by Lesley Powell

Ohhh the scapula comin around the ribcage.
Ohhh the scapula comin around the ribcage.
Ohhh the scapula comin around the ribcage.

Hee Haw

Freeing the Shoulders to Connect to the Core , an article in Pilates Pro, I go over how the bones of the shoulder girdle move. I always in my lesson plans with clients, am teaching them about their bodies.

“Embodied Anatomy improves function” Eric Franklin

One of the first things that I teach is how the scapula glides. When the scapula moves properly, you will solve many problems why the shoulders are up and tense. You will also improve the connection to the anterior serratus.

The movement

1. Begin to raise your left elbow to the ceiling, feel the shoulder blade gliding wider on the ribcage. Gradually rotate the humerus bone outward so the entire left arm bent is now facing the wall in front of you. Reach the left elbow to the ceiling to help abduct the scapula more.
2. Glide the scapula in more upper rotation and gently increase the outer rotation of the humerus bone to bring the left elbow over your head. The arm stays in the same plane as the scapula and gradually rotates more outward. For most, this will bring your elbow in front of your ears. (To get the elbow in line with the torso, one has to improve the mobility and the mechanics of the scapula).
3. As if you were running the film backwards, return the arm back to your hip paying attention to the gradual rotation of the arm and the scapula. When the arm returns to the hip, the arm is slightly inwardly rotated.
4. Repeat 4 more times
5. Reverse to the other side and other arm

Now try a full arm circle. Can you initiate the movement from the shoulder blade? If you have a partner, let the partner place their hand on the shoulder blade to assist in its gliding. Do not worry about depressing down right now. See if you can get the tip of your scapula to make a small circle around your ribcage. As the scapula follows the curves of the ribcage, many of the problems of the shoulders can be solved.

Next week: Anterior serratus training.

“What about ankles? My friend has old ankle injuries and has had little luck fixing them via surgery. I know alignment and muscle use can make a huge difference. Would it help him? Where should he start? “

Yes alignment and muscle balance can make a difference. Sometimes when there is an injury, you need to look above or below the problem. For instance, knocked-knees (valgus) usually puts the weight on the inside of the ankle. The ankle, knee and hips have to organize around this disfunction.

I have a Pilates client who has a pin in her ankle from a terrible fall. Because of the pin, she no longer has much range of motion in the ankle. I still train her feet, legs and work on alignment. Her gaining strength has made a big difference in her posture. When the foundation is weak, the entire body compensates.

A lot of bunion surgery is unsuccessful. What was not addressed is the movement patterns that caused the bunions. I highly recommend training like Pilates, yoga especially the standing poses to help build strength in the legs and torso to help with standing and walking. A good teacher can work with the limitations of an injury and help a client gain the necessary support for better function. Of course, certain injuries, such as my client with the ankle pin, will never return back to normal function. By improving overall tone, alignment and flexibility, my client has made incredible changes in function.

Some great reading about foot strengthening are:

The Wharton Stretch Book by Jim & Phil Wharton
See the section on the foot

“One of the dirty secrets of the fitness world is that for all the talk about the importance of stretching, many athletes and other fit people don’t bother with it. It’s hard to gauge the benefits, and it seems as if the time could be better spent running, lifting weights, or perfecting sports skills. This sentiment is expressed by Dr. Bob Arnot in the foreword to “The Whartons’ Stretch Book,” and he says that the Whartons changed his mind. He went to them with a stiffened hip that he thought needed surgery, but after a regimen using the active-isolated stretching technique, his flexibility in that hip had increased 40 percent.

Active-isolated stretching is very different from what your high-school gym teacher made you do. Rather than holding a stretch for a half-minute, you hold it for just two seconds. This prevents the muscle from activating an instinctual braking device to keep itself from overstretching. Traditional stretching forces that braking to occur, and the Whartons think that’s not only counterproductive, but dangerous. If you force too deep a stretch while the muscle is doing all it can to keep itself from being stretched, something’s got to give. And a torn muscle will repair itself with scar tissue, ultimately making that muscle less flexible.”

Conditioning for Dance by Eric Franklin

This book has a great section on the foot. Even though it is written for dancers, there is great information how the foot works and how to train it.

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

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.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

When teaching clients with hip replacements, it is important to find out what kind of hip replacement did they have. At the moment, there are 2 different type of surgeries: the incisions are in front of the hip or in the back. Because of the incisions, this leaves the hip vulnerable to displacement due to weakness and the incision. I highly recommend that you and the client talk with their Doctor about their surgery and contraindications for training. With new advances in hip replacement, things are changing.

For instance, surgery from the back, movements of deep hip flexion is contraindicated. That means not to push hamstring flexibility by trying to bring the leg close to the body. Training the posterior hip is very important. Building strength of all the muscles of the hip and legs is important. In Pilates, diminished range of leg circles are great. Full short spine is not recommended. (Some of range of motion depends on their fitness before the surgery. Dancers have a unique range of motion.)

The most important thing to remember with hip replacements is not to push extreme range in the hip. Building dynamic strength is essential. Some clients, who tried to avoid surgery, developed compensation habits around the painful hip. Part of your teaching might be teaching your clients better function of using their legs.

by Lucia Cammarata, client at Movements Afoot

The Pilates instruction I have experienced at Movements Afoot has empowered me in more ways than I can possibly mention. It is exhilarating physically, emotionally, and intellectually. I find it goes beyond the mind-body connection, it plugs straight into the cosmos, the universe. This is essential for any true process of healing.

Pilates at Movements Afoot, taught me to enhance my somewhat limited walking capabilities (due to MS) through incorporating groups of muscles in synchronicity rather than the isolated ones I was using previously. Also, I was able to better identify slipshod shortcuts I was using in place of correct form in perambulation. Again this not only enhanced my physical ability and strengthened my physical core, but served to strengthen the crucially important psychological-spiritual core.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

This last week I completed the second week of training to become faculty of BalancedBody University’s faculty. I am so grateful to be a part of new community that has deep values towards Pilates history as well as pioneering new innovative and creative techniques to enhance our lives and our clients. BalancedBody has created a unique educational program for beginning and continuing education for all.

’s manuals are absolutely exquisite with great photos, great writing about the exercises and more. They give detail information about how each machine works, the differences of spring loads and safety issues for each piece of equipment. There is a section of detailed examples of different kinds of workouts: different workouts from classical to a atlethic workout, different themes of exercises on each machines (i.e. list of exercises for spinal mobility on all pieces of equipment) and information about how to design workout for clients with injuries and medical conditions.

BalancedBody’s vision is Pilates for real people. Some styles of Pilates expect you to fit into expectations of a dancers’ fitness. Pilates can enhance everyone’s lives. There are many days that I practice Level I Pilates to address my hyper-mobile sacrum. Pilates creates the balance of strength and mobility in my body.

I am so excited to finally find a large community of professionals that are truly committed to wellness, education and community.

by Lesley Powell, Director of Movements Afoot

When a new client comes in for a session, I look at their alignment. I look at how their bodies organize around their pelvis.

I take them through simple movements of lateral shift, forward shift and standing on one leg to see how they organize their upper and lower bodies. Their alignment tells me a lot about how they use their bodies, their preferences, their strengthens, tightness and weaknesses. The alignment of the pelvis reflects how they use their legs. More photos of testing of alignment

Some poor postures are hereditary due to abnormal bone growth or health issues. For many, posture is due to habits. We do not use our bodies evenly. The best example is we either write right handed or left handed

The upper body organizes around the pelvis. If the pelvis is unleveled and/or rotated, the upper body compensates. Otherwise our upper bodies would lean to the side if we didn’t adjust our spines. Our nervous system tries to organize the head over the tail. When the pelvis is misaligned, the upper body compensates to get the head better over the tail. A good example is scoliosis.

When the pelvis is misaligned, the legs become unbalanced. Some of us stand not evenly on one leg. This causes muscular imbalances in the legs. The adductors can have a different quality of tone than the abductors. The legs could reflect different tightness-es.

By understanding their habits of posture, I direct the Pilates workout to address tightness, weakness, and to take them through movements/space not explored by the client. For instance, if a client is laterally flexed to the right, side-bending to the left is usually more difficult. I might take them through more reps of side bending to the left to improve range of motion. With this new practice, most clients improve the range of motion. This creates balance.

by. Martha Eddy, CMA, Ed.D., RSMT: Director of Moving on Aerobics
212.414.2921

I’ve just walked back to the office at 7:30 am on Saturday Oct 6th from the Opening Ceremony for the Avon-Walk-a-thon: a two-day up to 39 mile event here in NYC. Being The Stretch Lady was a blast for 2007 Fifth Annual event! I volunteered to lead the warm-up earlier in the year and was delighted when the offer was accepted. 3900 people gathered to walk, 430 of them survivors of breast cancer. The talks were poignant as are the facts. Every 3 minutes another woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. Every 13 minutes someone dies from it. The good news is that more and more women are surviving the disease, including those with Stage 4 diagnoses. As cancer crusaders help to raise awareness and money we all continue to need to pay attention to our bodies and get moving. And we also need to pay attention to our bodies while we are moving!

Words to Remember:

First of all the mantra I created is Breathe, Tune In, Hydrate and Stretch
Later on in the day it becomes: Breathe, Tune In, Rest and Stretch (still keep drinking water)!

Here are some of the tips for walking that I shared: as “the Stretch Lady” explaining that this is an adaptation of Moving On Aerobics for Cancer survivors:

Breathe:

• Take some big breaths in and let your arms rise up and down as you do so.

• Tune In:
• Shake out your arms and legs to loosen up.
• Begin with gentle movement that simply checks in on your range of movement
• Pick apples (notice the people behind you and say hello)
• Swing, sway a bit
• Take a step forward and rock from the front to back foot, waking up your feet – your weight shifts from the whole foot to ball of the foot, lifting and awakening the arches.
• Check in with your spine by placing hands on knees and curling and arching the back slowly and gently while inhaling and exhaling.

Rest (or Pace yourself)

• Another key theme of course is to pace oneself.
• Tuning in is a key to this. If you listen to body signals you are more aware of when to slow down or adjust your body. Micro-adjustments are all that you need at that point. If you block signals then when they start to bark at you, you will need a much more drastic recuperation – to lie down and stretch.
• One micro-adjustment I described is the angle that your feet point while walking. While they should mostly be directed straight forward it is okay to vary the direction slightly throughout the walk to stimulate a variety of muscles around the hip socket. Just make sure that your kneed is always directed over your second and third toe.

Stretch:

• Torso: The core of your body: Let your right arm rise up along the right side of your body as you press down with your foot and stretch out your side.
• Legs:
  Calves: Stretch one leg back – front leg is bent, back leg is straight
  Thighs: Bend the back leg and feel the quadriceps lengthening down. (or Stand in a balanced runner’s stretch/yoga pose if you can) Find your hip joints (make a flat table top with your knees bent) and stretch out your hamstrings (back of the legs). Continue with this flat back while bending at hip joint and let knees bend or be straight. It works well to straighten one leg at a time.
• Core: Stretch your torso and shoulders again with side to side and circular movement.
  Stretching can take you places! We ended with stretching in all the directions people came from.
• I asked all three thousand nine hundred people to stretch their upper bodies toward the south, the north, the east and the west while naming places from each direction that folks come from.

It felt great to be in sync and carefully moving together. It was exciting to recognize how far some people had traveled to get to NY and to acknowledge their dedication to traveling by foot for two days filled with compassion for helping others.What a community! Consider joining this walk or another one, for your health and the health of others.

by Michelle Cohen

Martha Eddy’s SMTT program truly reflects her movement experience, in depth knowledge of the body, and responsiveness to connecting to community. Using her creativity, compassion, and intellect she weaves a dynamic system that is accessible for learning and provides a strong foundation from which practitioners can then layer their own movement perspective.

As a movement specialist and dancer, I fuse Pilates, Yoga, and Gyrotonics along with the Bartenieff Fundamentals to create a movement vocabulary. I tend to work from a sensing/listening approach which can sometimes be challenging to contain and shape from exploration into pro-movement action. The SMTT program gave me a structure and a tangible way of assessing movement, listening and perceiving the nervous system, organs, and glands as well as taping into movement expression along with movement function. This focus on motion and emotion helped me recognize how I can better support and hold the space for my clients so awareness and change can manifest from within the client. This work helps me create more on point custom programs for each client where I can address their specific needs.

Martha is a natural community builder and the program is truly a moving community that functions in the same way as we work. I feel we are all participating and energetically adding to thus huge web of movement approaches and communication. We are truly creating a support system not only for our clients but for us practitioners as well.

Michelle Cohen, a professional modern dancer, is a Pilates and movement instructor. She is a senior teacher at Movements Afoot as well as a senior teacher and teacher trainer of Pilates at the Kane School. She has conducted international teacher training workshops for the Kane School in Brighton, England and Tokyo, Japan as well as nationally in Indiana, New York, and Florida. Michelle’s own workshops in nutrition, dance, yoga, and Pilates have been received in places like California, New York, and Belgrade, Serbia. She initially received her Pilates certification with Kelly Kane through the PhysicalMind Institute in 1998 and has been a certified Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® instructor since 2001. Michelle is also a Kettlebell Concepts™ Level I Instructor and integrates momentum training into her teaching practice. Michelle has studied anatomy with Irene Dowd and continues to study Pilates and Bartenieff Fundamentals with Lesley Powell. She has been studying the Alexander Technique with Nancy Wechter since 2001. Michelle has expertise in working with professional dancers and has worked with company members from American Ballet Theater, Limon Dance Company, Royal Danish Ballet, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company. She has been quoted in Pilates Style Magazine (July 2005) in the article ‘Healing Practice’ for her work with clients with disc herniations. As a dancer, Michelle continues to perform locally and internationally with several New York based dance companies. She holds a BA from the American University in Washington, DC and a dance certificate from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She is presently receiving her yoga certification at Laughing Lotus in New York City. As a teacher, Michelle uses her listening skills to hear the body and then fuses her movement sensibilities with sound biomechanics to create customized programs and classes.