Cecile Bankston, Assistant Director of West Coast Pilates and mother of four, has created the perfect gift to pass on to your clients this Mother’s Day: A Spine Corrector sequence designed just for moms! This selection of moves targets the muscles moms use most when lifting and child-wrangling—namely the arms, back and core. Try these exercises on your own then pass them along to your clients for a gift that truly keeps on giving. [Note: This is not a post-natal workout—it’s designed for moms with toddlers and beyond.]

Spinal Roll
Begin sitting on the Spine Corrector with feet in a diamond position. Round the spine forward, holding the abdominals in and up. Contract the abdominals and roll back to the shoulder blades. Bring arms by ears and then to the ceiling. Contract, and roll up to sitting. This is shown with a pole, but can be done without. Repeat 5–8 times. This is great for the abdominal muscles which are needed for lifting children and bending efficiently. Also, strong abdominals prevent lower back pain.

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The first Saturday in May—May 3 this year—brings another Pilates Day celebration. The festivities, which are sponsored by the Pilates Method Alliance, once again call attention to the Pilates in the Schools Program, with the main event taking place at St. Philip’s Academy, in Newark, New Jersey, under the direction of Marggi Vangeli (pictured above with her students). Vangeli, a member of the PMA Board of Directors and owner of Bodies in Balance Pilates Studio in Madison, New Jersey, has been working with 5th graders at the inner city school since February; on Pilates Day she plans to lead her students through a matwork demonstration for the students’ family members and community leaders and also offer an open Pilates mat class.

Satellite Pilates Day events, held at volunteer studios from around the world, are being promoted as interest- and awareness-raising events rather than the PMA fundraisers we’ve seen in the past. Participating studios and instructors were encouraged to create activities that promote the Pilates in the Schools initiative, but those who don’t work with children have tailored classes and demonstrations to meet other community needs—like teaching area seniors—and promote the Pilates method.

If your studio is doing something special for Pilates Day, please share your plans in the comments section. Happy Pilates Day!

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RELATED LINKS
Pilates in the Schools
Top 7 PMA Highlights

By Elaine Ewing

Have you ever had a Pilates client who seemed to be advancing nicely, then sciatica strikes? This condition—which is an irritation or pinching of the sciatic nerve—often includes pain radiating from the lower back down the back of the leg, tingling in the toes or feet and numbness along the track of the nerve. Sciatica is a symptom of another problem in the body, such as a herniated disk, lumbar spinal stenosis, disc degeneration, pelvic instabilities or Piriformis Syndrome. It is important to remember that, while Pilates work can increase sciatica symptoms, it is not a cause of the condition.  

Luckily, the practice can be modified to make irritation of the sciatic nerve less likely. In working with clients, and in my own battle with the condition, I’ve found that certain positions, practices and cues can actually cause an increase in irritation, but a few subtle changes can help deter flare-ups. Below I’ve listed some easy-to-avoid situations that can contribute to discomfort in sciatica sufferers. Usually, when one of these root causes is found and eliminated early, the sciatica will decrease or disappear.

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Elaine Ewing, now a Pilates studio owner, recalls the steps she took to establish herself as a freelance Pilates instructor in a new town.

When my husband and I moved from New York City to a small town about two hours north, I didn’t have a plan for the next phase of my career as a Pilates instructor.  I had been working around the city in a few busy Pilates studios, and all I had ever experienced was a very full teaching schedule.  Since I decided to became a Pilates instructor in part because it was a career I could take with me anywhere in the world, I figured everything would somehow just work out fine.

Everything did end up working out fine, eventually. It took two years of hard work, careful scheduling and networking to get to the point where I am now—happy and financially secure. I’m proud to say that my time as a freelance Pilates instructor really paid off. In August 2007 I was asked to buy a busy and popular Pilates studio, Rhinebeck Pilates, near my home. I credit the years I spent freelancing—juggling clients and locations, problem solving, implementing grassroots marketing campaigns—with bringing me to a place in life where I am able to run a full-blown Pilates studio on my own with confidence and success. But first things first: Here are 10 ways I created business for myself as a freelance Pilates instructor.

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For months, maybe even years, I’d been hearing raves about lululemon athletica workout wear. I knew all about the comfort, the fit and the fabric, not to mention the flat-seams and fashion-forward designs. But the phrase that kept being repeated, the one that convinced me to make the trek to Manhattan’s Lincoln Square store on Broadway and 64th Street, was, “The pants make your butt look so good.” Comfort or not, this was one claim I wanted to investigate.

Long story short, I was not disappointed. After trying on a handful of pant styles I finally decided on two: The Training Pant, which features a straight-leg design, a mesh ventilation strip along the back of the waist and a hidden key pocket, and the cropped Wonder Under Tight, a slim legging which I picked in a pin-stripe fabric. A quick spin before the mirror revealed that my rear appeared more lifted, my legs longer and leaner. I’m telling myself that part of this is all the Pilates I’ve been doing, but I have to give some credit to the pants, too. The tailored fit is about more than appearance though—the pants don’t slide or shift so it really is like wearing a second skin.

Finding a top wasn’t quite so easy. My pursuit actually took a second trip to the store and trying on a variety of styles. Apparently some designs work better on different body types (this is unlike some workout wear styles, which attempt to fit all shapes and sizes into the same compression garment), but I eventually found my perfect fit. The Wrap Tank offers the support of a bra without sacrificing shape. The top was higher cut in front than some, which made me comfortable enough to do some exercises on an incline, like Tendon Stretch, and the wide straps never impaired my range of motion. Most importantly, when wearing the combo while standing before a class, I felt like a professional. I guess it’s time to ditch those ill-fitting sweats, once and for all.

By Pat Guyton 

The steps to becoming a Pilates teacher were more arcane in the past, and extremely rigorous. Sixty years ago, students went to Joe’s gym to learn Contrology as a means of recovering from injury or training for another career, such as dance. Many became committed to the technique, but it was only after decades of consistent training that a select few were chosen as teachers. This practice of study, apprenticeship and invitation by a master teacher was a remnant of the guild apprenticeship system of training practiced in Europe.

The education of a Pilates instructor is different today. As Pilates booms, the demand for teachers has morphed Joe’s tradition of serious, lengthy study into an age of instant development. Rather than dedicating years of practice and observation to bettering teaching skills, many programs turn out new instructors in a matter of months. And while the training of these instructors varies in comprehensiveness, an additional issue is at hand: The ease of entering a training program has resulted in many soon-to-be instructors enrolling without fully understanding what it takes to become—and continue to be—a good teacher.

Before investing time and money into a career you may not be suited for, you can take steps to explore all angles of life as a Pilates instructor. Here’s how:

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Pilates finess videos can jumpstart those days you don’t feel like putting yourself through a workout, but it’s rare to glean useful teaching tips from a standard exercise dvd. For true teaching inspiration, it may be a better idea to look to some of the specialty videos available, instead.

For a brush-up on efficiency:
“Transitions and Order”, from Rebecca Leone and Heidi Byrnes of Pilates Powerhouse NW
If you need to add order and efficiency to your studio or sessions, check out the tips in this DVD. Designed for studio owners and instructors, the first part of this offering details practical suggestions for equipment storage and maintenance. After implementing these ideas, never again will you scramble around during a session looking for the correct prop. The remainder of the DVD is dedicated to teaching the transitions between classical exercises on the mat and Reformer—where to put the handles after each exercise, when to tip the headrest down, and so forth. This video is especially useful for instructors who have a clear understanding of the exercises, but are looking for ways to speed up and smooth out their classes and private sessions. After learning the linking steps on this DVD, instructors can slowly teach the transitions to students, which will ultimately keep the students focused all session long.

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Studio owners, have you ever felt like your current business plan is just a little bit off? Jennifer DeLuca, who owns a Pilates center in Brooklyn, recently confronted this reality when the demands of her growing client list and expanding family weren’t jiving. Here she shares her journey through different business models and reprioritizing her time.

Five years into its life, my studio, BodyTonic Pilates Gymnasium, was busting at the seams. In 2004, I had a bustling apprentice program, 10 instructors, classes, private training and semi-private training. With a one-room, 900-square-foot studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn, I tried everything possible to contain the overflowing energy and noise, including sound absorbent banners on the walls, room dividers and even strategically asking teachers to face a certain way to have their voices carrying in opposite directions. Clients and teachers all made the best of it, but finally people started to complain. Clients couldn’t hear their instructors and instructors couldn’t hear themselves! I had to take on another lease or I was going to lose clients. At least, that was what I thought.

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Alycea Ungaro, owner of Real Pilates in New York, recently redid her studio’s design and practices to make it more environmentally friendly. Here she explains how why it makes sense for the Earth, and for your bottom line.

As Pilates studios, we can be fairly organic about our craft. Our “machinery” is all man-powered and our work is holistic, addressing the mind and the body.  But what about our studios? With all of this focus on “going green,” I began to wonder if environmentally friendly spaces have a place in the Pilates industry.

It turns out, going green makes sense, both financially and environmentally. With a flurry of small changes we can set an example for our clients and other fitness professionals.

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Looking for some abdominal exercise inspiration? Between packed teaching schedules and clients with roving attention spans, who among us isn’t! We asked Taylor Phillips, a Power Pilates–trained instructor who recently joined Equinox Fitness Clubs as a senior trainer, to share her five favorite ab-busters. Try these moves on your clients, or let her variations inspire you to create a few new moves of your own.

1.  The Hundred:  Begin vigorously pumping arms to 5-count inhale, 5-count exhale, as in the traditional Hundred.  For last 30 counts, slowly lift arms with resistance to ceiling on inhale, slowly lower arms to hips on exhale. Take 5-counts to lift, 5-counts to lower.

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