Up Next on Pilates Hour: The Mermaid and Beyond
Improving Lateral Flexion with Shelly Power
On this episode of Pilates Hour, Shelly will explore the Mermaid and some of the other lateral flexion exercises in the Pilates repertoire. We’ll break down the movement to identify what’s important, give options that make it accessible to more clients, and look at common mistakes and what to do to improve.
*This week will be a live premiere of a pre-recorded session.
About this Webinar
Pilates Hour – Episode 195
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About Pilates Hour:
Polestar Pilates Hour is a free Pilates webinar series where we discuss various topics on movement science, teaching skills, and much more. They are one hour and hosted by Polestar Pilates founder Brent Anderson with occasional special guests.
This series provides a flexible, accessible, and supportive platform for Pilates professionals, physical therapists, and movement enthusiasts to connect with others, expand their knowledge and skillset, and enhance their teaching techniques. Access expert instruction from certified instructors, connect with other like-minded individuals from around the world, and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in the field of Pilates and movement science.
Meet the participants:
Shelly Power, BS, NCPT
Vice President, Polestar PilatesShelly is a senior Polestar faculty member teaching nationally and internationally, and works closely with the Polestar licensees and senior educators.
As a frequent presenter at international fitness and Pilates conferences, Shelly brings a unique and fresh approach to the work of Joseph Pilates. She has been a pioneer of the Polestar curriculum since 1990 conducting Pilates workshops and Polestar Educator trainings around the world.
She served on the PMA Board of Directors from 2013-to 2019, and has served on various PMA committees focused on improving the quality of Pilates education including as a Subject Matter Expert for the PMA Certification Exam, now National Pilates Certification Exam since 2011.
Her early career included dancing professionally for 12 years with the Sacramento-based modern dance company Dale Scholl Dance/Art. Shelly received her BS degree in Dance from California State University, Sacramento, where she also served on the faculty from 1992 to 1998.
She studied Pilates and worked as a physical therapy aide with Polestar President Brent Anderson at his first clinic, Anderson Physical Therapy, in their native Sacramento for 7 years, and later moved with Polestar to Miami in 1998.
Shelly is the co-founder of Polestar Pilates Center Miami, a Pilates conditioning, rehabilitation, and physical therapy studio in Miami, Florida.
Shelly has a certification in GYROTONIC®, having trained with Angela Crowley, and has completed the first year of Franklin-Method® training with Eric Franklin. She has been a member of the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS), is a member of the Pilates Method Alliance, and is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher.
I very much enjoy these webinars, today particularly. As a retired PT and current Pilates Instructor, it helps to keep my mind active, engaged and up to date. The caring atmosphere is exceptional and heart warming.
Very informative and helpful. Thank you for continuing to do these.
I very much enjoy these webinars, today particularly. As a retired PT and current Pilates Instructor, it helps to keep my mind active, engaged and up to date. The caring atmosphere is exceptional and heart warming.
Very informative and helpful. Thank you for continuing to do these.
THANK YOU for a fantastic dive into the Fascia Pilates research. I especially want to thank you for all the additional resources provided and workshop/course opportunities. As a former dance Professor at a University I find this work moving us all far beyond the basic understanding and movement concepts of Pilates for dancers and others.
Pilates hour webinars bring me the most current material applicable to my pilates teaching. I am grateful for the connections and opportunities to learn!
I have been doing your webinars weekly and find them so helpful. I learn and affirm. You present us with alot of different topics that are all so useful in my Pilates practice. The holistic philosophy that you present each week especially touches home for me as it affirms what I am doing and why I am doing it. Thank-you!!
These tutorials, introductions and classes are a wonderful testament to Polestar’s commitment to a world that works for everyone. As we heal and learn to heal others, transformation becomes the norm in all areas of our lives and hence the world around us can heal. Thank you.
I am loving the webinars. They are varied, informative and in line with my philosophy of helping others through Pilates.. thank you to Polestar Pilates for offering them.
I really enjoy these webinars
I really appreciate that Brent is putting so much time and effort into sharing his knowledge. The Pilates Hour is one of the highlights of my week.
These sessions are amazing. I’m a new graduate and I learn so much from these!! Thank you so much! I’m so proud to be part of the Polestar family.
Helpful information for my teaching, refreshes things learned years ago and feels great to be a part of the Polestar community
I tune in for every one I can schedule, and love that test Pilates Hours are open to clients as well as students & graduates! Thank you!!
This was my first Pilates Hour, thanks so much it was very insightful and joined some dots in relation to topics in my training. Looking forward to receiving my copy of the book!
Began watching these during PAO rehab, 5th hip surgery. Amazing content for dysplasia hips and PAO recovery techniques . Grateful for this platform.
The subject matters are always very helpful and pertinent. I enjoy the Mentimeter participation. Thank you.
Great selection of experts, thinkers, movers. The content is always stimulating and inspiring
I enjoy these webinars in general and this one in particular because we don’t often get well articulated demos. I am planning to try the techniques she taught as soon as I get to the studio. Thanks for providing these.
Very interesting topic, human aspect of the webinar very appreciated.
I have been enjoying your educational system for years! I really appreciate what and hoy you do it! Thank you so much
Always insightful, packed with valuable tips and Pilates drill downs. Great for anyone wanting to expand their horizon and gain knowledge and inspiration!
so grateful to be in the Polestar family
These webinars are truly amazing. Thankyou so much.
Thank you for today’s session. I joined in from Athens, Greece on the recommendation of my teacher trainer, Teresa B, who was also attending. I had no idea what to expect, but though I’m just beginning my own journey as an instructor, I can relate to just about everything you said! The description of the physical and psychological self-preparation process to focus before a session was most inspiring. The need to keep the focus on the client’s needs during the lesson is of course imperative, as it should be in all teacher-student settings. Generally, I felt encouraged by this opportunity to reflect on my own development as a Pilates specialist, which has involved channelling energy that goes beyond physical and technical skills development. Thank you for sharing your personal experiences and positive energy.
It’s so wonderful of Brent to do these! Much appreciated
Invaluable information regards hip replacement. Thank you for sharing your personal experience from both hip replacements including the emotional aspect of the surgeries.
Began these sessions while recovering from 5th hip surgery , PAO. I used the information for my own recovery. Enjoyed theses sessions. Thank you.
Always great information on how the body moves and how we can help out clients with their body awareness
The webinar was absolutely F A N T A S T I C! This is why I have decided to train with Polestar Pilates in the first place & it reminded me how much I am still in awe of everything Polestar Pilates represents. Thank you.
Really moving, topical thoughts and incentive to action. That teaching movement and connection between one\’s body and mind can lead to increased awareness and kindness. That\’s what this is about.
I have been a frequent Pilates Hour attendee since height of the pandemic. I loved the discussion of the rhythm of the bones today. Sitting hinged in a chair does not do us any favors. We are so much more than hinges. I also took Beth Kaplaneck’s Hip/joint replacement seminar online in 2020. Beth was amazing transforming what was to be in-person course in Miami to a online/hybrid course within several months time.
This was one of the best episodes, ever! Your frankness, truth-telling and sharing about your experience really warmed my heart. Blessings on your recovery and future plans. I can’t wait to order the new book you haven’t written yet…..just sayin!
I find many of these videos extremely interesting and informative. The deeper dive into the topics and moves are really valuable to me as a pilates student. I really value the time that Brent, Shelley and the guests put into doing these 🙂
Always very informative. Thank you for providing all this important information free of charge.
So grateful for the weekly hour offered by Polestar. So kind and generous.
I love these webinars. They give me confidence to teach with confidence!
These seminars are so very essential for educational sharing & caring & learning in order to improve the quality life of my many students as well as myself! THANK YOU so very much`
I’m always more informed, relaxed and self aware after I watch this. Thanks so much for offering it to us!
It is so refreshing to have an opportunity to listen, learn and share new and varying ways of thinking and practicing. It truly takes a special person to think outside the box, step away from the norm, and innovate to create and change in established practices. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and perspective and bringing together other to do the same.
Each week I teach 20 small group Reformer classes plus an additional 5 private sessions in my home studio. Each week I have the most amazing opportunity to sit in the front row of a post-graduate seminar, taught by the cutting edge leaders in my field, in the comfort of my own home. Whether I’m at my kitchen table or feet up in the shade on my beautiful deck, I look forward to my coveted time of restoration, connection and mind-expanding ideas at the Polestar Hour.
Fascinating and inspiring. Thank you!
I always enjoy attending PH because it is such a wealth of useful and practical information that I take out of every session Thank you Polestar Team for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Great introduction to Adult Spinal Deformities! This will definitely spur me on to learn more so I can tailor my programs to be even more client specific. I think every client I have can benefit from spine stabilization work!!
Great basic seminar. I like the simple measurement guidelines re determining who is at risk for spinal instability.
Wonderful Pilates Hour session on spinal deformities Wealth of information..
Enjoyed the info in this presentation . Have wanted to take a Lisa Stolze class but haven’t had a chance. Great info I can implement immediately into practice
I totally enjoy the Polestar Pilates Hour each week. I can’t always participate during the actual time but I always look forward to seeing the tape. Thanks so much for providing this wonderful resource to the community.
Very useful and interesting series. Thank you for your research and generosity in sharing
I love these sessions, truly thought-provoking, informative and inspiring.
Excellent session
I absolutely LOVE the Pilates Hour with Brent Anderson. I always learn. It’s the best hour of my week and keeps me mentally stimulated.
I’ve been in the field of Health/Wellness/ Fitness & Dance for over 50 yrs. It’s my passion as well as my now “retirement profession”. I trained at Polestar Pilates- Miami with Brent, Shelly & so many wonderful instructors. I greatly appreciate all the Pilates Hour sessions over the past 3yrs & hope to continue “helping others to help themselves” – physically, mentally, emotionally & spiritually through Pilates & the art of dance. THANK YOU for helping me to look forward to my 70th birthday next month (September 25th) as a 34 year ‘Breast Cancer Survivor Warrior Woman”! God bless – Cathee
These sessions are an enormous gift! Presentations are grounded in expertise and experience; topics are interesting and useful. I prefer attending the webinars live, but it’s great to have the replays when I cannot attend. Inspiring, informative, and – I feel – coming from a place of kindness, compassion, and hope. Many thanks to all who make the Pilates Hour happen!
Thanks a lot for the webinar. I have pelvic injury myself from giving birth and I got a lot of useful information from you today. I am planing to start a Pilates training course and my long term goal is to help women like me.
As always very informative and something to add to my “tool box”
Thank you VERY MUCH, Brent!
Love, Love Love the time we all share on the Pilates Hour. Great topics, Knowledgable Speakers, Awesome Feedback
This was a lovely webinar – I particularly enjoyed the use of menti.com for the interactive feature, enabling us all to participate.
I really enjoy and appreciate these Polestar Pilates hours. They are very informative and helpful. Today was especially inspiring for myself, as I felt I really needed this class.. thank you!!
Some powerful things were said today, June 29 with Christi. This was much appreciated, that we all take the time between our busy lives, to pause. Thank you.
I love Pilates Hour. Very grateful to learn new things every week! Thank you.
Love the knowledge and teaching tips offered in your webinars
Beautiful explanation and very helpful tips, as always. Thank you!!
I just wanted to thank Brent for these weekly programs. My schedule is full and I appreciate the flexibility of tuning in at my convenience. I enjoy the dialogue immensely. It always leaves me with new awareness and creative ideas. I’m very grateful for this community and what you choose to bring to the table.
It was a Great session! Thank you. Been using all the methods mention and this session have given me more ideas on movements.
Thanks for all you do at Polestar. Another informative hour. I love the feeling of connection that you bring to the Pilates world community.
These Pilates Hour sessions have helped to re-energize me as a trainer. I’ve been teaching Pilates for nearly a decade and recently completed the Polestar Instructor training program. The variety of Pilates Hour classes and the amazing speakers offers so much to the community. Each week I leave with a new way of approaching my upcoming sessions.
Comprehensive Polestar graduate who enjoys staying connected with familiar teachers and education on a regular basis. Thank you, thank you for providing these Pilates Hour sessions!!!
I have learned so much from the Polestar weekly Pilates webinar. The topics are always interesting and informative, and if I’m working I always watch the replay. Thank you for providing this service, I recommend it to everyone!
These webinars are fantastic. They serve to reinforce, enlighten, support, and connect. Some webinars I’ve listened to at least three times. Others have served to give me “fresh eyes” in my sessions with clients. I love the variety, and Brent is the consummate professional; utterly down to earth with enormous expertise, yet still humble, curious, and even spiritual. I hope these webinars will continue for a long time!
Appreciate the weekly content and the fact that we received recordings should we be unable to attend live. Thank you!
This was great! Thinking about the reciprocal movements the way it was presented here today was unique yet clear. I’d like to further my practice and learning by keeping the information and examples presented in mind. Thank you.
great information! amazing, thank you
I received my Polestar training in 2004/2005 timeframe. I had already gone through a program with a classically trained instructor in Charlotte. I also did intense mat work with Colleen Glen. I decided to do Polestar as I needed something that would help me work with a wider variety of bodies. I really loved my training and I find that the weekly webinars that Polestar generously offers to their graduates (and others) to be so helpful in this changing world. The way i was taught years ago doesn’t work as well now. I find that people have different expectations and my training along with the variety of webinars really helps me to stay fresh in my practice.
fascinating. I always enjoy Polestar Pilates science and evidenced based approach to the webinars. Each hour delivers an Ah Ha! Moment. Thank you!
A deep appreciation for the opportunity to take deep dives and and learn so much from Brent and all his guests.
I’m really really happy every time when I have the possibility to watch the Pilates Hour. I’m from Brazil and It’s so nice see people for other side the world tell the same things I think. And, It’s a proud to see people have a large knowledge about Pilates and share with us. Thank you so much for talk about Pilates and the body.
Pilates hour is amazing, I am infinitely grateful for the knowledge that your speakers share, especially the wisdom of Dr. Brent Anderson
I love these Pilates Hour shows. I ALWAYS learn something — and it makes me think in a broader way about the Pilates Community. Reminds me of Feldenkrais practice some times.
I find Brent’s sessions invaluable – THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Each session has brilliant visuals and a logical flow, that are easy for my brain to connect and understand. It’s always just the right amount of information, which is relevant to a subject being discussed. It’s a great gift, to be able to explain such complex things in a way they can be understood by anyone.
Thank you for this meticulously detailed work which clarifies so many aspects of our work. This was only my 2nd webinar, my first was Pilates for EDS, which was unknown territory for me and will help me to help a relative who has just been diagnosed. I will be back…
Really enjoy Pilates Hour sessions. They are long enough to learn or to recap over topics but short enough to attend. Keeps me in touch with the latest topics and helps me to keep teaching my clients with information that is current. Thank you and don’t stop what you keep doing so well, educate!
I absolutely love joining the sessions every week, sharing knowledge, learning is what I love the most but the most important for me is that keep motivated.
Thank you for the breadth of coverage, inclusiveness, the understanding that it’s appropriate to teach a exercise differently to different people- or to the same person on different days. The relationship between experience and intuition. I was taught by a highly intuitive teacher, but it took me years to understand what my intuition was telling me, and still I find the more I learn the more intuitively I can work. About “aha” moments, they are often not to do directly with the body: I had a client who after several classes said, ” Now I relate differently with my husband ” (We had not discussed her marital relationship!). I believe the focus that we teach on the body level sets the spirit free to do what it needs to do.
This was SO helpful. Even for 10 years post-grad I found is very informative. Thanks so much Shelly!
Bravo!!! What an awesome session with Brent and Viktor regarding the Konnector to increase mobility !! Thank you so much !!! Thank you Brent and Shelly for your dedication to educate us all to be better movers and to treat each other kindly!!
Thank you! So informative.
I always enjoy the pilates hour and look forward to the next topic. This hour is always so enlightening, thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much for offering Pilates Hour for free. I try to watch it every week online or replay and I`m so thankful. I learn a lot, not only for my pupils and clients, but especially for myself.
I love these seminars! Especially when it’s over my head, I can lookup what I need to know to accelerate my learning. Thank you!
I loved the webinar. It was a perfect length, with interesting, up to date information, delivered in language that was easy to understand. The content was relevant to use with our clients and I look forward to similar webinars.
Shelly, great job as always. I appreciate the deeper dive into exercises. You always remind me that the basics are the starting point and we build from there. Good review of the basics with some good choreography and ways to tease out some new challenges. Thank you!
Love Pilates Hour, thank you.
The webinar sessions have been great because they help reiterate, catch, reinforce what we may have missed or need to be reinforced even after any training/certification. Also, if you don’t catch something during, you can watch the replay. I especially like the specialists & case studies, & higher level thinking even though I’m not on the Instructor level. … and I value my practitioner Instructor, Shelly Power who has helped me walk thru any question.
That was a very inspiring talk. I look forward to trying out some of the ideas.
Shelly, your deep dive into these exercises are always helpful! Thanks so much!