The Spine

Did You Know: The dynamics and supportive properties of the human spine are provided by: • an intricate network of blood vessels • countless specialized nerve endings • hundreds of small nerve fibers which connect to structures of the spine • more than 220 specialized ligaments • greater than 120 individual muscles • over 100 intricate joints • 34 vertebrae • 24 presacral vertebrae (movable) • 5 sacral and 3-5 coccygeal vertebrae (non-moveable) • 31 pairs of spinal nerves • 23 intervertebral discs The human spinal column provides flexibility for movement, support for weight bearing and protection of nerve fibers. The spinal column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, which is the main pathway of communication between the brain and the rest of the body. The spinal column also protects the nerve roots and part of the autonomic nervous system. The spine has three major types of joints: • synarthroses • diarthroses • amphiarthroses The vertebral column consists of 24 presacral (moveable) vertebrae • 7 cervical vertebrae • 12 thoracic vertebrae • 5 lumbar vertebrae The sacrum and coccyx are composed of fused vertebrae and are also considered part of the spinal column. The cervical vertebrae are the most mobile of the 24 presacral spinal vertebrae. The 12 thoracic vertebrae articulate with 12 pair of ribs. The thoracic spine is designed for a minimum of movement, thus providing protection for the internal organs. The large stocky lumbar vertebrae are designed to support the weight of the body Info By American Academy of Spine Physicians Art by Andrea Schillaci

Private Sessions

I am offering private one on one sessions at the reduced rate of $20, an absolute steal.  These classes are being run from my home, should you desire a private session in the comfort of your own home the cost would be $30.

Your own private, designed for your needs, Pilates/BarreConcept workout.     The session can either be Pilates, BarreConcept or a combination of both.  More details on the benefits of both are available at the top of the page.

This offer expires on January 17th, 2014

Barreconcept Promotional Video

Check out this fabulous workout.  Classes will be available in The Blue Mountain area from June onwards.  

Great video

What it's all about

THE BODY CONTROL PILATES METHOD

WHAT MAKES BODY CONTROL PILATES DIFFERENT?

Body Control Pilates is renowned as a world-leading education provider for Pilates teaching.

Our education curriculum is internationally renowned and our membership body for Body Control Pilates teachers is the largest professional Pilates organisation outside the USA. 

Body Control Pilates offers a comprehensive programme of exercises for both mat and machine work. They are adapted from the ‘classical’ exercises developed by Joseph Pilates. We believe that many of these classical exercises are often not suitable for the average person and the average body. In order for someone to work safely and effectively and to gain the full benefits of Pilates, these classical exercises should be broken down to establish good movement skills thus building the best possible foundation upon which to progress towards the classical, more advanced work. This is the essence of the Body Control Pilates Method.

Body Control Pilates is remarkably effective - and medically-approved. It is of an holistic nature, being based upon a well-constructed philosophical foundation. Central to the Method is 'awareness of your own body' and each and every exercise is built around its eight basic principles: 

Relaxation	Concentration
Co-ordination	Centring
Alignment	Breathing
Stamina	Flowing Movements

By working on the deep architectural structure of the body, 'core stability' is achieved, and then maintained, through increasingly complex movement sequences. Specific problem-areas can be targeted by an exercise, but always in relation to the rest of one's body.

 Your body awareness is heightened by bringing together mind and body - Body Control Pilates literally teaches you to be in control of your body, allowing you to handle stress more effectively and achieve relaxation more easily.

The Body Control Pilates Method can work for everyone, regardless of fitness level! Exercises can be mat or machine-based, but matwork exercises have a great attraction in that they need no special equipment, and are particularly safe for those with back problems (and don't forget that 95% of the UK population has, or has had, backache). Its consistent success rate in solving such problems has brought it to the attention of osteopaths, chiropractors, physiotherapists and homeopathic doctors, many of whom have either set up Pilates studios as part of their practices or established a close working partnership with their local Body Control Pilates teachers.

Great article by Judith Rubicki on the benefits of Body Talk Access

Super Health for Life, a Medicine Chest for the World

Apr 12, 2013

By Judith Rybicki

Super Health for Life, a Medicine Chest for the World


We describe BodyTalk Access as the simplest course in the BodyTalk world, rightfully so but don't let that fool you. It can be very profound in it's effects – bordering on miraculous.  Ask anyone who has used Fast Aid on themselves or assisted someone else immediately following an injury and observed swelling, bruising, severe pain, loss of range of motion, blood loss, or disorientation abate right in front of their eyes.  Some students have also noticed with regular Access, scoliotic curves, chronic stiffness and pain, and allergy symptoms diminishing, just to name a few.

As everything in life, it is easy to get caught up in the demands of daily life and to skip a day or two, yes even as an Access instructor, I have ebbed and flowed in doing my Access.  Yet, between the chill out routines I am blessed to know, when I do take the 7- 10 minute dive, each time I feel newly amazed at the transformative effects of this simple to use system.  Some may even choose to spend a lengthier time on the reciprocals breathing into and reveling in the relaxing and balancing effects of each one.

Breaking it down, there is always the favorite move that the body is craving in it's visceral knowing, the thirst for the hydration technique or for example, the sphenoid to coccyx hold is my personal pinnacle for adjustment when I feel my entire spine, head to tail shift back into alignment.  Yet, it is in doing all 5 of these splendid techniques, the Cortices, Switching, Hydration, Body Chemistry and Reciprocals as a group that the quantum shift is really felt.  I believe doing Access is a lot like taking the time to do yoga or to meditate, you are blessing yourself from the heart by taking the time away from technology and your daily hum to refresh and renew.  If done regularly, it is clear that the brain does function better, the body feels more aligned and most of all the heart is happier.  With every breath and tap on the head we are waking the brain and with every tap on the heart, not only are we circulating the information we are waking up the heart. The repetitive deep breathing and tapping can help to generate a very supportive and positive response all the way down to the cellular level that can ultimately be quite transformational. 

Some BodyTalk practitioners give themselves sessions, which can be interesting and powerful yet the filter of the BodyTalker is molding the treatment. Because avoiding strong agendas is difficult when performing sessions on family members, or ourselves it is often easier and more efficient to follow the Access routine especially when performing on a regular basis. It may also prove to be most effective when the stress of the moment is too high to be clear enough to do a BodyTalk session on onesself and no one else is available to perform a session. Access is a great approach to target most major areas of the body for general healing and balancing.

I've noticed chronic issues like, headaches, stomach problems, aches and pains, misalignments, scatterdness, depression, etc., resolve by doing Access regularly.  The beauty of the system is that it has a built-in positive feedback loop motivating one to continue as it generates a grounded feeling of health and self-acceptance like no other self-maintenance health program I have found.  Children around the globe can testify to this. As they feel the results, they remind their teachers that they need to do their Access before class because it helps them to think more clearly and do better on exams.

Again I have to mention the Fast Aid treatment, which is so immediate in its results for minor injuries and accidents that I can't imagine life without it.  In my more klutzy moments, I have mended my body after burns, stubbed toes, and bike accidents.  The list continues of people I've treated within 5 minutes after fainting, slamming hands in doors, etc.  I can't say enough for the brilliance of Cortices and Reciprocals combined.

Let's meet the goal of bringing Access into every home by the year 2020; the world will thank us for it.

Judith Rybicki, DOM, CBP
Judith is an Access Instructor and will be teaching Access in Maimi at Educating Hands School of Massage April 18, 2013. Details Here.
 

Choosing your Pilates Teacher - Part 2

A guide to Pilates Training and Qualifications for Teachers/Instructors Part2

Do you want to teach Pilates?  At the time of writing there are 55 companies offering Pilates qualifications. How do you choose between the myriad of different courses?  

Pilates can be taught purely as matwork using just a mat and other small equipment such as foam rollers, gym balls and bands.  There is also studio Pilates where you will be taught using big equipment such as a reformer, Cadillac, ladder barrel and Pilates chair (Wundachair).  In most cases someone wanting to train as a Pilates instructor will learn how to teach matwork first and then learn how to teach on the big equipment. 

Did you know that in the UK anyone could call himself or herself a Pilates instructor?  It is not a legally defined term but it is unlikely that anyone without any qualifications would be able to obtain insurance putting both the instructor and the client at risk should anything go wrong. 

Types of training course

There are (Fitness) Pilates Instructor training courses, often held over a weekend, so maybe 14 hours of lectures, sometimes followed by a short exam at a later date (or submission of a video of yourself teaching a class) and some coursework.  In most cases these courses are marketed at qualified gym and aerobics instructors working within the gym chains or independents who already have fitness qualifications who are interested in increasing their range of fitness skills.  These courses would not give the successful candidate a REPs qualification (see below). 

Then there are the ‘level 3 REPs’ courses.  Please see the separate article about REPs but, in a sentence, a national body has produced a definition of what a Pilates instructor at this level should know in terms of knowledge, skills and competence and someone holding a qualification at this level will have demonstrated their ability against this national standard. 

Within the range of level 3 courses there are shorter courses with pre-reading course notes, about 21 hours of lectures, followed by producing a video of themselves teaching and some coursework which usually take a couple of months to achieve.  Again, these are aimed at people who are already Fitness Professionals with a level 2 or level 3 qualifications such as aerobics instructors or personal trainers.  The organisations offering these courses are likely to offer a wide range of fitness qualifications but fewer courses specifically aimed at Pilates instructors and they are unlikely to teach the large equipment courses.

 There are also much longer level 3 courses with 100 plus hours of lectures, numerous written exams, 50 hours supervised teaching (working with qualified, experienced instructors) and teaching exams taking many months of work.  The companies offering these courses, by their very nature, tend to be larger with a wide support network of Pilates teacher trainers.  They also have further courses to broaden instructor’s knowledge once the initial qualification has been completed successfully and are often able to offer training in the large equipment along with support associations.

Following on from this are the long term intensive training courses, in the manner of an apprenticeship, often lasting 14 months to several years but whose course is not recognised by REPs. Within the Pilates community these courses are often well regarded, producing excellent instructors but they may not cover the entire curriculum as defined by REPs. This was the original way that Pilates teachers were trained and these training providers often also offer continuing education courses on the big studio equipment.

How do you choose from all those different courses?

It’s worthwhile taking a long-term view on your career as a Pilates teacher when you’re looking at training courses, rather than just picking the cheapest course or the course that your friends/colleagues have done.  For many people, their first matwork course is just a stepping stone into a broader world of Pilates training going through additional courses on small equipment, qualifications in working with clients with lower back pain, to large equipment and studio instructor qualifications.  In this case it would be wise to choose a training course which allows you to do this.

As with any subject, some ‘styles’ of teaching may suit you better than another ‘style’.  For example, Pilates Foundation teachers are renowned for their attention to detail and will often teach more slowly, whereas Stott classes can often be very intense and fast.  I would recommend attending classes from as many different training schools as possible prior to making a decision to work out for yourself which style is going to suit you the best.

If you are going to complete a supervised teaching period you would be well advised to check where the supervising teachers are based to ensure that you take travel time and availability (i.e. if you need to do your teaching practise at weekends but your local teachers only have time to supervise you during working hours) into account to check that this will actually be achievable for you.  However, trainees often find that they learn so much from this experience they end up doing more than the minimum required and travel longer distances to more experienced teachers.

Please read the separate article about REPs so you can decide whether you need to take a course which allows you to appear on the Register of Exercise Professionals.

In summary, there are many different training courses available out there and it is essential that you take into account your own requirements and to the level that you are likely to want to study as you may otherwise end up retraining with a different company.  Try many different teachers, with as many different styles as you can find to help you with your decision.

(c) Julia Crossman 2013  http://www%2Cpilateswithjulia.com/

Choosing your Pilates Teacher

A guide to Pilates Teachers/Instructors and Qualifications for clients Part 1

Do you want to do Pilates?  Have you seen numerous people in your local area advertising their services?  How do you choose between them?  In this article I’m going to look at qualifications.  This is only one aspect of your choice, but it’s a good place to start.

Pilates can be taught purely as matwork using just a mat and other small equipment such as foam rollers, gym balls and bands.  There is also studio Pilates where you will be taught using big equipment such as a reformer, Cadillac, ladder barrel and Pilates chair.  In most cases someone wanting to train as a Pilates instructor will learn how to teach matwork first and then learn how to teach on the big equipment.  In this article I will just be covering matwork training.

Did you know that in the UK anyone could call himself or herself a Pilates instructor?  It is not a legally defined term so, as a worst case scenario, someone could go to classes to learn the exercises and then set up their own classes.  It is unlikely that the classes would be very safe and the ‘instructor’ would almost certainly not be insured if they should injure a client. 

There are short Pilates Instructor training courses, often held over a weekend, so maybe 14 hours of lectures, sometimes followed by a short exam at a later date (or submission of a video of themselves teaching a class) and some coursework.  These courses often attract previously qualified gym and aerobics instructors working within the gym chains or independents who already have fitness qualifications, including anatomy knowledge who are interested in increasing their range of fitness skills.

Then there are the ‘level 3 REPs’ course qualified instructors.  Please see the separate article about REPs but, in a sentence, a national body has produced a definition of what a Pilates instructor at this level should know in terms of knowledge, skills and competence and someone holding a qualification at this level will have demonstrated their ability against this national standard.  REPs level 3 can be achieved from courses with about 21 hours of lectures, followed by producing a video of themselves teaching, taking maybe a couple of months to achieve, although there are also much longer courses with 100 plus hours of lectures, numerous written exams, 50 hours supervised teaching (working with qualified, experienced instructors) and teaching exams taking many months of work.

Following on from this are the instructors who have completed and passed an intensive training course, often lasting 14 months to several years but whose course is not recognised by REPs.  Within the Pilates community these courses are often well regarded, producing excellent instructors but they may not have covered the entire curriculum as defined by REPs (for example, there may not be any teaching of nutrition).  This was the original way that Pilates teachers were trained, i.e. as an apprentice.

I have also noticed that there seems to be an increasing trend for ‘trained with’ instructors.  This seems to be those instructors who have perhaps qualified with a short course and who have then attended a course from a more highly regarded training company.  It can be misleading for clients as it may be that the instructor hasn’t actually achieved the standard required by the training company so if, as a client, you see this, you should make sure that you ask your prospective instructor who they actually qualified with.

As you can imagine, the graduates from each of these types of courses will provide very different qualities of teaching and you would consequently expect to pay considerably more for a certified teacher from one of the extended courses.  You should also look into class sizes.  Many teachers pride themselves on their small class sizes (12 or fewer participants) where they can spend time with each individual ensuring that the client is doing each exercise correctly, whereas many community and gym classes don’t restrict numbers and you may find yourself not being corrected.  Again, you would expect to pay considerably more for being in a small class.

If you have no illnesses/injuries/medical conditions and are used to exercise then choose any instructor.  If you are seeing a practitioner (chiropractor, physiotherapist, osteopath) or have been recommended to do Pilates by your GP or consultant or you have other medical issues (osteoporosis, stenosis, Spondylolisthesis etc etc etc) you would be better advised to choose an instructor who has been certified by one of the more intensive training courses, running small classes.

(c) Julia Crossman 2013 

Julia Crossman is a certified Body Control Pilates Instructor with a level 4 in low back pain, teaching small group classes and one-to-ones in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.  She is qualified to teach on Reformer, Cadillac and Pilates Chair  www.pilateswithjulia.com/http://www%2Cpilateswithjulia.com/

Barreconcept Workouts

PILATES FOR RUNNERS

Great article for all those runners out there

How Pilates for Runners Works

by Ed Grabianowski

For decades, runners have trained by running. The logic seems pretty clear -- the more you do something, the better you get at it. But it takes more than just strong legs and lungs to get the most out of a good run. Having a strong core -- back, chest and abdominal muscles -- is vital for breathing, flexibility, balance and endurance.

Enter Pilates. What started out as something of a fitness fad has become a popular way to develop muscle strength without bulk and strengthen that all-important core. There are Pilates studios all over the world; lots of gyms and fitness centers offer Pilates classes as well.

It turns out this fashionable exercise method holds plenty of potential benefits for runners. You don't even have to do Pilates every day to see results. According to experts and several runners we talked to, just adding one Pilates workout each week will make a difference.

How can a fitness program developed in the early 20th century improve endurance and injury recovery for today's running athletes? This article will explain the link between Pilates and running, complete with specific exercises that could help your training routine.

What Is Pilates, Anyway?

The Pilates workout is a series of controlled movements designed to strengthen muscles -- with an emphasis on the body's core. It was developed by Joseph Pilates, a German of Greek ancestry who came to the United States before World War II. The popularity of his methods spread gradually, finally hitting the mainstream in the 1990s.

Pilates believed that the key to good fitness was to use precise, controlled movements using the body's own weight as natural resistance (he later invented several machines for Pilates training). His exercises focus on breath control, concentration on the overall movements required and the proper alignment of the body. The meditation needed to do Pilates correctly represented his belief in the connection between physical and mental health.

There are a lot of similarities between Pilates and yoga. They share some movements, as well as the focus on breathing and control. However, their origins are very different.

Although both exercises can be performed on mats, Pilates isn't a form of yoga. You need no other special equipment. There are some more advanced Pilates routines that use a resistance spring or special table, but runners can try Pilates without buying any expensive gear.

Most Pilates exercises involve holding a body part in a particular position while you control your breathing. For example, you might lie on your side and raise your top leg several inches up. This exercises both the muscles that lift the leg, the muscles that stabilize the rest of the body and the muscles required for controlled breathing.

Benefits of Pilates for Runners

Joseph Pilates created his exercises as a way to increase overall fitness for anyone. However, because graceful, flowing movements are part of the full Pilates exercises, and because they build strength without building bulky muscles, they were quickly adopted by dancers and gymnasts. Runners didn't consider the benefits of Pilates until it was more widespread.

For example, runner Chaz Nasca says, "After the first few months running, I added Pilates to my workouts to increase my flexibility and strength. I find that it reduces my muscle soreness and my knees tend to feel better. I think the loosening of my muscles reduces the strain on my ligaments."

While all runners should stretch before they run, some runners' training programs don't focus enough on stretching. Strength and endurance training alone won't provide the progressive stretching that regular Pilates workouts will. Insufficiently stretched muscles can cause many problems for a runner, slowing them down at best, or leading to a serious injury at worst.

Just like stretching, Pilates helps runners focus on their breathing. This benefit is synergistic with the stretching because warming up the core helps the intercostal muscles that connect the ribs. This makes it easier to breathe smoothly using all available lung capacity.

The focus on breathing helps devotees in other sports as well. Runner Erica Turner Nasca says, "Pilates seems to help with both strengthening and stretching muscles, so I definitely notice a difference in any athletic endeavor I attempt, whether it's running or soccer. During a 'no-Pilates' week, my muscles seem to remain sore for a longer period of time following other sports."

A runner endures constant impact while running. The force of each step travels up from the legs to the lower back and rib cage. The core strength acquired through Pilates not only makes those areas better able to deal with the impact, it improves body alignment and balance, helping the runner distribute the force of running throughout the body more efficiently, instead of just dumping it all onto a few muscles. As a result, they won't feel nearly as sore after a hard run.

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