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.
Happy new year to you all. I have a new Pilates video to share with you on my vimeo account. The practice begins with 10 minutes of simple yoga salutations to ‘wake up’ the body before diving into a 30 minute Pilates mat workout. The practice is a perfect practice for the morning, especially when you are not at home and have the luxury of space. You can expect to stay on your mat from start to finish…no side lying leg kicks here.
The one instruction I give, sprinkled throughout the workout, is “Breathe into your back body.” The back body is beneficial to be aware of, not only because it gives you a cue or reference point from which you create more inner space, but also because it is symbolic of the universal energy within us. The front body on the other hand is symbolic of our ego or of a more singular energy. Although both are necessary and good, the back body is the unseen energy and therefore more of a challenge to be aware of, making it easier for our ‘egos’ to take center stage.
The practice of Pilates is all about taking a step back and softening our egos in order to connect us to our back. This concentrated physical effort to balance our front with our back (ego with universal), I believe, can also indirectly connect us to something ‘bigger’ than ourselves. Clearly a strong and tall ego will allow us to move forward and reach for our desires. However, too much ego, without the consideration of the unseen and universal back energy, could surely deplete and exhaust us. Balancing the two, with a slight edge to the back body, will allow for something better.
Personally, I have experienced both extremes! I have had too much ‘ego’ with too much discipline and rigidity in my practices, without considering the current situation and others involved, making for an unhappy ending. Also, in my physical practice, most of you know that I have a love affair with backbends. I love them so much as I feel invigorated every time I do one. However, I have learned that if I do not take the time to also balance my practice of backbends with something to bring my back and me back to neutral, all the back bending or emphasis on opening up my front body, is like drinking too many cups of coffee. We all know too much coffee, although oh so good, can lead you to feel anxious, jittery, and just not well. That said, it is valuable for me to also incorporate some basic forward folds (as I breathe in my back body) in my practice of backbends.
The practice of Pilates encourages us to connect to our backs, both physically and metaphorically. It’s a beautiful and humbling practice that hopefully reminds us all to soften more, let go more, yield more, forgive more, be okay not to be “right” more, all without losing our capacity to love ourselves and stand tall in who we are.
I hope you breathe into your back…
Aloha, Brooke
delighting in a “Bigger Picture” – Kukio Beach, HI
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