Cueing

I write about cueing over and over again, because it is so important.  As an instructor I am always looking for new ways to express the same idea, because different words work for different people.  Or maybe it's not a word at all, but simply an image.  The right word, image or feeling can not only help you find engagement, it can completely transform your quality of movement.

How we learn is always so fascinating to me.  I can watch something a thousand times and never figure out how to do it.  I am a kinesthetic learner.  If you know what kind of learner you are, share that with your instructor so that they can interact with you in more helpful ways.

Here is a cue that is really working for me right now, maybe it will work for you as well:

When standing or lying prone: 
Imagine your inner thigh lifting up to the ceiling while you press your hips lightly down.
This cue puts me right in my center with access to my pelvic floor and Pilates lift.  I love it!

Finding Your Posture From the Bottom or From the Top

I  spend a little time finding my posture  most days.  My usual method is to start from the ground up.  I start with my feet, feeling weight under all 4 corners of the foot:  under the big and little toes and the outside and inside of the heel.  From there I usually squeeze the balls of my feet and heels toward one another isometrically, waking up the arch of my foot.  With the arch of my foot doming up, I find my pelvic floor and engage.  Now I have two arcs doming up, my foot arch and my pelvic floor. I line them up. Now I go to my solar plexus, the top of my diaphragm and add that to the mix.  The final dome is the roof of my mouth, or the top of my spine.  When I have all my domes lined up and lifting I am usually in a solid posture:  strong, active, connected and vibrant with energy reaching up through the crown of my head and supported by my legs and feet.  I learned this technique from Wendy Leblanc-Arbuckle.

Today I tried a different technique.  I closed my eyes imagined myself suspended from the ceiling.  My body drifted around for a little while.  I thought about my organs and where they were in my body.  My body stilled and I found myself in alignment.  It felt completely different than the first technique, much floatier, more spacious and quite effortless.

I like both techniques and can see how on any given day I might prefer one to the other.  It's great stuff to play with and find out which technique works best for you, or if you are like me you might find them both useful.

Working Hard and Fast

Even though I've been doing Pilates for over a decade now, I tend to enjoy a level 2 class the best.  Today I decided to try a hard and fast class to find out if I could do it, and how I would feel afterwards.

I took a level 3 Classic Pilates class and we really moved fast through a lot of material.  Although I kept up with the class and held on to my form,  I definitely missed the deep work that I find available to me when working at a slower pace.  Afterwards I felt like I still needed another class to give me that satisfying and energized feeling I expect to get from a good class.  Huh. 

Something to think about...

Small Group Classes Starting in January

I haven't posted anything for the longest time!  I found out that I am actually not a daily blogger.  But today I have something to say!  I am finally adding some new classes to Pilates by Violet.  I love teaching one-on-one and firmly believe that this is the way to start your Pilates journey.  It's expensive though, and it dissuades a lot of people from learning this wonderful method.

I honestly don't know any better way to support yourself in wellness than learning to do Pilates correctly.  To be able to put your body in alignment and work your body safely and efficiently is simply the best gift you can give to yourself.  I want to share Pilates with everyone so I have decided that the best route to go is small group classes.

Starting in January I will be teaching a Fundamental Mat Class of 3-5 people.  This class will go over an introduction to Pilates principles and all the key ingrediants that give you a strong base for continuing into more advanced classes.  Great for beginners, but also a terrific review for those that have been doing Pilates for a long time.

I am also introducing a special small group class for tennis players which will focus on re-balancing muscular work, grounding, and core engagement.  Class size will be 3-5

Dates are still to be decided depending on interest.

Looking forward to Pilates in 2014

SITTING

We do a lot of it in modern living and mostly when we are sitting we aren’t paying much attention to how we are doing it.  We slouch, we cross knees, we splay, we slump.  Think of all the time we spend seated:  in cars, using computers, sitting at work, watching television, eating meals.  We sit and sit and then sit some more.

Since we are spending so many hours on this activity it seems it would be a good idea to figure out how to do it so that we get some health benefits from it.

First things first:  Your chair!

The chair you are sitting in will have a big effect on your posture, so it is a good idea to find a work chair that has some adjustment devices so that you can set up a close to ideal scenario for your body.  Our Posture Keeps bones and joints in the correct alignment so that muscles are being used properly, so sitting correctly is very important!

Domes of Uplift

About 5 years ago I was at a Pilates Conference taking a mat class with a teacher from Britain. (unfortunately I can’t remember her name).  She had us do a standing meditation where we aligned the domes of our arches with the dome of pelvic floor, the dome of our diaphragm and the roof of our mouth.  (For those of you who don’t know this; the roof of our mouth is where the top of the spine ends).

Once we were lined up, the instruction was simply to root down from our pelvic floor through our feet and to pull up from our pelvic floor up and out the top of the head.

This is an alternative method to finding our posture and experience centering.  It creates a completely different feeling than finding our posture through placing every bone and muscle in its correct place.  The sensation it creates is oddly freeing, and floaty, yet you are still arriving at improved alignment. 

Personally, the great thing for me was the ‘aha’ moment when I started doming up from my pelvic floor.  I finally got the strong internal lift that I had been missing with cues that referenced using my ‘pee’ muscles.  Adding a little squeeze together from my sitz bones and I was finally on my way to feeling the root of my pelvic floor and connecting to my transverse abdominals.

Wendy Leblance Arbuckle talks a lot about the domes of uplift.  It’s pretty interesting stuff.  Here’s a link: http://pilates.about.com/od/technique/a/Good-Posture-and-Gravity.htm