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.
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.
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 –
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
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.”
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.
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.”
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.
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.”
Balancing our efforts in ‘stepping forward’ and ‘staying back’
Do you talk more than you listen? OR Listen more than you speak?
Can you pause before you react or do you react before you think?
Can you see these metaphors in the lunge pose? I sure do!
How is your lunge pose? How are your hips??
The Lunge is a foundational and functional posture that will keep your hips mobile and functioning as you age.
Did you know that practicing the lunge pose can help you build strength and encourage more space in your lower body including your hips/pelvic floor/low power house muscles?
When practicing this posture it is good to pay attention and notice if you are able to…
1 – distribute weight evenly between your front and back foot?
2 – feel supported and grounded. Is your base of support wide enough?
3 – integrate your feet to feed your thighs into your hips?
4 – square your hips and hug your midline?
5 – lift and lengthen your spine out of your hips/pelvis?
As you practice your lunges – Do you tend to step forward or step back and why?
This picture was taken in 2005 at Shakti Yoga in Des Moines Iowa. It was my last class. I will always be grateful to this community and my first Anusara Yoga teacher – Brette Berlin Scott.
What makes a great teacher?
I have been reflecting on this a lot lately. I have had many teachers over the years as I have moved several times since marrying Pontus in 2003 for his medical schooling/residencys etc. Although moving around has been exhausting, especially when we started having kids (4 years after getting married), it has also been exciting and fun to start fresh, and connect to new perspectives. I have been somewhat of a gypsy, finding my people along the way with no particular place to call home.
I have been curious what sets some of my favorite teachers apart?
One thing I know for certain, it’s not just what the teacher knows, it’s who the teacher is at their core that makes him or her such a powerful influence.
I also credit my personal struggles and experiences to be some of my greatest teachers (once I started to pay attention)!
I have been a teacher for many years…
In my youth I was a nanny in college and after graduating with majors in liberal studies and French at Seattle University, I continued for another year to earn a Masters in education.
Teaching school for me was short lived! Moving around a lot, was a big reason. Although, I did get a job teaching HS French for 6 months that was temporary and substitute teaching was draining.
It was in Toledo Ohio, in 2005/6 that I decided to stop teaching school and start devoting my time instead to teaching something that filled me up with joy and inspiration. Fitness and moving my body, particularly with the methods of yoga and Pilates was exactly that…
I dove into learning and have too many courses and training to mention over the past 22 years. My goal has always been to share what I learn to help others to feel better in their body – ultimately feel better about who they are.
I was not always healthy and fit in my youth and suffered my junior year in high school. I got sick and never got better. I gained a lot of weight, experienced severe acne all over my face, and suffered a lot of shame. I learned my thyroid was hypothyroid, and have been taking hypothyroid medication ever since.
Although looking back this was a horrible experience for me, it was also one of the best things that ever happened to me as it woke me up and I started taking more ownership of my life.
So here are some of the qualities that I believe make a great teacher….
-someone who is an inspiration. Who walks the walk.
-someone who is encouraging.
-someone who is honest and truthful in who they are and what they say.
-someone who shares in their journey(we all have one) and continues to show up.
-someone that understands that everyone is different and may need a different approach and variations.
-someone who watches and listens with compassion and love.
-someone who acknowledges their mistake(we all make them).
-someone who is happy for your achievements and not jealous of what you can do.
-someone that believes in themselves and believes in you!
So what do you think? Who are some of your favorite teachers and why?
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