Pilates Teacher

Community Highlight: Polestar Practitioner Peter Clerkin

In your own words – describe “the Spirit of Polestar”:

PC: Using Pilates as a tool to create a positive movement experience.

What Three Words come to mind when you think of “Polestar Pilates”?

Holistic

Evolved

Legacy

What do you love about teaching Pilates?

PC: I love teaching because I can express and articulate what is good about Pilates as people do it – I know that a class or an individual person will feel better than they did before at the end of the session and I love to be present to see that change occur. I took my teacher training in London and my educators were Liz Bussey and Diane Nye.

What are your current Inspirations?  

PC: My current inspirations are researchers and physiotherapists trying to understand pain science so that it can be applied to Pilates, or movement practices in general, as a way to build resiliency in our clients. Polestar Educator Juan Nieto does a lot of good work in condensing this research and making it applicable to Pilates

Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice?

PC: I have been a Pilates teacher for almost 10 years – before that, I coached youth sports and earned an undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise Science. Movement fascinates me and Pilates is a wonderful way of moving and making shapes that is in the moment, fun, and rewarding. Afterward, you feel improved emotional and mental health, and the physical, mental and emotional benefits continue the more you practice.

Pilates takes me into flow more than any other activity.

Why Polestar Pilates?  How did you come to join the Polestar Community?

PC: I felt that it was the gold standard regarding teacher training and I love that across the world we can all find common ground with the training and methods we use.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

PC: Moving is vital to being healthy and living a varied and fulfilling life. Also, that it can be fun, explorative, collaborative, and a way to understand your own unique body.

What is your favorite Quote? 

PC:

“The only constant is change”

Simple but powerful, I interpret it as trying to embrace what may come next and adapt to that rather than expecting things to be a certain way.

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

PC: I love the ladder barrel – I think because a lot of the other apparatus are similar to each other. I like that the ladder barrel is a wonderful way of moving through many directions with your spine and also as a way to perform movements with a greater range of motion around the major joints.


You can find Peter on social media @peterdoespilates and discover teacher training opportunities here.

Unlock the Myth of Intra-Abdominal Pressure


What Is Intra-Abdominal Pressure And Why Does It Matter? 

Intra-abdominal (IAP) pressure is defined as the steady-state pressure concealed within the abdominal cavity and resulting from the interaction between the abdominal wall and viscera; IAP oscillates according to respiratory phase and abdominal wall resistance.

How do we educate people who have lost the capacity to appropriately use intra-abdominal pressure?  Think about the following statement: The appropriate amount of stiffness for the anticipated activity. What does this best describe? Stability? Core Control? Powerhouse? All of these things? 

The answer is all of them. Whether we are talking about stability, the powerhouse, or core control, we should be talking about the same concept. That is, does someone have the right amount of support for the anticipated load or activity? I intentionally use the word anticipated. The brain is using information from past experiences to determine the best approach. This enables us without thinking to know how much stiffness to create in preparation for picking up a jug of milk versus a bag of dried leaves for example.

Joseph Pilates implied that the powerhouse is where things start. What kind of tools do we as movement practitioners have to facilitate the appropriate amount of stiffness for the anticipated load? When asked how they would rank the greatest influencers of intra-abdominal pressure, our #PilatesHour webinar attendees answered as follows:  

A lot of people think it is about muscle control or abdominal strength. This is not the case. When we talk about the abdominal wall and intra-abdominal pressure with our clients, we often confuse them. This is because intra-abdominal pressure involves much more than just the abdominal wall. Intra-abdominal pressure is the stiffness inside the trunk, particularly in between the chest and the pelvic floor. It is this stiffness that is necessary to control the amount of movement based on the load. 

The Power Of Breath 

Breath is a powerful influencer of intra-abdominal pressure. The diaphragm is in fact one of the primary muscles and controllers of intra-abdominal pressure. Some people do not utilize the breath or the diaphragm efficiently or as part of dynamic control. This provides a terrific opportunity for Pilates instructors to affect IAP simply through training efficient and supportive breath patterns. 

The appropriate amount of stiffness is going to be determined by the activity and facilitated by proper alignment. For example, holding your breath in and of itself will create stiffness, but does it create the appropriate amount of stiffness? Is this a stiffness or support that can be maintained for a period of time? Proper alignment and practice lead to efficient and successful movement that seldom has to do with core strength. 

Most of our bodies are given the appropriate amount of strength to be able to handle the movements we choose to participate in. That does not mean that tomorrow, with my body in its current condition, I can go out and perform a 400-pound deadlift if I chose to. I am not conditioned for this activity, nor do I have a need to lift 400 pounds.

However, if I were training to perform that specific loaded movement, my body would naturally start gaining strength by steadily increasing the deadlift weight. Tissue adaptation would happen, meaning that my abdominal wall, my back muscles, and my pelvic floor would all start to change based on the demand that I would be making on those tissues. 

This leads to the question, How much control, mobility, or stiffness is necessary to accomplish the task at hand? 

Let’s say the box in this photo weighs 40 pounds. What parts of his body must recruit and create stiffness to keep him from falling? What if the box were 100 pounds, vs 15 pounds. How would that change the situation? 

When we look at the dynamic movement of kicking a ball, what are they doing and what muscles must be turned on for the person in the photo to be able to kick the ball? Which fascial trains or slings are being activated or tensioned to be able to have the appropriate amount of control of the trunk so that their leg and body can accelerate the foot through space and kick the ball down the field? 

How can we support clients in improving the efficiency of their intra-abdominal pressure? 

  1. Help them find their optimal alignment 
  1. Help them find efficient breath patterns within their optimal alignment 
  1. Progressively load them, working always within ranges where they can maintain the above 
  1. Work through the above points to help them perform the activities in which they want to participate 

With this basic introduction to intra-abdominal pressure, we see that it is more about alignment, breath, and load than focused abdominal work. I encourage you to try facilitating the above points with your clients and see how their quality of movement and integration with activity improve. 


Brent Anderson, PhD, PT, OCS, NCPT is the President and Founder of Polestar Pilates International. Brent is a licensed physical therapist and orthopedic certified specialist with more than 22 years of experience. Based on his extensive background in rehabilitation and movement science, Brent elaborates on Joseph Pilates’ mind-body work through the Polestar curriculum by developing tools for critical reasoning and applying supportive scientific research. He also infuses the integral role of psychology and energy systems on motor control and motor learning.


Brent hosts our weekly webinar #PilatesHour featuring special guests from the movement science field and Polestar community. Watch episode 82 “The Science And Myth of Intra-Abdominal Pressure” here.

How to Promote Embodiment in Your Clients: Somatic Cueing

By Kristin Loeer, Movement Therapist, Polestar Pilates Mentor & Practitioner @polestarpilatesuk, @kristinloeer_movement


What Is The client Really Telling Us?

There are many ways in which we can guide our clients through movement. We can use a vast variety of verbal and tactile cues to help them change their movement habits and master increasingly complex challenges. 

How often do clients tell us that unless we put our hands on them to guide them in the right direction, they are unable to replicate the experience?

And how often do they say, after a complex piece of work, that there is so much to think about? That they have to concentrate so very hard to coordinate everything? While feedback like that is common we should consider carefully what the client is really telling us. 

As a Somatic Practitioner and a Pilates teacher, my goal almost always is to help people become more aware of sensations. Sensations provide vital information about our physical and mental well-being. Being present in our body and in tune with its sensations is not just an essential part of healthy movement practice. It also adds to our overall resilience and life vitality. It alerts us of physical and emotional strain, so we can take action before problems turn chronic. It allows us to make better decisions. It makes us better at resourcing ourselves with what helps us maneuver through tough times so we are less prone to trauma. 

“There Is So Much To Think About In Pilates!

One day one of my clients sighed: “there is so much to think about in Pilates!”. I had to pause and try to understand what they were really saying. The way in which the client sighed their words told me that the experience had somewhat overwhelmed them. When we are overwhelmed it is much harder for us to be and remain in our bodies. This is especially true if we are not used to it and trying to make sense of something new at the same time. The fact that they had to “think” a lot while moving told me they may have not been “in their body” at all during the past 20 minutes of our one-on-one Pilates session. 

Our conscious thoughts happen in our prefrontal cortex, also known as the thinking brain. This is the youngest part of our brain and also where our modern society requires us to be focused most of the time. From a young age, we are expected to understand rules, keep to a schedule, and use logical reasoning to navigate through life. The older parts of our brain, the limbic and reptilian brain, concerned with emotion, instinct, and physical sensation, become subdued and controlled by the prefrontal cortex. If we are upset we try to pull ourselves together. If we feel threatened by something that we can not logically explain, we feel ashamed and try to hide it. If we have pain, we numb it with painkillers. 

Pilates, as an embodiment practice, should help us reconnect with our instincts and physical sensations, yet all my client experienced was their thinking brain coordinating their movements. I had thoroughly failed at providing my client with the basics of an embodied movement practice. 

Kristen Loeer

Firstly I had to look at my own insecurities that had led me to overwhelm my client. My desire was to give them all the wonderful cues, visualizations, and information that I knew. I had been driven by my thinking brain, which would tell me that unless I did everything I possibly could, I was being lazy, holding back, and not giving my client enough. 

What might this have been like if I were more in tune with the oldest, most instinctive part of my brain, my reptilian brain? Perhaps I would have been less distracted by my beliefs about my worth as a Pilates teacher. I may have picked up on the silent and physical clues that would have told me that my client was overwhelmed. That they were trying to figure it all out in their head, rather than communicating with their body. The first steps were for me to realize that I had more embodiment work to do myself. 

This experience also made me more aware of our “cueing tool kit” and how we use it. Could it be that the way we cue our clients favors addressing their thinking brain, rather than promoting embodiment? 

Dr. Peter Levine’s SIBAM Model

Dr. Peter Levine introduced the SIBAM model representing all of the elements of human experience; S – Sensation, I – Image, B – Behaviour, A – Affect, and M – Meaning.

When we have a traumatic experience, one or more elements can get split off from our awareness. For example, we might be unable to remember what we did during the traumatic event (behavior). We may feel numb when we talk about what happened (affect). Ideally, we have a fairly balanced awareness of all the elements in order to best integrate the experience moving forward in life. 

If we apply the SIBAM model to the experience of practicing a Pilates exercise, such as semicircle on the reformer, it could look like this: 

Sensation: The physical sensation of feeling the pressure of the foot bar under our feet. Feeling a sense of expansion or containment, as we reach into the shoulder rests and foot bar. The heat or tension generated by the stress our body is experiencing during this exercise. Is there intensity? Does intensity turn into tension and struggle? Is there pain? Do we feel connected? 

Image: The visualization of my spine riding a wave. The image of myself as a dolphin-like creature. I can imagine my sitting bones moving apart and closer together throughout the movement. Maybe I am literally seeing myself in the studio mirror. 

Behavior: The movement that is semicircle is essentially the behavior, but also the strategy I am using to move through this exercise is part of the behavior. In short: “what am I doing?” and “how am I doing it?” 

Affect: Any experience has an emotional component. Perhaps I feel joy at experiencing this fun, flowing exercise. Maybe there is a slight sense of unease, irritation, or fear attached to the movement. 

Meaning: The meaning we give the movement is a semicircle. As we say the word semicircle we already have a meaning attached to the movement. Perhaps the meaning is “integrated, pleasurable exercise that helps my spine gain mobility.” Or maybe I have a belief about this exercise putting me at risk of hurting myself.  

I do want my client to be aware of all the elements of their movement experience, but as mentioned earlier, we tend to learn from an early age to rely heavily on our meaning and belief-making brain. We don’t tend to be very in tune with our more subtle physical sensations.

For example, when you are happy, how do you know you are happy? The emotion you are naming as happy always comes with physical sensations. But what are those sensations, can you name them?

You may find that it is not all that easy, because these sensations can be rather subconscious. However, if they were not present you would not be able to identify what you are feeling as happiness. Becoming more aware of the sensations in our bodies is what helps us become embodied. If I can feel the mat underneath me if I am confident about where I am in space. If I can detect the first level of bracing in my muscles and make an instinctive change that allows me to relax. This means I am in my body and truly communicating and working with it.

When I explain to my client that we are going to do semicircle on the reformer and give them the general instruction of what goes where I am setting up the behavior coupled with meaning. We are doing semicircle and this is how the movement goes. 

As they start moving I might notice aspects of their strategy that do not look so efficient. That is when I might offer a cue: “dive your tail through the water like a dolphin,” or “send your sitting bones to the back of your knees.” In terms of SIBAM, I am still cueing behavior with the help of an image. 

It is only when I draw my client’s attention to their proprioception (awareness of themselves in space) and even more importantly their interoception (awareness of internal sensation) that I begin helping my client embody semicircle. I may also offer tactile cues. In fact, this can initially be very helpful for those who struggle with feeling their body. It is much easier to recognize the sensation of someone’s hand on me than the sensation that comes with happiness. Tactile cueing can be a great starting point to help clients become more embodied. 

Ultimately tactile cues are only helpful if the client can be aware of the sensation of the touch, in addition to the sensation of the change that the tactile cue has caused in their body’s movement. Only then can they apply the changes internally that help them move better. Otherwise, the client will not actually integrate the changes we are making and simply go back to their old patterns. 

Awareness Of Affect In Pilates

Another element of SIBAM we hardly ever promote awareness of in Pilates is the affect. Have you ever acknowledged a client’s excitement after managing parakeet for the first time. Do you respect a client’s fear of a suggested exercise and find a compromise? We do not tend to dedicate much time to engaging with emotional responses. Of course, that may be for good reason. There is a fine line between encouraging someone to feel their pride and confidence at achieving parakeet, and the boundaries of the scope of practice as a Pilates teacher when it comes to managing more challenging or negative emotions that might be attached to a movement. 

Promoting embodiment and the awareness of one’s body in movement is certainly an essential part of teaching Pilates.

Promoting true embodiment in our clients means having to assume less and ask more questions. I can make my client aware of sensations that I can assume they are able to feel. I can say: “feel the contact that you are making with the reformer”. “Feel your relationship with gravity changing,” or “allow your head to be heavy.” This is where our ability to assume things ends. Sensations are highly subjective and we can not know what our clients are sensing on a more subtle level. W can only be observant and ask them about the sensations they are experiencing. This also makes our clients feel seen, communicating more actively with me and taking ownership of their session. 

I can ask a relatively directive question about my client’s sensations, like: “can you feel your jaw releasing?” or “can you feel your connection through your right arm into your center change as you hold the bar differently?” The client has to feel into these specific areas in order to answer the question. I could also ask more open questions to allow the client to expand their awareness and gain new insights into themselves in the movement. I could ask: “as you are gaining more flow, what changes are you aware of in your body?” or “what was happening in your body just then, before you lost stability?” 

The Client is the Expert of Themself

Ultimately it is my goal always to make my client the expert of themselves. I am not there to tell them what they should be feeling or how they should be moving. My goal is to help them get to know their unique self in movement. I am there to help them engage with their body to learn how they can improve their movement ability. I respect that we are all different and that our experiences are also different. While I may help them orient and navigate, ultimately their experience will be different than mine and only they can experience themselves moving. 

When experimenting with more sensory or somatic cueing, it is also important to be mindful of our pace, giving too much information, and asking too many questions. Sensing into what the body has to say while we are moving requires us to slow down a lot. 

Many clients will struggle to access physical sensations, particularly if their brain is busy with figuring out what (behavior) they are doing, or why (meaning). If I am engaging with semicircle for the first time, I easily resort to connecting with the part of me that I am most used to consulting. My thinking brain goes into overdrive trying to figure out where I am in space. How do I engage with this spring tension? What is this movement or choreography? My felt sense would be a very authentic, wise, and safe advisor in this.

It is easy for teachers to buy into this struggle by wanting to offer more clarity with more cues serving meaning, behavior, and image. This may get us some success in terms of our client being able to navigate through the movement. Telling someone what to do is quicker and easier than asking the client to be comfortable in confusion and taking the time to help them sense into their body and figure out what feels true to them. However, if we allow the client to rely on their thinking brain too much to master the exercise, we will see them putting their body through a potentially risky movement, with no or very little awareness of themselves and no deep learning that could enable authentic change or growth.  

If we provide the right environment and remain mindful of our pace, sensory cueing will make an incredible difference to our client’s experience. If we can cue and support our client in a way that enables them to be embodied from the beginning to the end of an exercise, we will see a client who is moving confidently and well, fully aware of what is happening in their body, and fully in control throughout, having a calm and enriching experience. 

All we need to do is be in our body ourselves, aware of our own sensations, as they will guide us to promote the same in our clients, without pushing or overwhelming them.


By Kristin Loeer, Movement Therapist, Polestar Pilates Mentor & Practitioner @polestarpilatesuk, @kristinloeer_movement

Community Highlight: Carlos Marin Burguillos

Carlos Marin Burguillos is an Educator for Polestar Pilates Spain. Discover how to keep your clients motivated to move with Carlos here.


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

CM: It is a way to rediscover natural movement, under the principles of science and self-exploration.

What Three Words come to mind when you think of “Polestar Pilates”

Family

Commitment

Movement

What do you love about teaching Pilates?

CM: I have always loved to train and from a very young age, I frequented gyms. Understanding the why and how of movement multiplied the effects of my fitness training.

Being an educator of future teachers means sharing everything I have learned over the years, in movement and in life. I believe that each person moves and understands movement in a special way, and having the opportunity to share my unique perspective makes me feel whole.

In my Pilates studio, we teach students different ways of moving so that each one can internalize in a way that best suits their way of life. I believe that the freedom to teach and explore within the principles of Polestar is what has helped my students the most to feel good within their bodies.

What are your current Inspirations?  

CM: Currently, I am very dedicated to my movement studies. Leading teacher training courses with Polestar is a window for me to share what I know with others who are moving in the same direction. I would love to be able to convey the little ideas that I develop throughout my experience with as many people as possible.

Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice?

CM: Pilates is the medium and the purpose is to feel good in the body. I learned about Pilates through a friend who suggested I take a class, and since then I have lived from it, for it and with it.

I think that the evolution of science and learning places me more in using the “pilates environment” than sticking to the traditional exercises as shown in the manuals. Knowing why and how to do things is important!

Why Polestar Pilates? 

CM: Polestar was the first school I trained with. I have also completed many courses with other schools. Polestar is a family to me and I have felt continuous accompaniment and support in all areas of my life from Polestar Spain. Polestar International makes it possible for this symbiosis to exist.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

CM: I hope to convey the knowledge of the principles to be able to help clients set objectives and carry them out. From there I hope to convey my point of view of the movement – how the support points create the stability necessary to release into the movement.

What is your favorite Quote? 

CM: First move – Then move well – Then move around a lot – And then improvise and be happy.

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

CM: I think the Reformer is the most versatile apparatus, especially when teaching a group. All of the Pilates apparatus provide options and environments that enable learning.


Carlos is an Educator for Polestar Spain – You can find Carlos on social media @carlosmarin_move

Graduate Highlight: Chrissy Lomax

To me, the principles of Pilates are present in my every move, everyday, and go with me everywhere. I am forever a student. Whether on the Reformer, race-walking or recording vocals in the studio, the principles are always active. The more I learn, the more I learn what I don’t know. Everybody and every body can do Pilates, and that is what I share. – Chrissy Lomax

Watch Pilates Hour, Episode #90 with Chrissy Lomax, “Breast Cancer Awareness”.


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

CL: I have always been passionate about helping others achieve goals, overcome physical limitations, become stronger, and believe in themselves. Pilates ties together everything that I have ever worked toward to bring me the balance I need to stay whole and in tune with myself.      

My fitness & well-being journey began over 30 years ago when I spent 4 years recovering from a serious car accident. I had to dig deep and heal from broken ribs, a punctured lung, a collapsed lung, a ruptured spleen, and multiple skull fractures that took away my vision and memory for a few months. On top of that I was told that I may never walk again due to the injuries in my legs. I educated myself on rebuilding and healing my body, mind, and spirit.     

I called them “floor exercises” then, and I committed myself and worked hard to walk again- without a cane! It really was a miraculous recovery. During my recovery, my 41 year-old mother was diagnosed with colon cancer that took her 9 weeks later. My journey now included helping others prevent cancer.     

My music career brought me to California from Toronto, and I continued my quest to help others get fit and healthy and stay cancer free. I was a fundraiser for the Jonnson Cancer Center/UCLA, an Ambassador and Leader for Weight Watchers, a marathon coach for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s TNT, and an AFAA personal fitness trainer.       

In 2005 I had my first official mat Pilates teacher training and realized that this is what I had been doing all along. The healing powers of Pilates in body, mind & spirit was something I was already embracing, so I knew this was a good fit.      

6 years later a friend invited me to partner with her to become a Polestar certified instructor. Until that day I had never even been on a reformer. A year later I started teaching reformer classes at a physical therapy/rehabilitation facility where I did my training. 

Polestar: What are your current inspirations?

CL: I just beat HER2-positive breast cancer; 20% of BC diagnoses are this aggressive type. I am so inspired to help others diagnosed with breast cancer get through treatment as well as I did.

As challenging, painful, and sickening as it was, I did the work I had to do to make it through the dark tunnels of treatment. Some days I could move and some days I just couldn’t get out of bed. I took advantage of the good days and moved as much as possible, whether it was cleaning the house and doing laundry or preparing bland but nourishing soups in my Vitamix. My treatment lasted a whole year and just ended last July in 2018. I had six rounds of strong chemotherapy including Herceptin and Neulasta, then surgery, then 35 radiation treatments. My targeted therapy Herceptin was infused every three weeks for a whole year through a port in my chest.

My last infusion was July, 2018, and my last surgery to remove the port followed. I had the best possible outcome from my treatment – a pathologic complete response. I believe this is because I allowed my oncology team to do what they needed to do to fight the disease while I did my job of nourishing my body, mind, and spirit. I feel responsible to help others do the same, show them how easy it is when you make a choice, and treat yourself with as much love as you do everyone else in your life.         

Polestar: What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

CL: To be honest, I think I talk constantly while I am teaching. There is so much going on in our bodies when we move, and I get excited about it! I hope my teaching encourages others to be thoughtful as they move not just on the reformer or mat, but as they move throughout their day.       

Polestar: Where would you love to vacation?

CL: Hawaii is my favorite place to go on vacation. I use visualization to make it through challenges like getting to a marathon finish line, so I visualized it during my radiation treatments. I would visualize my toes in the sand under the banyan tree in Waikiki. It has been years since I have been there, and when I do get there again I will welcome the sunrise on the beach with a morning mat workout! 

Polestar: What is your favorite quote?  How do you live or embody this?

CL: My favorite quote changes all the time, but I do love the blessings of John O’Donohue. Currently, I read this one daily as I continue to heal: 

“May I have the courage today To live the life that I would love, To postpone my dream no longer/ But to do at last what I came here for/ And waste my heart on fear no more.” 

John O’Donohue

And this is on the back of my business card: “Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness” -Joseph Pilates

Polestar: Describe your movement style.

CL: Thoughtful, purposeful with intention.

Polestar: What is your favorite apparatus or favorite way to move?

CL: There is such a playground of toys to use, and although I do believe the Pilates Reformer workout is all you ever need in life, the Pilates Ring (Magic Circle) has been my most valuable apparatus during treatment and recovery.

With my blood counts compromised and low during treatment, going into a gym or Pilates Studio was out of the question, and I don’t have a reformer at home. In bed, sitting on the side of the bed I was able to work just about every part of my body, with or without the ring; throw in a band and BOOM- you have a great total-body workout. I always recommend that my clients put a ring and a band in their suitcase first when packing to travel and they can workout anywhere. 

Polestar: What are you reading or learning about?

CL: I am currently reading Tripping Over The Truth, which is about the metabolic theory of cancer. I am learning everything that I possibly can to stay cancer-free and to help others do the same. To me, Pilates movement is so thoughtful, methodical, self-loving, and healing. 

Polestar: How does Pilates inform your profession?

CL: To me, the principles of Pilates are present in my every move, every day, and go with me everywhere. I am forever a student. Whether on the Reformer, race-walking, or recording vocals in the studio, the principles are always active. The more I learn, the more I learn what I don’t know. Everybody and everybody can do Pilates, and that is what I share. 


You can find Chrissy at Daily Breath Pilates and check out her awesome music at ChrissyLomax.com

Discover The 3 Elements That Make Up Motor Control

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.