Amy Taylor Alpers is teaching in Russia
May 15-16, 2019
St. Petersburg, Russia
The influence of the lumbar muscles on the integrity of the movement. Ways to evaluate the lumbar muscle in the Pilates method.
Each movement created by Joseph Pilates implies the work of the whole body to and from the muscles of the core / center / house of force. How much are your movements organically and integrally directed from the center? Can you evaluate whether your customers are performing movements from the center? If not, what’s stopping you? In this workshop, we will use Pilates exercises to develop our visual assessment skills and abilities to determine if the movement is right and effective from the center and if this is not the case, then how to fix it. Higher strength and health potential, which can be achieved using the Pilates method, is possible only when this holistic relationship is perceived as a natural and integral part of the human being.
Pilates and pelvic floor muscles
Today, there are a large number of discussions on the pelvic floor muscles. How are these muscles related to pilates? Do pelvic floor muscles work during Pilates exercises? Maybe they are overstressed or clamped? How to strengthen and relax these muscles? Do we help these muscles in Pilates or are we harmful?
At this workshop we will discuss all these questions and doubts and understand how much Pilates actually plays an important role in the health of the pelvic floor muscles. Using the concept of “Tensegrity” (integrity), we will learn to understand how much Pilates exercises can balance the strength and flexibility of this complex muscle group. With the help of deep breathing and Pilates movements involving the whole body, we will see how the magic of Pilates manifests itself from the deepest core muscles to the surface ones.
Pilates: One Size Does Not Fit all or how to teach Pilates effectively for different body types – 3 hours
Body types are often referred to in fruit metaphors – apple, banana, or pear shaped. Or geometric forms such as rectangles, triangles, and circles. Or odd scientific terms such as mesomorph, ectomorph, and endomorph. However, the variations in the human body’s design are much more diverse and complicated than that. In Pilates our mission is to help ‘uniformly develop’ the body – to bring it into ideal balance and alignment so it can move with ultimate efficiency and effectiveness, enabling detoxificaton and through unhindered circulation.
Regardless of both genetic programming and lifestyle issues, it is possible to enable any body to be more uniformly developed through Pilates. However, this doesn’t happen automatically simply by teaching them to do the exercises. It requires that the teacher truly acknowledge all the essential facts about the body in front of her/him, and realize that the Pilates exercises will need to be adapted in such a way that they will very purposefully accomodate all physical inconsistencies. Proportions of weight, height and length, as well as relative tightness and flexibility, as well as male/female differences in distribution of mass will all need to be taken into consideration. It’s basically a physics problem. How do we make the Pilates exercises fit each person’s unique design to help achieve our ultimate goal – uniform development?
Dealing with common complaints and injuries in Pilates – 3 hours
As Pilates teachers our main task is to utilize the profoundly valuable exercises Joseph Pilates designed to help people achieve optimal over-all health. In actuality, however, we are often confronted with clients who require additional help with specific issues that can be a little outside our comfort zone and even our scope of practice. Some of the most common ones we often face include: neck tension and pain; spinal pathologies such as scoliosis, kyphosis, bulging/herniated discs, sciatica; joint concerns including gritty/clicking/popping sounds and arthritis; tendonitis, hernia, migraines, digestion and sleep problems, post-surgical issues including joint replacements, mastectomy; and more. In this workshop we will cover issues from the above list as requested by those personally attending. Bring your questions, confusions, and concerns – maybe even bring a suffering client if possible – so we can address as many as time permits.
Consider revealing your own struggles with any of these problems too, so we can all benefit from actual ‘live’ examples to help us learn and grow as teachers.
May 18-19
Moscow, Russia
Pilates: One Size Does Not Fit all or how to teach Pilates effectively for different body types – 3 hours
Body types are often referred to in fruit metaphors – apple, banana, or pear shaped. Or geometric forms such as rectangles, triangles, and circles. Or odd scientific terms such as mesomorph, ectomorph, and endomorph. However, the variations in the human body’s design are much more diverse and complicated than that. In Pilates our mission is to help ‘uniformly develop’ the body – to bring it into ideal balance and alignment so it can move with ultimate efficiency and effectiveness, enabling detoxificaton and through unhindered circulation.
Regardless of both genetic programming and lifestyle issues, it is possible to enable any body to be more uniformly developed through Pilates. However, this doesn’t happen automatically simply by teaching them to do the exercises. It requires that the teacher truly acknowledge all the essential facts about the body in front of her/him, and realize that the Pilates exercises will need to be adapted in such a way that they will very purposefully accomodate all physical inconsistencies. Proportions of weight, height and length, as well as relative tightness and flexibility, as well as male/female differences in distribution of mass will all need to be taken into consideration. It’s basically a physics problem. How do we make the Pilates exercises fit each person’s unique design to help achieve our ultimate goal – uniform development?
Dealing with common complaints and injuries in Pilates – 3 hours
As Pilates teachers our main task is to utilize the profoundly valuable exercises Joseph Pilates designed to help people achieve optimal over-all health. In actuality, however, we are often confronted with clients who require additional help with specific issues that can be a little outside our comfort zone and even our scope of practice. Some of the most common ones we often face include: neck tension and pain; spinal pathologies such as scoliosis, kyphosis, bulging/herniated discs, sciatica; joint concerns including gritty/clicking/popping sounds and arthritis; tendonitis, hernia, migraines, digestion and sleep problems, post-surgical issues including joint replacements, mastectomy; and more. In this workshop we will cover issues from the above list as requested by those personally attending. Bring your questions, confusions, and concerns – maybe even bring a suffering client if possible – so we can address as many as time permits.
Consider revealing your own struggles with any of these problems too, so we can all benefit from actual ‘live’ examples to help us learn and grow as teachers.
A Tribute to Romana Kryzanowska – Maintaining the Integrity of Pilates – 3 hours
When Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 83, Romana Kryzanowska, a lifelong student of his, stepped in to help his widow, Clara, run the studio. When Clara died 10 years later, Romana took over the business. And there she stayed, teaching students and teachers by the hour, and later, traveling the world directing a teacher training program, right up until her recent retirement. She always said, “I’m not a creator, I just teach what ‘Uncle Joe’ taught.” And that was her enduring commitment to Pilates. To maintain the original integrity and spirit of Joseph Pilates’ method.
In this workshop we will learn Romana’s history and understand her place within the industry. Then, utilizing Mat and Reformer exercises, we will explore her style and approach to teaching Pilates. Come prepared to move. That’s what Romana was all about.
Creating True integrated whole body movement – Pelvic Floor, Psoas and Breathing – 3 hours
Joseph Pilates designed every movement in his system to involve the ‘whole body,’ and to connect it in its entirety to and from its core/center/powerhouse. Do you move from your center in a truly organic, whole body, integrated way? Are you able to assess whether your clients can – and if not, why not? In this workshop we will utilize Pilates exercises to develop our visual assessment skills to determine whether movement is actually coming from ‘the center’ correctly and efficiently, and if not, how to correct it. The ultimate power and health potential that can be achieved through Pilates is only possible when this integrated connection is accessed as its inherent human design dictates.
We’ll begin with an anatomy discussion of what constitutes our center/core/powerhouse to better help us understand what we truly mean by these terms. This will include the abdominals, psoas, pelvic floor and diaphragm. Then we will explore how all these muscles work together in natural harmony through breathing correctly. This is how to create truly integrated whole-body movement. Then we will look at Pilates exercises to discover the deep power of their design to organize and unite the body into a single moving animal through breathing and moving from our center.
Come prepared to move, explore, discover, awaken and heal your deep core to create whole body integration.
19990 rubles – if paid more than 30 days before the start of the seminar.
21,990 rubles – if paid less than 30 days before the start of the seminar.
