Precision is a Spectrum

Diving into the deep Pilates pool for a moment, here. Come with me if you will. I’ve been musing on the six principles of Pilates. Ordinarily I would pontificate on Control. But it’s the concept of Precision that has a grip on me lately.

Primary Pilates education is all about getting it right.

Being precise - as the fourth principle goes. (Recall the famous list of six).

Every setup must be precise. The execution as well. The completion and transition - should follow suit.

This exacting precision is key to Pilates. To my mind the every day cue of “precision” is less about it being right for the body - and more about the work of the mind. The effort we deploy to simply "get it" just the way our instructors say, yields the mental benefit that puts Pilates in a category of its own. 

The sheer focus itself, may be one of the primary benefits and biggest results of Pilates.

Having said all of that - the longer you spend working on the exactness and specificity of each move as an instructor - the more you find the delicate nuance that each human requires. That angle of the legs for the Hundred - can land so many places in order for the abdominals to work optimally.

And the curl of the tail under for stomach massage - can be a myriad of degrees of lumbar flexion.
Or almost none. 

It all depends on the needs of that spine, in that body, on that day.

Precision is a spectrum. A range. A smorgasbord of possibilities that you get to choose from.

Knowing the textbook version, or what's in your manual is where we all begin. 

This is the guide and the guardrails for all instructors. It's the safe zone from where you navigate.

But the longer you teach the more you will find that the "right position" - the perfect setup, the ideal execution... is that one that serves your client the best.

~Alycea Ungaro - (January 2023)

Love Letters ❤️ for Pilates Teachers

Lead Trainer Phoebe Fennell Teaches a Session

Do You Have Any Idea ….

…how hard your Pilates teacher is working for you?

Better question - do you have any idea how much they love doing it?

I write a lot for the industry but this post is for you, the Pilates lover, the consumer, the devotee. 

I see you working hard everyday and I am in awe of your efforts and your progress. But as I walk through our studios it’s the teachers that catch my eye. They peer at your alignment, hover over your  movements and catch the underside of you at every possible moment. 

And when they do - they light up. They exude joy. They gasp, or hiss or shriek heartfelt exclamations like “that’s it!” Or “gorgeous”.

Your success is their success. They live for it.

They plan your lessons. Tweak each move. And press their colleagues for ideas and inspiration for your programs. 

They sign up for continuing education. They audit weekend seminars - they literally can not get enough. 

In the midst of a routine roll-up or a short spine massage, I know you are feeing your abdominals and working that symmetry and pushing that spinal articulation. But your instructor is a wound up ball of passion and empathy and they feel your every move so deeply and so profoundly that they are often sore just from teaching. Literally, actually sore from pulling their abs in so deep - right there with you.

I’m the luckiest gal in the world that I get to watch students and teachers pushing the limits of their potential every day. I’m even luckier that I have the honor of building some of those teachers from scratch.

But wow - you guys get to enjoy their gifts each day. 

So throw a little Pilates live to your teacher - they deserve it!

~ Alycea

Who's On Your Bus?

This one goes out to the business owners in our industry who burned the midnight oil this past year keeping their studios open or just trying to. I see you. I applaud you. I cried with you and for you. We needed each other this year more than ever and I’m so proud to have gotten to know so many of you through this time. Right now though, I wanna talk about your “bus”.

Alycea Ungaro with Heather Shalabi (Flex HK)

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As Covid-19 comes into a less intense phase in the United States - I see myriad colleagues reflecting on profound life changes made over this year. It's inspiring to see people kick down doors, trample over barriers and demolish emotional blockades. I feel lucky to witness these victories and even more lucky to have undergone our own team transformation here at Real Pilates as we navigate this special year - our 25th anniversary.

Years ago I read the book Good to Great by Jim Collins and put a plan in motion. Collins analogy that your business was like a bus landed like an explosion in my nascent entrepreneurial brain. He wrote passionately about gathering and cultivating your team naming the strategy “first who, then what”. He theorized that having the right people on your “bus” was the single most important thing. Where the bus was headed - was less important because with the right people in it - they would drive towards meaningful success.

I knew full well from decades of running studios that people will ultimately self-select out of a position or a company. (If you haven't yet internalized that as a business owner - you should). But I wasn't quite sure how to design my own team from scratch. The old advice to "hire slow, fire fast" can only take you so far. Growing and forming a team, a tribe or group of like minded people who share a belief system and operate from a place of integrity is a tremendous endeavor.

Working with a business coach a few years back I laid it on the line and called up anyone who wished to get on the "bus" with me to come forward. A few did. And I felt a real pang of joy. Businesses don't make people happy. Other people do. And as an owner, the crew of folks merely clocking in and out function as little more than an emotional drain. Hearing that a handful of my team wanted to get on the bus with me - to wherever we decided to go was euphoric.

I spent the next few years building that up - expanding the management team and identifying the future partners in my admin and especially the teaching crew.

Until Covid-19 shut us all down.

And suddenly the bus ..... was more full than ever.
Oh, you thought it would empty out?
Yeah, so did I.

Instead I found out that there’s an extraordinary group of professionals in my midst who want to share the same bus with me.

Some folks did drift off. Some followed their own passions and dreams and made life changes.

Your bus isn’t for everyone. In fact, there isn’t a seat for everyone. It’s for the group that share a single vision and a shared mission. There are different busses for other folks - the ones not interested in mine - or yours.

And that’s exactly the way it should be.

Who’s on your bus?

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Let me know how you weathered Covid-19 with your team? Link to the title of this post to leave your comments.

Pilates Signaling

No one talks about it.
And yet, everyone does it.
Literally, every single Pilates teacher does it.

I’m talking about non-verbal Pilates cueing and it’s both under-sold and critically necessary.

Stroll back in time to see the videos of Joe Pilates himself cueing the Kneeling Knee stretches on the Reformer. His arm shoots out and bends  back in sharply - practically barking its own commands. These movements accomplish several important aspects of teaching and yet they are largely invisible when we talk about how to teach, or how to cue.

In our own teacher training, I’m always on the looking for “conductors”. Those trainees that gesticulate wildly, approximating the movements of a real live orchestral conductor. These movements can go too far. They can distract the students from their own bodies and pull their attention away from the work at hand. But effective gesturing is a key component to effective teaching. Here are a few key reasons, that gesturing works:

• It sends appropriate visual signals from the teacher that complement and amplify the verbal cue.

• It reduces the burden that the student mentally translate words into movement which increases reaction time.

• It alleviates the need for instructors to physically demonstrate which can also be time consuming.

Do you gesture while teaching? What do your hands do when cueing Rolling like a Ball? Do they make spinning or rocking motions? What about the Double Leg Stretch? Do your arms reach overhead? What do you do on your own body to cue a client to open the chest or activate their lats? Do you turn your own head or touch your own shoulders? I do all of the above. Maybe not every time, but also - maybe entirely all - the - time. Yeah, really.

I encourage all instructors to first notice, take stock of and then lean into their own ability to gesture and signal effectively. It’s a unique component of an individual teacher’s style and skill set and it can mean a world of difference In both the experience and results for your students.

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What about you? Do you conduct or gesture? What’s your favorite or pet peeve? Click on the title “Pilates Signaling” to leave a comment.

There is No Pilates Bible

There's no black and white in Pilates. It's exceedingly grey.

Yeah, I said it
I preach it every day and I stand by it.
Education methodology and pedagogy aside (that’s a later blog post) - for real, there is NO Pilates Bible.

I simply can not stand the way social media makes it ok to wrap up some mantra, or manifesto in a cute little meme that somehow resonates so intensely with people that suddenly a new posting messiah is born.

If I see a post that asserts you must always do a certain thing because ya know, "rules".... I'm inclined to dismiss it.
If I see a post that states you never have to follow any format because you know, "rules".... I'm inclined to... well, see above.
There is no black and white in Pilates just as there are no real absolutes in anything.

Humans are unique. That goes for students and for teachers as well.
It applies to all of Joe Pilates students and all those he taught as well.

"But Alycea"...I hear you.
"You're a purist, an originalist..." you say. "Are you saying the classical work isn't the rule book?"
To which I answer, I personally believe that all instructors should start with Joe's original work.

BUT.....within that classical work - there is not one way. There has never been one way. Just as there is not one elder.
There's no black and white in Pilates. It's exceedingly grey.

My commitment to the work that elder Romana Kryzanowska taught me for a decade is personal.
But even within that commitment, I am keenly aware that my experience of those particular 10 years of my life starting in 1992 are just a slice of the pie. Those who studied before me - had a different experience. And even those who studied at the same time as I did had their own understanding through their own bodies.

My time with Romana was devoted to studying, practicing, asking questions and observing and notating the specific strategies she used to tease out the highest potential from her students. I was obsessed with the notion that she would be gone one day - and we'd be unable to recreate it. She was interested in my studies as a Physical Therapist when I went back to school. She asked me questions as I asked her questions. And I observed her intuition at work every day with myriad clients.

She never taught the same session, didn't give cookie cutter cues and responded in real time to the body before her.
As all teachers should.

Do I teach according to an order. Yes I do. Unless I have to adjust. Do I teach according to a formula? Yes I do. Unless that formula isn’t serving me or my student. Do I teach from a list? Yes I do. And each exercise on that list is delivered with my own interpretation of the need of my client and tailored accordingly.

So, no, there is no Pilates "bible."
Anyone telling you to follow all the rules - or none of them is only looking for sheep to follow them.

My old ballet teacher used to say "don't believe me - look it up for yourself".
I tell my trainees this all the time.

The best we can do as teachers is study, observe, practice and develop our intuition.

And that process never ends, no matter how long you teach.
Can I get an "Amen?"

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In a follow up post - I'll dig into the education of Pilates and why primary studies adopt a particular structure and format. In the meantime, what is your reaction to the idea that Pilates is a grey zone? Click on the title above to open the comment box.

Custom Pilates Sessions - What's the Secret Sauce?

When I think about custom building sessions for my students I think of the all important "Part C".

Part C is the part of the session after the Reformer and the Mat work have been completed and you have the remainder of the session to dig into your client's particular needs.

I read a very long time ago that one way intelligence is defined is by a person's ability to aggregate information. The Part C of every session is that precise moment. The moment where you aggregate everything you've seen from the beginning of the session and pool it with everything you already know about the client to fashion an ideal response to their body's particular needs.

As a young teacher I struggled with crafting that Part C, constantly questioning my choices. Was it the best one I could have come up with? Would it work? Was my assessment even correct? Although Pilates teachers aren't medical practitioners we must operate with the data in front of us and make reasoned, sound choices. Assessing clients doesn't have to be a mystery for a new teacher. Here are three of my go-to tips for putting together a plan for my Private clients as we move through the session in order to arrive at an appropriate and impactful Part C.

• Look for repeating patterns

• Ask the right questions

• Test your theory

Let's take each one and dig in a bit.

First, repeating patterns are key to driving your exercise programming. Be very careful not to jump to conclusions. Movement is complicated. Simple errors, compensations, misalignments happen chronically in the course of a workout. It's the specific repetition of that pattern that you are trying to tease out. If you notice your client is offloading onto one foot more than the other in the Footwork, then make sure to look for that habit in Stomach Massage, Elephant, Running, and even Kneeling moves. Finding issues that repeat will inform your big picture program for your client.

Second, input from your client is key. I have a personal pet peeve with the question "how does that feel" as it is used in Pilates sessions because it opens the floodgates to excess information but a targeted rephrase of this question can be illustrative. Try asking "does that feel different on one side?" Or "where exactly is this hard?" By the time you are asking these questions, you are building the framework for your Pilates prescription so be very specific.

Finally, test your theory. Choose a few moves you think will address the issues and then forge ahead. Your success will be evident when your client is unduly challenged, or has significant relief - ideally both (although maybe not at the same time). If your Part C choices don't provide the challenge or relief you want for your student, go back to the drawing board. Perhaps there's a pattern you haven't observed yet, or a question you didn't ask during a certain move.

Over time you will find your own tools and process to arrive at your personal secret sauce.
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What’s your go to strategy for building custom Pilates sessions? Share Your Thoughts! Click on the Blog Title at the Top and a Comment Box Will Magically Appear!

The Accidental Session

“Looking for shoulder strength? Let’s take a walk to the High Chair for Press Ups”

You know that feeling when you have a great (I mean GREAT) Pilates workout?It's awesome. And ideally, it's intentional. It's by design.There really shouldn't be any accidental success in Pilates.

Lessons are stellar because they are meant to be. Because your instructor thoughtfully planned, and responded to the needs of your body applying sound science and enough intuition to simultaneously address what you want and what you need. Truth be told if you are really getting what you need - it is indistinguishable from what you want.

In a recent final test out from our teacher training program we talked through the all-important final part of a private session. That's the part where instructors synthesize everything they have seen in the session so far and carefully identify the issues they want to tackle. For many instructors the question they ask themselves is "what body part do I want to work on with this client?". The answer to that question should lead to the choice of Apparatus and thus the exercises.

But there is a more important second question that absolutely needs to happen in order for those Pilates sparks to really fly.And that question is - "what is the goal for that body part".

Knowing you want to work on your shoulders is great. But knowing specifically if you need strength, range of motion, or stability will pretty dramatically alter your lessons. Looking for shoulder strength? Let's take a walk to the High Chair for Press Ups. Looking for shoulder range of motion? Meet me at the Cadillac for a Reverse Push Through.

Pilates teachers, asking the right questions is the best path to guaranteed results and the Pilates workouts that deliver above and beyond. To Pilates lovers everywhere - be specific about what your body needs. Don’t be afraid to hold your instructors accountable by asking why they choose what they choose for your program. The questions will lead to answers, and answers lead to results - not accidents.

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Will the Real Pilates Stance Please Stand Up?

How Should Pilates Teachers Stand?

A narrow “V”.
A tripod with the feet.
Heels together, toes apart.
If you have taken or taught or even seen Pilates this position has likely been a mainstay of myriad positions and moves. Known as “Pilates Stance” or “Pilates position”, it pops in and out of exercises depending on a teacher’s assessment, desired outcome and cueing.

The less obvious Pilates stance or position is the one the teacher assumes. And I’d posit it’s far more essential to one-on-one training than any letter shape made by someone’s feet.

When we built our teacher training program it was with the underlying principle that this is a “teaching” program not a “performing” program. How to teach, lead, educate and guide is the foundation of any serious program. For me, that began at the very, very beginning and with a simple question:

““How Should a Teacher Stand?””

Without proper positioning a teacher can not provide critical safety for a client. Without proper stance, an instructor can not use gravity and physics to provide assistance or resistance to a student. Without effective placement, a teacher will not even be able to protect themselves from sprain, strain or injury. I am not being dramatic when I say poor stance is the greatest risk to a teacher’s livelihood in a very literal sense.

Drawing on my training as a physical therapist and what is required for safe patient care and effective provider care, we train teachers to apply three distinct rules for how to stand and deliver as a professional Pilates instructor.

FIRST - Apply a wide base of support. When spotting or assisting, your feet should be spaced at least hip width apart, preferably a bit wider. A narrow base makes you more likely to get pushed or pulled off balance. A wide stance makes you sturdy and stable.

SECOND - Use an offset stance. This means one foot is in front of the other. Or placed up on a surface or edge. Imagine you have one foot on the Reformer. Or one foot on the pedal. Or one foot on the brace of the Cadillac. Those are all offset stance. This stance allows for maximum weight shift meaning you can respond quickly to your clients’ movements and also leverage your weight back and forth with ease.

THIRD - Whenever possible position yourself on the diagonal to the client. Whether that’s a bit front and diagonal (Anterolateral) or a bit behind and diagonal (Posterolateral). This diagonal positioning means you can catch and control clients no matter which way they move. It allows for you to be able to use your arms freely to span around them and block them or use your side body to cue necessary adjustments.

This stance checks all our boxes for applying cues with ease, establishing safety and implementing good body mechanics to preserve your own health and longevity as a teacher.

So the next time you cue your client to use Pilates stance - check your own.

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Invitations or Inroads in the Pilates Field - A Ballet School May Have a Lesson For Us

Photo: Ballet Tech

It's a pivotal moment in Pilates.

Our field is reckoning with our identity, our roots and our future.
As with all aspects of social justice - we can not simply move forward without looking at our past. And we can not map or chart any new direction without examining what's been done before - and why.

Recently I took part in a groupthink conference call on the future of Pilates. Opening doors to more BIPOC in our community at every level is something our profession is eager to accomplish. The specific means however, seem to elude us. A suggestion of community classes was made and I felt initially excited by that. If everyone ran community classes to make Pilates available to students from all economic segments we could serve more people and develop future talent in our midst across all shades, abilities and economic realities.

That idea was quickly shot down by another participant who said "You can't just hope they'll come to you - you have to go to them". I've been replaying that sentence in my mind for several weeks.
We have to “go to them”. Indeed.

I've watched for over two decades as our industry simply copycats the business patterns of yesteryear. I've followed suit myself, without asking questions, just blindly following. I set up packages in my business just the way everyone else did until I learned better. I built our early teacher training according to a standard format until I examined closely and re-imagined.

This problem isn't going to be solved by following suit, or mimicking old patterns. Community classes certainly invite more people to the table. But is that our best option? Has anyone ever done something like what we are imagining?

Maybe.

In the late 1980's I was a young dancer in NYC. A friend referred me to the Ballet Tech school which was then part of Eliot Feld's Ballet company. I was hired to be part of their audition team. Eliot was building a school. A fully funded ballet school. As part of the audition team, my job was to wake up early, load into a mini-van with a team and travel to two or three public schools all over the five boroughs of New York. Some trips were pretty long and the days were always a full 8 hours.

We'd arrive at a school and typically set up in the gymnasium or an auditorium. Shortly after we arrived classrooms full of nervous grade schoolers would join us. We would ask each small child to run, leap or skip across the floor. They would show us their stretching. We'd ask them to show us how they pointed their feet. Occasionally we'd put music on and they'd improvise.

We looked for energy. Musicality. Spirit. An innate physicality. Eliot wanted movers. Not mannequins. Our mandate was clear.

If chosen, the child would be offered free ballet school tuition.
And free dance supplies.
And free transportation to and from ballet class.

We selected hundreds of children over the next few years. The school grew and the children grew up.

I haven't thought about those two years in decades. But after hearing my Pilates colleague say "...we have to go to them", I realized, we can't simply rewrite old scripts. Community classes sound lovely but if we really want to make a change, we will need an entirely new template.

Ballet Tech is now a public Ballet school and part of the NYC public school system. The ballet company it fed has long since shuttered but the lifetime of learning and an entire community of kids who might never have known Ballet is still going strong.

All because someone took the time and went to them.

I don't know what Eliot Feld's vision might look like for the Pilates community but I'm certain that it isn't about extending casual invitations.
It's about making authentic inroads and creating a new reality that works.
A reality that has the promise of longevity and one that we can be proud of.
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What are your best ideas for bringing Pilates to communities outside your own?

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Alycea's Workout Theme This Week - LIFT OFF

Alycea Ungaro with Lead Trainer Samantha Datz

I've been thinking a lot about Travel these days.

We've been still for so long - missed our trips with family, our work trips and our spontaneous getaways in the time of Covid-19.

A friend of mine had just traveled to a tropical island and I found myself responding how "much I'd like to lift off right now".
That simple phrase stayed with me for a few days.
And when it came time for the Lead Trainers to get together with me for a work out - I had been percolating on this exact idea - as it relates to Pilates.

Where is lift off?
The precise moment, I mean.
Where does it come from - how do you dig into those moments? Is it from the bottom or the top?
Turns out this makes for a great Mat class and here are just some of the exercises we played with!

100 - Advanced preparation just like Joe did it. Lifting everything at once and working the timing so that the full body is suspended and lengthened. We held this position and then lowered everything down to repeat several more times before doing the full 100.

ROLL UP - Working the upper body timing and coordination we slowed down to focus on the moment that the shoulder blades lifted off the mat. A hard moment to find as spinal articulation differs from student to student. This focus helped everyone to really fold the abdominals in - in order to create that peeling of the spine off the mat right at the moment of "lift off".

SHORT SPINE MASSAGE - Wait, I thought you said this was mat? It is! Before even thinking about the Roll Over - I thought we could work our Short Spine Massage on the Mat. So we borrowed from Reformer On the Mat and took time to focus on that 45 degree angle of the legs just before the hips lift off. This is a great exercise to prep on the mat and I don't feel like we do it enough!

HORSEBACK - Totally different approach for this one. Borrowing the Reformer on the Mat version - this gave us the option to play with all the weight shift that is necessary when trying to lift the hips up and off the mat. Tipping the body forward, driving the arms down and unweighting the hips was a really clear demonstration of how the body needs to accommodate to lift off one section while grounding another.

I didn't get to travel anywhere - but my mind did get to wander a bit and that's always refreshing.
Sometimes your class doesn't need to be complicated or extensively planned in order to be impactful.

Leave yourself some space to follow your intuition while giving yourself a simple idea as an anchor.
It's always about the anchor.... hmmm that sounds like another great idea for a class.

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