Polestar Teacher training

Mentor Highlight : Becky A’Hearne – Polestar Pilates UK

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Meet Becky A’Hearne: Mat and Comprehensive Polestar practitioner, Mentor for Polestar Pilates UK and Franklin Method®️ Spine Educator. Teaching in Cirencester, The Cotswolds, UK and Bristol, UK

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

BA: Inclusive, open minded and flexible.

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

  • Possibilities
  • Evolving
  • Community

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

BA: I love being able to provide a centre where people can discover their true mind body potential through Pilates. I trained in London with Joanna (Polestar Germany / Mat) and Liz Bussey (Comprehensive 2005)

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

BA: Whole body health and well being. I love exploring how movement and simple lifestyle changes can improve health and general well being.

Why Pilates? How did you find the practice?

BA: I was a freelance group exercise instructor in London in the early 2000’s and Pilates was beginning to come into the health clubs. My mum had done one of the first Polestar trainings in the UK. I thought I would do it to so that I would have another class to offer. Little did I know that through the Polestar approach to Pilates it was so much more than I thought it would be. The approach was refreshing and made sense to me. It also allowed for Pilates to be accessible to everyone through the rehabilitation aspect of the course. From this point I knew that Pilates was so much more than a set of exercises. It worked for people and their fitness goals and would allow for an organic and sustainable career path for me to follow.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

BA: That Pilates will have a really positive impact on your mind and body, which can allow for people to be healthier and happier. That there are options and choices for all. Listen to your body and do what feels good.

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

BA: Great question. “The acquirement and enjoyment of physical well-being, mental calm and spiritual peace are priceless to their possessors” Joseph Pilates. Last year I experienced many health issues and felt the effects of what the body can do the mind and what the mind can do to the body, like I had never done before. This taught me a lot and I now try to live my life with mental calm, spiritual peace and enjoyment of physical fitness. I am everyday grateful for them.

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

BA: The Reformer. It is so versatile – allowing you to start on your back completely supported and finishing with you standing on the foot bar in an inversion. The possibilities are endless.

Learn more about Becky @the_bodyworkshop_pilates and Polestar Pilates Uk

Alexandra Dalli: Polestar Mentor

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Polestar mentors are graduates who have directly assisted Educators in comprehensive pilates teacher trainings. Mentors in training are nominated by Polestar educators to begin the path of a Polestar Mentor. They are nominated for their potential to reach the highest standard of presence, knowledge and awareness as Pilates instructors. Welcome Mentor in Training Alexandra Dalli!

Polestar: What do you love about teaching and where did you take your training?

AD: I love that teaching Pilates allows me to facilitate a positive movement experience for others who may have a negative view of their body or associate movement with pain. Because I am a dancer who has been training since age 3, I have been afforded the opportunity to develop a unique relationship with my body and its abilities. As technology is pushing us towards a more sedentary lifestyle, many people never get the chance to experience the joys of movement in all planes of motion that dancers are accustomed to. 

I took my training at Rutgers University and completed the Mason Gross Polestar Pilates Comprehensive Studio Teacher Training Program with educator Kim Gibilisco. Additionally, I completed my 65-hour internship in Madrid at SLINGS with Juan Nieto and Blas Chamorro.

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

AD: My current inspirations are the 5-7-year-old dancers I teach ballet. Their energy and genuine interest in dance and Pilates inspires me and reminds me that we are all born with this innate curiosity and propensity to move. By incorporating Pilates exercises into their warm-up routine, I have seen the ways they are excited to rise to the challenge of more difficult exercises and how, over time, their proprioception and coordination has increased simply by doing the same exercises week after week. It reminds me we all have (and inspires me to listen to) that playful childlike energy inside of us.

Polestar: Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice?

AD: I was first introduced to Pilates in high school by my ballet instructor. As somewhat of a perfectionist, Pilates allowed me to focus in and center myself before ballet class, long rehearsals, and auditions. In times of stress or anxiety, I still find tranquility in getting on the floor and counting and breathing my way through some mat exercises. 

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

AD: In my teaching, I hope to convey the idea that anyone and everyone can do Pilates and reap its benefits. Regardless of limitations or contraindications, there is a way Pilates principles and exercises can be applied to your body. 

Polestar: Where would you love to vacation?

AD: I would vacation in Puerto Rico to learn more about my roots and experience the culture my grandparents grew up in. I love everything about my culture–from the food, to the music and the language, and I am looking forward to visiting hopefully sooner rather than later. The sun and sand definitely beats New Jersey’s winter.

Polestar: What is your favorite quote?

AD:  “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” This can be applied to all facets of life and reminds me everything is a journey with valleys and peaks but as long as you continue to apply yourself to the best of your ability, you will find success.

Polestar: How would you describe your movement style?

AD: My movement is 100% informed by my background in ballet. To me, every exercise is choreography and can be performed as a beautiful dance. I love highlighting the rhythm and flow in an exercise while also honoring the natural rhythm of your body.

Polestar: Do you have a favorite apparatus or favorite way to move?

AD: My favorite apparatus is the chair because of its endless opportunity! There are so many variations on exercises that can be done on the chair and personally, it feels like the safest apparatus to incorporate creativity to exercises.

Polestar: What are you reading or learning about?

AD: I have been reading about neuro-linguistic programming since I first began my Polestar training. I am fascinated with the ways language informs our movement outcomes as well as our perception of self and world. NLP can be directly applied to how teachers cue students through Pilates exercises.

Polestar: How does Pilates inform your profession? 

AD: Pilates is what gave me the courage to leave administration and commit 100% to turning Pilates into my profession!

You can find Alexandra on instagram @Alexandra_Elise where she will be posting more about her journey as a Polestar Mentor in Training.

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Educator Highlight: Lynn Peterson PT, NCPT

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We recently interviewed Polestar Educator Lynn Peterson PT, DPT, NCPT of Jacksonville Florida.  Learn more about Lynn Peterson and her studio Synergy Studio in Jacksonville Florida. Polestar: What do you love about teaching? LP: The sparkle in the student’s eye when they “get it”, the tears that come when a patient/client realizes that they have found the thing that is truly going to change their quality of life when their movement patterns change from dysfunctional to functional. Polestar: What is your current inspiration? LP: My staff, they are an exceptional group of professionals who bring their best game with them every day, they inspire me to give my best to them as well as to our clients. Polestar: Why Pilates? LP: Because my eyes lit up 20 years ago when I “got it” a few minutes into my first Pilates session as the realization took hold that this was how we as PT’s were going to not only get all of those TrAs firing up in our patients but also have it translate in to their functional activities. As a Physical Therapist I love that the creative side of my brain gets to dance with the analytical side every day as the lines between therapy and the pure joy of movement dissolve and the client’s nervous system gets the information that it needs to boost their quality of movement. Polestar: What do you hope to convey in your teaching? LP: I like to make the movements relevant to the individual I am teaching, I take the time to learn what motivates them and build from there. In group classes, I think about telling a story through the movement sequences often guided by 2 or 3 images, adding another detail with each progression. Polestar: Where would you love to Vacation to? LP: Scotland because my grandparents emigrated to Canada from Edinburgh, they were larger than life for me growing up. Pleasing them was my primary motivation to pursue training in Highland Dancing as a wee girl. Polestar: What is your favorite Quote? LP: “Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” -Martha Graham Polestar: Describe your movement style. LP: Intelligent or perhaps more accurately, as evidence based as possible. I do not regard Joseph Pilates’ work as frozen in time but instead as an ever-evolving philosophy of movement. Polestar: Do you have a favorite apparatus? LP: For my own workouts I have to go with chair because of the unapologetic way that it makes me work on my alignment. For new clients the Reformer because I love how the work makes sense to them so quickly on it. For rehabilitation clients I choose the Trapeze Table. I can’t really choose just one favorite. Polestar: What are you reading? LP: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande and Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Learn more about Lynn Peterson and her studio Synergy Studio in Jacksonville Florida.  Registration is open for the Pilates Comprehensive Teacher Training.