I look forward to seeing you all again on April 9th for our new teaching module day.

Now going forward the most important thing is to keep up your personal practice at least 1 hour per day – so you can be successful on your personal practicals on April 10th. Also keep your family and friends happy with free classes as you hone your teaching skills for your assessments

In the meantime don’t be strangers – any questions just push them back onto your tutors – we are more than happy to assist

Again well done

see you soon Joyce

Joyce Gavin

Course Director

Pilates Mat Work Instructor Certification

And the above heading is a direct quote from her, and is the topic of a letter written by Susan Pepper of Swissbody Pilates Academy.

Recently  Susan and I spoke  on this very topic – that students / instructors are not training with Pilates daily and in some instances are not upkeeping their skills by attending further workshops / courses. The end result is instructors who are not developing their own internal stamina, not developing the technique within their own bodies and as a result end up having very little understanding of this wonderful method and its expansive range

Below is a letter Susan has published and has kindly allowed me to reproduce for you. During our converstation Susan told me of the huge reaction received regarding its content mostly from like minded professionals who agree and understand that Pilates is not fitness but a method a system that we must nurture within our selves and within our profession in order to encourage  the public to become our clients and participate in this wonderful system – this expression of all that is strong and healthy

Joyce The PROGRESSIVE Pilates Academy @ BODYFIRM Studios

Dear Pilates Colleagues,

Happy New Year to you all!

This time last year we were all wondering how the financial crisis would affect us. It seems that most of us survived and some of us came to the end of 2009 with the same growth in income as any other year. What is the secret of the success of those who continue to grow their client base? What are they doing that keeps new clients coming but, most importantly, what encourages the old clients to come back year after year?

I was watching a film on television recently and this was part of the dialogue:

« Do you do Pilates? »

« No, what’s that »

« Oh it’s expensive stretching »

If your Pilates training was a good one, this probably made you laugh. I did, but then I got extremely worried. Is this how people see Pilates? What are the teachers teaching? Is this what we want people to think of this wonderful physical training?

Another comment that I heard from a recently trained Pilates teacher stands out in my mind:

« I would like to follow courses for advanced Pilates exercises on the equipment where you don’t have to be an acrobat to be able to do the exercises »

What do teachers want?

Do we want to teach Pilates (the exercises taught by Joseph Pilates) or do we want to teach « expensive stretching »?

It’s easy to teach expensive stretching.

It takes time, years of personal training, teaching experience and continual training to understand the Method so as to teach Pilates!

There is no harm in breaking down the exercises so that they are more accessible to all, or adapting the exercises for specific client needs. This is part of « adapting the method to the client and not the client to the method ».

The risk is that Pilates teachers no longer do or know the original exercises. They don’t know how to train healthy, fit bodies into even healthier and fitter bodies. We’re not talking acrobats, just fit and strong people who want to challenge their minds and muscles. Achieving the hardest Pilates exercises can be seen as the measure of extreme well being.

Have you ever asked yourself why there are so few men in Pilates studios? Why the average age of most Pilates clients is between 35 and 40?

Lolita San Miguel wrote: “One of the biggest dangers in Pilates are teachers who don’t have teachers”

So if we love our job and want to encourage new clients (young and old, men and women) to come to us and stay with us year after year what can we do about it? CONTINUE TO STUDY!!! Train your own body (Lolita San Miguel says daily), do classes with other teachers regularly, go to continual education courses with experienced teachers and yes, learn the advanced equipment work and no, it is not only for acrobats. Once you learn where the strength comes from to do these exercises and how to do them properly, you will open new horizons for yourselves and your clients and we will no longer hear comments like: « Oh, Pilates is expensive stretching ».

Let us all stand together to uphold the quality of the Pilates Method. In this way we will all have work forever.

With love and passion

Susan Pepper

you know me, my fascination with fascia and my fascination with the fact we are all energy and should be moving in order not to stagnate – that everyone should be participating in Pilates & stretching !!

well check out this clip on the ‘fuzz’ Gil Hedley has to one of the best

Gil Hedley: Fascia and stretching: The Fuzz Speech

So come on and join us at our next Pilates and AIS workshops

Cheers Joyce

Just a little message to say that the guys from the North really enjoyed and got alot out of the Masterclasses on the 13th!! Big thankyou to Joyce and Bernie!! Love you guys lots… Very enjoyable and worthwhile Masterclasses.

Heidi Stapleton Loved the pole workshop on Saturday. Sore thighs though.

What a great day, I so enjoyed working with you all, particularly the lovely comments you made to me during the Pole / Gondola Bar Workshop – well at least I think they where meant to be flattering !  and to think something as soft as a Gurdi ball could cause so much discomfort and pain

Keep an eye out for March 13th more master classes and workshops

See you all soon

Regards Joyce

Refer a friend

For 2010 – should  you refer a friend / partner / family member etc to BODYFIRM for Mat or Reformer Classes  -once they have booked / paid for a course

you will receive a free class as a thank you from us.

Joseph and student using the cadillac

Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure. Joseph Pilates

What a wonderful statement ‘a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure ‘

This encapsulates why people enjoy participating in Pilates, it is a physical system (and remember it is a system built over mat and many varied Pilates machines) that is about posture – bringing us back to 8 loadable joints, that is  not just about physical fitness, jumping higher, drive the ball further, staying injury free, (while you get all those benefits as well)  but about have a body that is in balance that assist you can live your life and move with ease.

Since this wonderful system was developed our style of living has changed considerably, we have remotes for everything, drive everywhere, sit most of the time and forget that we are bodies of energy and movement for health and well being is essential. When we are not moving we become stagnant and this can manifest it losing flexibility and pain from postural dysfunction.

We owe it to our clients that spend most of their day in flexion to open them up, starting classes with some balance and breathing work,

open up and balance your clients they will love you for it

then extension with our lovely swan dive, grasshopper or breaststroke, even that simple cat to camel. Open their chests to allow for the shoulder/scapular stability that we are all so conscious in our cuing, indeed open them up so they can breath!

Our intention in our class plans should be based on who is coming to our class, not following the running order blindly, which as we all know if very flexion oriented in its first 9 or so exercises.

So take a moment think about your next course,pick exercises that bring your clients back into balance, opened up and feeling taller – they will love you for it and more importantly they will come back for more

“to all the gang at BODYFIRM, I’d like to thank you all for a thoroughly enjoyable course. It has been quite a while since I’ve enjoyed a course as much. I appreciate you passing on your knowledge,expertize, guidance and support. Here’s hoping I can now pass on a bit of that knowledge myself !.

All the best for the future Rebecca”

I would like to thank Rebecca for her kind words and indeed her comments in general over the duration of the course. In turn the team here at the Academy wish her & and her family all the best in her new adventures

Cheers Joyce

The results of the Jan 30th practicals where excellent.

I wish you all the very best on your new journey and remember the team here at the Academy are at your disposal to assist you in any way we can.

Best of luck

yours Joyce

Joyce Gavin

Course / Program Director

Pilates and the Professional Sportsman

Tour de France

My response to this terrible misconception: “You choose to question the wisdom of sporting professionals who play international rugby, NFL and premier league soccer, not to mention members of GAA county football and hurling teams, Olympic athletes, Tour de France cyclists, professional golfers etc, the majority of who consider Pilates to be an integral part of their overall training regimes.

Exercising in a gym can be great for building strength and muscles, but top sports coaches and trainers understand that Pilates helps their elite athletes achieve greater postural balance in their bodies as well as considerably reducing the incidence of injury and pain.

So, if it works for the professionals, why are there still a few ‘Weekend Warriors’ who cannot see the benefit of this excellent system of movement?

The Simple Facts about Pilates and Men’s Health
I don’t have the answer to that question, but I would like to present some Simple Facts about Pilates and Men’s Health that show there is more to Pilates than meets the eye.

In addition to helping men who suffer the occasional twinge or knock from sporting activities, regular Pilates workouts can help build resistance to some very serious health conditions that affect men as well as greatly improve your overall health and quality of life.

Just take a look at Joseph Pilates, the founder of  Pilates techniques, he was still teaching and training in his 80s.

Meet ‘The Reformer’
If you are a man who thinks working on a mat is not tough – then let me introduce you to The Reformer; a customized piece of Pilates resistance equipment.

Working with the principles of Pilates and resistance, a Reformer Workout tones muscle and helps to create a masculine streamline shape while simultaneously improving posture, stability, flexibility, mobility and co-ordination. The beauty of a Reformer workout programme is that it works your body as a whole, unlike individual exercise machines that can be found in a gym.
As I have stated in earlier blogs, Pilates works to create a balanced body – right left, front back.

Pilates provides:

• – Improved Stability
• – Increased Mobility
• – More Fluency of Movement
• – Better Co-ordination and
• – Greater strength

– All the components required for living injury and pain free.

So, in terms of  physical workouts, Pilates offers men an opportunity to build a better-balanced body with more strength and muscular endurance and create a flexible masculine shape.

Pilates and male medical conditions
Erectile Dysfunction
At BODYFIRM Studios we see the Pelvic Floor as essential part of both male and female health. Most men do not realize how important their Pelvic Floor is to their overall health. However, we have in the past had men referred for PF (pelvic floor) work to aid with Erectile Dysfunction.
Prostate Cancer
In more recent times with the apparent increase in the incidence of Prostate Cancer, Pilates has been acknowledged as a movement system that can play a big part in helping men fight the possible onset of the disease.
Deterioration of the Pelvic Floor has been cited as a contributing factor to the contracting of prostate cancer. By working with Pilates movement, becoming aware of Pelvic Floor activation and strengthening, the risks of contracting prostate cancer can be reduced.

Want to give Pilates a go?
Pilates is a movement system that has much to offer men looking improve their fitness. It is a programme that combines both mat and resistance machine exercises with great results

So, come and give it a go.

I think you’ll find you can be man enough for it…

Joyce

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Click here to book a course or learn more about what Pilates can do for  you.

Call Bernie on 018684600 if you have a specific Pilates query.

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Images courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net . Tour de France Photograher Tom Curtis Worker waistcoat – Photographer: Suat Eman

Just a short note to keep you updated on the next few months

• On Feb 13th Master Classes in Mat and Reformer
• On Feb 13th Workshop on the 30minute BLITZ workouts
• On March 6th Master classes in Mat and Reformer
• On March 6th Workshop in AIS stretching and Foam rolling

For full Master Class and Workshop details click here

Please note a date change and apologies for any inconvenience caused

the workshop :Breast Cancer Exercise Rehabilitation based on Pilates Principles is now on May 8th & 9th full details click here

Due to a date clash with the 6 Nations Welsh game we have changed the PPM1 course in March to April  full details click here

On March 6th we are adding a workshop on AIS stretching (active isolated stretching) and Foam Rolling- these two systems are fantastic for assisting with clients who have restricted movement due to postural deviations full details click here

I look forward to seeing you soon

Regards Joyce