I have worked with hundreds of people and bodies as a Pilates Teacher for the past fifteen years. The experience with each new person is always a new one. Every time a new person walks into the studio, I start a new exploration to help that person re-connect to their body as they find a way to “connect the dots” in movement with the Pilates Method.Some students are unaware of where their bodies are in space. Most get tied up in knots with their breath. Some don’t know they are not breathing. Yes, every beginner gets painfully confused when we turn them upside down. Some of us just don’t know what or where they are feeling what we are supposed to be feeling. There is an adage and reminder that Pilates teacher’s use, “work with the body in front of you.” We are all unique, and although the quirks, aches and issues each body experiences may be similar, there is always an adjustment, a cue, a tweak that each unique body system will need as they give themselves over to the teacher for a session.
Some are More Unique Than Others
I had a most unique session this week that underscored the adage of “working with the body in front of you.” Not only did he know where his body was, he was confidently able to move it, to find, and hold the corrections and adjustments as we flowed through the session hour.
This was an elite athlete that walked into my studio, this week, for his first session. He selected my studio because of ease and proximity to his home. He inquired over the phone about the availability of the classical apparatus and expressed a desire to work multiple times during the week. We were sight unseen to each other. However, when he left the studio, we “high-fived” each other and were in complete synch, gleefully looking forward to the next scheduled session.
I like to observe and assess while working with a new student but I always ask first, “what’s going on in your body today?” In addition to tight hips, he told me his whole body was sore from the training workouts he is regularly undergoing for his sport. An elite athlete has an understandably rigorous weight and strength training workout. As a former gym rat and one-time body-builder, I know those gym regimens can wear the heck out of most of us. Imagine the strength and conditioning workouts necessary of performance athletes that run their game on the tennis, football, baseball or hockey fields and you will understand why he was just plain sore all over. Everything was tight and contracted. I acknowledged and applauded his insight, intelligence and wherewithal for simultaneously seeking a Pilates session to supplement the rigorous weight training he was taking his body through.
While this was not the first time I had worked with a male client, (although I can count that number on both of my two hands, i.e., not a lot) it was the first time an elite athlete entered my studio. I was excited.
It was not his first time in a Pilates studio, as he has had many sessions with a Master teacher a few years ago. A novice to the method he was not, yet a few weeks away from the studio, most people forget how to breathe when performing The Hundred. For this unique body, it had been at least two years.
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Most of us don’t realize how much we need the stretch, strength and release of a Pilates workout session.
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We went straight the Cadillac table and I settled him down with the Rollback Bar. I wanted to open up his spine to his breath and following my voice as he released the weight of his body into the mat. The Hundred was followed by Leg Springs; using the Gratz heavy springs. While stretching the groin and inner thigh, after we completed Bicycle, he turned into butter, and stated “I didn’t realize how much I needed this. I am going to love working with you.” Smiling as I helped to guide the stretch, I replied, “Most of us don’t realize how much we need the stretch, strength and release of a Pilates workout session.”
At the 30 minute point in the session, we both took a sip of water and I know this is the point that the beauty of the classical Pilates system, along with his innate sense of proprioception kicked in, as we went into auto-pilot as if he had always been my student and the remainder of the hour just flowed from series and sequence.
To make the story concise, we moved through his entire body on the table as I concentrated specifically on opening the space out of the pelvis from front to back; with side-bends to extensions, to hip opening side kicks and circles. I ignored the abdominal series in this session, completely. This body didn’t need more contraction. This body needed stretch, breath and length. This body needed to be opened.
The hour was ended with a much appreciated hamstring stretch and back bending, chest and hip opener over the Ladder Barrel. I didn’t take him to this level (in the video below) yet I can see we will get there — sooner rather than later. A unique body and a unique session hour. One of the most invigorating hours I have spent with a new student. Pure joy in the process for both of us. #LoveMyJob
Gina Jackson, is a classically trained Pilates Teacher and has been teaching along the Gold Coast of Hudson and Bergen County, NJ for the past fifteen+ years.
Certified by Power Pilates of New York, Gina has trained with Master Teachers Bob Liekens, Susan Moran and Brett Howard; loved workshop training with Cary Regan and Blossom Leilani-Crawford and has particularly enjoyed listening to the personal stories as told by Pilates Elders, Kathy Grant and Lolita San Miguel.
An active teacher and blogger, Gina manages a private personal training business supporting a myriad of clients, teaching all to honor their health, strength and life with the principles of Pilates at its core.