When Movement Speaks First
This blog reflects the thinking behind Dr. Brent Anderson’s Pathokinesiology Certification, an advanced exploration of movement, pathology, and critical reasoning.
Early-bird tuition is available through March 1 → (View program details)
Shelly Power has been my longtime accomplice in nearly everything Polestar Pilates has become.
For decades, we’ve taught together, debated together, and built programs side by side. Shelly has an extraordinary ability to see movement clearly, not because she looks harder than others, but because she understands context – she understands people, and she understands history.
Wellness Practitioners See Early Signs First
One day, she was walking through the studio. A longtime client, someone Shelly had worked with for years, was exercising in the foot straps with another teacher. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary session. But Shelly slowed down. She watched more closely.
The movement was strange. Not inefficient, not weak or compensatory in any familiar way. It simply didn’t match the body she knew so well.
Shelly didn’t rush in or label anything – she didn’t diagnose. She recognized that what she was seeing did not belong. She called our lead physical therapist at the time, who specialized in neurology. They came in and observed quietly for a moment and immediately saw the same thing. Emergency services were called under the concern that the client might be having a stroke.
She wasn’t, but it turned out she had terminal brain cancer, and Shelly was the first to notice its effects through movement.
That moment has stayed with me, not because of the outcome, but because of where it began. Not in a hospital or imaging suite, but in a movement studio, during a routine session, observed by someone who knew that body deeply.
This is something I have seen repeatedly over the years.
Early indicators of disease often appear first in movement: subtle changes in coordination, timing, orientation, or strategy. And the people most likely to notice those changes are not always clinicians. They are movement professionals who work with clients week after week, year after year.
Yet many instructors are taught – explicitly or implicitly, to doubt their observations. To stay quiet. To fear overstepping – but clarity is not overstepping.
Pathokinesiology was created to support that clarity.
This work does not replace medical evaluation or diagnosis. Those responsibilities rightly belong to licensed professionals. What this training does is strengthen how movement professionals observe, reason, communicate, and collaborate within a broader treatment landscape.
It allows an instructor to recognize, with confidence and professionalism, when a movement pattern no longer aligns with a client’s known history, and to communicate that observation clearly and appropriately.
Completing this program represents a deep commitment, nearly a year of study – to understanding how pathology influences movement, and how movement can reflect pathology long before it is formally named. It prepares movement professionals to participate thoughtfully and confidently as part of a treatment plan, without fear and without guesswork.
The Future of Pilates in Healthcare
Just as important, it builds community! We are intentionally cultivating a network of practitioners equipped to work with diverse populations, people navigating injury, disease processes, deconditioning, stress, and the realities of modern life.
Today, more than 70% of adults are living with some form of movement dysfunction or disease-related limitation. Sedentary lifestyles, environmental stress, and cumulative load all leave their mark on the body.
Movement professionals are already on the front lines of this reality.
Pathokinesiology exists to support them, to give structure to what many already sense, and to elevate movement observation as a meaningful part of prevention, early intervention, and long-term care.
Sometimes prevention begins with attention. Sometimes early intervention begins with noticing.
And sometimes, everything changes because someone paused, watched, and trusted what movement was revealing.
Our first cohort begins in April, and I would genuinely love to have you join us!
-Dr.Brent
For more information on Dr.Brent’s Pathokinesiology Certification – Visit: “Pathokinesiology”
