Pilates Teacher Training

Educator Highlight : Murat Catbas, NCPT

In your own words, describe “the Spirit of Polestar”

MC: Movement is everywhere in life.


What three words come to mind when you think of “Polestar Pilates”?

Star

Facts

Experience

What do you love about teaching Pilates?

MC: Communicating with people through movement. Helping others to help oneself. 

Where did you take your Training and who was the educator?

MC: Started off with Polestar in Cologne. My first educators were Nina Metternich and Susanne Dickhaut under Alexander Bohlander. I took a master training with Balanced Body under Nora St. John. Studying with Shelly Power was a miraculous way back home as an educator and Brent is continuous enlightenment.

What are your current Inspirations?   What do You love about them?

MC: Nature, travel, sun, summer, sea…..air, feet, hands…They keep me thinking and finding new ways.


Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice?

MC: As an advice of my ex-sister in law. She thought it would be something good for me !!!!


What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

MC: Simplicity, Effectiveness

What is your favorite Quote?  How do you live, embody or apply this?

MC: As much as necessary, as little as possible! As a good friend would say. We don’t need more than what we really need to experience our daily life. Simplicity is the key to happiness.


What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

MC: It changes and depends on the situation and needs. They all have their unique touches to the expected or wanted movement and are beautiful in their own ways.


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Mental Imagery in Pilates Instruction

Written By Polestar Pilates Australia Educator Brad Jamieson

Athletes frequently use mental imagery for a number of reasons.  They can run through potential scenarios in their sport to help them better prepare for possible outcomes.  It may look like the driver of a bobsled going through a run turn by turn, reciting in their mind everything that needs to be done to safely and effectively execute their run.  It may be a sprinter imagining a perfect start just before getting into the blocks, or divers just before their dive as they close their eyes and wave their arms around.

Imagery is a very useful tool for athletes as they often have very few opportunities to correctly execute their skills.  Remember, a 100m final at the Olympics happens once every 4 years, and it needs to be performed with split-second perfection.  

Repetition of this actual situation is impossible without waiting 4 years, so athletes recreate this scenario in their mind and “experience” it with the ability to do so at various paces, stop and reset, and repeat as necessary with no physical side-effects (such as fatigue).

Researchers are now studying how mental imagery can be used in a rehabilitation situation.  Promising research has shown that muscle strength can increase by using mental imagery with or without actual movement (further reading 1, 2, 3), can assist with chronic pain sensation (4, 5), and potentially assist in the maintenance of range of motion of immobilized joints (6).  These findings are significant for movement therapists in understanding how imagery operates at a neurological level.

During mental imagery, the brain performs certain processes that exactly mimic those that occur during performance of the movement. 

 The only difference between mental imagery and actual movement, from a neurological level, is that the brain doesn’t deliver a motor signal; the muscle doesn’t fire, and thus, no movement.  It mediates the “needs” of the mind to move- the mind saying, “I want to lift my arm”- and the actual movement.  The brain collects sensory information about the body’s current position, creates an idea of where the arm needs to be, and plans out the route between the two.  It then sends motor messages from the brain to the muscles, which then create the movement.  During the movement, the body feeds back to the brain its position, and the mental process repeats based on the new information, working out whether it is on track to execute the movement or not, and what to do to correct it if it’s going astray.

Here, we need to differentiate between the mind- the part of us that is not a solid-state part of our body, sometimes referred to as a soul- and the brain, which contains the solid brain matter, memories, neurons, and cells.  The mind is what differentiates us as living creatures from a cadaver.  The cadaver has a brain, but has nothing to drive it.  

It is the mind that we use in mental imagery, and the mind then affects the brain’s functions.  This is where we can use trickery to convince the body that it is doing something, even though it is not.

While mental imagery is a very powerful tool in movement, it doesn’t build muscle.  Muscles do not gain any strength through imagery.  Imagery can, however, make the movement more efficient by cutting out extraneous or unnecessary movements.  Consider someone doing the “dead bug” exercise and over-activating their hip flexors, abdominals etc. while also adding global bracing of antagonist muscles, such as the glutes.  All of that extra work and activation is excessive.  The exercise can and should instead be done with minimal effort.  Mental imagery could reorganize the habitual over-activation into a far more effortless one, which will then be delivered from the brain to the body, resulting in a more efficient and easier movement outcome.  Any strength increase that may have occurred in the studies could be attributed to this better organization. 

So, the question arises: How do we utilize mental imagery in our practice?

The good news is (for Polestar graduates at least) we already have the skills and had to practice using imagery during our course.  Imagery cues!  Cues such as, “lift your leg as though your hip joint was full of thick, sticky honey,” or, “imagine your legs are helium balloon and are weightless… allow your legs to float up to tabletop,” are examples of mental imagery.  Through images, the mind considers the body differently (such as resistance or weight).  The mind then changes the way it organizes movement and creates a different outcome.  These are simple examples of mental imagery, and it can be far more complex if needed.

In the event that we were to work with a partially or fully immobilized patient (day 1 post-spinal surgery), we could utilize the same language, but we would need to stop the patient before they moved.  To create an effective use of mental imagery here, we would need the patient to imagine a secondary body inside of their mind- often referred to as an astral body- which can do the final movement instead of the real body.  This imagery would effectively maintain the neural linkages inside the brain that work during movement.  Leaving a patient immobilized without Imagery could allow these linkages to be lost or re-patterned to their immobilized body (i.e. making their mind believe their body can’t move).

Creating effective imagery is largely about creating vivid, realistic, and believable images to present to the mind.  Failing to do so makes imagery less effective since the imagined processes can’t be mapped to real-life movements.  For example, asking someone to imagine their foot is being removed and attached to their shoulder is so foreign to the mind and brain, that the person couldn’t consolidate how to utilize it, and the cue would be ineffective.  Imagining that the foot dorsiflexes by effortlessly hinging at the ankle joint could easily fool the brain and would be more effective.  Imagining that the foot that is moving is yours, has your toes, is cold/warm etc. would be even more effective as it relates to how the brain and mind expect the foot to be.

Finally, a little exercise based on the “dead bug” exercise, showing how this can be put into practice.

  • Lay down in a comfortable place, in the crook lying position, as you would in order to perform the “dead bug” exercise.  This way, the feedback from the body will be exactly as we want it to be, and will not need to be overcome.
  • Close your eyes and connect to your body and surroundings.  Use all of your senses to gather information.  Is there any noise in the room?  If so, acknowledge it.  Is the room cool or warm?  Can you smell or taste anything?  This will use 4/5 senses (not sight), to create a realistic environment
  • Imagine your body as it currently sits.  Where are your arms, legs, body, head, etc.  Create an image in your mind, as if it were a dream, that will act as the body that moves in this exercise.
  • From here, imagine your body is in the room that it currently is in, adding all of the details from point 2- light, heat, noise, smells, etc.
  • Now you are ready to start imaginary movement.  Take one leg of your imaginary body, having it as light as smoke.  Allow it to float up to tabletop, perfect and easy in its movement, then float back down to the start as easily and effortlessly as it rose up.  Remember that the real body remains unmoved.  Only the imaginary body moves.  Also remember that the imaginary body is completely under your control, and you have ultimate control over it.  Even more control than you have over your real body.  Whatever you want it to do and however you want it to be done is completely possible, even if it is not possible in real life.
  • Perform a few repetitions of this, and then you can add on real body movement.  Focus on the imaginary body, and move your real leg as if it were the imaginary one- light and effortlessly.  Once re-patterned, the actual exercise should be able to be done without the imagery, as the body will be convinced and habitually moving in a different way.  This exercise is great for people who over-recruit musculature to perform easy movements.  It teaches them to reduce activity, without just telling them to “relax.”  The idea that someone can just “relax” is proving to be ineffective, as it’s difficult to organize within the brain.

There is much more to be said about this subject but I am going to leave it here.  If you want to learn more, get into things like neuro-plasticity, treatments for phantom limb syndrome, etc., studies are cited below.


References and Further Readings:

1. Effects of Mental Imagery on Muscular Strength in Healthy and Patient Participants: ASystematic Review. Tod et Al. (2016) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974856/

2. Strength Gains by Motor Imagery with Different Ratios of Physical to Mental Practice. Reiseret al. (2011) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3158386/

3. Strength increases from the motor program: comparison of training with maximal voluntaryand imagined muscle contractions. Yue, G. & Cole, K.J. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1597701/

4. The Effects of Graded Motor Imagery and it’s Components on Chronic Pain: A SystematicReview and Meta-Analysis. K Jane Bowering, et al. (2012) https://www.jpain.org/article/S1526-5900(12)00809-7/fulltext

5. The power of the mind: the cortex as a critical determinant of muscle strength/weakness.Clark, BC et al. (2014) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4269707/

6. Mental Practice Maintains Range of Motion Despite Forearm Immobilization : a Pilot Study inHealthy Persons. Frenkel M.O. et al (2014) https://www.medicaljournals.se/jrm/content/abstract/10.2340/16501977-1263


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Couch to 5K (no, this is not about running!)


Why is it that adults have such a hard time not being good at things on the first try?  

Of course I am generalizing, however, I have been noticing this in my classes more frequently.  If I teach a new skill and it is hard for someone, I get real resistance.  As we get older we tend to do fewer things, and we do them really well.  The average age for retirement in the US is 62.  So potentially you could be doing the same job for over 30-40 years.  Kids do new things ALL of the time.  By the age of 2, children learn a whole new language.  Every year adolescents are learning new subject matter in school.  When we are young our bodies and brains are accustomed to not knowing a skill and then being good at developing a new system. 

Please understand that I know not everyone fits in this category.  I myself thrive on new experiences, but it makes sense that adults get stuck from time to time.  A couple of months ago I was teaching “pulling straps” to an amazing group of ladies that were fairly new to Pilates.  One of them commented on how hard it was.  I went through all of the usual suspects, are your springs too tight, are they too light, are you positioned correctly on the box.  Come to find out she was just uncomfortable lying prone.  Then I asked her when was the last time she was on her belly; she laughed and said, “Years!”  She professed that she was not good at this exercise and never wanted to do it again.  After ruling out potential medical/trauma reasons for not liking this exercise I began a new approach. 

How can I get this client to take a normal human function, such as lying prone, and put it back into her vocabulary?  Well… I load her slowly.  

The next week I put her on the ladder barrel and let her hips press onto it as she extended her spine.  It gave her less pressure on her front body and more control to get down when she was ready.  

Demo on Chair

A few weeks later I put her on the chair and laid her on the seat as her feet were still onto the floor.  From there she put her hands on the pedals and extended the spine.  Still less pressure but allowing more load to the front.

Demo on Chair

Now we are able to get about halfway through pulling straps and still feel good!

Demo on Chair

You see we load at a slow and steady pace to get the function we desire.  Exactly like kids… did we give up walking as a toddler the first time we fell? 

This is one small example of frustration with new things.  I have seen clients get upset with themselves because the tension was hard, but they don’t want me to lighten it.  The coordination of a series gets overwhelming and they need to get water.  An exercise requires a certain amount of mobility and they just don’t have it yet, so they let everyone know that it is their bad leg.  Recently I have experienced clients repeatedly apologizing.  So lets say Beth needs me to lighten their springs in footwork; she says, “I’m so sorry, please could you take a spring off.”  Then I say, “Don’t be sorry, be Beth!” 

I have decided it’s not my job to judge them, or understand why they get upset or apologetic.  My task is to let them know, it’s OK to not perform perfect Pilates.  Who really does?

My new cue is COUCH to 5K.  When you embark on a program such as this do we immediately run a 5K straight off the couch?  No.  We start slowly, safely, and walk for the majority of the time on the first day.  Load slowly, be unapologetic!


Becky Phares, PMA®-CPT is a Polestar Pilates practitioner and graduate with more than 10 years of teaching experience. Find Becky and her Studio on Facebook: The Body Initiative Pilates Studio in Lafayette, Louisiana.   The body Initiative Pilates Studio and Instagram @the_body_initiative_ .

Why Pilates? Why Polestar Pilates? 9 Inspiring Examples


I’m often asked how I ended up where I am…..like many others in the fitness world, I’ve had personal injuries that have led my interest in specific trainings to find healing. On my path, I was led to Polestar Pilates. I was drawn to them because of their mission to create life changing movement experiences. Polestar Pilates’ philosophy has been an integral part of my work for several years. Polestar Educator Amy Dixon, NCPT

God made us so marvelously complex and yet so simple at the same time!  Moving the body as it was designed brings strength and healing.

Positive movement experiences are always the mission!  We focus on how the body moves and functions to be in the best shape in order to live life to your fullest potential. Helping you find your inner strength is truly our goal. I’ve been so blessed to be a part of many others journey on their path to wellness.  Over the past 23 years I have seen clients overcome various obstacles.

Here are 9 inspiring examples of client success with Pilates:

  • Clients that have been able to reduce or eliminate medications
  • Pro athletes adding Pilates to balance out their training programs
  • Chronic pain clients that are so fearful to move when they begin, then realizing freedom of movement when function is restored
  • Post operative and post rehab clients that learn how Pilates can bridge the gap to wellness during recovery
  • An 87-year-old great-great grandmother who is as spunky today as she was 17 years ago when we began working together
  • Spinal cord injury client that has gained range of motion
  • Clients that have seen an increase in bone density to the effect that they’ve been removed from the label of osteoporosis
  • Clients with MS that have been able to maintain independence and movement even through flares of their condition
  • Clients suffered from strokes using Pilates for functional rehabilitation

Pilates changes lives. To some it is simply another form of exercise to add variety to ones routine, to others it is a groundbreaking revelation that blows their mind!

What client successes can you add to the list? Share in the comment section below!

Amy Dixon is a Polestar Pilates educator in Winston Salem North Carolina. Discover her studio Inner Strength Pilates here.

Educator Highlight : Chantal Perron

I always loved to dance.  And so, I think I was born with my pointed feet.  But I’ve been dancing since the age of 7, and traveled through the dance industry here in Montreal at different levels.  I got the opportunity when I was a young adult to work in that field.  More on the commercial approach, so I was assisting singers, musicians, corporate events, publicity, TV things, and so that was a really, really nice way for me to express myself.  I was a very shy person, and I still am… so movement was really my way to communicate and to burn off any type of emotion. 

Parallel to that, I was studying architectural design, so structure and the way things are made have always fascinated to me.  So when Pilates got into my life, after health issues and an accident, what I liked about it mostly was that it captured everything I love to study and research all in one.  So the “how things are made” for the architecture part of it in the anatomy, and all that dance fluidity in the movement.  It made me feel like I could join all the aspects, the things that I love into one.  I felt very well-versed in that field, like I got something that touched every aspect of my personality and my curiosity.  

It was a really, really good moment for me.  

That happened in a moment of life when movement was not accessible to me anymore because of an accident and my health situation.  For me being the introvert that I was, not being able to communicate anymore through that venue was very hard, it was a bit of suffering.  It was a really great gift that I got that day when my osteopath at the time proposed that I would be a great candidate to learn and become a teacher of Pilates.  So that’s how it all started.  

I had Guillain-Barré syndrome in 2000 after receiving a flu vaccine.  It struck me pretty hard… it was the Miller Fischer type of Guillain-Barré.  And so my face was paralyzed, my arms, my legs… I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t see, but I could hear.  Movements were happening, but they weren’t voluntary.  My nervous system was going crazy.  Having been a dancer all of my life and having travelled through movement to express myself, being stuck as a prisoner of my body was such a revealing and amazing experience, because I then tried to evaluate what type of movement was still available to me.  I tried to work with those micro-movements to get a little bit more, a little bit more, and a then little bit more… so it was a really good meditative experience that lasted for about 3-4 months.  Throughout that experience, what I realized is that I really needed to move to feel better, and even if it was just the slightest, smallest movement, it would have a direct effect on my mental health and my mental health would have a direct effect on my next attempt to move something else on my body.  So that was my little research. 

I learned a lot about the architecture of my body, my nervous system, and my response between thoughts, emotions, and how the body feels or gets that information. 

This was a very weird, painful, but wonderful experience, because you never get to stop in life, right?  Sometimes you force yourself to stop, to thank God, to meditate, or breathe in and out with intention a couple of time, and make the world wait for that.  But I was forced into that moment of stillness, and it was actually a gift.  That was how I experienced breath and discovered many different exercises that the doctors and physical therapists gave me to get my mind off things and get me busy.  I was literally not sleeping for 24 hours a day, and focusing on breath really, really helped.  I learned that breath is a really great tool to help with anxiety and help get a better perspective on things.  The mind quiets down, and you get a little more perspective as your fears quiet down.  That was my big exercise.  The movement happened, but at a very, very small level. 

When I got out of the hospital I had no muscles, just bones, because I had not moved for so long.  I was wishing to move so much, just to go out for a walk, to do something, but I couldn’t move that much because I would get tired and fatigued very quickly.  I was told: “Don’t go and do errands without having someone next to you, or if you have to, sit down after ten minutes, then take another ten minutes.”  It was like a fifty-fifty effort.  I had to take time to rest, but it was hard to believe because my brain was telling me I could still move, but my body told me I couldn’t.  I remember a day where I had to do an activity to prove to them that I could move.  I was in rehab at that point and had to prove to my doctors and my family that I could go home.  They said, “You need to do a task, to show us that everything is going to be okay.”  So I decided that I would make a gazpacho, you know that cold soup?  It’s one of my favorites.  I was looking forward to eating it, because I hadn’t been eating real food in the last 3 months.  So I started to cut everything into very small sizes, because I refuse to use the blender to make everything.  I think it took me two hours and a half to do the whole thing, and I had to sleep for three days after that.  That’s when I noticed my understanding of how the mind drives the body and the body drives the mind.  That was when I realized I was expecting a little too much out of my body and that my body talked to my head this time and said, “You know what?  You may be stubborn and want to impose a two hour and a half task, but I will tell you I am not ready.”  I slept for three days, and I couldn’t get out of the hospital yet. 

Once I had the OK to go home, I had to go to the rehab center daily to follow up, have tests, and physical therapy.  I had a friend who decided to help me out and take care of me.  I was living in his place, and one morning he drove me to the rehab center.  It was a nice sunny day, so he decided to pull out his motorcycle instead of his car.  I was a little bit struck by his decision, because I had no muscles and I was wondering how I was going to hold on to him in the first place.  I had that gut feeling.  I was really sensitive to everything happening around, and I felt that this was wrong, but I had trouble expressing myself.  I decided to go with it.  Every light that we would cross, every street we would pass, I would mentally tell myself, “Oh, well I was wrong. Nothing’s happening, not now.”  I would repeat this to myself until we got hit by a car.  I remember when I was in the sky (I was propelled off of the motorcycle) I told myself, “Oh no, not again.”  This was a way for me to learn that just because you just went through one thing, it doesn’t mean that everything is going to be perfect and all better.  You need to be prepared that life will always happen, and you have to be open and flexible.  You have to adjust accordingly. 

[Content Warning: Graphic Car Accident Details] The first ordeal was neurological, and now this one was very orthopedic.  It was one right after the other.  That sequence was really amazing to me.  I landed on the ground.  At that point, I thought about surviving.  Because of the Guillain-Barré Syndrome, I had a clot, so I was on a special medication, a blood thinner, to make that better.  The doctors coached me so much: “If you’re brushing your teeth and you have any blood on your brush or something like cutting yourself with a knife, come to the hospital, because it could be dangerous, you can bleed to death.”  And there I was, in the middle of the street, with my femur open, fractured.  The rest of my leg, the bottom part of my leg, was under me, my foot next to my head.  I was holding this piece of leg, with a bone sticking out, and I saw the blood coming out in a big way and I thought, “Well, I’m going to die here, because the blood is just going to keep going.”  I kept screaming, “Find my leg! Put it on!”  And then a nice lady put my foot next to my face, so that I could feel it, and she told me not to worry, that my leg was there.  I quieted down, and I waited for the ambulance.  We were very lucky to be next to the hospital, because my friend was also in really, really bad shape.  When we got to the hospital, we had wonderful, creative doctors and orthopedic surgeons that decided they would not cut my leg but would try to fix it.  My friend and I were very fortunate to profit from their ingenuity.

That was how I got into a clinic where I met with the osteopath, Colleen Jogensen, who was a Pilates practitioner at the time.  I remember on my first visit I saw a reformer.  It didn’t tell me much, because I didn’t know much about Pilates at that time.  She came in, stepped on it, and started moving like she’s dancing, you know, doing the front split series and balancing on it.  She had her own little choreography she was working on to help her spine issues.  So I saw that, got magic in my eyes, and immediately told my physical therapist, “I want to do this.”  My physical therapist told me, “No.  Of course, and some point, but not now.”  I was still in traction, I couldn’t move my leg, and there was a piece of metal sticking out, so now was not the time.  But every day I would go to the physical therapist and ask her, “So, can I go?  Can I go?  So, can I go?” and she kept saying no, and at one point I crossed paths with the osteopath, Colleen, and I told her, “I used to be a dancer.  That was my life, and I need to move.  I saw you move the other day and I was so inspired.  Do you think I can work with you and try it out?”  And then she said, “I’ll talk to your PT and see what the state of your condition is.”  She looked at my profile, found it very fascinating, and wanted to be a part of my medical team.  She told me, “We’ll wait on the Pilates on the reformer for now, since you’re just out of surgery, but I’ll start letting you know about some principles so that you can apply them in your PT exercises that you’re doing here.”  We talked about breath and how to work in precision when trying to do any micro movement to re-educate my knee and leg. 

At one point my leg got really good and I was starting to walk, or practice walking, when I noticed that something was not working.  The leg was okay, but where it flexed in, nothing was working there.  I needed something that would integrate the great work that was done with the leg.  That was when she said, “Well, great that you noticed that, because it’s time to start Pilates.” 

I started doing Pilates twice a week, PT three times a week, and osteopath once a week.  The therapists were working in a team and took me under their wing to make sure I could walk, dance again, and do all my regular activities.  It was a really fun environment to be in. At the time I wasn’t working, and while I paid for my PT sessions, that was all I could manage.  I got to know all these talented and generous people that went above and beyond to give me extra time and information for free that I still use and offer to others.

Eventually I started working for Colleen.  One afternoon she called me at home when I was still on my crutches (I had them for 18 months).  She called me in and said, “You know, I’m doing a teacher training soon and thought you would be a great person to join the course.”  I said, “Are you serious? I can’t even walk!”  She said, “Well, you can always learn movements.  You know movements from your dance background.  I saw you move, and you can transfer that information to correct the clients to make sure they’re safe and able to learn the curriculum.”  And so I said, “Sure, I’ll do that.”  So I started this way with her for close to a year of training.  She had trained with Ann McMillan and Polestar.  This was in 2002.  When I started a daily Pilates practice and the teacher training with Colleen, I really felt much, much better.  The following year was really just some adjustments and making sure everything was in place. 

In 2003, I decided to continue my education and went to New York with my crutches to do the Polestar comprehensive series.

I got there and everyone was in such good shape and so perfectly built and there I was crooked and with my crutches.  I felt very insecure there.  I told myself, “I traveled all that way, I drove down alone, let’s do this.”  I had a bit of training because I did the previous year with Colleen, so I knew about the repertoire, the anatomy, most of the injuries that can happen, and how to deal with them, but I felt like I needed a more in-depth, more recognized approach.  Colleen was the one that strongly recommended Polestar, saying that it was her training.  Because of my background, my injuries, my lifestyle, I felt that the Polestar’s philosophy and approach was really in line with what I was trying to do and what I gained in the past year. 

It really felt like coming home when I met Polestar people.  When I did this training, the approach, philosophy, adaptability, and flexibility all fit in with the way I drive my life, the way I was rehabilitated, and the way I was seeing movement with my new body.  I thought that maybe they needed help promoting Polestar back home in Montreal, without knowing at that time that Brent already had a relationship with Ann McMillain, who was an educator with a host site.  I was just starting in the field, and decided to offer my services, because my deepest desire was to share and to transfer whatever has benefitted me, to pay it forward.

I showed up to the next Polestar conference in Miami (2004).  My goal was to meet the educators and see their day to day reality and if I could fit into any part of it.  I met with Brent and Shelly, the international educators, and the whole team.  I proposed my services as a mentor.  Shelly interviewed me and said, “It would be great to have someone represent us in Montreal.  Let me talk to Brent to see how that will go.”  When I came back to Montreal with my business partner, we opened a studio and hosted a private comprehensive series for all of our staff.  That was my initiative, because they were all Stott trained, and I was Polestar trained, and my partner traveled with me to the conference where she saw an opportunity with the Polestar approach.  We had 15 instructors in our first training with Pam Turner and Lise Stolze leading it.  Then we hosted another one, and another one, and then we became a host site and I was a mentor in those series’.  At one point, I don’t remember exactly when it happened, Brent opened his arms and naturally offered me the role of educator.  This was a very happy moment in my life.  I am very passionate about teaching and always look forward to the next opportunity.

Now, I am cured.  I was lucky.  From what I was told and from what I know about the disease, if you catch it on time, you can reverse the whole thing.  I did intravenous immunoglobulin therapy treatment, plasma exchange and lots of rehab.  With all of that, my immune system started to get back on track and my myelin sheaths started to grow again around the nerves.  The signals then got a little clearer to whatever they fed. I was lucky. At the time of my accident my immune system was still waking up, so I had some involuntary movement that lingered, and I still couldn’t see properly – seeing in black and white on occasion. Now I can see very well, except when I’m very tired, and the side of my face that was paralyzed completely sometimes jams up, but I feel well.

This is my mindset now: “What am I doing now?  What am I doing next?  How can I make this better and what do I want to share still?”  I’m still juggling all of these questions myself, but I do know that I want to pay it forward. I know that when I am in a class with a client that trusts me and that was referred by somebody else that trusted me before and got better, I’m in my zone.  I know that is something that I want to keep doing.  I want to be a part of their progression.  I have lots of information to share, many tools to give them for them to get better.  Now I’m also a business owner.  When I’m in that hourly timezone, it’s hard for me to be addressing my business issues.  I try to navigate between the two roles and get better as a business owner and get better as an instructor for my clients.  So my thought was, how can I make this better for everyone else?  What is my strongest point?  I decided that I could use Polestar to reach out to the community a little better.  Maybe not insist so much on doing the hourly, and trust my skills in transferring that information from the comprehensive series to new, younger instructors that have the same desire as me: to transfer their tools to other people.  When I teach the Polestar program, I feel very strong.  I can reach out to a group and have a bigger impact by transferring my skills and my knowledge, and then they can go out in the community and continue to spread the good.  It’s my mission to make sure that every student that comes through gets the best out of us and the most time out of us too.  So if I can reach more people in a group, that would be a good evolution for me and might be what’s next for me. 

For the last two years, my clients have been mostly elderly, so I would like to find a way to reach out to that age group a little bit more. To have them know about their bodies and the possibilities that their bodies have, because most of them, when I meet them, think that it’s over.  They think that everything is old and not working, and they feel sad.  So that may be a path that I would travel towards. 

One of my clients reminded me of a story… why the studio exists in the first place.  It’s a little bit in regards to the goal that I just shared with you.  Because I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, I thought of other studios, and I worked with Polestar, but why did I want to have my own space?  Well, first I like interior design, that was a fun project.  But it was really to have a place where people could come to me instead of just running around the city and going to them all of the time.  So my client reminded me, after 14 years of working together, “You know what you told me when we first met each other?  Why this place existed?”  I said, “No… I’m not sure what I told you that day… help me out.”  She said, “Well, you wanted to have a place that could help elderly in their wheelchairs, because you just came out of your wheelchair at that time when we met.  You wanted a place that could help them move again.”  So I said, “Really? Did I say that?  I forgot about that!  I forgot I had that goal.”  But it never left me, I just hadn’t thought about it in a long time, but that resonated with me.  That’s something that I definitely still want to do, but now I see it’s hard for them to travel to me, because they can’t just leave where they are.  To find a way to get to them, that would be a good thing.  

The lady that was next to me in the hospital bed, she was maybe 70, broke her hip.  For the whole week that I was in that room, sharing it with her, she never woke up.  Many times I asked about her health, and what was happening, and as soon as she woke up just a little bit, she would in pain, because she was in her bed without movement for so many hours.  I don’t know how long she was there but when she would wake up they would give her medicine and she would fall asleep again.  I was so outraged by this that I thought, “If we could just help them move a little, maybe we could cut down on all of the medications, and they could feel better about themselves.”  That’s what I felt when they moved me in my bed. 

If you’re asking me, what’s up for you in the future? I think I will do more research and visit Polestar Headquarters to get more skills to try to address the type of clientele I’m interested in.  Can I dance now?  Oh yes, like a crazy person, you should see me!  I do this with my kids every day after dinner, that’s our little moment of digestion.  So we put the music loud and they dance climb up on the sofa and we go wild.  I need to keep that so that they know movement is important.

Learn more about Chantal and Goa Pilates in Montreal Canada here.

Educator Highlight : Katrina Hawley

What do you love about teaching Pilates and owning a studio?  Where did you take your training and who was the educator?

I suppose you want something more specific than everything!  I love how versatile Pilates is.  I have taught an eight-year-old child Pilates, and I have taught folks who are in their nineties.  The method has such variation and diversity that a Pilates teacher can reach any population.  And, even better, as a person’s movement world grows and develops, the method grows with them.   

Pilates is so varied that there is a challenge for any body, and as I continue to practice I love that I can continue to challenge my own body by simply progressing the method…it makes the possibilities infinite.

What do you love about owning a studio?

I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about the kind of community I want to create.  I go to work everyday in my own playground and I find that spectacular. Together my business partner and I have created a space that honors the individuality of each person.  I also find joy in the continued creative care that it takes to keep a studio current.  We are constantly reviewing the latest research, learning the newest marketing skills, and continuing to grow as individuals.

I did the Polestar Pilates Comprehensive series in 2006 with Nelly Lugo.  She’s amazing! 

What are your current inspirations?   What do you love about them?

Right now I am slightly obsessed with the idea of finding a work-life balance and living life outside of the theoretical (like moving my own body as much or even more than I teach others to move).  I am so excited about motor control, and I geek out about neuroscience and systems theory.  Somebody once suggested that I find a hobby because I work “too” much.  This person was not wrong, but the thought of finding another hobby that is as satisfying as my work seemed a little daunting. I have settled on making all of my food from scratch and coloring every page in Netter’s neuroscience coloring book.  I mentioned these new hobbies to my partner and he said, “Well that is wonderfully nerdy!” 

I am inspired by geekiness and am so grateful to live and work in a community where that is honored and even considered heroic.

Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice? 

I was a dancer and Pilates was my “day job.”  Then when my dance career evolved (I avoid the phrase, “when I retired”)  I wanted to find a way to make Pilates more interesting.  I needed to bring the creativity and art of the rehearsal process to the teaching.  And what a journey it’s been.  I love that my background in dance is reaching a wider population.  I love the idea that information my body has had since I was six years old is helpful in how it informs my intuition when I am teaching others.  I love that I have found a way to make every session new.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching? 

We can’t be kind to others if we are not first kind to ourselves; that error is the pathway to learning; that I have yet to see the ideal posture on an actual living human being; and that every body is perfect.

Where would you love to vacation?

Costa Rica.  I have been obsessed with sloths since I was getting certified in Laban Movement Analysis and one of our assignments was to go to the zoo, observe the movement qualities of an animal and create a movement piece that is inspired by that animal.  I spent the entire four hours watching a sloth move about six feet on a tree branch.  I was mesmerized by the constant unending motion.  There is a sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica.

What is your favorite quote?  How do you live and embody this?

“My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.” -Ruth Bader Ginsburg

RBG is my hero in so many ways.  I embody this quote as I vote, advocate, and teach.  Each person is independent in thought and that creativity should be honored.


Describe your movement style:

I love to move big and wide and to ride the momentum of my fascia.  My nephew characterized my movement with those words when I was geeking out to him about the fascial system.  My challenge is to move in a manner that is controlled and contained around my center.  My life’s goal is to balance the joy of flying with the accomplishment of control.

What is your favorite apparatus or favorite way to move? What do you love about it?

This changes from week to week… Right now I’m having a slight love affair with the ladder barrel and its support in spine movement.

What are you reading or learning about?

Netter’s Neuroscience Coloring BookTherapeutic Neuroscience Education, and Body Respect are the three new books on my nightstand, and I am always working my way through one of the Harry Potter books. We are at the beginning of a revolution of changes in thinking, or maybe we’re in the middle of the revolution and I am just figuring it out… I never know.


Join Katrina in the Upcoming Comprehensive Pilates Teacher Training in Hadley, MA