Archive for category: Thinking Pilates

Embody. Embodiment. To be embodied. Embodied movement…

EMBODY is almost as big a buzz word these days in the realm of movement as fascia has been for the past 10 years. And like fascia, many of us are still trying to figure out what it actually means. We have a sense of it. We can feel it (we think). We think it’s valuable, means that there’s greater value, that it leads to more significant or richer experience, but maybe we’re just not entirely sure what it means to be embodied.

Well…we couldn’t be talking to a more delightful human being and expert on the subject.

Meet Pete Hamill, author of “Embodied Leadership“, international leadership consultant and Program Director for their Embodied Leadership program at the Roffey Park Institute in the UK. Pete gave us a unique opportunity to explore embodiment from the perspective of not only leading but being in relationship with others.

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Please visit ThinkingPilates.com for all show notes.

Thank you for your patience as we make the transition between hosting the podcast on the Skillful Teaching website and our new, beautiful Thinking Pilates website.

Chantill, Debora + James

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Please visit ThinkingPilates.com for all show notes.

Thank you for your patience as we make the transition between hosting the podcast on the Skillful Teaching website and our new, beautiful Thinking Pilates website.

Chantill, Debora + James

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

It’s a whole new season and we are READY to CELEBRATE!

In this first episode of Season 2, Debora, James and I go deep into the juicy, fuzzy, feel good realm of celebrating and what it means to celebrate our bodies, ourselves, our practices and just plain being alive.

We have so many wonderful NEW things in store for you in season 2 including new music (thank you Joseph Quinn of Pilates Metrics for lending us your musical talents), a new (updated) website — thinkingpilates.com — which is SO close to being ready for you :), a new sassy logo (also almost ready ;), new ways to support us (if you love us) including sponsorships, and more ways to get involved with the podcast and the three of us.

But…let’s stick to what’s most important and that’s this wonderful podcast. We hope you love it. We’re sure you will. Listen all the way through because there’s lots of great stuff here.

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More Celebrators from our Facebook Inquiry

What are you celebrating in your practice in 2018?

Bill Eggleston – I will celebrate entering my 3rd year of practice. I will be 57 in May and have never been in better shape. 50# lost along with several waist sizes. More importantly; as a suicide survivor, Pilates has given me confidence and a feeling of being centered and in control I have never felt. I’m hooked!

Amy Havens – Simplicity

Bonnie Lafave – Freedom!!!!

Darya Bronston – Curiosity Wonder and Consistency

Meredith Rogers – Ease

Jenn Powell – Movement every day. Also, continuous learning – about myself, my clients and the work. Remember above all – make it fun.

Lori Marselle Winslow – Progress over perfection

Susan Sommers – How did I a girl who could never even do a cartwheel who ran a business in the N.Y. Garment Center become a Pilates teacher? How amazing it is to me to not only teach movement but to continually work on finding freedom in movement within myself and encourage it in ithers. This to me is a great celebration even though I still can’t do a cartwheel!

Nicky Maloney – Self Care. Self Exploration.  Self Love.

April Underwood Burmester – Curiosity and Joy in movement!

Iris Cheung – Practice in an embodied way. Sensing the connections within the body that enhance the spacious feeling within the body …. Aware that connections between one another, and between the environment. This is a lesson for me about respect people and the environment …. And, I believe that I’m not alone 😊

Cameron Macdonald – The peace that every time i take a breath in and out…as it travels the 9inches from my head down to my heart and branches off from there in splendid, awakening and tingling ways…proves that i am present and in the moment. And this is something i can share with others if its just for the day!

Sabrina Ellen Svard –  This is pretty “windy” but here is my two cents!!!

Pilates and Life are all about making critical connections. First, one must connect to yourself, your own internal thought process, movement process and what inhibits the self from making critical connections to move and move forward with ease and joy. None of these connections can be made externally or with the periphery. They must be made internally and move from the inside out. This is true in Pilates and in Life.

With so many ills and evils in the world today, one must turn inside to find joy and celebration. All those critical connections in your life: family, friends, colleagues, furry creatures, one must hold near and dear to your heart and insides.

Send love and light to those external forces challenging your internal critical connections and hold tight to every dear one around you. The stronger one is on the inside, the stronger one can be to buffer those outside forces determined to steal your joy.

Every breath is a celebration. Every day is a celebration. Start your celebration on the inside and take it to all the outsides around you. Peace.

Alison Banks Crouch –  I celebrate community.

A community of wonderful people who gather in person at the studio to share an experience of glee in movement and support each other in their everyday lives.A generous community of movers and teachers all over the world from whom I learn, and who really GET just how much I love to teach and to explore my body moving through space.A community of friends and family who sometimes move with me and sometimes think I’m just a bit nuts, but they love me anyway.A community of people who are silently, unknowingly, unwittingly connected by small acts of kindness and sharing. When the big picture is overwhelming and cold, they all make the world a better, warmer, safer place to be. 💙

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Our Episode Sponsor

We are proud to present our first sponsor EVER, Momentum Fest, a new festival in celebration of Pilates and movement. Momentum Fest makes its debut this coming summer, June 22 -24, in Denver, CO with a wonderful lineup of teachers and classes.

Check out all of the opportunities, more details, the full line up and get your tickets HERE.

Spoiler Alert! We’ll be talking with Momentum Founder and Pilates entrepreneur Jessica Valant in an upcoming episode of the podcast, so look for that.

What’s Coming Up

We mentioned a few very cool projects, workshops both live and online that we wanted to share with you.

Chantill

• The Science + Psychology of Teaching Master’s Program
  • Learn more + register for the upcoming Q + A Call, Jan. 5th
  • Sign up for a new FREE educational video series HERE
• Fearless Extension Online Workshop with Fusion Pilates EDU.
  • Learn more and purchase HERE.
  • Get 10% off with code FEARLESS

James

• NEW project – @PhysicalThinking on Instagram
• Shift Happens – A workshop with James Crader + Aula Maiberg @ Humani Pilates
  • January 6th, Sacramento, CA
  • Learn more and register HERE.
  • Early bird registration ends Friday, Dec. 9

Connect With Us

• Email us at thinkingpilatespodcast@gmail.com or use the form below.
• Like us on Facebook at The Thinking Pilates Podcast
• Leave us a review on iTunes.

Reach us Individually

• Chantill – chantill@skillfulteaching.com
  • Phone – (707) 738-7951
• Debora – dkolwey@gmail.com
  
• James – j.crader@evolvedbodystudio.com

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Here we are, our second installment of the Teacher Debrief.

A little background if you missed Part 1:

Originally Debora, James and I wanted to do a show that brought just the three of us back together to reflect on and unearth some of what we’d been talking about in the 4-5 most recent episodes.

Due to some strange scheduling we had a gap that we needed to fill, so we decided the perfect solution would be to bring YOU on the show and find out what you thought.

In these two episodes I essentially pose one simple question: Where are we now and where are we going (in many, many more words than that!).

We had such a great turn out (and because managing the time zones can be tricky) we ended up with two recordings. Both are fantastic!

We’re keeping these super simple. Hope you enjoy the exchange. Stay tuned for part two. And let us know what you think!

About Part 2:

This was a more intimate exchange with just four of us and we meander in a few different directions. A big hanks to Claudio Moose of Absolute Center in Lafayette, CA, Janet Sunderland of Soma Pilates in Redmond, WA, and Alison Crouch of Boomerang Pilates in Toronto, ON, for making this such a rich conversation.

We talk about:

• Bringing students back to innate movement
• The growing collective energy around “heart-centered” teaching
• How we can facilitate development at different stages of learning movement (both from the student and teacher perspective
• Our changing industry
• The support and growth of the PMA

Connect With Us

• Email us at thinkingpilatespodcast@gmail.com or use the form below.
• Find us on Facebook at The Thinking Pilates Podcast

Reach us Individually

• Chantill – chantill@skillfulteaching.com
  • Phone – (707) 738-7951
• Debora – dkolwey@gmail.com
  
• James – evolvedbody@yahoo.com

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A FULL HOUSE this episode, as Deborah, James, and I all talk to Trina Altman about her past in fashion and finance and her current path as a dynamic movement teacher who refuses (kindly) to be stuck in a tribe-mentality. From her infectious laugh (we like the effusive ones, they make the best drinking buddies – just kidding, but not really), to her super smart approach to movement education , I think we ALL have another “teacher crush” to quote James.

If you like delicious and nerdy dialogue, pushing the edges, and being a critical thinker with an artistic soul you might just LOVE this episode…Duh! Here’s a teaser from Trina:

“I feel as though apparatus base Pilates is the missing link between physical therapy and what is known as general fitness, whether that’s going to the gym or an athletic endeavor, that is underutilized and needs a better PR firm.”

 Trina’s Pro Tip

It’s really fun to deconstruct more complicated Pilates exercises into their component parts to help your students and clients embody the exercise in a new way.

One of my favorite ways to deconstruct the Side Over exercise on the reformer is by changing its orientation to gravity so that there are more closed kinetic chains and tactile feedback.

I have a video of this exercise on my You Tube channel called “The Buoyant Boomerang.” Here’s the link to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR6Gk8KM2Hw

Try it and let me know how it goes! You can find me here: www.trinaaltman.com

If you enjoy deconstructing, I have a two online courses on Fusion Pilates Edu that you might be interested in purchasing:

https://fusionpilatesedu.com/courses/workshops/undulations/

https://fusionpilatesedu.com/courses/workshops/side-over/

A Hero From Trina

If you are curious about learning anatomy from a connected holistic perspective then I highly recommend studying with Gil Hedley.

http://www.gilhedley.com/

I took his Integral Anatomy Dissection Workshop and I cannot recommend it enough! If you can’t take the 6 day course, check out his shorter courses and definitely follow his musings on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Gil-Hedley-Integral-Anatomy-120301201315055/about/?ref=page_internal

P.S. Just to be clear, I make no money from recommending Gil’s courses.

More about Trina

Trina Altman, E-RYT 500, YACEP, PMA®-CPT, STOTT PILATES® certified instructor, is the creator of Yoga Deconstructed™ and Pilates Deconstructed®, which both take an interdisciplinary approach to foster an embodied understanding of yoga and Pilates and their relationship to modern movement science. She leads teacher trainings in Yoga Tune Up® and the Roll Model® Method locally and internationally.

While at Brown University, Trina took a Kripalu yoga class which ignited her passion for the practice. Emphasizing the importance of inner focus, she teaches anatomy for yoga teacher trainings across the country. She has presented at Kripalu, PURE YOGA® NYC, Cal-a-Vie Spa, SYTAR, the Yoga Alliance Leadership Conference, ECA, UCLA and multiple yoga conferences. Her teaching fosters body cognition and self-discovery, firmly grounded in anatomical awareness.

Trina builds bridges between the mystical and the pragmatic, and specializes in helping others to access their body’s tissues and their heart’s purpose. Trina works out of Los Angeles at Equinox and The Moving Joint. You can find her online classes and courses at www.trinaaltman.com

Connect With Us

• Email us at thinkingpilatespodcast@gmail.com or use the form below.
• Find us on Facebook at The Thinking Pilates Podcast

Reach us Individually

• Chantill – chantill@skillfulteaching.com
  • Phone – (707) 738-7951
• Debora – dkolwey@gmail.com
  
• James – evolvedbody@yahoo.com