Advancing clients, even healthy ones, can be a complicated skill not only for new teacher but for those with experience. We can easily go on automatic, caught up in old habits, not quite aware of the easy patterns we can find within the Method that are like road maps for us as teachers. We find ourselves teaching what’s familiar over and over and miss the connections.
Quite often we rush our clients through beginner system. We lead them head first into intermediate system without giving their bodies time to “absord” the movements, the breathing, the intention. We ignore the “why” and “how” of it all. Before we know it, they’re not only doing the same thing each time you see them but they’ve stalled in their progression. We’ve all become bored or frustrated with the workout. Because it’s lost its meaning, it’s lost its challenge. We have made ourselves and our clients immune to the complexities of the exercises (and we can no longer remember why we wanted to become teachers in the first place). We subconsciously look outside the Method in which to fill our time with our clients and groups.
This is absolutely normal. But no fear! There is much more information out in the market than ever before how the exercises within the Method are connected. I’ve just written an advanced spotting workshop where we truly delve into the connections and many of my peers are doing the same. Being so blessed as to find a qualified teacher who can “connect the dots” for you, is the difference between a bad mechanic and a fabulous one.
One of the most basic exercises, the Half Roll Down, what is the purpose of this exercise? It’s so simple to the point of being thrown out of most peoples repertoire while teaching. Why in the world should I/we/you teach this exercise? Great question.
Throughout the Method there are specific movements that truly connect throughout from beginner to advanced exercises and beyond. If you do your job and the client is committed we can find the answers and make the connections. Many of these connected exercises are considered “progressions.”
The Half Roll Down in it’s most basic form is a breathing exercise and an articulation exercise. The body is seated in a large C-curve on the sublime surface of the Cadillac or a long raised mat. The client is may or may not hold onto the back of their thighs lightly. As they round back they are drawing their sacrum and lower lumbar spine onto the mat with support from the abdominals and the arms. As they round up they are moving over the very same area of their spine while maintaining their abdominal connection. Inhaling to roll back, exhaling to roll up and maybe taking one to two breaths in between to breath into those “sticky spots” we all have in our spines. But why?
For some clients this is difficult. More than you can imagine. For others it is easy or very easy. Regardless, this movement of rolling through or over the sacrum to the lower lumbar happens many places in the Method so it’s our job to teach the exercise to clients of any level so they can find the connections within their bodies further along in the Method while in the action of the exercise.
We teach it during the Short Box Series during round back. That palms distance behind the hips, That’s for the sacrum and low back, It’s the same movement but now the the legs have moved distally and there isn’t very far for the back body to go before you’re hanging out in thin air.
We teach it again in a very simple way within Intermediate system. Short box on the Ladder Barrel is very much like Short Box Series on the Reformer. Even Horseback on the Ladder Barrel has similarities. Although there is no articulation back to the barrel in Horseback we want to take the body into the same shape and hold onto the same internal action as if “we were to roll back.” It’s still that one palms distance from the edge and we’re teaching the client how to hold onto absolutely nothing except their Powerhouse
Then we go to the Wunda Chair and find Reverse Swan/Teaser. If done in steps, even if the the legs were to rest on a surface at the same height as the chair, the client can feel that same articulation and work 50/50. 50% being the articulation they work during the Half Roll Down and 50% is the abdominals drivings the arms, working the pedal/springs. So they would only press the pedal with as much energy as they are engaging their abdominals in the small articulation. The upper body is now working under loaded springs where before it was only their own body weight. Once the clients legs lift into the air creating their Teaser lower body, the challenge to the Powerhouse is immense, This simple articulation becomes one of the hardest movements to control and establish in the Method.
Taking the same action into Rowing in Advanced System on the Reformer. Rowing facing back for the front from the sternum and arms at 90 degrees works the same exact action. But everything else is so distal and nothing is quite the same. The client is holding straps from the back of the reformer to work loaded springs behind them. The surface they have been sitting on and learning on is now in motion. As the body and arms move, the carriage moves. But with a strong foundation on a larger non-moving surface and support on a smaller non-moving surface prepares our clients for this spinal articulation so they can begin to focus distally.
In competent training programs the Teacher Trainer approaches these connections in stages as they would with clients. They advance from one level when the client’s body is ready to accept the new changes and adjustments working on the “progressions” and advance clients and teachers appropriately, building skills without too many straps, springs or moving parts in the beginning. A smart teacher will gradually and intelligently begin taking away these supportive surfaces while changing the position of the arms and legs usually from proximal to distal. Remember, everything shouldn’t be hard and feel like it’s one challenge followed by another. Strong workouts in Pilates should be modulated. 1-3 intense exercises followed by a gentler exercise will help the client build up strength and stamina without too much strain and soreness. We want them to leave the studio feeling good and come back ready to workout again hopefully 2 times per week.
Then for one moment imagine you are performing Teaser on the Ladder Barrel?! What?! Yes! It is the same movement but even though there are no springs, no moving parts except you or the clients own body, it is most challenging because the mat is now simply a strip at the top apex of the barrel and the floor is awfully far away. Some clients may never do this exercise but you may want to try it out and have a good friend there to spot you. Finding these progressions, starting with each of the Beginner exercises is really a gift in terms of understanding how to add on new exercises in a mindful way. As a client or new apprentice you should feel you are learning a set of skills that you can duplicate and utilize on your own. Be patient. This may take a few times working together. It’s not a step aerobics class where the music begins and you start stepping up and down and moving to the music in simplistic ways hoping you don’t trip over the platform or bump into your neighbor. Pilates cannot be rushed. It’s a slow burn. It creeps up on you.
There are other types of “progressions.” For example, in Beginner System we start clients on the mat or reformer, then the Cadillac, Barrels or High Chair and end on the Wall. Why? Although we all love Mat and Reformer, there was a Method to Joseph Pilates system of Contrology. Although Romana split the system into levels, one may balk but it’s a great idea. Now we have choices of Endings where the true work that lends itself to a client walking out of the studio with the internal support is reinforced. Providing the client with optimal posture and a balanced body using their full Powerhouse.
On the Cadillac we teach Roll Back, articulating the spine from the lowest part all the way up to the top and from the top of the spine back down to the coccyx as the client returns to a seated position. Teaching Breathing next, they articulate the same their spine with breath. Both are done on a large unmoving surface like I mentioned above, the Cadillac or a raised mat. Both do much more than articulation alone but for these purposes, it’s lets just focus on the spine without a moving surface and lots of support on a soft surface protecting the tender and fragile segments of the spine.
Roll Back and Breathing exercises, one starting seated and the other laying down, essentially do the same thing, reset the spine on the mat, extending it and building muscles to surround the pelvis spine and shoulder girdle simultaneously through the action of the exercise in a supportive manner. First working the breath like the Half Roll Down. The exercise we started discussing at the beginning of the article. We find it at the beginning of the workout and do it again and again in more and more complex ways, even subtle ways deepening the connection to the Powerhouse in a new ways.
The same clients move onto the High Chair or Electric Chair and we reset their spine leaning forward in a seated position using the back of the chair as if it were the mat to articulate up against, lifting and lengthening through the crown of the head. Pumping on two top springs is no easy feat while working to maintain the length and lift of the spine, even the head. It’s heavy.
Then the client steps off, turns around for Going up Front. What is left to support the spine? Not much. The Spine has nothing behind it and the abdominals nothing in front the remind it what it’s supposed to do. So we teach the idea of taking the mat with them to this upright position and have the room and movement from the beginning of their workout with them to create lift and length out of a strong lower back. And then of course the ending on the Wall.
The Wall, although quiet, minimal, odd, is absolutely integral to reseting the spine in a standing upright position. It’s full support is perfect for muscle memory. Romana always stated, “take the wall with you until your next session.” She meant it and so we still say it to our clients. Take the length created from the first Roll Back/Roll Down on the Cadillac until the ending at the Wall with you for LIFE. It’s yours! The Mat and Reformer work are a vital warming up the body to allow the client to access their breath, their abdominals, their focus so they can absorb these exercises and even if they don’t consciously understand the importance, we should.
This is a another type of “progression” we must honor. Why? Because the full spinal articulation is found throughout the Method in every shape and form. The lift of the spine, the extension, the strength in so many exercises, even something as “simple” as side kick series finds it’s origins in the individual needs and ending on the Wall. Lining the clients up with the back edge of the mat while lying on their side, “as if they still had the support of the mat behind their backs,” from the bottom elbow, back of the head, bottom shoulders and hip so they are lined up with the back edge of the mat and then maintaining this position through the series isn’t easy to do. It requires so many muscles to stabilize the body. It is also a rare place in the system where the action of the legs continues for sometime without a change to the upper body. It’s a challenge to maintain a strong lifted upper body with balance, quietness and strength while the leg/s are moving in every which direction. Side Kick Series are done in Beginner Mat Class through Advanced. We can draw from these key movements and concepts and understand them as “progressions,” not simply individual exercises unrelated to other exercises in the system.
For more information join me November 30th-Deccember 1st at Power Pilates in NYC to discuss these topics and start your day with early morning group classes and semi privates. CE’s are recognized by PMA.To register contact http://www.powerpilates.com/registration/event.php?event=4525. Mentor with me one-on-one at ROC PILATES, 123 Rombout Avenue, Beacon, New York. Explore progressions and how to assist our clients by understanding the basics that we work within the entire system while having fun, of course!
Jordana Herman May 17, 2018