instead of him, he was able to coach multiple people at a time through rehabilitation work outs.  This first machine was called the Cadillac.

It was pretty much a hospital bed with springs attached.  Pilates eventually moved to NYC to escape from the Nazi regime (he was German).  He then moved next door the the NYC Ballet.  Who better to rehabilitate than Ballet dancers.  This is when he invented the reformer, his final invention.

This is a picture of Joseph Pilates on the original reformer.  You can see how the reformer offers the stability for his side plank by giving resistance.  The lighter the resistance, the harder this is to hold.  This move, "Starfish" is extremely advanced.  This is an exercise that you could learn on the reformer keeping a lot of resistance on the reformer to support the pose.  Once you've mastered this, you can then move the move onto the mat.  Once you can support this on the mat; you come back to the reformer and now incorporate movement within the pose.  The reformer has a mat that moves back and forth with the help of springs.   With a light spring resistance, moving forwards and backwards makes "Starfish" even harder than had you just kept yourself working in mat.

In short, the equipment will help you to first understand and learn the positions using the resistance to help.  Then, once mastered, you will use the movement and resistance (or lack there of) to make the exercise harder than not using the equipment.