Author: lebureauetc

I am a believer in beauty, love, forgiveness, and experiencing life's lessons until you learn your lessons you need to learn. I am a mom of 3 beautiful girls, I am married to my soulmate, and I enjoy learning new things and understanding new ways of seeing people and the world. I practice what I believe and I also believe in Yoga and Pilates practiced with attention.

Overcoming Challenges: Carolyn’s Pilates Journey

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

Meet Carolyn Higgins, Le Bureau’s client spotlight of the month! I met Carolyn at SAC in 2013; where she would frequent my weekly Pilates mat class. Soon after I left SAC in 2017, Carolyn frequented my workouts in the park and after that she started coming to Le Bureau!   I am so glad she did!  She always enters with a smile, she takes her time, stays curious, and sometimes experiences a good sweat!  She has had some physical obstacles over the past 10 years, most recently a clavicle surgery, but she doesn’t let any of her ‘challenges’ get her down.  Instead, she stays positive, looks on the bright side, and moves on!

When Carolyn is not at Le Bureau, she spends her time as a freelance writer.  Some of her favorite things to do when not in the studio is make art quilts (designed to hang on the wall), learn Italian, cooking, snow sports, and visit art galleries.  Thank you Carolyn for inspiring me to be more positive, curious, and finding the ‘light’ in even the darkest times.

“I love the energy and body awareness my Pilates practice gives me. Building strength is exciting, and the relief I have from years of neck and upper back pain that I thought I’d always have to live with is truly a gift. I believe many years of practice made a big difference in how well I withstood multiple injuries from a car accident a couple of years ago. When my collarbone fracture failed to heal fully, it had to be reconstructed. Brooke tailored our sessions to open the chest and back muscles, rebuilding strength and range of motion. My care team was so impressed! Brooke is a patient and supportive coach who also makes our sessions fun.“

-Carolyn Higgins

Understanding Hip Hinge: Essential for Pilates and Beyond

by lebureauetc, posted in hip hinge, neutral pelvis, Pilates

Can you hinge at your hips?

What does that mean to hinge at your hips?

What should you feel?

What is the goal?

Why is it important to understand your hip hinge?

How about in a squat or lunge position…can you find your hip hinge?

I’ve learned over the years that understanding how to hinge at my hips can make all the difference in my practice! Its empowering to experience this understanding in your body!

Understanding and experiencing your hip hinge you will also learn how your pelvis needs to participate. This understanding will further help you understand how our thigh bones drive pelvic placement! Therefore your feet and your legs need to participate and integrate start to finish. You learn how much your feet work, your legs work and the importance of unlocking your knees to connect your feet, to your legs, to your knees, to your hips etc etc. Your body therefore understands more and more that the WHOLE body participates in your movements.

As my clients progress with their Pilates practice, my hope is that they can understand more and more how their practice translates over to their day to day movements. AND understanding HOW TO HINGE at their hips is KEY. It’s never just about belly button to spine and squeezing your gluteals all the time! Its full body integration start to finish:)

Check out my Pilates mat class on YOUtube where I demonstrate and go over some hip hinging in various positions so that you can integrate the hinge in your pilates workout to enhance your day to day.

 

Ladder Barrel encourages both spinal stability and spinal mobility

by lebureauetc, posted in Pilates, Uncategorized

I have worked very hard over the years to build strength and more stability as by nature I am hyper-mobile.  in my 47 years – I have broken my back, leg, arm, and neck…. I do not plan on any more broken bones and I feel very grateful to still be capable to move the way I do.  As you may have guessed, I love to move as it makes me feel so free.

Too much stability can cause stiffness and tightness..and yes too much mobility can overstretch our ligaments, muscles, and joints causing strain.  Both overdone could lead to compensation issues and imbalance.

In pilates method the goal is always to find balance.  how can we both strengthen and mobilize  our bodies to optimize our posture and feel our best day-to-day?

The ladder barrel is extra special in my opinion as it offers a firm, supportive curved surface that encourages spinal articulation in extension, flexion, and side bending to both strengthen and and create more space in all our sides – front/back/side body.

in this clip I am highlighting spinal articulating with some inversions.  The support of the ladder barrel allows me to shine bright like the sun as I feel strong from the support of the barrel that allows me to radiate out through my whole body.

check this ladder barrel workout on my Youtube

Neck Isometrics Routine for Better Posture

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

For years I wore my head forward of my heart center and even my heart center forward of my pelvic center. This lack of body awareness affected not only my physical body but also showed up in my choices and actions I took.

In 2017 I suffered a disk herniation that led to a disk replacement between C6/C7. It was a pain in the neck for sure!

Fortunately, this experience taught me the value of posture and the need for me to strengthen my neck!

So here is a simple routine I practice. It helps!

Before practicing neck isometrics it’s important to establish your center. Take time to align the center of your skull over the center of your heart/rib cage, over the center of your pelvic floor. Also, hold your heard up in its neutral position.

Wishing you all healthy necks and a string connection between your head and your heart.

Check out the practice in real time on my youtube –

Pilates leg stretches using the ladder barrel

by lebureauetc, posted in Pilates

Don’t be fooled! These are not just for your legs! These stretches are for your whole body!

In this short demo, I first demonstrate taking time to open up my back body, I transition to my side body, and end with opening my front body.

Like everything in the Pilates method, it is essential to ‘stand in your body’ already witnessing ALL your sides.

Take time to honor your own complexity and yes, asymmetry! We are not linear.

Also, for many of us, just standing can be enough of a stretch. It’s not always necessary to move much at all…listen to your body and breathe deeply in the places that feel stuck and stagnant. Also, be sure to ground yourself first, otherwise it will be very challenging to lift yourself up.:)

Please check out this video in real time on my YouTube channel

Le Bureau Spotlight – Shawna’s Journey in Pilates: A Teacher’s Perspective

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

Shawna has been practicing with me since 2018.  I met Shawna at Atlas Pilates in 2017.  At that time, Shawna was doing her apprenticeship under Lori Coleman-brown and observed many of my sessions.

(I was practicing Pilates at Atlas 2x a week to keep my body well conditioned as I was undergoing The WORK, a master pilates training through Vintage Pilates out of LA with first generational teacher Jay Grimes.)

As a teacher herself, I am honored that Shawna has chosen me to share and enhance her practice with.  Its always exciting to have someone who already understands the method in their body to trust you to help guide them and find better connections. 

I appreciate her devotion to her practice.  She works hard, practices with an open-mind, and is curious to dig deeper and understand more.

Shawna is no stranger to movement.  She knows the demands of being a gymnast and has experienced first hand the consequences of dogmatic movement!  She also was an engineer for many years before she decided to pursue a career as a Pilates instructor, so she understands ‘lines of energy’ and how essential it is to feel these inner lines within our own bodies in order to integrate and enhance energetic flow within the human body.  

Soon, Shawna will be moving to Oregon with her husband Chris to start a new chapter in their lives and also have more time to care for her aging parents.  I will miss you Shawna (although I know its not goodbye) and wish you all the best in this transition.

“Pilates helps my body feel more balanced, healthy, and efficient. The exercises require me to move in the moment and to intentionally choose the path to move forward. This sometimes helps me to find ways to let go of tightness to discover strength from other places. Practicing offers me an opportunity to play with moving and it even occasionally gives me a reason to be upside down!”

“The studio at Le Bureau provides a beautiful, serene environment to focus on challenging exercises, to experiment with movement techniques, and to push myself mentally and physically with Brooke as a knowledgeable guide. Brooke’s expertise in Pilates exercises and body mechanics shines through as she is teaching. She’s patient and kind while offering insightful and discerning cues that make every session enjoyable and effective.”

-Shawna

Pelvic Placement for Better Balance

by lebureauetc, posted in Pilates, sel love, tucking, whole body

We stand every day and the simple act of standing should never be taken for granted. In fact, Joseph Pilates would often have his new clients stand for their whole session. He instructed his clients to pay attention to how they were standing to feel balanced and whole front to back and side to side, and breathe! when Joe saw that they were able to stand with this attention he would invite them to begin practicing the beginner system he created.

I find most times ‘we’ are unaware of how we stand. This lack of paying attention overtime can cause imbalance and structural/functional imbalance.

One postural habit I see a lot is the positioning of the pelvis…it shows up all the time! The pelvis often time is forward which not only causes tightness in the hip flexors and quadriceps but a lack of connection in the gluteals and hamstrings.

When this is the case, your bottom may feel like 2 squished raisons.

My hope for all of us is that our bottoms are more like 2 plump grapes than raisons:).

I believe, most times it’s building awareness in your body and being attentive to how we stand that will make the biggest impact on how we function day-to-day and move in our bodies.

Exercises can definitely help your build strength, but with everything, if they are done without attention to posture for the purpose of creating overall balance in the body, exercises can cause more imbalance and more unnecessary stress on your structure…its not what you do, its how you do it!

If you feel you have 2 squished raisons for your derrière, consider your pelvic placement when you are standing, sitting, and exercising…

Check out my beginner mat workout on YOUTube where I focus on Pelvic Placement and “standing in our body” with attention.

Meet Marilyn Heinemann: Pilates Enthusiast and Inspirational Client of the month

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

Marilyn Heinemann is Le Bureau’s spotlit client of the month.

Marilyn has been practicing classical Pilates with me for 14 years plus!  I met Marilyn shortly after I started working as the Pilates coordinator at Seattle Athletic club in Seattle.  At the time she was lifting weights and looking to try something new for overall strength and flexibility; I remember her enjoying the leg springs series on the Cadillac. She has been a regular practitioner ever since, practicing 2x a week when she can!

When she is not practicing Pilates at Le bureau, you can find Marilyn tending her immaculate garden, preparing new culinary delights to share with her family and friends, attending some ‘arts’ event, or just watching her favorite new show.  She is respectful of others and herself, always dressed to a tee, and stays up to date with the times!  Her positive attitude and mental/physical abilities reflect someone much younger than she is. Thank you Marilyn for inspiring me in so many ways.  I love working with you and learning about all the things you are up to.

“The things I gain most from Pilates is a sense of greater balance in my movements and it has enabled me to develop and keep strength in my body. I just feel more aware of how my body allows me to keep doing the activities I enjoy as I age.”

-Marilyn

How Pilates Reformer Becomes Your Best Friend

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

If you practice Pilates you know that the reformer or any of the other Pilates apparatus acts as a ‘good friend.’

Not only does a good friend listen and support you when times get tough, a good friend is also responsive and receptive to your actions and tells you when you’ve pushed your boundaries too far!

Building any sustainable relationship takes time. Nurturing our own friendship with ourselves is the most valuable relationship we will ever have. Investing in ourselves and the practices that enhance this relationship with ourselves is ALWAYS worth our efforts.

In this short clip, I use the reformer to be my ‘friend’ – to give me boundaries, and also something to reach, root, expand, grow, pull, push, lift into.

Feeling my toes connect to my nose, my crown to my tail, my left hip to my right shoulder, my feet to my seat, and my arms to my back etc etc…

Finding a ‘good friend’ is a good idea. Just don’t forget to love ‘it’ back.

See this Pilates workout on my youtube channel

John Saul’s Inspiring Pilates Practice: Age 77

by lebureauetc, posted in client spotlight, inspirations, Pilates, Uncategorized, whole body

Le Bureau client Spotlight – Meet John Saul, 77 years young!

He has been practicing classical Pilates for 12years.

His favorite Pilates exercises are anything that works to articulate the spine such as short spine and long spine on the reformer, and rolling stomach massage and airplane on the Cadillac.

When he’s not at Le Bureau, you can find John gardening, on his bike, or cheering for his favorite rugby team.

It’s a privilege to work with John.

I genuinely look forward to our sessions together.  He shows up, no matter what, devoted to his practice, and always open to learn something new.

Thank you John for being so devoted to your practice, you inspire me to keep going and showing up for myself and the things I love to do!

“Training (running, weights, etc.) has always been the foundations I did to participate and have more fun doing other activities (rugby, climbing, hiking, kayaking). Twelve years ago, I started Pilates with Brooke. What a foundation!”

“Pilates gives me the strength and limberness for other activities. And, Pilates keeps my gut from getting out of control, despite my big appetite.”

-John