Pilates

Mentor Highlight: Vikki Harris, Polestar Pilates UK

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Located in Burgess Hill and London, United Kingdom, Vikki Harris is a Polestar Pilates Mentor for Polestar UK, Franklin Method Back and Spine Trainer, Contributor on the Polestar International Blog, and holds a Diploma in Dance Education AISTD STC RAD. You can find Vikki on social media @vpilatesstudioburgesshill.

Describe “the Spirit of Polestar”…

VH: A guiding ‘Pole star’, a map, territory, and landscape to be explored. Fostering an experience, to develop color, depth, individuality, and authenticity. Opening a perspective that embodies the true spirit of ‘aliveness” of human existence.

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

Potential

Community

Joy

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

VH: What I love about teaching is being a witness to developing insight and the opportunity of self-reflection for not only my clients but for myself. I feel honored to walk alongside a process and hold space for someone to exist. Opening my own small studio was part of my liberation to ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’, becoming aware of the ‘self’ and the individual.

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

VH: I trained with Polestar Pilates UK in 2012 on the Comprehensive, Reformer, and Mat courses with Liz Bussey and Diane Nye as my inspiring educators. I feel full of gratitude and appreciation for the compassionate holding through the process from all, including my mentors and Carl and Julia Moss of Polestar Pilates UK.

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

VH: I am inspired by the optimizing of health finding balance in spirit, physically and psychologically. I am fascinated by human behavior, interaction, and psychology. Behind every behavior is a feeling, behind every feeling is a need. As a Mentor to Polestar Pilates students, I feel honored to witness and be part of growth and inspired to overcome what we think we can’t do and step forward with courage into life.

Why Pilates? How did you find the practice?

VH: Initially, I found Pilates in 1999 as a professional dancer and teacher. I loved discovering and embodying the bio-mechanics through the Pilates repertoire and the process of strategy and problem-solving. Understanding the “why and how” changed and developed my skills as a dance teacher. Personally, my own Pilates practice was a transition from performing and enjoying the playing of a role, to becoming my own person. The real benefits came after an injury stopped me moving and the supportive studio equipment gave me my freedom back.

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

VH: I originally trained in Mat and Reformer with Body Control Pilates in 1999 and found the Polestar Pilates Studio Comprehensive training in 2012 as I became interested to develop the rehabilitation potential of the work. My own personal journey very much influencing my desire to support others.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

Choice and potential.

Do you have a favorite quote you live by?

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Viktor Frankl

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

VH: I’m not sure if I can choose a favorite piece of equipment as each gives me a different connection and experience. I love the sense of flow the trapeze offers in sequences of movements, yet the stimulation and containment of the reformer.

Read more from Vikki on the Blog:

Supporting Dancers within the Pilates Environment

The Gift of Opportunity and Authenticity

Located in Burgess Hill & London, United Kingdom Vikki Harris is a Polestar Pilates Mentor for Polestar UK, Franklin Method Back and Spine Trainer, and holds a Diploma in Dance Education AISTD STC RAD. You can find Vikki on social media @vpilatesstudioburgesshill.

Patient and Client Safety

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Written by Polestar Pilates Rehab Practitioner Lorna Jarrett MS, LPTA, AIB/VR-CON, NCPT

Do you have an incident reporting system in your studio?

How safe are your instructors when taking in new clients alone? We can glean insight from patient safety interventions practiced in hospitals and ambulatory settings. One solution is an online universal portal, which can be used for incident reports of misses and near misses. It also captures recommendations for improvements. An online example is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ.gov).

Thinking about safety, how safe are grippy socks when working with a client with gait dysfunction? Just as ill-fitted socks in the hospital can be hazardous, I have found them to be hazardous, as the feet can slide within the socks preventing solid footing. I switched one client to socks with toes to avoid her feet sliding within the socks. These are the types of discussions that could be shared across a national platform.

These days our practitioner roles reach beyond minimum exercise planning and include meeting the extensive needs of the client.

Every year when we renew our liability insurance, we’re reminded of this truth. From the beginning, the administrative intake should focus on assuring that clients receive the care they need and prioritize identifying those who are not receiving proper care. Staff meetings and managing the practice population are priorities. An objective of meetings is to create an opportunity for team input and build a culture of buy-in and involvement to address the evolving needs of the clients (Wachter & Gupta, 2018). One of those evolving needs is patient/client safety.

A studio practitioner may view this information as only for an inpatient or outpatient medical setting. However, client safety should be a concern for our studios just as patient safety is a concern for hospitals or outpatient settings. If our outcomes were publicized as hospitals were, what kind of changes would we be willing to make? I will discuss solutions suitable for large organizations, however, the information can be tailored for any size organization, as the stakes for safety are equally as high.

Key steps would include: making a commitment to performance improvement, reviewing root cause analysis of misses or near misses to direct improvement, presenting analysis to the team or board to execute the plan, selecting appropriate tools suitable for the organization, generating an in-house marketing plan to support the initiative, naming leaders and stakeholders, establishing training curriculum and materials, determining an ongoing training schedule, and empowering safety coaches to mentor and foster changes in staff, patients, and the community (Brilli, McClead, Crandall, Stoverock, Berry, Wheeler & Davis, 2013).

The leaders of the safety system would include those who are empowered and educated to provide oversight and input into the areas of quality control, risk, compliance, and IT. A vigilant, emboldened team is needed to implement a safety system and any cultural change (Wachter & Gupta, 2018). One such method to embolden a team can be seen in establishing medication safety champions to model and point out positive and negative safety practices within the organization. (Brilli, McClead, Crandall, Stoverock, Berry, Wheeler & Davis, 2013; Wachter & Gupta, 2018). 

Safety Tips for the Pilates Studio

1.    View the facility from curb to front door and assure that there are no safety obstacles. Initiate the conversation with your patient/client regarding their home safety and community ambulation when necessary. Have resources for referral, such as a certified NAHB Aging in Place Specialist who can review their home and make recommendations for ADA compliance.

2.    Our Pilates programming should support and promote dynamic functionality outside of our space.

3.    Establish an incident reporting method within your studio without punitive repercussions. Our studios can learn from large medical organizations who have found that anonymity, along with recommendations for improvements, encourages reporting. The data collected is discussed regularly and provides a learning opportunity for all.

4.    Create a team culture of open communication. This takes mature leadership, and while it is not developed easily, it must be an organizational objective.

5.    Do a curb to front door observation, and then check from front door to each piece of equipment. Remove items on the floor that are not adhered to the ground i.e. half foam rollers, rugs, etc.

6.    With the flu, coronavirus, or airborne infections or viruses, utilize hand sanitary measures and ventilate the studio with fresh air once a day.

7.    Establish a safety program within your studio. Latest research can be shared with clients/patients to educate them and empower them to play a role in their own safety.

8.    Create a Fall Risk Screen for your studio:

  • Do you use any assistive device to ambulate?
  • Do you need any physical assistance with standing or walking (ie, walker, cane)?
  • Do you have periods of forgetfulness or don’t know where you are at times?
  • Have you had a fall in the past 6 months?

Whichever patient safety approach is taken or whatever risk mitigation is at the forefront, the ultimate objective is to be an organization of high reliability (Chassin & Loed, 2013). 

On the Blog: The Importance of Intake Forms

References

Brilli, R. J., McClead, Jr., R. E., Crandall, W. V., Stoverock, L., Berry, J. C., Wheeler, T. A., & Davis, J. T. (2013, December). A comprehensive patient safety program can significantly reduce preventable harm, associated costs, and hospital mortality.The Journal of Pediatrics, 163(6), 1638-1645.

Chassin, M. R. & Loeb, J. M. (2013). High Reliability Health Care: Getting there from here. The Milbank Quarterly, 91(3), 459-490.

Wachter, R. M., & Gupta, K. (2018). Understanding Patient Safety. [3rd Edition]. McGraw Hill: New York, NY.Surveys on Patient Safety (n.d.). retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/topics/surveys-patient-safety-culture.html

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