Have you noticed that often when you wake up in the morning your body feels stiffer and tighter? Every night when we sleep, we spend approximately 7-8 hours barely moving and during this time the tissue in between our muscles adheres or gets a bit ‘stuck’ in different areas, contributing to that stiff feeling. Movement helps us break down those adhesions in order to improve our range of motion and the quality of our movement.
Read MoreThere’s been a lot of questions in our studio over the last few months about what exactly the reforms to private health insurance will mean for our clients. It’s something which has definitely been a concern for almost 12 months, but mainly due to its ambiguity. Now that push has come to shove, and all the information is available, we can safely say that business will carry on as per usual.
Read MoreLate last year I attended a two day BreatheAbility breathing course with physiotherapist and Breathing Educator Tess Graham. Tess Graham trained with Ukrainian doctor Konstantin Buteyko in the early 1990’s. Buteyko is renowned for his work on breathing retraining for asthmatics and founding the Buteyko Institute. Tess herself has over 6500 hours of clinical experience as a breathing specialist and believes she cured two of her children of their asthma. Naturally, being curious and a Pilates instructor, I was eager to learn about her techniques for breathing retaining which, until now, I hadn’t heard of.
Read MoreA healthy lifestyle - what the heck is it?!
Well Sam and I gave you some ideas last year, but it really changes depending on who you ask. Which also makes it a very confusing topic to delve in to for anyone interested in 'cleaning up' their health. And seeing as how we are running a business which is designed to help you with getting a better understanding of how your body works, I thought it might be helpful to share some information around the reasonably well recognized, but lesser known things you can be doing to help yourself.
Now this advice is certainly not aimed to be medical based advice and obviously speak to your medical practitioner before you start making any drastic life changes, and equally I'm really happy to discuss aspects of this information to help you better understand it.
Read MoreIt's no secret in our business that I have a range of weird and wonderful tricks up my sleeve that Rob deploys at various stages to help sneak in bonus range of movement, maybe some pain relief, or perhaps just some homework to help someone see better. These little tricks are all derived from the growing Functional Neurology sector in the health industry. At its core, Functional Neurology is designed to work from the perspective of training the brain for balancing and normalising excess electrical charge in our naturally electrical system. The particular stream Rob has decided to go down offers both the physical training ideas that balance our sensory system, as well as a therapeutic approach to calibrate points of elevated charge, most often associated with pain or dysfunction, and create space for the body to heal in its own time. The main company I've trained with recently put together a 'retreat' in Thailand so people from all over the world could meet, practice on each other and learn new skills while refining old ones. Safe to say I've come home with a few more tricks up my sleeve!
Read MoreRecently, many people have asked me, "What's that new thing over in the corner?" If you did, its likely I encouraged you to step on and have a turn; an unfamiliar vibration experience that at first "feels a bit weird" but usually leaves you feeling pretty great afterwards. If you're still wondering what I'm talking about, we recently got a Vibeplate. No, it wasn't purchased late-night from a TV infomercial and no doesn't come with one of those belts that vibrate you to lose weight. So, (I hear you wonder) what's so great about the Vibeplate then and more importantly, why do I need it?
Read MoreWhen teaching Pilates I often marvel at the intricacy of the human body. That so many complex elements, the nervous system, muscles and digestion to name just a few, exist within the one body. And that all these seemingly separate functions have evolved to work together so seamlessly. It’s only when part of the system stops functioning, that we realize how essential each piece of the puzzle is to the whole. The same I think can be said for the environmental systems that we live in. Oceans, plants, sunlight and the myriad of other systems of the natural world, operate in heavy reliance with each other. This is, I think, a brilliant mirror to the functioning of the human body. Anyone who has come to Pilates with neck pain knows they are likely to be frustratingly told by their Pilates instructor that it’s all because of their weak abs. The root of a problem is very rarely the same as its symptoms. This to me, is beautiful evidence of the interlinked nature of living organisms. As you will have experienced if you’ve ever had said neck pain, we ignore these links to our own detriment.
Read MoreThis is what my day sounds like sometimes: 'What do you think of my new running shoes?', 'That feels amazing, I've been wearing heels all day!', and 'Do you think there is any hope for my bunions?'
This is just the tip of the ice berg... Deep down we all know we need to be looking after our feet, but we don't always know how or what is best for them? Perhaps it is those $300 podiatrist prescribed runners or perhaps it is spending more time in bare-feet. The reality is everybody has different requirements, and I'm not interested in getting into the debate on what footwear is best (unless you ask, and I'll happily give you my point of view based off your current situation...). But what I am interested in is providing a fantastic Pilates experience for our clients, and a massive part of that is getting our feet as healthy as possible.
Read MoreThis is the second blog in a two part series about our brains and how we learn. In the first blog we discussed fixed versus growth mindsets and how our thought patterns help determine our brain’s map. Next we are going to delve further into how the brain works, how it processes information and how we learn. To begin, let’s look at a breakdown of the human brain. The human brain consists of three separate brains, responsible for different aspects of thinking, behaving and reacting.
Read MoreRecently I have been participating in discussions with past and present leaders of Australian youth dance education and it has got me thinking. As new research continues to emerge about the correlations between brain neuroplasticity and thought patterns, I can’t help but relate it back to the adult learning environment we work in - the Pilates setting. There is so much emphasis currently placed on how our language and behaviors will shape our children’s learning habits and abilities. What we are failing to acknowledge is that they are also shaping our own adult learning habits and abilities. Often we are so preoccupied with the outside world that we forget that we are still learning, every day. Without a thought-out, considered approach to the way we are thinking, speaking and behaving daily, we can actually prevent ourselves from becoming successful learners.
Read MoreWe stood in the semi darkness of backstage. Broken chairs and other junk loomed around us, the relics of previous shows performed in this grungy pub. Beyond the curtain the silence of many people waiting expanded. We looked at each other, shivered into character and quick marched out from behind the curtain into the light.
Read MoreIn the previous post, I mentioned the webinar series I took part in last year. The focus of the series was around new methodologies for working with movement dysfunction and pain. Today, I am going to review the session of Annette Verpilot of Posture Pro, who spoke about the fundamental link between our eyes and our posture.
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