What a great call today! We recapped some of the topics from Saturday’s workshop on the hip and pelvis specifically how we can TEACH from the outside in to better facilitate learning and awareness. We used a few of the wonderful tools Anne Bishop shared with us to demonstrate and expand on this idea. We also discussed the power of these three steps in optimizing learning and integration in the body:

1. Address connective tissue (priming the body: fascial release, rolling, stretching, opening)
2. Enhancing boney rhythms to facilitate appropriate and effective muscular engagement
3. Strengthening and building muscles (via mobilization and stabilization) as the final step.

Trinity also shared some great insights from her work with a teacher from Bend, OR named Jessica Schwartz. They continued the exploration of squatting and how to move from the psoas as a core muscle rather from just the hip socket and the superficial hip flexors.

Great, great stuff.

This was an awesome call! What a great way to start the new year! The case study was particularly useful I think for everyone as it pertains to finding and working toward neutral. We discussed — or at least I spoke to — the difference between anatomical neutral or ideal neutral verses what our students typically walk in with which is more of their habitual neutral. We also talked about an aspect of neutral that I think is mostly overlooked, which is that static neutral is a total myth. It doesn’t exist. If the body is moving then so is neutral, always changing with the boney rhythms. Learn more. Check out the call and the case study notes: HERE

We reviewed a case study of 55-year old man with stenosis, which was great!

We also talked about how to work with fear or pain patterns in the low back. Some really valuable stuff.

Here’s a stick figure drawing of the half kneeling exercise on the reformer that Trinity was talking about:

Although we had some technical difficulty this month, there still manages to be some great check-ins and discussion around working with hip replacements, how to warm up a class (not being too slow and boring and honoring the desire/commitment to properly prepare the body for efficient movement). Where we left off and I continued via this blog post is more on the warm up and some ideas about working with men. Enjoy.

This was a fun call with a great check-in and a discussion of some of the most important considerations when working with students with scoliosis. We review my top 3 “rules” for working with scoliosis as well as a correction check-list presented by Karina Theck, author of “Scolio-Pilates.”

This was a GREAT call. Listen to the current teaching successes and challenges of your peers and learn more about what it’s like to try to clarify and enforce your expectations and boundaries with your students. The challenges are how, when, and how much to enforce expectations and through what means. We discussed briefly (but can explore more) how to create a consistent formula for an intake session as well. Refer to the Intake Procedures document in Teacher Tools.

In this call we looked at a really cool case study given to us by Trinity Minty about a student with chronic neck pain due to bulging cervical disks. We generated some great ideas about first addressing the possible inflammation and making sure that she is getting the appropriate care so that movement (pain free or pain-less) is more accessible without her compensation and tension patterns.

We also looked at the Long Stretch Series specifically related to the strain it often causes in the wrists and how this can be distracting and de-motivating for students. Great suggestions about strengthening the hand and wrist prior to and along side teaching weight bearing on the arms, how to use the hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder appropriately, and also some alternatives to being on the wrists directly.

Two case studies working with young competitive athletes PLUS initial conversation about how to define your “ideal client” or “specific audience”. We also used the Mindfulness Practice “Anchoring Into Your Center” from the Mentoring Manual.

This month we revisited the Awareness Practice #1, checked-in with everyone (what are you bringing with you today ), and explored in more detail how to use a theme, focus, or peak exercise. We briefly discussed the extension work and how it’s being applied.

Additional notes on cueing the “organization” of extension from prone:

First – (the purpose: to engage the multifidi and set the low back up for efficient and strong extension)

• Sigh into the hip creases OR
• deepen the hip creases OR
• widen the sit bones

Second – (the purpose: to make sure the belly isn’t flopping on the floor, but is not trying to lift off the floor deliberately)

• Balance that by narrowing your hip points in the front OR
• Balance that by engaging the deep low abdominals between your front hip points/bones OR
• Make sure to balance that and support the extension by engaging the low belly OR
• Draw the low belly in feeling like the back is supported and yet still slightly arched

Things to remember –

• The hip crease will go away as you come up into extension
• The glutes are not engaged during “organization” but will become engaged the deeper the extension (as will the hamstrings if not sooner than the glutes)
• This is KEY to the “organization” phase, but the “initiation” phase comes from the extension of the thoracic spine.

February call in March – This month we explored a case study (care of Bibi Sillem), practiced the Awareness Practice #2 from your Mentoring Manual (pg 125), and I assigned reading and homework on choosing a focus or theme for our teaching (pg 163 from the MM).

This month we explored the three-part breath practice and had a wonderful, in-depth conversation to get us started with the case study (care of Trinity Minty).