From Pilates to Neuroscience
We interviewed Polestar Educator Kate Strozak MSc, LMT, NCPT of Chicago, Illinois. Not only is Kate a leader in Pilates education in Chicago and the Mid-West she is also a Runity coach, Oov educator and JB-MFR trained. Kate is a contributor for Polestar Life Weekly (check out her blogs on Neuroplasticity, Fascia, Healthcare and Pilates Chairs). Watch Kate as a special guest on the #PilatesHour episode “Neuro-Concepts in Pilates”.
Polestar: What do you love about teaching? KS: I love the challenge of helping anybody surpass their movement expectations and goals. It’s one thing to meet goals and another to exceed them. I also love the uniqueness of each individual and how there are beautiful similarities that we all share. We are complex systems of gliding tissues with this incredible spark of life. This keeps me in constant awe and amazement and makes me feel like it’s an honor and privilege to be able to collaborate with my clients and students. Polestar: What are your current inspirations? KS: Nature is my perpetual inspiration. Whenever I start to feel in need of inspiration or if I feel in need of balance or grounding, I head outside as fast as I can. Polestar: Why Pilates? KS: Pilates made movement accessible and fascinating to me. It’s my foundation to start from and return to for my personal movement inquiries or for my clients’ movement exploration. Polestar: What do you hope to convey in your teaching? KS: I hope to empower my clients to revel in their movement, health, and fitness. I aim to be a resource and a collaborator, not a teacher or practitioner. Polestar: Where would you love to vacation? KS: I love to hike and would love an extended trip to visit a few countries in Africa. But I would go anywhere…I love to travel. Polestar: Do you have a favorite quote? KS: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Polestar: Describe your movement style? KS: Explorative, Playful, and Varied. Polestar: Do you have a favorite apparatus? KS: The mat. I think of that apparatus being there as a tool to help me better access my own body’s capabilities. But if I had to choose an apparatus I’d go with the cadillac for purposes of hanging and flips . Polestar: What are you currently reading? KS: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, and Fascia: The Tensional Network of the Human Body by Leon Chaitow.
I had been working in technology sales for more than ten years and was getting very bored. My current position was winding down and I hadn’t started looking for anything else. At the same time, I was seeing a career psychologist to help determine what I should do next. Just the same it never dawned on me to leave the corporate world. Then, a personality profile that I had completed with the psychologist showed that I would make a good teacher. Of course, I thought. You don’t work in technology sales without being able to teach clients why the new expensive tech solution is something they need when none of their competitors are spending money on it. But, did that mean I could teach people why Pilates could help them stay strong and flexible while enhancing their ability to do just about any other activity they were interested in doing?
Weeks passed and I kept going to my two private Pilates sessions every week. My instructor brought it up again. I questioned her about why she thought I would be good. It turned out she was seeing the same things that the personality profile showed. I started to connect the dots and thought this might be something to consider. I did a little research into different teacher training programs and quickly decided that if I was going to do this I wanted to be comprehensively trained from a school that qualified for PMA certification. I wanted to make sure that I was well qualified to teach; I was going to do this right.
Even though I live in Philadelphia, a major metropolitan area, there were not many options. I had long believed in the therapeutic healing properties of Pilates. It made sense to me that a school founded by a physical therapist would take a scientific approach to Pilates. My logical mind liked that. This led me to Polestar. It was also the school that my teacher had been trained by. I considered other schools and really wanted to find an option that would not require a hotel or long drive. In the end, I chose Polestar and took the training in Burlington, VT. It was a long drive, but it was also where my husband grew up and his parents still lived there. In the end, I did have a long drive, but I would not have a to stay in a hotel.
The training was intense. I was surprised by how much there was to learn. After all, I had been doing Pilates for 8 years. I thought for sure I knew how to do the exercises. Turns out it takes a lot more than knowing the exercises to be a Pilates Instructor. In addition to learning how to cue and formulate a workout, Polestar takes the time to make sure you understand why you are doing what you are doing not just how to do it. A lot of time is spent prompting the student to think through their decision-making process to ensure that when they graduate they can work with people in an effective manner that helps them reach their fitness goals.
The educators and mentors truly care about the students in a way that makes you feel like family. As I planned my Pilates career and determined that I wanted to open a studio I knew that I also wanted to work with Polestar to bring Comprehensive Teacher Training to the Philadelphia area. In the fall of 2017 it became a reality. Now I am the instructor asking my clients to consider becoming Pilates teachers.
Surprisingly I have not missed the corporate world. It used to be that every couple of years I would get bored with my job and start looking for something new or different. Now, I truly believe that I have found what I was meant to do. Several years have passed and rather than becoming bored, I have become more obsessed and engaged with Pilates and the Pilates community.
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