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.
OH my Pepper is 5! If you have met Pepper 🌶️, you know she is spicey and sweet, she is loud and neat. Her strong polar personality supports everyone she meets. The beautiful thing about Pepper (and most children her age) is that she is discovering her voice, her power, her identity. She has not been programmed (at least long enough) to be/act a certain way! Pepper does her thing, unashamed and listens to her inner voice and honors what she is feeling and does her best to make herself be heard!
Its something that is so special and so sacred. As her mom I try to honor her voice as I encourage her to learn and embrace sustainable routines and respect certain boundaries that honors the ‘whole.’
It’s a delicate balance.
It’s the same in our Pilates practice and daily activities, its important to honor our unique body as we move and strengthen in our preferred method (pilates or whatever else you do).
As adults we are more programmed than Pepper! WE have been taught and told to do certain things a particular way. Sometimes these things that we are taught serve us, but sometimes they don’t but we are programmed to do it anyway. Our programming sometimes pulls us away from what is true for us.
Overtime these things we do over and over again become mindless. We do it on repeat and go through our days moving but not feeling and reconnecting to what it right for us. I have been there! I call them mindless motions.
These mindless motions can turn to “addictions.” These addictions are powerful, and can show up in many different ways because we can do them without thinking about it. If you are a ‘mover,’ like me, it very likely that movement could be one of your addictions too, if you are not paying attention:).
Mindless motions/addictions give us something to do, but that doesn’t mean we should do it! These addictions take us away from ourselves and our need to keep honoring and connecting to who we are and what we need in that particular moment. Our bodies/our lives are constantly changing and in motion, so it is necessary to be present and adapt our habits and our actions moment to moment, day to day, year to year and so on…
My wish for myself and anyone who reads this is to ‘hit the pause button’ time to time.
Question what you do. How does it serve you to live/feel better?
Does what you do help you find more connection and stability or do you feel pulled and torn from it?
I think of Pepper an how she honors herself and her needs, how she is constantly exploring her body and her habits. I try to do the same.
The following are my class opportunities for the month of September!
On a trial basis I moving Pilates mat class to noon on Fridays and Yoga to 9am on Thursdays.
Pilates mat class – Fridays at noon
September 5,12,19,26
Yoga – Thursdays at 9am
September 11, 25
I am also excited to offer a new class format on Wednesdays at 12pm.
I am naming my new class – FUNctional fitness. You can expect to align your body and mind, strengthen your muscles and fortify your bones, and also mobilize and release shoulders, hips, and necks:). Optional use of some weights and resistance bands. See more in description below…
FUNctional fitness – Wednesdays at noon
September 10,17,24
What to expect with FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
–deep breaths standing with postural awareness. (5 min) Understand how to ‘stack our bodies” to find optimal alignment and connect to the relationship between our lungs/diaphragm and our pelvic floor.
-warm up (15/20 min)
-3 FUNctional exercises executed in sets of 10 done 3 times
these exercises will include movement that highlight
-hip hinge
-squats
-lunges
-twists
-move through sun salutations to integrate (you will learn surya A & surya B)(10/15 min)
-core/mobility work (10/15 min)
-3/4 various core exercises done in sets intermixed with 3/4 mobility exercises done in sets to to release after we strengthen.
example –
Core – forearm planks
mobility -cat/cows
or
Core – side planks
mobility – mermaid or gate(side body stretch)
or
Supine abdominal bracing with legs at table top
mobility – supple flowing bridges
-closing (5-10 min)
3/4 deep stretches to release hips/shoulders/neck
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions.
I am writing to inform you that I will be increasing my Pilates private and duet rates, effective October 2025.
My new rates are still better than all the Pilates studios I know on the West Coast. Besides I hope you are learning from the best. I truly believe that.
If you are just getting to know me – I have been teaching Pilates for over 20 years and have learned from the best of the best including Jay Grimes, a Pilates elder who learned from Joe Pilates himself. I am also unique as I have an extensive background in Yoga, both SmartFLOW and Anusara and I am also a certified personal trainer. And most important, I do practice what I preach:) and continue to also be the student which I feel is very important if you want to continue to teach.
I honor my teaching responsibility which is to honor the students’ body in front of me! I hope you feel cared for, and that you are getting the results that you desire.
Of course I do not want this to ‘stretch your wallet’ so much that you can no longer practice with me so please reach out to me personally to discuss if needed.
The biggest increase in my fees will be the duet rates. Right now I am charging $45/55min and I am increasing this to $60/55min. My private rate will be increasing to $90/55minute. Zoom classes will be the same $80/55min.
I will not be increasing my group Pilates mat class nor my group Yoga class rate at this time. I also would like you to consider these classes if you have not already. They are a wonderful way to practice what we do in the private classes and also encourage more body awareness to enhance your optimal body alignment.
Here are some other things I considered when making my decision:
1 – I have recently invested in new equipment including a new reformer, new contrology/gratz foldable mats as well as flooring.
2 – i have and continue to invest in my continued education. Right now I currently studying with Annie carpenter with SmartFLOW yoga and I also continue bi-weekly lessons with a collegue of mine, Nicole Martin who is in San Diego at Ritual Pilates.
3 – Seattle is an expensive place to live. I have a daughter in college and 2 more still at home.
I have recently attended a weekend Yoga workshop with Annie Carpenter in Seattle at Mother Yoga in the international district. The workshop attracted many local teachers and I am always so inspired when teachers continue to show up and keep learning. I am grateful that Annie Carpenter continues to do the work herself and shares the knowledge she’s attained over her many years of teaching. She is constantly learning and growing in her own practice. She has had to overcome her unique challenges in her own body and generously shares her experience which encourages her students to grow in themselves and give that back to their students.
Annie teaches her students how to find neutral pelvis, using the 3 planes of movement (Sagittal, coronal, transverse). It is a simple and effective way to learn and establish neutral pelvis, which is, in my opinion, so important to practice for whole body health and function. Of course once you establish this awareness of neutral pelvis and what it is and is not – it takes attention and practice to sustain it as one unravels possibly unconscious poor habits and holding patterns.
This is the practice! Paying attention to our posture to enhance our inner connections, circulation, and function in our day-to-day activities. Our bones and structures directly affect our muscles, fascia and inner organs inside to function and work properly!
I believe pelvic placement and awareness is everything as it is the center of our body and affects our whole system. Our pelvis not only connects to our upper body through our spine, but it also connects to our lower body through our femur bones. The pelvis also has 2 sides – a right pelvic half and a left pelvic half and that is significant!!
I made a short video/practice on my YouTube channel if you are interested understanding neutral pelvis where I use the 3 planes of movement. I have also started incorporating this in my Thursday mat classes:)
If you are reading this, you may already know that it is Annie’s focus on the pelvis that drew me to her and her teachings. Annie emphasizes how our femur bones drive pelvic placement, so when we work through the 3 planes of movement to balance and neutralize our pelvis, it is essential that our feet and our legs are integrating into our hip sockets though out our movements too .
As you can imagine, if we are not paying attention, the pelvis, could take many shapes and forms! It could be a combination of either tucked, arched, hiked up on one side and/or rotated too much in one direction. If you are suffering pain or discomfort in your lower back and/or hips, a misaligned, unbalanced pelvis could be to blame.
To clarify, the pelvis is going to move when we move as it is part of the spine and the legs, so its normal for the pelvis to move in and out of a neutral posture. For example, every time we walk we move in and out of tuck/tilt, hike up and down, and we rotate side to side. However, problems arise when the pelvis gets stuck in an unbalanced position and cannot unstick.
When the pelvis is imbalanced, it can directly affect the health and well-being of our pelvic floor. The following are some interesting facts on our pelvic floor to better understand why our physical alignment is so crucial.
1 – the pelvic floor is the base and the foundation of our core.
Its a group of muscles that sit at the very bottom of our pelvis, like a sling or hammock. It supports everything above it – bladder, bowel, hips and spine.
2 – the pelvic floor has openings.
For example – Women – 3
urethra
Vagina
Rectum
These muscles need to open and close at the right times to keep everything moving and working smoothly.
3 – the pelvic floor muscles should lift and lower with our breathing which is why taking deep breaths is soooo very important.
It’s a dynamic! Think of an elevator. When you breath in the elevator goes down and when you breath out the elevator goes up! A healthy pelvic floor should be able to move easility depending what your body is doing! BREATHE
4 – your pelvic floor is 70% fascia and 30% muscle.
Fascia is a stretchy connective tissue that connects our whole body like a web. It relies on the muscles to give it support, as it cannot contact on its own! When the muscles are not doing its job and the pelvis is out of alignment for whatever reason, the fascia can over stretch and as consequence can be weakened. When the fascia is overstretched it can make matters worse as the pelvic floor muscles try to work harder..it can be a vicious cycle. When this cycle continues, the pelvic floor becomes hypertonic and unable to relax as it is working overtime to compensate for the stretched out fascia. This tightness overtime leads to weakness as our pelvic floor never gets a chance to relax! This can lead to damage and several pelvic floor issues – muscle spasms, leaking, straining, inability to empty, prolapse.
I first hand understand this dynamic as I have experienced many of these consequences. Although I did not welcome any of them, they have made me a better teacher and someone that understands the importance of body alignment, especially the value in neutral pelvis!
Nothing lasts forever…This can be either good or bad depending on your own perspective experiences and impressions you have.
For me, I know now that resisting the inevitable is a waste of my time. “Time to be honest, Brooke” – I hear myself say often.
With my eldest daughter, Ginger, starting SDSU this fall, and my middle daughter, Coco, transitioning to high school, my husband and I have decided to move and not renew our current lease we have now in View ridge. This will be our 4th move since 2020! Fortunately, we will not be moving far from we are now, and I will have plenty of space for my equipment and will continue to teach privates and classes once set up! We will be moving in mid-June and therefore, I will be taking the month of June off. Our “new home” is in Inverness!
Moving again, has me reflecting on how change and transition is a constant reality. We all know that resisting our ever-evolving situations and changing physical landscape will only delay our essential and necessary job of letting go. This letting go is non-stop, old patterns, habits, diet changes, friendships, relationships, homes, even ideas will and should change. Ideally the ability to let go will help us welcome the present moment to live with more vitality and ease.
In our movement practices we can practice letting go by first paying attention and noticing what we are feeling and asking ourselves if what we are doing ‘feels right.’ Once we build that awareness, we can hopefully discern what is ‘not working’ and/or not connecting well. That knowledge and mindfulness can help us learn and discover ‘new’ ways to readjust and realign ourselves to make it ‘feel right’ for us at that particular moment (every day is different). Therefore, in my opinion, letting go of the old to welcome the present is active and not passive.
I will be practicing letting go a lot more these next few months and I hope I can inspire this same idea of letting go of the old to let in with the NEW to you as well.
Here is to paying attention to let go OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
As we welcome November, I would like to offer my thanks to all of you who continue to support and practice with me at Le Bureau. I count my blessings often that I am able to do what I do and also have the opportunity to teach from my home.
It was not always this way. I started teaching Pilates in 2006 after completing a 600 hour +comprehensive classical Pilates training through Power Pilates, New York. Before this I taught school for 2 years after attaining my masters in teaching, at Seattle University.. I thought I was going to be a Kindergarten teacher as I chose to do my student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom at Our Lady of Lake catholic school, in Seattle, Washington. Well, that did not last long.
I married my husband, Pontus in 2003 and we moved to Iowa to begin his/our journey as he started Medical school. Although I started teaching as a substitute teacher in Iowa, I was drawn to movement and longed to teach exercise classes. On the side of teaching school, I become certified in personal training and acquired several other certifications to teach – about any class you can think of!
The practices of Yoga was my first fitness crush I discovered. There was a vibrant Yoga community in Des moines, Iowa and it became my ‘family’ away from home. I left Yoga classes feeling both energized but also calm. That said, the first 2 years in Iowa, I immersed myself in all things Anusara Yoga, a Hatha based practice that blends ‘heart’ themes.
In 2005, we moved to Ohio for a year for Pontus’s first year of medical rotations and I made the decision there not to renew my teaching license but instead to solely devote my time to learning about the body through many various fitness modalities. I worked as a personal trainer, taught fitness classes, including yoga, and also worked as a french tutor, and at a restaurant in the evenings. It’s amazing what you can do without Kids! It was here in Ohio, where I began my journey in Pilates. Out of curiosity to learn more and understand what Pilates was all about I enrolled myself in a weekend mat training through a Power Pilates studio in Sylvania, Ohio. After that weekend, I was hooked. Pilates made sense to me right away as I could grasp how it would benefit my body. I signed up for the comprehensive training not long after that. I had to let go of some of my classes I was teaching as well as the restaurant job to commit myself to the long training hours, but I enjoyed every second and I am so happy I chose this path.
After we left Ohio in 2006, we moved back to Iowa for a year, then moved to Redondo beach, CA for a year, and then to Salt lake city, Utah for 3 years before moving back to Seattle in 2012. I taught Pilates at ALL of these stops along the way. I also started the Pilates program at an Equinox in Manhattan Beach, CA in 2008 and also the Pilates program at Seattle Athletic Club(Northgate) in 2013. I have had made some amazing friends doing what I love to do over the years…
Fast forward to March 2016, I opened Le bureau Pilates in my home living room and I have been teaching from ‘home’ ever since. In October 2023, I started teaching group Pilates mat and Yoga classes and this has been a wonderful addition. The classes are a way to connect socially, physically and I love how it is becoming a small community. Thank you for trusting in me and being part of the Le Bureau community.
Please check out and enjoy my most resent Youtube tutorials and classes!
I believe that we are as strong in our core as much as we are open in our hips. To find a beautiful posture and superior balance in our bodies, we need both. For, if our hips are stuck tight and bound with no space we will not be able to access and use our strength in our daily functional movements.
2 tools to help you unwind tension in your hips is the hip hinge and finding a neutral pelvis.
When you perform a hip hinge -notice if your back rounds and bends when you hinge. You should instead aim to keep your back long and lifted. It seems simple to hinge the hips but our hips can hold a lot of tension and sometimes this simple exercise is harder that you may think.
A neutral pelvis is a position where the pelvis is neither too arched, nor too tucked. For me I sense balance on all my sides of my pelvis and one side is not working more than the other.
Understanding and executing these 2 actions in our movements will encourage more space and balance in our hips and will help us engage the bottom of our lower powerhouse (aka pelvic floor muscles) that are easily neglected in today’s modern world of sitting too much.
One scenario of why you may experience a lot of muscular tension in your hips and groin area is possibly because your thigh bones live more forward toward your quadriceps, instead of back toward your hamstrings. If this is your reality, welcome to the club! This is not uncommon. Being more quadricep dominant, usually indicates imbalanced pelvic floor muscles, and weaker hamstrings and gluteal muscles. When there is an imbalance between front and back bodies, poor balance, especially on one leg is usually a consequence. Poor balance happens when you are not able to integrate your body as a whole and connect to your midline. You may still have lots of strength but it is not balanced in your body side to side, front to back, and upper to lower body through your pelvic center!
To work on opening your hips to connect your upper and lower bodies better and enhance your balance, I recommend practicing your hip hinge, as well as being mindful to connect to a neutral pelvis!
As you hinge in your hips you can concentrate on drawing the root of your thigh bones back into the back of your hip socket. When you do that you should feel your quadriceps soften and find more connection of your gluteals and hamstring muscles. Maintaining a neutral pelvis where you are not tucking nor arching can help you integrate your whole body as one piece and feel connected on all your sides. Notice when you stand….do you feel more quadriceps or more hamstrings? Can you stand and notice both sides?
I have made a short video on my YOUtube channel to help you unlock your hips, (especially if you are, one of the many, who live more in your quadriceps than your hamstrings)! I demonstrate a hip hinge lying supine, and show you what to watch out for when sustaining a neutral pelvis! I hope this will be useful for you.
The 3 stretches I demonstrate are called, reclined hand to big toe pose – Supta padangustasana 1,2,3
These 3 stretches, done with neutral pelvis, release the muscles surrounding your pelvis to unlock your hips and therefore create better balance!
Once you think you found a neutral pelvis, its’ interesting what happens when you move. remember the pelvis is connected to your lower and upper body , so it is easily pulled around all day!
It takes time and patience to notice your pelvic tendencies. Not an easy thing to do if you are always in a hurry.:)
Finding neutral in my pelvis still a mindful practice for me. Neutral pelvis serves me well in all my activities. I feel grounded and integrated head to toe and more connected and balanced front to back and side to side.
If you are or have experienced pain you already know that it is a PAIN. Although I do still experience pain time to time, my chronic, deliberating pain, has subsided. Looking back, I know that this pain was in my life to teach me lessons I needed to learn to better live in my body and simply wake up!
Just recently my family moved (Pontus and I have now moved 9 times in our 21 years married…never gets easier!). As I was packing my things, I realized a lot of my ‘stuff’ are tools and gadgets of some sort I have purchased over the years to calm and release pain.
I highlight some of the below listed gadgets* on my new YouTube video …
Gadgets
*Neck pillow
*Pelvic clock
*Acupressure lumbar cushion
*Yoga tune up balls
*Hip flexor psoas release ball
Jade & tourmaline far infrared heating pad
*Foam roller
*Hot water bottle
*Toe separators
*Posture corrector
-dry brush
-Microwave heated pad for neck and shoulders
*Neck shoulder relaxer and cervical spine traction
-Naturapathica oils – aromatherapy
These above gadgets and tools did not ‘fix me,’ however, they did offer some insight and support.
If you know me you may know that I have endured several separate injuries. I have fractured my back between L1/T12, I herniated the base of my neck between C6/C7, requiring a disk replacement, I have broke my right leg and I have also broken my right wrist. I have also grown and birthed 3 beautiful babies(so much respect for all the mammas). All of these injuries and experiences, and have made it easier for me to play a ‘victim’ in my life. Ultimately, making my situation worse off than it needed to be…
Regardless, playing victim or not, there were consequences to my actions and injuries. More than my injuries and actions, I noticed that my non-actions, the ‘things’ I was not doing, have probably caused me the greatest consequences and the most suffering. I realized in my journey, that I needed to heal the emotional and mental parts of me as well to feel better.
When my 2 eldest girls were young, I tried to do it all and truly be a super mom and wife to my husband who was a resident and beginning his career as a physiatrist. Looking back I am in awe of all I did. I was ‘checking boxes off my check list’ and getting stuff done. With an uneasy smile, I asked for no help and was hard on myself if I didn’t do things perfectly. I now understand that it was not asking for help, not taking time to be with friends, not loving, not relaxing, not laughing, not dancing, not singing, and not playing that have caused me the most pain.
This post is a reminder to myself (and anyone else who needs) to keep playing, to take time to relax, and lastly to love, listen and trust in the present moment.
In all my practices including my practice of Pilates, I remind myself to feel and enjoy the movements. Although the details, including alignment, flow, and breath etc. are all important pieces to the practice of Pilates, they are just pieces to the whole practice. Hopefully you love the practice and the practice loves you back.
Read the following posts if you are curious on some more of my insights on the emotional and mental play in our physical body.
At the biological level, aging results from the impact of accumulation of wide variety of molecular and cellular damage over time. This leads to gradual decrease in physical and mental capacity….the diversity seen in older age is not random…. “ – World Health Organization
This past weekend, I took a course named, – “FUNtional Movement and SmartFLOW yoga” with my teacher Annie Carpenter and another SmartFLOW teacher and doctor of physical therapy; Brenna Barzennick, PT, DPT. The workshop explored the 7 functional movement patterns:
squat
hinge
push
pull
lunge
twist
gait
These functional movements are a part of our daily life and done well, these movements can support healthy aging. We explored how walking involves all of the 7 functional movements! Can you feel all the above actions when you are walking? Interesting fact – We learned how walking speed can predict the probability of functional decline in older adults. Keep walking with good attention to posture:)
During this training, we learned that the hub for human movement, as well as all the above functional movements is called the lumbar-pelvic Hip complex (LPHC). The “LPHC” consists of the lumbar spine, sacrum, pelvis, femurs(thigh bones), and includesof 35 muscles! Some of the larger muscles in the “LPHC” include the gluteal muscles, erector spinae group, hip flexors and extensors, hip adductors and abductors, spinal rotators, abdominal muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and latissimus dorsi.
The heart of this training was to communicate and show how complex these basic functional movements are as they involve an intricate and sometimes tangled part of the body. Furthermore, there needs to be both participation and coordination of all 35 muscles to support the movements in a balanced way.
This was a great workshop! I felt grateful for the knowledge that I already knew as the information was being lectured and discussed among the group of yogis. The Lumbar Pelvic Hip Complex is essentially the Pilates powerhouse:). More reason to practice Pilates!!
In this post I would like to highlight how the practice of Pilates, with a well trained teacher – me:), and other practices done well day-to-day, will support us in all we do, and help us age with strength and vitality.
Some examples of everyday activities:
squat/hinge- toileting, up and down out of a chair/car/tub, picking up items on the floor or gardening, putting on and tying shoes.
push – pushing a shopping cart/stroller/vacuum, sliding furniture, opening doors.
pull –opening doors/cabinets/drawers, pulling a suitcase, lifting body up from the floor.
lunge – stair climbing, walking up hill, kneeling gardening, picking something up from the floor, cleaning house.
twisting – reclining behind you, tolieting, cleaning body, turing to look while standing/standing/sitting, cooking/dishes.
gait – the human gait depends on a complex interplay of major parts of the nervous, musculoskeletal, and cardiorespiratory systems.
As all functional movement forces are generated and transmitted through this ares in our body.
What is Pilates really?
Pilates =contrology = art of control = mind controlling your muscles.
What do we want the muscles to do/be?
Pilates wants us to find balance and have a balanced support of our structure on all sides to promote optimal alignment.
Powerhouse muscles that support our pelvic center (LPHC) are key to finding balance:
As mentioned above; there are 35 muscles supporting this region in our body….the following are just some ‘larger player’…
inner & outer thighs
hamstrings
gluteals
quadriceps
erector spine muscles
transverse abdominals,
oblique abdominals
pelvic floor muscles
psoas muscle
The above powerhouse muscles is just our ‘lower powerhouse!’ There is a ‘secondary powerhouse’ (also known as the ‘secondary hub’) that focuses more on our shoulder girdle and upper body. However, the pelvis (primary and lower powerhouse) is our first priority as it connects our 2 halves – lower and upper bodies. If our pelvis and hips are out of alignment there will be consequences to both our lower and upper body, where as if we have an imbalance in our shoulder girdle or secondary powerhouse it is less likely that it will affect our lower body too.
consider Pilates movements with a functional movement framework!
If you are familiar with the Pilates method, you can probably agree that Pilates it is no joke! The practice of Pilates is hard work and requires the practitioner to be attentive in body and mind, start to finish! Body awareness, including better understanding and appreciation of the 7 functional movements, coordination, balance, steady breathing, strength, mobility, and patience are just some of the many benefits one can achieve with steady practice.
I have practiced and taught Pilates for close to 20 years and I have learned a lot about my body and other bodies that I have been fortunate to work with. Reflecting back, I realize that many of my issues and my clients difficulties are a result of pushing too hard and/or trying to perform a posture without considering or understanding the functional movement within that posture. Moreover, bodies change and sometimes we, including myself, forget to listen and connect to our changes big or small and want to do what we did yesterday, but forget to consider how we are in the present. I am grateful that I now have more awareness of the 7 functional movements, from my latest training, that will remind me to balance my ‘situations’ – pushes with my pulls, my spacious shoulders, and my blossom with my squeeze etc etc.
If you have read my blog in the past, you know some of my past ‘situations.’ I have been through a lot and have much more to share, but that is for another post:). My ‘problems’ did not happen overnight or from a few practices, they were poor habits and unconscious tendencies that I neglected in my life for years and those same habits were showing up in my Pilates practice! As my teacher Annie Carpenter likes to say, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.”
I was content to practice in ‘auto – pilot,’ for several years not just in Pilates but in life too. I caution when people associate Pilates only to a set of exercises or ‘systems’ in classical Pilates, for example. Pilates is much more than just exercises. Pilates is ‘whole’ mind-body exercise! The important thing is ‘HOW’ you do it. More importantly than the ‘how,’ is your ability to change your how when your body and life circumstances change. Like everything the only constant in life is change and so it is a constant practice to stay present to your whole body so that you can adapt your practice to your changing body.
Ruthless = Pilates (especially practiced on the mat)
Mat Pilates, especially is not an easy practice. Many individuals think that practicing Pilates on the mat would be easier than the reformer. In contrast, mat Pilates, is a whole lot harder to practice as you are without an apparatus that gives you boundaries, support and leverage. The mat offers no support except the floor and sometimes a wall and some minimal props such as a ball or magic circle. It takes a lot of awareness to understand how to connect our many pieces!! Mat Pilates is demanding and dare I say ruthless!
If you have taken my Pilates mat classes in the past you may already know that I start my classes with variations on functional movements to warm up the body before just starting down on the mat with the 100! I like to start with standing warmups. That said, there is nothing wrong with starting a mat Pilates class on the mat, in fact its a great way to connect to your body and feel your back and how it connects or doesn’t connect and sense how your arms and legs connect to your center. However, starting on the mat can also be deceiving, especially for the beginner, as you may forget to maintain your posture and alignment when you are on the ground and gravity is not weighing you down (as it is when you are standing). Often, I find myself saying – “try not to fall asleep!” I obverse especially legs and arms “falling asleep.” Remember in Pilates, the arms and legs are just extensions from our core/powerhouse, so there should be some effort in keeping those limbs “awake.” The ground offers support, but you still need to be aware and maintain your alignment as if you are still standing with your two feet on the ground!
Everyone needs to tweak their own body differently to find their best alignment but, generally speaking you want to encourage yourself to be alert in your body feeling the center of head, over center of throat, over center of heart, over center of pelvic floor, over center of knees, over center of ankles, with your 2 feet simultaneously grounded and arches lifted.
Pilates is an incredible method that can enhance your function in daily life!Change is inevitable, and you may have to adjust and adapt your practice with age, but having more awareness of the functional movements, will help us accept and be okay with changing our habits, to find more balance and ease.
I am grateful to my personal journey. All my challenges and hardships have only made me stronger. My practice of Pilates feels better and better the more I listen, accept and adapt my practice to my changing body.
Curious to try a Pilates mat class with me? Here is the general outline to how I structure my Mat Pilates classes –
5 minutes – “arrive in body” general body awareness and simple stretches to get us in our bodies
10 minutes – “functional warmup” some simple functional movements and mobility exercises for spine, shoulders and hips. Think squats, lunges, planks, cat/cows, shoulder circles, hip circles etc..
40 minutes – Pilates mat flow encouraging ideas from our functional movement warmup! I regularly apply the idea of a ‘squat’ to the various exercises in Pilates…this way we can remind ourselves that we are practicing this method to feel better and move better in life…not just perform in mat class!!
End standing in our ‘optimal posture’ to feel the efforts of our practice:)
* Starting in August 2024, I am excited to offer my Thursday mat classes at my new home/Le Bureau location. I will have a bigger space as well as more ‘wall room’
For this particular post, I would like to bring awareness to the breath.
Before I go there, I would like to share a little about my current training with Annie Carpenter and her smart flow yoga program. If you are unfamiliar, Annie Carpenter is a internationally known Yoga teacher with 40 years of experience. She has been practicing yoga since the 70’s, performed and taught for the Martha Graham company in the 80s, and continued to learn more from the 3 modern fathers of yoga -Sri K. Pattabhi Jois – father of Ashtanga (known for repetition, flow with breath, and no props; BKS Iyengar – founder of Iyengar Yoga (known for alignment and many props), and TKV Desikachar – established the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (known for yoga therapeutics). Annie has always been driven to learn more and be curious by asking why? She is a life long student of anatomy, evolutionary movement, meditation, and classical philosophy.
I’ve “known of her” for at least 10 years and have taken her classes -on and off- she offers some of her classes on an online yoga site, GLO. I had always enjoyed her classes that I took from her. They are always gentle, challenging, playful, insightful, and taught in a very well thought out fashion. Her classes mostly always have a ‘theme’ and she sticks to that theme so you leave with more knowledge on that particular part of the body or movement and how it affects the whole. It is very smart:).
I gravitate to Annie’s teaching because not only are her sequences smart, but she encourages self inquiry rather than teaching simply the physical shape. She states “our role as a teacher is to guide and literally point the way, providing sign posts and directions based on our own journey. We bring awareness to tension and the release of tension, and also balancing sensations of stretch and strength. Overtime, more evolved levels of paying attention and states of consciousness may be evoked. As a practitioner matures, she begins to understand that her physical habits are mirror images of her life habits.”
Annie’s ability to teach with inquiry is based on a continuum…there is never a destination, a right or a wrong,. Instead in the present moment, there is an effort and a return to center. Meaning, as we are all different, some of us on the same continuum will need more effort and some of us will need more return, to find our own equilibrium and balance for that particular moment (before it changes again:)) none of us, nor one moment in time is ever the same!! I believe teaching with self inquiry is inspiring as it empowers the practitioner to feel in the present and ask themselves if what they are doing is right for them. I hope to encourage this more and more.
That said – how are you breathing??
Fast? Slow? Too much inhale? Holding your breath? Forgetting to exhale? Is it calm, loud, choppy, barely there? How about when you are exercising, do you remember to breath or do you catch yourself gasping for air?
If we listen carefully to our breath, it can give us so much information and insight. I find that when I am in a state of stress or feeling inner turmoil, I barely breathe. How about you? I also find when I am angry and upset, my breath is barely there or it is raging and emotional and its hard for me to connect to an exhale; almost as if I am holding it all inside and not able to let it go. When I am finally able to let it go, tears flooding my eyes, I am finally able to exhale. How about you? Is this true for you? On the other hand, when I’m at ease and content my breathing is also calm and easy.
What happens then to our breathing if we are in a constant state of stress and do not know it for many years? It could be several kinds of stress. Maybe you are in some kind of pain, maybe you are angry, resentful? Or maybe you had an argument, maybe you are feeling unworthy, maybe you are just doing too much and never allow you self to put your feet up and observe and be your own witness? What if this ‘state’ goes on and on and on? Your conscious mind may not be able to feel the stress as it is subtle enough to ignore, but it is truly brewing underneath your skin and affecting how you are breathing!
From my own experience shit hits the fan! Yes, I just said that! For me my ‘stress’ was a dynamic of sorts and unfortunately, during this period of my life I did not pay good attention to my breathing to help calm down my nervous system enough to allow myself to come back to a balanced state. In terms of “Annie’s continuum” I had too much effort and not enough return.”
Even, Joseph Pilates says, “above all, learn how to breathe correctly.” Joe knew how important breathing was “breathing is the first act in life and the last. Our very life depends on it.” I believe his intention with these statements is that if you are able to control your breathing correctly you are able to exercise in the right way. For our breath nourishes all our bodily functions and cells, even when we are sleeping. If we are not breathing we are dead. Like everything though, it’s not what we do, it’s how we do it! It’s easy to neglect our breath because it happens without us having to think about it. Just like it is easy to take the people in our lives for granted! Its challenging to bring awareness to something that is a constant in our lives, like the breath and our family.
Below are some insights to consider to possibly enhance your awareness of the breath and therefore improve your breathing, your life, and all your practices including Pilates:).
Breathing is a gaseous exchange that involves many systems in the body. It’s not just the lungs affecting the respiratory system. Like everything, we are whole person, not pieces working in isolation of one another.
For instance, our pelvic floor and our diaphragm are interconnected and work as a unique system involving many other systems in our body such as our digestive system that deals with assimilation and elimination. If you are not breathing well, most likely your pelvic floor is not functioning optimally and you may also have issues with your digestion. For your inhales open your lungs, contracting your diaphragm and relaxes your pelvic floor and your exhales close your lungs, relax your diaphragm, and engage your pelvic floor. Our body depends on this dynamic between our in and out breath to create a trampoline movement in our torso between our diaphragm and our pelvic floor to function properly.For example, if you cannot fully exhale you are not going to be able to fully release your diaphragm that is necessary to create inner space for you to lift and engage your pelvic floor muscles. Joseph Pilates said, “ ”You must squeeze every atom of impure air from lungs until they are almost as free of air as a vacuum”. That said, taking a full inhale is equally important as a complete exhale! We need to soften and relax our pelvic floor muscles as much as we engage them. Effort in the inhale and the return to center is the exhale. Is your breathing effort and return balanced?
Therefore, a balanced inhale to exhale ratio will help keep your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and even your digestive system working well. Another benefit from breathing balanced breaths is that the nervous system will also stay more balanced. Every inhale you take stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and every exhale you take can take you back to the parasympathetic nervous system. When you have a balanced inhale with an exhale our nervous system resets and balances. If your inhale/exhale ratio is imbalanced you are either in your sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system.
Even now, having better awareness of my tendencies and breathing, and knowing the importance of returning to a ‘center place,’ I still struggle at times to take full cycles of breath. I love a thrill and it is easy for me to get ‘jacked up.’ Its a journey. In the moments when my body is challenged and I notice that my breathing does not feel easy I try to take a break! It’s great if I can give myself 10 minutes and just lye down in a constructive rest position with my knees bent and feet flat on the floor. I close my eyes, turn inward and visualize my breathing inside. I benefit from placing my own hands or pillow/bolster on the particular part of my body thats bothering me and consciously breath into that place in my body. I also have a regular practice everyday to consciously breath a minimum of 10 minutes. I love to do it first thing in the morning when it is a new day and the atmosphere is quiet. Deep diaphramic breathing is so healing and insightful. It’s truly amazing how effective a simple practice of breathing with awareness for 10 minutes a day can bring me down and put me back into my parasympathetic nervous system. I also love to practice alternate nostril breathing.
I hope you read this with inquiry and it will remind you to observe how you are breathing and how this is affecting you as a whole.
If you know me and have read my posts you know how strongly I feel about asking your own questions and feeling your own feeling. No-one else knows your body more than you do. I strongly believe that one of my most important and biggest jobs as a teacher is to be your cheerleader and to believe in you, so you believe in yourself and be your own self advocate in whatever you dealing with. That said, there is always work we can do and I hope to shine a warm supportive light on those physical tendencies and areas I witness.
Check in and observe your breath. Better yet, take some time everyday to notice and consciously breath even inhales and exhales. You will be doing your body good and helping it in many ways.
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