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How to Motivate your Clients to Keep Moving

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Article by By Polestar Educator Carlos Marin Burguillos

Polestar Pilates celebrates 30 Years of Movens Mundi “Moving the World”. Make this year amazing for your clients by motivating them to keep moving!

The definition of adherence to treatment, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is:

“the extent to which a person’s behavior — taking medication, following a diet, and/or executing lifestyle changes — corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a healthcare provider.”

Adherence to an exercise program or a certain activity, in this case, Pilates, is something fundamental to ensuring the healthy objectives the practice generates are obtained. For this reason, we are going to explore the possible influences, variables, and tools we can implement in our teaching to make this happen.

It should be noted that adherence to physical activity is influenced by the motivation of the subject since it is a psychological component that controls the direction, intensity, and permanence of the behavior (Murcia,2007).

In fact, motivation determines the initiation, maintenance, and completion of behaviors in which we are involved, and its analysis can help us to understand how people begin and continue in physical exercise (Deci and Ryan, 1985). The Theory of Self-determination (Deci and Ryan, 1985), an explanatory model of human motivation, directly relates self-determination to intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is what drives us to do things for the simple joy of doing them. The execution of the task itself is the reward. To be intrinsically motivated is to take on a problem as a personal challenge. It is to face it just to find its solution, with no hope or longing for an external reward for doing it (Jiménez, 2007). 

This is why being aware of the achievements obtained and the mere enjoyment of the sessions are two essential factors to facilitate motivation and therefore adherence to the pilates program. In this order of things, our work as Pilates professionals gives us a multitude of options to promote the intrinsic motivation of our students and thus improve adherence to the method. 

To facilitate its practical application, I would like to divide these endless elements into two large groups: the development of the program and the pedagogy during the sessions.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROGRAM:

In this section, we will cover topics from the selection of objectives to planning the “base exercises” integral to achieving each of these objectives in a session.

In order to maintain and improve the intrinsic motivation of the student, it is important that the exercises chosen are within the student’s comfort zone and close to their limit, allowing for an achievable challenge with determined effort.

As teachers trained in Polestar Pilates we have two tools developed with this purpose in mind:

Polestar Fitness Screening(PFS): A tool through which we can precisely determine the functional objectives for a specific client, to be best able to adapt to their needs.

Polestar Program Design & Sequencing Guide: A tool in which we define the essential exercises of the program according to the objectives determined in the PFS and the ever-changing capacities of the student throughout the program. This we combine with the categories of movement which facilitate developing the program by integrating all planes of movement, positions, and apparatus.

In short, it is about the program being adaptable enough to change instantly to meet the physical and mental state of the student, not the other way around. 

This is most easily achieved in individual classes, where we can modify the pre-established program in a very efficient and immediate way; but how do we achieve this in group classes, regardless of how small they are? 

When working in a group setting, each student presents different characteristics and objectives. Because of this, a personalized adaptation of programming is diminished and we need other tools to give the sessions a certain “mobility”. 

In addition to the basic progressions and regressions of each exercise and the option of creating homogenous single level groups (which is not always possible), I propose three ideas that have been very useful for my study:

  • Before the student joins the group and after the “evaluation of movement ”(PFS), invite them to do at least a couple of private sessions to lay a foundation that at the very least reviews potentially dangerous movements and movements requiring the most modifications for said student. This allows the student to feel more comfortable when joining the group, autonomous, and therefore safe when just by saying “Antonio, the shoulders”, the client knows exactly what you mean, and you can continue the group class with this individual cueing. 
  • Evolve each exercise almost “from zero”, even if it is one repetition for each modification. This will help your students to “enter the movement” and become aware of the state of their body in that precise moment for that specific gesture, to feel the progression in the effort, need for control, coordination, etc., and decide with criteria where to stop or how far to continue with the progression of the exercise.
  • Carry out a collective evaluation once every season (or determined number of weeks) in which each student scores themself, without the intention of “qualifying”, but rather to determine the progress and the points still to be reinforced at the individual level, and mark some general guidelines or “keys” that facilitate the most deficit movements. It will serve as positive reinforcement for the students who already have them integrated and give a boost to those who need it.

PEDAGOGY DURING THE SESSION:

Pedagogy is a general theory of learning that studies the laws of the general process of education and training with an emphasis on creating a learning environment that is suitable to multiple learning styles. I include in this group everything related to the way of teaching during Pilates sessions, which has an influence on the intrinsic motivation of the student.

It is essential to keep the student’s attention focused on the session so that learning can occur. Although many of the factors that influence this process are endogenous to the student, we can significantly influence this process.

LANGUAGE: Let’s divide language into “verbal” and non “verbal” to analyze the way in which it influences attention and student motivation

NON-VERBAL: Non-verbal communication is defined as a process where we transmit information to another person without using any type of word, spoken or written.

Nonverbal communication includes:

  • Gestures
  • Facial expression
  • Eye contact
  • Body language
  • Posture
  • Clothing
  • Spatial distance
  • Physical appearance
  • Rhythm
  • Intonation, and tone of voice

Playing with these variables offers endless possibilities and therefore can significantly influence the perception of the exercise by the student.

For example, the act of walking around the room and placing yourself in different points can influence the students feeling of integration, even more so if you look at each student, nod or smile, or approach and speak privately to a specific student with a lower tone of voice if the moment requires. Take into account the response of each student to these gestures, as not all students feel comfortable when they receive special attention or see their personal space “invaded”. Again the adaptability of your non-verbal language to each concrete learner is the key to success to maintain their focus and motivation.

VERBAL: Verbal communication uses words to convey a message. I propose several ideas that cover various objectives that will influence the intrinsic motivation of your students:

  • Words are associated with connotations beyond their own meaning. For example: “Trying” to do something implies the idea of ​​failure if it is not achieved. This can frustrate more competitive and less skilled students. I propose the word “explore”, where each action becomes part of an exploratory process with no glitches or errors, but movement options.
  • Talk about what you do want your students to do. Sometimes we try so hard to say what “could go wrong” that we are unintentionally pushing our student towards that option, or posing “success” as something so unattainable that it blocks any intention of movement. Look at the difference between these two instructions: “lift your leg and try not to move your pelvis at all ”, vs “raise your leg and feel how your pelvis rests heavily on the mat ”.
  • Use language that is accessible to your students. Using technical language does not elevate your status as a teacher, and what’s more, it could create a gulf between you and the student, making it difficult to communicate. This can generate frustration if the students are unable to understand the exercise when it is supposed to be something within their reach. What’s more, I suggest that you use colloquial words, and from time to time use a joke to break the tension, grab the attention of your students and generate an atmosphere of trust in the session.
  • Teach simply. Sometimes we want to say so many things about the exercise that after two minutes of explanation we still have not transmitted what movement we are asking our students to perform. I propose a simple scheme avoid falling into this error:
  1. Describe the initial position (if it coincides with the end of the previous exercise, eliminate this step).
  1. Define the base movement of the exercise (if it entails any real risk for the student, now is the time to comment. Otherwise, it gives rise to error, because experience is where you learn).
  1. State the objective of the exercise (you do not have to do it explicitly, just state what you want the student to achieve).
  1. Propose some guideline or technical indication that facilitates the achievement of the objective.
  1. Observe the execution and decide if it is necessary to make any correction (touch or verbal), reinforce some part of the exercise, or reward a specific gesture.
  1. If necessary, create a loop between the previous two, or add modifications in the exercise returning to point 2.

TYPE OF INSTRUCTION

In the same way that you can decide what kind of teacher to be (the serious teacher, the authoritarian, the joker), you can choose the way to approach an exercise. Apart from the general teaching guidelines which are more concrete, I propose some fun options:

  • Games: When playing a game, you are able to grasp the attention of your students and help them tap into a more playful feeling. This facilitates interaction between students and creates a bond between them that favors adherence to the method. A simple way to incorporate a game is to have students maintain a certain position that requires balance and have them pass various objects to each other, such as balls with different weights.
  • Simon Says: Once a specific exercise has been explained, modify some aspect with each consecutive repetition. This will keep the student’s attention, in addition to challenging their ability to react to external changes. For example, during one-legged footwork, alternate between one leg and the other, toe or heel of the foot, place of support on the bar, etc.
  • Give it a Turn: Create a sequence of fluid movement in which each gesture links with the following, and when they have it fully integrated, reverse the order of execution, or vary the order of the parts.
  • Improvise: Give specific guidelines that determine the essence of the exercise according to its objective, and suggest that they move the rest of their body freely and even randomly. You can put on music and give them time to express themselves and explore freely.

I hope that this small compilation of ideas has been interesting and especially useful if you decide to put them into practice. – Carlos Marin Burguillos Educator for Polestar Pilates Spain, Valladolid.

REFERENCES

Jimenez, M. Intrinsic motivation. Competence, self-determination, and control. On:

Fernández-Abascal, E .; Jimenez, M .; Martín, M. Emotion and motivation: Human adaptation.

Madrid: Ramón Acelles S. A. Study Center, 2007.

Deci, E .; Ryan, R. Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation,

development, and health. Canadian Psychology, v. 49, n. 3, p. 182-185, 2008.

Murcia, J.A., Gimeno, E.C., & Coll, D.G. (2007). Analyzing motivation in sport a

study through the theory of self-determination. Apuntes de Psicología, 25 (1), 35-51.

Discover The 3 Elements That Make Up Motor Control

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Polestar Pilates Teacher Training not only teaches you how to teach exercise choreography but also to see and evaluate the biomechanics of movement, and understand coordination and motor control. This excerpt is from Pilates Hour, a free webinar series hosted by Dr. Brent Anderson that broadcasts weekly.

Brent Recommends Anne Shumway-Cook’s Book “Motor Control”: I always recommend this addition to your movement library especially if you are interested in movement science and motor control. – Brent

Questions:   

How do the principles of coordination relate to the quality of movement versus the quantity of movement?  

Where does “Awareness” fit into movement integration?  

How do alignment, mobility, control, and load relate to understanding coordination and motor control?  

What is the best way to understand coordination to optimize our teaching strategies as Pilates teachers? 

How is movement learned in the best way possible for long-term retention? 

Motor learning has to do with the awareness of internal and external feedback provided both by the Pilates teacher and also from inside the client.  

Movement integration is the principle that synthesizes all the Principles of Movement.  It gives us the tools and understanding for new movement acquisition and learning new strategies to replace older and less efficient ones.  As we better understand coordination and the science of motor control and motor learning, we start to use a different set of tools than what might traditionally be used in the fitness, athletic, and rehabilitation sciences.  

How do we create an environment that allows someone to learn new movements most effectively?  

We often see clients come into the studio with guarded, compensated movement that continues to plague them with an unnecessary expenditure of energy. This can cause a predisposition to things like repetitive strain problems or injuries from those old patterns.   

Think about how you might always cross your leg right over left when you sit – this creates a torsional force in the body and the tissues adapt to this movement or posture from the daily habits we might have.  Improving movement is not necessarily about increasing flexibility, range of motion, or strength, but learning to take a different look at how we in the Pilates environment can really optimize the client’s understanding and learning experience.   

Motor Control is this mixture of the individual, the task, and their environment. When the three of these are working together synergistically, we see movement that has both quality and effectiveness.  (Motor Control: Anne Shumway Cook). 

The Individual: Action, Perception, Cognition 

Action: We define movement in terms of human actions or tasks, whereas we can define motor control as the science that tries to identify how the many degrees of freedom are controlled pertaining to human actions. 

-Anne Shumway-Cook 

Some examples of human action are getting the mail, taking the dog for a walk, and putting on clothing.  You can imagine the almost infinite possibilities in our bodies of the timing of doing simple activities such as these or another example, touching your ear.  The arm can go in many different patterns, perhaps millions, in the attempt to touch the ear.  How does the body navigate that?  

It used to be believed that we were purely reflexive animals. For example, if we step on something sharp and have a reciprocal reflexive response, the leg that is not stepping on something sharp presses down, and the leg that is stepping on something sharp lifts up. It’s the same if you touch something hot.  

Then the science moved to a more hierarchical perspective where individuals think about things with the cortex (brain), have desires to do things, and send commands to the body to do them. For example, if you are thirsty you are going to grab your cup and use a “Motor Plan” to bring the cup to your lips and take a sip of water.   

Consider the act of signing your name on a small piece of paper, which uses a different set of fine motor skills as compared to drinking from a glass.  When I attempt to sign my name on a big chalkboard, I end up using different muscles and different strategies that result in the same signature (hopefully).  What if I tried to sign my name with my foot? 

Perception: The integration of sensory impressions into psychologically meaningful information.  

What is it that we perceive? Where does the sensory information come from? What do we see, hear taste, and smell, what do we feel in our skin and proprioception – where is the body in space? Where are the shoulders and where is the head? 

As Pilates teachers, we are essentially teachers of awareness and perception. That is important! 

My original physical therapy research was looking at perception. Does the client believe they are going to get better?  Clients who believed they would get better had an 80% likelihood that they would indeed show signs of improvement with their low back pain.  Individuals who believed they would not get better also had an 80% correlation that they would indeed not get better.   My challenge was to see if I could shift their perception to one where they were able to move successfully without the pain.  When they had a successful movement experience without the pain and their perspective shifted to one of “I believe I can move without pain”, it made all the difference. 

Cognition: Includes attention, motivation, and emotional aspects of motor control.   

This is something I want – I am afraid of falling and don’t want to – It always hurts when I do this movement… We are constantly problem-solving to get what we want.  

Think of the language we use with clients: be careful, don’t fall down, don’t let your legs go too low, and don’t spill the milk. This kind of language doesn’t tell them what you would like them to do, nor how to do it.  And think of the language we use to communicate with ourselves.  

We sometimes use language that creates a negative perception or concept that then impacts the clients cognitively and eventually impacts their actions.  And this is why at Polestar we are so fanatical about avoiding the “negativity” in our teaching language. We practice the skill of being able to tell clients what we want them to do or to see in their movement and asking them “What do you notice?” rather than telling them “Your pelvis is out of alignment”.  And if they are out of alignment and don’t notice it, we can give them more useful information like “lengthen your right waist” to help them gain better alignment and eventually an internal awareness.  

How do we manipulate the environment or the task at hand to be able to impact the individual’s perception, belief, and cognition of movement? 

Improving awareness is going to be one of our most powerful tools. We speak about this in the rehabilitation world, mainly in the neurological rehabilitation field however, I feel this should be a key focus of language and strategies for anyone teaching or facilitating movement. Our job is to help our clients turn external feedback cues and information into internal awareness so they can become more efficient and more unconsciously competent.  

The Task 

One of the first questions I ask my clients is “What do you believe you should be participating in that you believe you are not able to participate in?”.  

In the International Classification of Function Model “ICF”, we ask them “What do you want to participate in”? If they wish to participate in golf at 90 years old, I have to be thinking “what does this individual’s body require to be able to play golf at 90 years old? 

And we need to be mindful of the “gap”.  Where are they today, where do they see themselves, where they want to be, and how do we help them develop that task that is part of their ability to function and reach their goals.  

Mobility vs Stability 

What is the mobility and stability required for the task? 

If you are on a flat ground performing a movement it will have a different motor program than if you perform the same movement on an uneven surface while someone is throwing things to you.  

We often make tasks too basic and unstimulating and don’t progress the activity or change the environment. The more complex and more variables involved with the movement, the better they learn in the long run. These factors influence how an individual learns to move. It needs to be appropriately challenging from the start.  

When we stop babying our clients and create an environment that may be a little more challenging, they gain independence and begin to do something that they believed they couldn’t do.    

The Environment 

How does the Environment affect movement performance? 

Consider the weight of an object such as the weight of a backpack. Hiking with a 30lb pack will potentially shorten the distance someone can hike compared to hiking without a pack.   Or consider lighting – when it gets dark, movement can become more challenging for some individuals.  When the darkness of the environment takes away the sense of eyesight, they are relying on their vestibular and proprioceptive systems which may be deficient.   

We need to take into consideration: 

  • The weight of different props or devices  
  • Different textures of surfaces (playing basketball on a rubber court verses wooden or cement court) 
  • Practicing Pilates in a dimly lit studio 
  • Air quality or wearing a face mask 
  • Exercising outside or inside with different temperatures 
  • Uneven surfaces 

The surface has a lot to do with the environment and so does the temperature.  Temperatures can impair the way that we move.  If it is very hot and humid or too cold the body can have a difficult time moving.  

The Takeaway 

All three aspects of motor control, the individual, the task, and the environment are all important to us as movement teachers and analysts. 

Is there a right and a wrong way to move? No, there are an infinite number of ways to perform a task or movement.  The question we should be asking is how do we as movement teachers assess our client’s needs, create the optimal environment for learning, and support them in accomplishing any task they may throw our way? 

We need to use tools of interviewing, informative cueing, assistance, props, manipulating load, tempo changing the environment, and challenging clients with choreography.  If we do this, we and our clients stay engaged and energized and clients accomplish not only their original goals but new goals they didn’t even know they had.   

Brent Anderson PhD, PT, OCS, NCPT is a Physical Therapist, Pilates Educator and Founder of Polestar Pilates. Brent received his degree in Physical Therapy at the University of California, San Francisco in 1989 and his PhD. in Physical Therapy at the University of Miami in 2005. His doctoral thesis explored the impact of Pilates rehabilitation on chronic low back pain using psycho-emotional wellness and quality of life measures. He is currently Assistant Professor faculty at the University of Saint Augustine, College of Rehabilitative Sciences.