I have a possble client with a severe lumbar lordosis. Is there specific movements to try on her to correct/help/improve? Any certain ones to really avoid? I have a few ideas but I would love your input.

BBU Student

by Lesley Powell

When a client comes in with certain misalignments, I first observe throughout the lesson how the client organizes movements, what is tight and what is weak. Each client arrives in a certain posture for different reasons: some are structural, habitual, an injury, history of fitness and cultural.

I always go to the basics first, core support, observing what is mobilizing and stabilizing. Their patterns of posture will reflect in all the exercises even simple ones like cat & camel, bridging, basic abdominal training and back extensors training. Part of making change in a client is making them aware of their habits.

How do they lie on their backs? Is the tension of their backs hyperextending their ribs? If I have them stretch the back muscles, does that help? Sometimes just saying “let your back go” can make a change. We all have patterns how we all hold tension. Learning to relax is key. Breath is a great way to help relieve tension.

I always look how they use their legs. When the legs are weak, the back has to carry the load. When they are doing bridging, footwork, etc., what is initiating first; the legs or the back? For instance, observe how they do a neutral bridge. Are they arching their backs to get the pelvis up? Get them to initiate through the legs. Make the movement small until they understand to push from the legs.

Sometimes they are so used to lifting their legs from their backs, they feel pain. Work in small ranges of motion until they can move painfree. Lying prone and lifting their legs, they always feel pain. Take the exercise to a different position and see if they can initiate from the correct place. For example, bridging, Pilates footwork and leg straps or modified side leg kicks. How is their form? Can they differentiate the leg from a stabilized pelvis?

Remember to have patience. A posture is created from years of habits. Keep observing, problem solving and making sure the movement principles are within each exercise.  If a client is always in pain, make sure that they see a medical professional to rule out serious problems like disk herniations.

by Lesley Powell

“Abdominals come in many Flavors” Doris Pasteleur Hall

“I do have a question - on the KNEE STRETCH & KNEELING ABDOMINAL SERIES - why would you choose the rounded back vs the flat back — would it be for body type, body issues, difficult/easier, different focus? Could you explain.” Kris

For a healthy body, training the abdominals with the spine in many positions of neutral, flexion, extension, lateral flexion and rotation is very important. The core muscles coordinate differently for each position. Training core muscles for dynamic movement is essential. This kind of training supports the physicality for good posture and necessary for our movement loves. This will also teach clients how to use their spines without unhealthy compression. A healthy spine should be able to move through all planes: flexion-extension, lateral flexion and rotation.

Knee stretch is the preparation for Advanced Knee Stretch, plank pose, downward dog, Long stretch and Up stretch. It teaches the client the coordination of the all the limbs with the core.

Advanced Knee Stretch

Certain health conditions require modifications. With osteoporosis of the spine and disk problems, knee stretch in flexion is contraindicated. With Stenosis and spondylolisthesis (go to BBU’s Movement principles - info about neutral spine), knee stretch in flexion is a great exercise. As with Stenosis and spondylolisthesis, you might have the client perform a neutral spine with a imprinted spine or supported neutral.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

Testimonials

This month I taught Balanced Body University’s Pilates Mat I-II. It was so wonderful to teach just the right amount of material for a weekend course and have the time for everyone to intellectually and physicality experience new materials. Sometimes courses are so jammed pack with information without enough time to experience the material on a physical level.

Students were really able to make changes in their own practice and practice new teaching techniques on their colleagues. They learned to problem solve teaching with the Pilates material on different bodies. When issues came up such as the spine was too tight to do a rollup, I was able to give information how to open the back and how the BBU’s movement principles can facilitate change.

We also talked about teaching. Teaching is a passion and a skill. To be a successful teacher, one has to understand how clients’ learn, how to cue well and lead different teaching situations from privates to group classes.

Dr. Martha Eddy once led a class on the nervous system and learning. We were to learn a simple hand phrase.

1. We copied her phrase
2. counted it
3. gave names/images to each movement
4. sounds to each movement
5. use tactile cues such as using the floor, wall or our bodies

Then we talked to each other which method helped us learn the phrase. Everyone had different answers! I am such a visual learner and assumed others were the same. This class really taught me to try to understand my client’s preferences for learning.

The students had to teach a 45 minute class to each other and then I was to evaluate them. How I wished someone helped me in my earlier years of teaching. How one talks, phrases their voices and organizes the class are essential ingredients to a successful class.

In the structure of Balanced Body University’s Mat courses, there is detailed information about teaching. How wonderful to go over these materials, talk about our own teaching experiences, dealing with different types of clients and how to improve teaching skills.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

Dynamic moving blocks

My training at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies changed how I saw movement, performed and how I taught others. In 1985, I enrolled in the yearlong program at the Laban Institute of Movement Studies. I was fascinated by Laban theories about space as a choreographer and dancer. Being a CMA, a certified Laban Movement Analysis, opened a new world about movement and my teaching career.

Irmgard Bartenieff, the founder of the Laban Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS), was like a Renaissance woman. All movement fascinated her: child development, cultural perspectives, non-verbal communication, psychology, Physical therapy, dance and more.

Bartenieff Fundamentals™ (BF) is a system created by Irmgard Bartenieff to teach people concepts to promote healthy function. The beauty of the system enhances strength, function and mobility. This is one of the few body modalities that address how the body organizes for different spatial demands. How the body moves in basketball is very different than playing tennis.The system is simple in breaking down to 6 basic movement actions. The complexity comes with the many combinations of the 6 actions with underlying concepts of breath, core support, alignment, rotation, phrasing and spatial intent. The applications to movement are endless with no conflict of style. Within the framework of any physical practice, BF is a modular system within any form of movement. By enhancing function, physicality improves. This is essential with problems of injury rehabilitation and sport/dance performance.

Teaching Bartenieff Fundamentals™ within any movement lesson are wonderful shorthand devices to improve the coaching of a session. Whether it is the dancer’s port de bra, the tennis swing or the injured arm of a client, interlacing BF within the movement lesson plans quickly enhances the lesson. For instance if the shoulders are up, putting the client’s attention of working from the scapula can improve form.

My first classes based on Bartenieff Fundamentals™ were at Dr. Backrach’s Center for Osteopathic Medicine in 1987for conditioning to injured clients. Teaching Bartenieff Fundamentals™ to an injured population taught me the power of this work. My colleagues in my certificate Laban/Bartenieff program were such great movers that I did not understand the importance of BF. Working with injured clients led me to a deeper understanding into the concepts of BF and their potential in assisting neurological repatterning. Working with clients with injuries, I saw dysfunction in their movement patterns. BF gave the clients information about their movement patterns and how to make positive change.

Because of my success with working with clients, I was invited and paid to learn how to teach Pilates at JRW Physical Therapy in 1990. The physical therapists at that time were having difficulties with traditional Pilates teachers working with an injured population.

A majority of the cases of the clientele of the physical therapy practice were suffering from repetitive stress disorder. Because their arms/hands were in trauma, a lot of the Pilates exercises were contraindicated. Bearing weight on their hands especially on the footbar was painful. Within my Pilates sessions, I would work with the clients on the Bartenieff Fundamental™: hand-scapula relationship before I trained more complex and weight bearing exercises. My first goal was to get ease of motion of the scapula to help lift the arm. When they could work pain-free, I added slowly more resistance.

The Bartenieff Fundamental™: thigh lift is an important action of all movement: gait and dance/sports activities. It is the dancer’s passé, the initiation of the kick in sports, yoga, fitness and most importantly our walking. The ability to move our legs and move us through space is essential for everyday activities. The freedom of the thighbone in the hip socket with the strength of the leg and torso muscles take us into standing, walking and more complex movement actions. A lot of problems of back, hip and knee pain can be a cause of poor patterning how the thighbone moves in the hip socket, pelvic stability and lifted to propel us in space.

A poor thigh lift disconnects to the deep use of the abdominals and the psoas will be lost. Other muscles will have to take over for the lack of this connection. The thigh lift is essential for all abdominal exercises and all movements that require level changes and propulsion.

This is the beginning towards a book primarily about Bartenieff Fundamentals™. This is a small part of an application of the Laban material.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

This is a series that I learned when I was doing the Franklin Method training. Eric Franklin’s Books

Rolling on the balls is like giving yourself a massage. Tight muscles are poorly functioning muscles. Tight muscles hold the bones in positions that are not always the design of how the body works. Getting bones to move in their normal range is another way to release tight muscles.

Foot Release

Pelvic floor Exercises

Psoas Release

Pelvic Tilts

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

How do you teach a Mat class for a multi-level enrollment of students?

One of the biggest mistakes of a beginner teacher is to rush into advanced material. Level I Pilates repertory is the foundation for all the advanced work. Without the foundations, clients will throw themselves into the exercises. Level I is a fantastic workout in itself. I practice Level I a lot.

So how do you challenge your clients and keep the mat class flowing
while you have a client with osteoporsis of the spine (no spinal flexion) and a dancer?

Let’s take Single leg stretch I

This version makes me concentrate how my lower abdominals connect. First do it slowly.

Make the client aware during the exercise;

• Are they hollowing or bulging the abdominals in the exersise?
• Do they feel their hip flexors easy? If not , are they substituting this for their core support?
• Is their back long? Do they feel the exercise in the back? Again if the back is working, the abdominals are not doing their job!

Then add Single leg stretch II for the advanced students. Do not allow the clients with osteoporsis to flex the spine.

Keep the class moving and holding positions longer. As they hold a position, keep them focusing on the essential concepts. Remember the mind connection is what will bring profound change in the body.

Start the exercise in level I. Then add a challenge in the exercise for your advanced movers.

• Flex the spine deeper
• Bring the legs lower in single leg stretch
• Repeat longer reps
• Throw the responsibility back to them. I.E. are they hollowing the abdominals in?

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

Our clients, who did Pilates through their pregnancy, believed it help with a more comfortable pregnancy and the childbirth. The workout should be supportive of the changes that happen to the body in pregnancy. The goals of the workout should not be progressive in making new gains in strengthen, endurance and mobility. A client should have permission from her doctor about her exercise program.

Pregnancy demands a different design of the workout. The following concepts should be intertwined through the workout:

• After 3 months, lying supine is contraindicated for long periods of time.
• It is important that the workout does not push flexibility.
• Stability training is important for the pressures of the growing baby on the spine.
• Do not overheat a pregnant client.

The weight of the growing baby in the supine position puts pressure on vessels that bring the blood supply to the baby. Possible variations for Pilates repertory.

• Footwork on the reformer, one could add a prop to have the clients half sitting (like she is in a lounge chair).
• Use of the long box to do a modified Stomach massage.
• Variations of Chest Expansion, sitting on the box or reformer, to help train the back and arms like in pulling the straps, the hundreds.

Pregnancy produces hormones that bring a new flexibility to a woman. This is preparing her body for childbirth. The pelvis needs to open to allow the head of the baby to pass through. Overstretching can affect the ligaments. This could affect the stability of the body long term. Once ligaments are overstretched, they do not return to the original length. Ligaments are not like muscles. Flexibility will return back to prior condition before the pregnancy. What is helpful is stretching the lower back due to the weight of the baby pulling the pelvis forward.

• Mermaid on the reformer or on the tower.
• Side stretches over the barrel or step barrel are wonderful.
• Cat and camel

Stability training is important. A lot of women have problems with back pain and sciatic pain. The baby puts a lot of pressure on the organs, pelvis, spine and muscles of the the hips. The psoas and the back muscles get tight with the changes in the woman’s body. Remember stability is dynamic. Alignment is changing due to the pregnancy.

• Pelvic floor training is important. It is a route to get to the transverse abdominal training.
• Training the legs to help support the spine.
• Training of the back muscles. Quadruped Exercises are great.

Ideas for training:

• Wunda Chair - leg pumps, side stretch
• Side leg springs
• Physioball

Photos of other ideas

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

They’re back… two December workshops with two great teachers.

John Chanik & Lisa Love return to teach at Movements Afoot this December.

Lisa Love returns with a workshop about assessment. Learning how to assess is about the art of seeing. Lisa Love, Ed.M., R.M.T., has an Advanced Master of Education in Motor Learning from the Department of Movement Sciences & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University with additional graduate studies in biomechanics and clinical
kinesiology at NYU. She has taught movement reeducation for over 20 years, and maintains a private practice in Pilates in NYC. She has been researching and working with MS clients for 15 years.

John taught this wonderful workshop 2 years ago about the spine. John brings his expertise as a trainer and a personal injury to his back lifting a dancer in his dance career. The Spine workshop this 12/18 is about understanding the function of the spine and the newest research about stabilization. 2 years ago we had a variety of students from those with back problems and teachers. I still use the material in all of my sessions with my clients.

The bennies of 2x’s per/week over one.

“Two times per week is more than twice the benefit. Your nervous system gets the opportunity to learn an develop at a much deeper level. This will have greater carry over in all areas of your daily activities and you will be able to progress into more challenging repertoire. One time per week is a great benefit but it’s fairly slow for progress.”

Tom McCook, Director of Center of Balance in Mountain View, Ca.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot
Tom and I are both directors of Pilates Movement Centers on both coasts. We are both committed in teaching people the rewards of taking care of their bodies through Pilates, yoga and different body therapies. Movement is essential for health. It does not have to be always heavy duty workouts. Poor workouts can diminish natural range of motion and create injuries. Movement should enhance your fitness and your longevity.

Especially as I get older, my practice includes Pilates, yoga, Hanna Somatics and a daily practice of constructive rest. Sometimes I will do some floor exercises as I watch TV or listen to music/radio just to take my joints in a gentle range of motion.

Even though I am a fitness professional, taking class with other teachers takes my body and mind to a different place. It is so easy to be distracted by your work and chores. Taking time out to work under a teacher deepens your practice. The teacher will guide you through a warm-up and forcing you to concentrate on what you are doing.