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The Best Teachers Teach in the Moment

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How would you describe your presence in the Pilates Studio? Cheerful, affectionate, grounded, powerful, indulgent? How is it that two Pilates teachers can lead the same exercise, using similar cues, yet one of them leaves you feeling great and the other falls flat. This is the nuance that presence brings to a session. As a teacher trainer, one of my biggest goals is to equip students with the tools necessary to teach a safe and thoughtful class as well as to cultivate their presence.

How do we do that? Is this even measurable? Below I offer some tips and suggestions for cultivating presence in your teaching. – Nichole Anderson, NCPT, Director of Curriculum

Practice Teaching a Simple Task Authentically 

For new teachers, finding your authentic voice can be a daunting task. You are busy remembering the basics of each exercise, attempting to follow the sequence you planned out. On top of that, trying to keep everyone safe. There is also the added pressure of being seen and having a feeling of performing in front of others. 

What is the simplest way to find your voice and style as a teacher? Practice teaching something simple to a friend. The goal is to teach a rote task, one where you don’t have to think about the steps or language involved. For me, it’s teaching someone how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Because of the simplicity of this, your personality and uniqueness are able to shine through.

Take the time to notice the feeling of teaching this small task. What kind of language comes naturally to you? Do you make jokes? Are you more straight forward? Try recording yourself teaching this task and go with your gut instinct on if it feels authentic to you. Practice bringing this authenticity into your classes. 


Gain Perspective: Record yourself teaching 

As an expansion from the idea above, record yourself teaching Pilates. This can be as simple as recording your screen when teaching a virtual class. With permission, you could leave your smartphone set up in the studio while you teach a client. During your initial review of the session, practice moving to your own instructions. Notice how your language makes you feel as a mover. Do you feel that the teaching is clear, inspiring, and thoughtful?  

Next, watch the video without sound. Your physical presence in the space of the Pilates studio is as important if not more important than the words you say. Notice how you move throughout the space. Do you gravitate to one area of the studio? Are you spending approximately equal time in the space of each of your clients? What does your body language suggest? 

Finally, listen to the audio of the recording. Listen to the words you use and the tone and timbre of your voice. Does your voice match the intensity of the movement? Is it supportive? Do you sound interested? This is a practice that can be done indefinitely and will always give you opportunities for growth. 

Show Up Early and Grounded  

We all know the feeling of being late for an appointment. Even worse is the feeling of being late to teach a Pilates class! When we are under stress our body creates the stress hormone cortisol. This causes our heart rate to increase and our blood pressure to spike. If you want to show up for your clients authentically and be fully present with your calm and centered self – show up early!

When you come prepared to teach your Pilates class early you will have time to ground yourself with a centering practice. This will support you in feeling fully ready to be present with your clients. We all have lives outside of the studio. I find that leaving the stressors of your personal life at the studio door allows you to be fully present with your clients. 

Make The Shift To Teaching Mode

It’s always ideal to have ample time to shift into teaching mode. What happens if you end up running late to teach? A brief grounding practice will help you be present in the studio. When you arrive a grounding practice can help you focus on what is happening in the moment. Grounding practices vary greatly, and I encourage you to find something that works for you. Some teachers like washing their hands and others like to tidy up the studio space. Both are calming, organizing, and refreshing.

My favorite way to ground myself before teaching Pilates is to do Pilates! Showing up early to the studio will give you time to jump on a piece of apparatus or the mat. Ground yourself in your body and with your breath in preparation to assist your clients in doing the same!  

Create A Routine

Create your own grounding routine and ritual by testing out what practices help you feel calm and centered when you arrive at the studio. Some teachers swear by saying hello to every person they pass on their way to the studio. This can help even if that is only one person at the front desk. The practice allows you to practice engagement, eye contact and using your voice before you begin teaching. All of which are things you will want to do with your clients.

Pre-teaching rituals to support grounding: 

  • Listen to a familiar playlist to get in the mood to teach 
  • Take a class before the class you are leading 
  • Get enough rest, food, and water before teaching 
  • Arrive early to ensure time to shift from your personal life into your professional life 
     

Check-In: Connect with Your Students

What separates a mediocre teacher from an incredible teacher? It’s the ability of the incredible teacher to make everyone in their classes feel seen. How do we do this? Greet your clients! In a group setting, this can sometimes feel awkward. There is nothing worse than a teacher who is on their phone or standing around not making eye contact as the students roll in. 

Ask questions before the class to determine how students are feeling. What are their goals for the session? Use this time to acknowledge that you see the students individually. “Hi Kevin, did you end up going skiing this weekend? How did that feel?” Acknowledging the students facilitates connection and camaraderie with you as the teacher as well as with each other. In a virtual setting, this can help them feel connected even if they are not in the same space. This will help develop a rapport which is a good indicator of if a client will return.

Learn your client’s names! When teaching group classes, I try to always greet people by name and ask new students their names so that I can refer to them personally throughout the class. Teach from a standpoint of allowing clients autonomy. Let them know you are supporting them in their exploration of moving their bodies. If you see clients struggling, give options that let you know you see them struggling. You are there to help them move successfully!

Be Yourself!

I hope these tips serve as a reminder of the value of presence while teaching. Bring your full self to your teaching practice and remember – being distracted will always come through in your teaching. We have the opportunity as Pilates instructors to help people feel amazing every time they enter our classes. Give them your full attention and notice how your client list grows.

Become a Pilates Instructor with Polestar! Explore our Comprehensive Program and check out Nichole on #PilatesHour episode 80 “Sharpening Your Teaching Skills”.

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? 

6 Mistakes Pilates Teachers Make

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People make mistakes. We are human, after all. When mistakes happen in your studio, it can sometimes contribute to misunderstandings or even affect the Pilates experience. Luckily, by regular evaluations and improvements of your habits, you can ensure a positive movement experience for everyone. You may be so accustomed to your routine that you may not find anything that could be affecting your sessions. When re-evaluating your teachings, ask yourself a few questions: Is this appropriate to say? Does this help the client understand? How do I make meaningful changes to my teaching? Here are six of the most common mistakes Pilates teachers make when teaching a Pilates class.

1. Too much emphasis on breathing

For decades, Pilates has been associated with an emphasis on breathing. Many instructors repeat, “Inhale – exhale” hundreds of times in a class, without ever explaining the purpose. For Polestar, the breath should match the intensity of the exercise. According to Ron Fletcher, Joseph Pilates said of the breath, “breathe in the air and breathe out the air”, not a strict inhale at this point or that point of a movement. Focusing too much on a particular breath can often distract the student’s attention from his/her experience of movement. At Polestar we always say, “breath is a tool, not a rule.” That is, we use breath as a tool to facilitate or challenge movement and control.

2. Teach too many exercises in the supine position

You’ve probably attended or taught a Pilates classes where the primary exercises in the workout were done in the supine (lying on your back). For the most part, you spend that time doing spinal flexion exercises. Humans must accommodate the body to the many stimuli in our lives, including standing. It’s best to teach and move in different orientations to gravity, not just supine. In Polestar Principles, we present the Polestar movement categories as a guide to select the exercises in the repertoire that best fit the student’s objectives and to create rich lessons.
Students in the supine position during a transition course.

3. Use of negative language

This is one of the more subtle, though possibly dangerous, mistakes instructors often make. It is very easy to use phrases like: “don’t lift your shoulders”, “you have a lot of tension in the neck”, etc. Each time we use this sort of language, we risk causing our clients to improperly focus or stress on a particular movement or posture. And it doesn’t tell the client what you ‘do’ want them to do. Again, is it meaningful information and does it improve the clients performance of the movement?

4. Unsympathetic instruction

Communication skills are the foundation of being a good Pilates teacher. On many occasions, the difficulty of instructing successfully stems from a lack of training centered on effective communication techniques. For a successful movement experience, trust must be earned, and to do so one must listen carefully and keep a calm and positive tone of voice. Ideally, you should speak with your client in a kind way that matches their personality. Analyze your own speech and make sure the tone is not hasty or militant when giving instructions. For more information on communicating with your clients, check out our previous blog post on the subject.

5. Focus on doing stretches

Another common mistake is to use Pilates exercises merely for stretching. There is increasing evidence of the negative effects of sustained stretching and poor efficacy as a method to increase functional range of motion. Often times, these prolonged stretches cause the opposite effect in therapeutic exercise. A diverse movement strategy works best to improve mobility in Pilates. Think of the many different exercises that take a muscle through its full range of motion – there are hundreds. By improving the motor pattern we have, it positively affects both mobility and available strength. Do not look focus on the stretch itself, but for efficient, integrated and quality movements in all of the repertoire.

6. Propose difficult exercises too soon

One of the oldest myths in the fitness industry is,”no pain, no gain”, or, “no pain, no glory”. Both trainers and clients generally operate with the belief that the harder the exercise, the more beneficial it is. This belief sometimes causes instructors (sometimes “obliged” by their clients) to select high challenge exercises too early in their movement programs. This often causes the student to develop compensatory movement strategies to compensate for the lack of efficient motor skills, mobility or strength. Ineffective or inefficient motion patterns can often turn into the client’s usual movement. In other words, the body becomes very good at incorrectly performing movements. After you screen your client, remain loyal to a suitable regimen for them. No need to rush to the finish line, so to speak. If you catch yourself performing one of these undesirable habits, don’t beat yourself up. Take it as a learning opportunity and a chance to make your clients more have an even better experience. What other poor habits do instructors make? Let us know in the comments – we’re all human!

Teaching Self Monitoring in Pilates

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By Polestar Educator Noelle Dowma DPT, BFA, NCPT, CMTPT

October 2017 was a busy month for me…I presented in the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) conference in Houston, Texas at the beginning of the month, and again at the Pilates Method Alliance (PMA) conference in Indian Wells, California at the end of the month. The IADMS presentation was called “Dance Conditioning with Pilates as the Foundation,” and it was basically a Pilates mat class with lots of other exercises that dancers need. A good portion of my participants did have Pilates experience, but I wanted to highlight the unique non-Pilates exercises I teach to help dancers get the strength and flexibility they need.

When preparing to teach for the PMA conference, I knew my audience was 100% Pilates and not many dancers. So, I taught the directly inverted Pilates mat class. I used far more traditional Pilates exercises and only interspersed a few that would specifically benefit dancers (and regular people). This act of teaching similar things in a small time frame made me realize how versatile Pilates mat and equipment work can be.

A Pilates mat class can easily be transformed from a basic class appropriate for very unconditioned people by simplifying and modifying exercises, to challenging the most elite athlete. The difference in these two classes comes down to content and difficulty, although safety and challenge must be our focus as teachers.

I worry that we, as Pilates teachers, over challenge people, which can result in injury, the development of poor form, frustration, and misinformation.

What these teachers might be overlooking is the focus to teach the students self-monitoring so that they can make ideal choices for their body.

An example of this is to help provide our students with information about how to perform self-palpation, internal assessment (feeling what is happening), or external assessment (looking at their alignment). Our role as teachers is not to say “in-out” or to count for them, but rather to help them to know if they are doing the exercise correctly and when to modify, stop, or continue onwards.

It is always joyful for me to hear a past student tell me about trying a Pilates class elsewhere. Because of having this self-awareness, they often can assess how good the class was and are able to keep themselves safe, even if the pace and advancement of the exercise were too much. This makes sense after all, because Joseph Pilates said:

“It is the mind that shapes the body.”

If we follow his philosophy, we can help teach others to have the consciousness so that they follow Polestar’s mantra of “intelligent movement.”

Discover Noelle Dowma and Kinesphere Physical Therapy here

From Pilates to Neuroscience

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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.

Polestar Graduate Highlight: Vennesa Leopold

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We sat down with Polestar graduate Vennesa Leopold to learn about her Pilates practice, teaching and what she does outside the studio! Polestar Pilates: What do you love about teaching? VL: I have a passion and heart for people. I love getting to know them and helping them get the most out of life. I love sharing my knowledge and restoring health. Pilates and movement in general is a way for me to help guide people. I feel like teaching is way of speaking with them without necessarily using words. I love when someone has an “ah-ha” moment, like they finally connected with a certain body part that hasn’t moved in a certain way in years! Polestar Pilates:  What is your current inspiration? VL: At the moment I am really inspired by my husband. He waterskis on a professional level and is currently training towards breaking the world record. To watch someone you love set their sights high and aim for the stars is incredibly inspiring. Polestar Pilates: What brought you to Pilates? VL: I took up Pilates 2 years ago during my pregnancy. I was very sick with nausea and vomiting for most of the pregnancy and every time I tried to exercise it got worse! Pilates was a way I could move without feeling sick. Also, I worked as a physiotherapist in Australia and saw the benefits of Pilates across all areas of health. Overall, I’m just so intrigued by the human body, the interaction between the anatomy, physiology and gravity… it’s just fascinating to me! Polestar Pilates: What do you hope to convey in your teaching? VL: For me when someone has that “ah-ha” moment and they look at you like, “Did you just see what I felt?” I get so excited. I hope to convey that movement is therapy, for the body and the mind. And that it’s never too late to start moving towards greater health. Polestar Pilates: Where would you love to vacation to? VL: I have always wanted to travel back to Santorini, Greece. It’s such a fun place to be- in the middle of the Mediterranean- amazing food, funny people, incredible sunsets and you can ride around on a donkey if you want. Polestar Pilates: What is your favorite quote? VL: I don’t really have a favorite quote as such, but I did hear something recently that really resonated with me. The pastor at our church said, “There is a reason why the rearview mirror is smaller than the front windshield. The past is small, distant and should not be your focus.  The future, however, is big, vast and right out there in front of you.” Polestar Pilates: Describe your movement style. VL: Athletically aware. Don’t even know if that makes sense but that’s the way I would describe it! Being an athlete on a pro level in a very technical sport you have to constantly be aware of where your body is in space. Small adjustments in body position make a huge difference to performance. Pilates is the same way. I like to move in a strong, intentional and athletic way on all pieces of equipment, just as I do on my waterski. Polestar Pilates: Do you have a favorite apparatus? VL: I actually really love the Chair. You can get a whole body workout and wake up feeling sore the next day! You don’t need weights, just yourself. Feeling sore is rewarding to me! Polestar Pilates: What are you reading? VL:  I like to look at books that have pictures in them, so I read a lot of children’s books to my 16 month-old daughter. You can learn a lot from Dr. Seuss! Like our Blog? Sign up for the newsletter – Polestar Life Weekly!