Archive for month: September, 2015

Talking about how to warm up a class and things to consider when working with the “dudes”…

Hey there lovelies,

I thought about doing a audio recording for you, but ultimately this was easier so here it goes.

 

Things to consider for class and/or session warm up:

1. What is your overall intent as a teacher? What are your priorities? I.E. To always strive for Uniform Development; to make people sweat; to provide them with a space for peaceful reflection and de-stressing; to give them a workout they feel the next day; to build tools for life-long vitality, strength, and mobility; to improve body awareness and overall fitness; to offer creative solutions and tools for reducing pain; to improve day-to-day functionality…Your INTENTION and CORE COMMITMENTS about teaching will ultimately give you all the information you need when it comes to deciding on what kind of warm up to provide for your students. The other pieces come from the questions below.
2. Why are your students there? What are they expecting from the class?
3. How is the class being advertised?
4. What’s the vibe of the studio or gym you teach in and how can you be in alignment with that?
5. What are they expecting from you? What is your unique style or offering?
6. What time of day is and what kind of “start” do your students need to get fully engaged?
7. Is there a special focus or theme for the class that would influence the way the class or session would flow?IE. Are you focusing on breath or strengthening a specific area of the body; is your theme about flow and rhythm utilizing transitions or making your students sweat; is your focus on the feet or the shoulders, developing body awareness or leaving them feeling sore the next day. None of these things are right or wrong, better or worse than another. It’s simply important that you have clarity.

When you can unearth these elements creating programs, whether for classes or private sessions, will begin to feel more natural, less work, and more consistent because you will have at the very least established a framework and at the most your own style.

You do however have to keep considering all of these pieces, it’s not a one-time job. You will not have to attend to all of them but the ones that fluctuate like class intention, audience, environment, focuses and themes.

So, what’s important to you?

Examples:

Working within your style and aligning with expectations:

What I have come to know about myself as a mover and a teacher of movement is that I like ebb and flow; I like to intertwine challenge with deep exploration and back again within a class or session. I’ve gotten very good at presenting what would seem like easy or “juicy” movements/exercises (opening, releasing, stretching, etc.) and making them SUPER hard.

I also have a strong commitment to preparing or “priming” the body before I start to reorganize it or strengthen it.

For me that looks like fascial-oriented movement techniques like rolling, bouncing (rhythmic and controlled pulsing), flowing movement (breath, swaying, movement that doesn’t stop/no resting or breaks), and working in all planes and positions right away. 

 

For instance, I’m a huge fan of doing the following things in the first 10 minutes of a class:

• Start standing (almost always)
• Some kind of breath focus or practice that builds and intensifies progressively but relatively quickly:
  • Like 3 dimensional breathing building into spinal flexion and extension or with the arms abducted to the side pulling outward and spine reaching upward with the whole body as tone as possible without loosing the quality and ease of the breath.
• Introduce side bending and rotation quickly but gently, giving folks the opportunity to go deeper if they can.
• Use movements that require sustaining control, balance, or strength and that are whole body and bring up the heart rate but always DEMAND good form:
  • Quadruped opposite arm and leg with spinal rotation
  • Quadruped with knees hovering 2 inches off (then add single leg and/or arm)
  • Mini swan/swan prep into swimming slow (with oppositional hold or not)
  • Planking of any sort coupled with cat/cow or rolling up to stand and incorporate breath work or balance work
  • Slow roll back with sustained hold at the most challenging place “the green room” as some of you have heard Kristen say

If I opt to lie down first as for glute/hip/thigh rolling or roller release work then I try to also do balance challenge work here even adding toe taps or single straight leg lowers and rollups (which are very hard on the roller). Sometimes I will arrange the roller in front of the springboard and prep the springs so we move right into arm work and/or leg work on the roller (also pretty damn hard!).

I’m happy to continue this discussion and in fact hope to during our workshop on the 12th, so feel free to comment and/or ask your questions in the comments section below.

 

The DUDES

Honestly, I do a lot of what I mentioned above plus keep the following things in mind:

• Ebb and flow fairly quickly between what I think they need and what I know they want (that takes a few sessions to figure out, but in general I think it’s fair to say that men need/want to “feel” like they are working and it often takes more to make them feel that way.)
• Lots of sustained work, more repetitions when form is not unsafe (can be imperfect)
• Heavier weight overall
• Don’t harp on form too much too soon. Choose ONE thing to focus on per session
• Balance challenges are frequently very difficult for men — asymmetrical work, standing, kneeling, side lying or side kneeling
  • This is why I tend to work on the chair with dudes: because it gives very little spacial support and requires more from them in terms of organizing their bodies
• I tend to have a no-nonsense style of working with men:
  • Don’t use too much metaphor if any
  • Analogies that will be within their range of experience or are directly related to what I know they do or the skill/sport they are trying to develop
  • I get right to the point and don’t use a ton of verbal cueing
  • I don’t spend a lot of time demonstrating unless they need that for their learning style (this you will figure out over the first few sessions)
  • I chat less and don’t linger between exercises unless there is an appropriate teaching moment
• Extension and side bending being particularly difficult for most men I will spend time focusing on this because it’s inherently more difficult therefore more bang for your/their buck
• They need you to be more literal, more explicit, and to see more frequent shifts and changes in their progress, which makes tracking and assessing even more important!

A sampling of exercises I like for men:

• Chair
  1. Pull ups (hamstring 3)
  2. Cat from the seat
  3. Lunges
  4. Mountain climber
  5. Seated double & single leg pumps
  6. Twist, obliques
  7. Teaser
  8. The abdominal series (100s + the 5’s)
  9. Prone hamstring pumps
  10. Push ups
• Cadillac
  1. Seated push-through
  2. Circle-saw
  3. Kneeling rolling in & out
  4. High leg springs (Magician series)
  5. Pull ups
  6. Bottom loaded footwork
  7. Tower
• Reformer
  1. Standing lunges
  2. Splits front, back and side
  3. Rowing – all
  4. Kneeling abs (front and back)
  5. Supine abs
  6. Short spine
  7. Long spine (with sky-frogs) *ask me about this in the workshop*
  8. Long box prone work – all
  9. Short box abs – all
  10. Control front & back
  11. Twist & Snake
  12. Jackknife
  13. Overhead
  14. Footwork on all springs if possible, with pulses and single leg variations
  15. Side lying arm work/leg work
  16. Kneeling side arms

Please add your comments, thoughts and questions below in the comment section and we’ll address them on the 12th.

xoxoxox

c

Interesting links for men and Pilates:

• 5 Reasons Men Should Do Pilates
  
• 5 Ways to Hook Men on Pilates
• Pilates For Men & Those Who Teach Men
• Pilates For Meatheads
• Reformer Workout For Men – Video
• The Art of Control – Video
  • I would watch anything from Blue Bird Pilates as the owner is a man and AaaaaMAZING. Always a lot of cool stuff to see.