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The Covid-19 Pilates World

Three weeks ago I was teaching down in NYC at Power Pilates. Word of Covid was spreading and a part of me was thinking maybe now is not the right time to commute. So I made a tough choice and decided I was going to stay in Beacon, NY and limit my exposure to any potential risks for me, my family, clients and strangers.

Within the first week it was clear clients were also making the same choices. Like me, a lot of my clients are hourly workers and their own clients were canceling on them. Cash to pay for Pilates had disappeared overnight for a significant population.

So I found myself in front of my iphone filming workouts and warmups. Trying out how to post to different social media platforms as I continued to watch the news unfold around the world.

At this point I have 11 videos I can say are worthwhile. Worth working out to, easy to follow and repeatable. Pilates isn’t about a new workout every time you do it. It’s about learning the Method in a logical and repeatable way. Offering basic workouts on the mat using weights, a thera-band, the magic circle or nothing at all for everyone to follow along to was my primary goal. I added in morning warmups and quick ab workouts too because sometimes we just need a little something to get the body moving, not a long workout. We still have our lives to lead.

I’m adding new content as quickly as I can but for now I would be excited if you subscribe to the Roc Pilates Youtube channel for my free workouts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNHw_Rjm8riFeuwvQoqYruQ?view_as=subscriber

You can find the same workouts on the Roc Pilates Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/RocPilatesStudio/

I hope you are all managing the best you can and making some time for yourselves to workout with me or with all the other teachers out there offering so many workout options at home.

Just a reminder, if you can afford to buy a package from your local studios to use at a later date, take lessons online at your convenience, support your teachers if they offer live lessons and help them earn some sort of living wage ( even if you don’t do the workout but let it run in the background), it’s really means a lot to all of us in the fitness community. Teachers who’ve been teaching you over the years are needing your support now more then ever!

I’ll be on http://powerpilates.com/live beginning next Wednesday and would be grateful for your support. My hope is to help you stay fit and stay strong at a time when our mental and physical health is so vital.

Peace, Love & Pilates,

Your Dedicated Pilates Teacher Jordana

Pain, recovery & big life choices

Part of my job, as I define it, is helping people move, helping them be free of pain, injury free, achieve maximum performance athletically in Pilates and in their own sport. It’s a real kicker when your own body fails you. By fail I mean you work out fiercely. You find your edge and work past that edge. Train hard to achieve a higher level of fitness as I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember. I’ve even been teased for how much time I spend working out. I was just teased recently (mainly by my adorable clients). They think I’m crazy. I guess in comparison to them, what I do is a lot more than what they do and I do it on a nearly daily basis. It’s simply how I move through life. Like breathing, sleeping, brushing your teeth.


It’s a real kicker when your own body fails you. By fail I mean you work out fiercely. You find your edge and work past that edge. Train hard to achieve a higher level of fitness as I’ve been doing for as long as I can remember.
It’s how I move through life. Like breathing, sleeping, brushing your teeth.

To have two “injuries” in one year after years of no injuries has been a real interesting position I’ve found myself in. Both have been the result of what I’d say were caused by not saying “no” when I should have and in both situations over doing it and over stretching. The results caused extreme muscle strain/extreme pain, lack of mobility, lack of ability to do what I usually do but not what I take for granted. I’ve been down this road before but not like this.

One injury began as a hamstring pull that traveled down the leg causing instability on the knee and over months sent pain down to that knee so it was almost as if I now injured my knee not my hamstring. It only happened during very specific movements. Not all movements. I could modify so I did.

That was July 6th. By November, after lots of modifying workouts weight training, yoga, Pilates, bodywork/Rolfing and finally eliminating hiking the pain started to disappear.

For me eliminating hiking was and has been the absolute worst thing. I find myself looking longing at the mountains, picture of mountains, dreams of walking through forests. Being the type of person who always wants to be up on a mountain in the woods and missing nearly an entire year of hiking for the first time ever in my life has been very tough.

On or around November 6th I injured my back. At first I couldn’t walk. I went to my doctor. I tried a muscle relaxer. Didn’t work. I was put on steroids and a short round of pain medication. Didn’t work. Second round of steroids. Didn’t work. But during all those weeks, even if I wasn’t showing immediate improvements, something I was doing seemed right, the medications were working in the background. The conversation with my Doctor went like this keep moving, but cautiously.

Yesterday was December 3rd. The day started off the same. Limping to get out of bed. Struggling to put on my boots. Early morning to go teach at my studio and shovel the outside walkway which got covered in snow overnight. I have almost gotten used to the pain and I’m pretty clear what I can and can’t do/should and shouldn’t do and when to stop. So this day wasn’t any different. I was careful and felt no worse than any other day after the mornings activities.

By 10am my friend arrived for her Pilates session. She’s also a teacher, athlete and fitness soul mate. She was heading out of town and we wanted to have a little fun so we got on the reformers and started off as usual, footwork and the hundred. Then I asked her, “Overhead or Short Spine Massage?” She replies, “Short Spine.” So I changed the springs, shortened the straps, put the headpiece down and took a deep breath. How was I going to get the straps on my feet? My ego was in full tilt. I did it. Then I said to myself here we go and started to move very slowly. Rolling off my hips has not been possible in this way for a month. How was I going to manage?

I did 6 repetitions and somewhere around the 3rd repetitions I felt what I would call a stretch on the left lumbar area of my lower back. Not a pull, a stretch as if whatever had been hooked up was unhooking itself.

I went about the rest of an extremely busy day not really thinking about that moment and even though I was sitting a horrible amount and I was managing some situations I’d have loved to delegate to someone else, by the time I went to bed I felt something had changed. My back pain should have been worse but it wasn’t and in fact maybe it was a little better.

Same this morning, not great but yes, better. All of this made me reflect mostly on the last month but on all the months from early July to early December and prompted me to sit down and write.

I had made a concerted effort since July, no matter what to keep moving. I am not saying all movement heals. Lots of movement is just stupid to do, especially injured and that includes Pilates. But the things I opted to do I felt I had no choice, I had to do them. Something every day.

I’m taking a deep breath as I write this because two weeks ago I had a breakdown. Unfortunately I wasn’t alone as it started. I felt ashamed of myself. I wanted to be the “wild thing” from the D.H. Lawrence poem but I wasn’t. I felt sorry for myself. Pathetic. I made my way home and proceeded to feel depressed, extremely afraid of what this pain meant for the future of my life, anxious how my entire lifestyle might be obliterated. This wasn’t the first time I’d been slammed with this situation. I reacted just as badly that time too but I couldn’t have fixed myself then. It took 4 surgeries and 1 brilliant surgeon to fix me the last time. This time I didn’t need surgery. I just needed a lucky break.

With the success I had healing my hamstring and knee over 5 months, I was devastated to injure myself again in November. I felt I was totally on my own. Left to sort out this issue because there’s not much anyone can do for you in these situations. You have to do for yourself and the rate of failure can be high especially as we reach middle age.

I was able to do a couple things, I allowed myself to have my ego trip and reminded myself I’ve healed myself from so many other conditions and there’s no easy way out but I was going to stay the course.

Even though I felt alone I wasn’t. I have tremendous knowledge from years of teaching, working with doctors, physical therapists, clients with so many serious and not so serious issues. I fell back on that knowledge heavily. But I had a team, my Rolfer, my Pilates Teacher, my Personal Trainer and my Doctor. Without the support and patience off these four people my hamstring recovery might never have happened. Without these four people my back might not have started recovering so quickly. They listened to me, I listened to them and I listened to my body.

I did do things that hurt. I still do things that hurt, even today. I feel there is a degree of pain I have to sustain to work through both injuries and maintain the strength I need for all my non-injured body parts.

I believe pain is absolutely part of healing. They simultaneously talk to you, pain & healing. Pain tells you to stop. Healing tells you keep going. Fear is somewhere in the pit of your stomach through it all.

I don’t know at what rate my back will heal from this point going forward. I don’t know if I’ll have another ego trip and find myself in the abyss. I don’t know if I’ll injure myself again. I do know that you cannot sit down, take some pills and wait for something to change for the better but I was given great advice today from my Pilates teacher who I respect implicitly, “learn to say no.” I didn’t say no and now I have learned a wonderful lesson.

I also know as an athlete that pain is a part of a life choice I’ve made or one that was made for me. But even if you are not an athlete, if you didn’t make this choice and do not want to be in pain or like living in pain, you cannot sit it out.

What it takes to be the BEST

After thousands of teaching and teacher training hours, teaching Pilates isn’t always what I think it’s going to be. I know I have to teach specific material in a very clear and concise way so it’s easily understood but then there comes a point as a teacher you have to push the apprentice or client out of their comfort zone and push myself as well.

Through trial and error I’ve observed a wide variety of changes in my methods but my conclusion is that returning to being a student a year ago with a wonderful mentor, pushing myself, taking private lesson after private lesson to practice what I want to teach is vital to teaching anyone how to move and move with intention and determination.

I encourage all teachers and all students to continue pushing yourself. Stop just teaching and receiving new certifications. Take lessons, push you body to the fitness level you expect from your apprentices and clients, workout hard, make your body show the world what Pilates has to offer.

Pilates teachers don’t have to workout. We can stand and teach hour after hour but I challenge my peers to workout hard, all the time until you can’t see through your sweat and tears.

My recent acceptance into a Master Program that I began a year ago sits on the shoulders of not only two decades of practicing Pilates but a lifetime of movement. I can’t wait to learn more, sweat more and cry through tears of pain and joy as I venture into a very exciting few years of my life as a Pilates Teacher.

Power Pilates Comprehensive Apparatus Certification

The Power Pilates Comprehensive Program is the most popular full apparatus program available. Learn beginner, intermediate and advanced level exercises on the Mat, Reformer, Cadillac, Chair and Barrels. Only one spot available.

http://powerpilates.com/registration/event.php?event=4718

http://powerpilates.com/registration/event.php?event=4718

Weekend #1 September 27-29, 2019
Weekend #2 October 25-27, 2019
Weekend #3 November 15-17, 2019
Weekend #4 December 13-15, 2019

Friday 2:00pm-8:00pm
Saturday 2:00pm-8:00pm
Sunday 12:00pm-6:00pm
1 seat left.

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