Ensuring a client’s safety should be one of our highest priorities when in the studio. For that to happen, we need to have a thorough understanding of our client’s personal medical history. We need to know what to do when presented with diagnoses or medications we are unfamiliar with and with reports of pain or discomfort. We also need to know what to do when something presents itself during a session. An Intake Form is the best way to digest and understand your client, know what needs to be modified and if you need to refer them to a medical practitioner before you work with them.Read More
Teaching Pilates
The Art of Communication
As a society, our daily practice of emailing, texting and small-talk requires us to make room for focused intention and study of how we communicate as movement instructors. As health care professionals we are tasked with speaking with very diverse clients concerning intimate subjects, their bodies. Polestar’s communication model is based on neuro-linguistics, and we […]Read More
Pilates, Scoliosis, and the Schroth Method
With so many Pilates courses teaching prescriptive exercises for clients with scoliosis, you would imagine there is a magnitude of supportive research behind them. While there are plenty of studies on prevention of curve progression in adolescents using bracing and Scoliosis Specific Exercise (SSE), there is little if no research to guide movement prescription for […]Read More
How do we Know we’re Teaching a Great Class?
A great class starts with identifying goals. What message do we wish to convey to a group or an individual that will be under our guidance for at least an hour at a time? As movement instructors, whether we are teaching yoga, Pilates, dance, GYROTONIC®, etc. a critical part of delivering a memorable experience is identifying the needs and wants of our students. So the question becomes: How do we identify goals for an individual or a group class that are both aligned with our experience as professionals and the students’ desires?Read More