Pilates

The Gift of Opportunity and Authenticity

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A Catalyst to Potential Health and Wellbeing – By Polestar Pilates Mentor Vikki Harris

So what supports a catalyst for personal transformation?
Sometimes a massive wake up call for existence shows up in the form of a disease or pathology. Currently, our environmental climate is in crisis and there is an absolute need for rebellion to call for action now, not in the future, to prevent both human extinction and our planet’s destruction. Are we listening and acting on the call? What about our own individual environmental climate? Are we inflamed, stressed, under-resourced physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and potentially ignoring it? What will it take to be heard and listened to? If we tune in and observe ourselves what may we discover? When we’ve been conditioned to say “yes,” and forgotten how to say “no,” for example, our bodies may end up saying it for us in some form.

Gabor Mate writes in his book When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress, “It’s about input, output, and understanding “flow”, the bio-psycho-social model where many processes form together in the creation of disease or health. Healing is finding a balance of flow and harmony.” 

The negative effects of stress on health are well-documented. There are many definitions of stress from both eastern and western philosophies and academic disciplines, including psychology and physiology. The paradigm of research is shifting toward a holistic approach in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The healthcare provider considers the whole person by addressing their symptoms as well as the underlying causes including the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual components of wellbeing. 

The Pilates studio is an environment where awareness of the whole individual can be supported through an integrative and experiential approach. With intention and autonomy, the “self” can be heard and directed by the client’s experience rather than by the teacher. My teaching and presence change as I look within myself and find integrity beyond the connectivity of body parts and systems, to where there is a wealth of potential learning and health. 

The focus in research on stress-disease models appears to be divided into the following areas:

  • Genetic predisposition
  • Energy medicine
  • Subtle energy anatomy

There has been an intuitive association with stress and disease for centuries but scientists from several disciplines have come together in the last decade to form a field of study called psycho-neuro-immunology.

Stressors have been characterized into three groups:

  • The bio-ecological influences of external influences, some of which are outside of our awareness, including sunlight, gravitational pull, solar flares, and electromagnetic fields that affect our biological rhythms.
  • The psycho-intrapersonal influences of perceptions of stimuli through our own interpretations, thoughts, values, beliefs, attitudes, opinions, and our identity or ego.
  • The social influences where individuals are unable to cope with their given environment, overcrowding, boundaries, and major life changes.

If we view the mind and body as two separate things, dividing that which is inseparable, we attempt to understand the body in isolation from the mind, describing human beings as if they function in isolation from their environment where they develop and learn. The unexamined assumptions both determine and limit what we will discover. If we become specialized in parts, theories, or knowledge, we become interested in only those parts and not on the whole where the parts reside, taking on a dualist binary approach. 

“Our present state of scientific knowledge suggests we can solidly affirm that kindness and compassion to the brain are what breath is to life.”  

Daniel Siegel

Presence, attunement, and resonance with yourself and your client create an environment that supports an open, non-judgmental potential of awareness. The attuned approach is where the gold lies. The guiding pole star helps us with a map, yet the territory and landscapes need to be explored, felt, and acknowledged to bring color, depth, individuality, and perspective that embody the true spirit of “aliveness” of our human existence. 

How To Be A Highly Effective Pilates Studio Owner: The Team

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The continued success of a Pilates Studio relies, in large part, on its ability to keep its most precious asset motivated: the team! To cultivate relationships with team members, and encourage their creativity and loyalty, you must start with yourself. As a studio owner or manager, you need to have a disciplined strategy.
Regardless of the number of instructors who make up your team, getting full involvement for effective results is in your hands. A solid investment in self-improvement will make you a better manager. When doing well, your team members will pick up on this and will motivate you to excel. In our blog post, The Art of Communication, we discussed building rapport with clients. Those techniques can also be applied to how you interact with your staff. By building a good relationship with employees, such as Pilates teachers, reception and cleaning staff, etc. you will foster an inviting and thriving studio environment. We must go further if we want to have a highly effective team. Invest in your Pilates professionals’ advancement. If there are areas of improvement (i.e. a new skill or practice) that your employee would like to pursue, encourage them. Seek out how best to furnish their needs and possibly subsidize their new training. If you combine good services, a studied strategy and quality training, your success will be guaranteed. Remember that your Pilates teachers should be well trained, so skimping on training may mean not being up to par. Your clients will perceive it as well, so invest in the future. This approach sounds great, but you may not know how to go about it. Stephen Covey summarizes in his best-selling book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, a set of rules that can help in such situations. It discusses improving areas around personal management, leadership, and empathetic communication. Covey’s 7 habits guide you to change your behavior by modifying a series of paradigms that will help you understand the world differently. The 4th habit, for example, focuses on being an effective leader. “leadership is communicating others’ worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.” We recommend this reading in the hopes the lessons will manifest in your studio. These habits give us a taste of the characteristics that a successful Pilates studio manager embodies. In our next post, we will identify 7 tips for becoming a successful Pilates entrepreneur. If you dare to take the first steps to become a highly effective Pilates studio manager, you will be putting yourself and your team at the forefront of your profession.

On the Blog: How do we know we’re teaching a great class? 

Meditation & Pilates

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Polestar has been a major force in the introduction of Pilates to the medical and academic world. Through partnering with major universities, hospitals and institutions, we have successfully introduced Polestar’s Pilates curriculum to thousands of professionals in over 60 Universities throughout the world.

Polestar provides many services to the academic community, including free online and in-person lectures and masterclasses to heighten the awareness of the clinical applications of the Pilates Method. Our Pilates Immersion program allows for an in-depth experience for students who want to learn the fundamentals to incorporate Pilates into their profession. 

Polestar’s full Pilates comprehensive teacher training has become embedded and implemented in the dance department at Rutgers University for over 5 years in the Mason Gross School of Performing Arts.

One highlight of our collaboration with Rutgers is the “fingerprint project” introduced by Kim Gibilisco NCPT, MFA. This project empowers students in the teacher training to take ownership of their future by completing a research and development project that highlights their perspective of and goals for the application of Pilates through the lens of parallel modalities.

The following excerpt from “Meditation & Pilates” by Kelly Robertson was part of her “fingerprint project” required for the culmination of the Polestar Pilates comprehensive teacher training at the Mason Gross School of Performing Arts at Rutgers University.

FINGERPRINT PROJECT:

Excerpt from “Meditation & Pilates” by Kelly Robertson

Carol Davis in Patient Practitioner Interaction writes: “Newtonian physics taught us that the basic elements of nature were small, solid, indestructible objects. However, quantum physics taught us that atoms, the building blocks of all matter, actually consist of vast regions of space in which very small particles move.” She then writes: “Given this quantum interpretation, solid objects are no longer perceived as solid …. we are more like a mass of energy set in constant motion.” “Mind and body are united in a whole nurtured by the flow of vital energy, or chi” (pg.129).

This “mass of energy in constant motion” as Davis puts it is something that I think we can all feel as true. When I bring my awareness to my body, I experience this sense of “flow”. This flow is always increased for me after a positive movement experience. 

Risa Kaparo in Awakening Somatic Intelligence sites the “Old Paradigm” as:

1. We function as relatively fixed objects.

2. We are separate from everything else.

3. Gravity is a force that needs to be overcome by effort.

… and lists the “New Paradigm” as:

1. We function as self-sensing, self-organizing, self-renewing energy beings.

2. We are interconnected with all that is.

3. Gravity provides an opportunity to sense and liberate us from our patterns of habitual tension.

She goes on to write that if we move away from the “Old Paradigm” we can sense our bodies in a new way and “learn new ways of functioning that are congruent with non-self-limiting beliefs” (pages 30-31).

I also believe that the view of the body as a fixed, solid object is limiting and even arrests the possibility of change when we think that way. I will integrate this idea into my teaching for my final because I believe it is an important step to get students into the right frame of mind for change.

Chopra writes about how freeing it is to see our bodies as movement, capable of change and healing,

“If you could see that your physical body is an idea your mind is stubbornly holding on to, an enormous breakthrough would take place. You would no longer be imprisoned in a lump of matter. Best of all you would be free to adopt a much better idea of your body” (page 20).

He describes that our bodies are a cloud of energy and that changes in that energy can cause genuine physical effects. “You can bring healing to any aspect of your life by shifting an unhealthy energy state into a healthy one” (page 44). This goes back to Chopra’s explanation of how awareness creates positive change in the body. He believes that awareness changes the energy and that energy changes the body. Awareness-Energy-Body. 

Similarly, Brent Anderson PT, Ph.D., OCS, NCPT in his SRG Energy Medicine Lecture (Polestar Online) “As we heighten our awareness of what flows and doesn’t flow, where energy fills up or doesn’t fill up, that helps us as well to increase that flow and get a nice healthy flow of energy”. Anderson goes on to say “There is a wealth and plethora of energy and truth out there and our job in life is to balance ourselves so we can resonate with it”.

Anderson goes a step further and discusses how this knowledge directly applies to our work in Pilates or in other healing practices. He points out that as “healers” we need to be aware that the “healing process involves many kinds of communication” and “That is what energy does, transfers communication”. 

Bio-Energetics is a subject included throughout the Polestar Principles of Movement manual. In each chapter, there is a Bio-Energetics section addressing how each principle affects our energy systems. For example in Chapter 4, Organization of the Head, Neck & Shoulders, the Bio-Energetics section reads: “Balanced strength and flexibility on all sides of the shoulder enable a balanced flow of energetic pathways”. A combination of Pilates and meditation is a great way to not only achieve the alignment of the body but also to heighten awareness of the energy changes that come with correct alignment. 

Interested in bringing Polestar Pilates education to your University or Institution? Click here!

Polestar Mentor Highlight: Meech Aspden

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The spirit of Polestar is about finding the discipline and passion within to continually practice Pilates and empower others to practice Pilates. It’s not about finding perfection but about sharing and encouraging that passion.

Polestar Mentor Meech Aspden

Describe Polestar Pilates in 3 Words:

Authentic – Polestar is authentic to its brand and to Pilates’ guiding principles.

Educational – Polestar encourages the path of learning and self-development.

Applicable – What you learn with Polestar makes you a better instructor, trainer, coach, physio, and practitioner.

What do you love about teaching Pilates?

MA: What I love about teaching Pilates is that it embodies both being disciplined as well as the freedom to be creative. This might seem like a bit of a dichotomy but the two complement each other. One stays disciplined and grounded in the principles of classical pilates whilst being creative to explore the execution of the exercises or the sequencing and flow of the exercises.

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

MA: I took my training with Polestar Pilates in Hong Kong with Polestar Asia at Isofit. Dawnna Wayburne, Samantha Robinson, Mirko Turla and Yvonne Hsi were the educators and mentors who influenced my Polestar education journey.

What are your current Inspirations?

MA: My inspiration has always been seeing new people experience Pilates for the first time. I love being able to draw from their energy, inspiration, and enthusiasm in grasping something new. It challenges me to be a better mentor, trainer, and coach – finding different ways to communicate and motivate them to assist in their learning process and to excel in their Pilates practice.

New students to the Pilates world often come with fresh ideas and ‘out of the box’ thinking.

I am also an avid reader and I love reading about the biomechanics, anatomy, and physiology of the human body. It’s fascinating and inspires me to want to know more.

Why Pilates? How did you find the practice?

MA: My foray into Pilates was rather unorthodox. I was managing a large team of group fitness instructors at the time (2013). There was a member who sent in a written complaint about one of my instructors not teaching true to Pilates in what was advertised as a Pilates class. I found it difficult to assess the validity of the complaint due to my lack of knowledge and understanding of Pilates. At the time, we also only had 3 in-house Pilates instructors who I could seek advice from. I vowed never to feel so uneducated and ignorant again. This drove me to learn Pilates so I joined a Polestar mat Pilates course in 2013 (and at the same time encouraged 6 other instructors from my team to take the training with me). I was so impressed with the mat Pilates course content that the following year I signed up for the Polestar reformer course and the 6 instructors who were with me for mat also joined me and signed up for the reformer training.

In the beginning, I found Pilates challenging. I had always prided myself on being physically fit as I taught a number of different group fitness classes as well as having been a competitive sports gymnast. When I first started on my Pilates journey, I could not execute the roll-up or teaser particularly well which frustrated me but fueled my determination to keep going.

I don’t believe you can ever perfect Pilates but you can definitely see incremental improvements the more you practice the exercises.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

MA: In my teaching, I try to combine three key elements: Forging a connection with my students, making it fun, and challenging them so that they never plateau.

Connection is what instills the trust they have in you as a coach so that you can take them far beyond what they thought they were capable of. Fun, so that they keep coming back time and time again. And challenging so that they see progress in themselves and what they are able to achieve. Teachers are there as a conduit to facilitate learning and to restore confidence in a student’s physical capabilities. As children we were fearless on the jungle gym, climbing trees or riding bikes. As we grow older, we can start to lose confidence in ourselves and what our bodies are capable of.

If we can conquer our fears, half the battle is won.

It’s so true what Joseph Pilates espoused: “Contrology is gaining the mastery of your mind over the complete control of your body”.

What is your favorite Quote?

MA: Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

This is the ethos that I try to embody when I am involved in any form of mentoring, education, training and team management.

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

MA: I love all mat Pilates exercises because it caters to all ages, all levels, all fitness goals and can be performed anywhere. You don’t need to be inside a gym or studio and you don’t need any special equipment. The exercises can be applied for rehab and recovery or for improving strength and mobility. It provides a great sense of accomplishment to see the gains that people make in Pilates.

Meech Aspden, Polestar Pilates Mentor

Discover Polestar Pilates Asia, and Meech on Social Media @meechaspden

5 Reasons To Become a Pilates Instructor

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Deepen your Practice

The Polestar teacher training gives you a chance to delve deeper into Pilates and movement.  Not only the movement itself, but also the philosophy of movement, the interplay between movement and the mind, and the power of language, touch, and self-practice.

Making the commitment to teacher training of any kind is a commitment to yourself.  It is a time to grow as an individual, to explore movement and methodology that maybe be new or unfamiliar, and a time to expand horizons. Polestar emphasizes problem-solving and critical reasoning in our teacher training.  We believe everyone can learn how to develop a consistent movement practice for themselves and others regardless of age, injury, ability, or background.

Find Your Voice – Start Your Journey

We see so many promising new teachers go through the program.  It regularly transforms not only their movement practice but their life direction (our community highlights are a testament to that!). Our training is open to anyone ready for a change, for movement in their life. Even if becoming a teacher isn’t the end goal, there is power in getting deeper into self.  In our recent training in Miami, our students included two yoga instructors, one physical therapist, a track runner, a professional waterskier, three body-workers, and a marketing executive. There is so much power in learning from others who are in different places in life, in their movement practice, and in their direction.

Become A Pro Pilates Instructor

At Polestar you don’t learn rote exercises.  Your Pilates education delves into how to teach the exercises, and how to modify them.  You learn that anyone can have a positive movement experience regardless of injury, physical limitations, or experience. We teach the importance of imagery, tactile cueing, energy medicine, and sequencing in conducting a movement class or private session.

You will learn to be a client-centered instructor, how to ask your clients the right questions, and how to assess movement at a professional level. 

One Amazing Global Community

Through the teacher training, you will have opportunities to meet and connect with like-minded individuals all sharing one goal: To Move The World!  You will grow with your individual group, and with the Polestar community as a whole. The Polestar community is rich with opportunities to learn and teach with students and instructors from all around the world.

Move Your Career Forward & Move The World

You have the power to make a change and “Impact the world through intelligent movement”. We have the ability to change ourselves and to spread that change through connecting with individuals and helping them to make changes in themselves, which has an inevitable ripple effect.

For more information Click here

Polestar Educator Highlight : Audrey Ng

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Audrey is the Director and Principal of Performance Pilates & Physiotherapy, established in 2003 and located in Leederville, Western Australia. She received her B Sc (Physiotherapy) degree from Curtin University of Technology in 1992. Previously an Australian international rhythmic gymnast, she commenced her study in the Pilates Method of exercise while working as a physiotherapist in Los Angeles, USA. Audrey has been incorporating Pilates in her physiotherapy treatments since 1998.

Audrey specializes in posture and movement assessment and has an interest in teaching her clients to improve their functional ability and efficiency of movement through understanding the effect of gravity and load on posture and core stability with a holistic emphasis. This approach has been useful for many clients including elite athletes, office workers or clients with a sedentary lifestyle, with chronic or persisting pain or injury, women and pelvic health, pre and post-natal care and the aging population.

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

The possibility, knowledge and responsibility to experience and share movement, inspiration and quality of life with our loved ones, colleagues and community.

Polestar Pilates to me is:

Freedom

Purpose

Opportunity

What do you love about teaching Pilates and owning a Studio? 

I opened my clinic & studio, Performance Pilates & Physiotherapy in 2003 with a vision to deliver comprehensive and holistic movement rehabilitation. What I love most about being an integrated health practitioner is that as a Pilates teacher is that I have an opportunity to empower people to regain confidence and improve the quality of their lives. Movement in particular is essential for an aging population so what better time to start than now!

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

I first undertook Pilates training in Los Angeles in 1998 with The Physical Mind Institute, joining the Polestar family in 2003 under the tutelage of Dav Cohen.

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

On a personal note, I wish to live with greater intention, each moment of every day. I found myself thinking that this past year flew by so quickly and I realized that I wasn’t present to so many moments along the way.

I am inspired by the resilience and the sense of community, the true “spirit of Australia” that our people have demonstrated in the past few weeks as a result of the catastrophic bushfires that have taken lives, destroyed homes, burned over 12 million acres and killed 1 billion native Australian animals.

Coming from a place of gratitude and stewardship for our beautiful land, we have a responsibility to take action against climate change – everyone here on the planet can play a part in conscious sustainability.

Why Pilates? How did you find the practice?

As a child I played and enjoyed a variety of sports – swimming, cricket, hockey, I also performed calisthenics and fell in love with gymnastics. In high school I had the opportunity to try Rhythmic Gymnastics which is floor based and involves handling apparatus – ribbon, hoop, ball, clubs and rope and went on to compete at an international level for Australia.

I found that through movement I felt my happiest and developed my confidence to perform on stage and the courage and determination to face competition and do the training to reach my goals.

Through movement I found my vocation as a Physical Therapist, and when I experienced Pilates, I found my dharma, the way to my purpose and calling.

Pilates is accessible to everyone and such a complimentary medicine to the knowledge I acquired as a rehab professional.

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

I first heard about Polestar Pilates while working in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, so in 2003 I was excited to hear that Polestar was coming to Perth! With a 5 week old baby, I attended my first Principles course and the rest was history. Within a few weeks, I met Polestar’s founder, Brent Anderson, Shelly Power and the rest of the Polestar Australia crew headed by Cat Giannitto. It was like coming home … I had found my pilates family of like-minded individuals, on a mission to share, educate and deliver the message of intelligent movement.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

That each and every person is able to do pilates, is able to move, with freedom, joy and purpose. That movement is connected to spirit and is essential for maximizing our quality of life! To instill confidence, love and respect of our whole body, of what it is capable of achieving when we re-establish the relationship of body, mind and spirit.

What is your favorite Quote? How do you embody this?

So many favorites!

Applied to Pilates:

“the science and soul of movement”

Pilates truly encompasses body, mind and spirit. There are physical, mental and energetic reasons as to why we should move! There is increasing evidence, both empirical and anecdotal that support this philosophy and as a physical therapist and integrated health practitioner, I choose Pilates for a neuro/bio/psycho/social approach to rehabilitation.

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

The Trapeze Table is my favorite apparatus as there are so many options for movement! I begin a workout using the assistance of springs, increase proprioception and neuro-motor learning with the tower bar, then build the intensity adding the challenge of resistance, while moving through different planes and orientations to gravity. My favorite movement sequences involve spine extension and inversion…something I look forward to on the Trapeze Table daily!

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