Contrology Pilates Method Blog

Tacye with Lolita San Miguel

 

 Lolita San Miguel shares the reformer

Balanced Body University weekend on tour, April 2012

Lolita San Miguel is an amazing woman. She radiates joy of life like sunshine sparkling on water. she moves with inherent animal grace – without effort, as if unaffected by the constraints of gravity.

 And she does her Pilates everyday. In her words: “not because I want a medal, but because of the way it makes me feel”…….. because it accentuates her natural state of being.

 She is a living embodiment of why we do what we do and why we are so passionate to pass it on – the magnificent gift of Joe’s exceptional work.

 Thank you, Lolita, for continuing to lovingly share your memories of Joe and Clara. You bring them alive and palpable to those of us who unfortunately never had the chance to actually meet them, but are as inspired by his stunning legacy as you still are.

TACYE LYNETTE

Teacher at the Contrology Studio, Sarratt

The first of the Lecture Series ran last week.  The UK contingent of qualified and trainee Pilates teachers were joined by three teachers  from the PilatesZone studio in Zurich – Jasmin, Sabine and Joachim.  We had a lively and instructive weekend as we worked through the Universal Reformer and Matwork Level 1&2 with a new myofascial eye.  Being able to picture the anatomy lines and their connections throughout the body and how they inter-connect gave a new meaning and understanding of the work – especially when working off the apparatus.  I would recommend this lecture series to any serious Pilates Teacher.  Karin is an amazing presenter, even the cameraman for the day said that her enthusiasm captured his imagination and he admitted that he didn’t know anything about Pilates or anatomy before arriving at the Sarratt studio.  As an associate of Anatomy Lines and a visionary Pilates Teacher, Karin Locher has successfully married the two to present ground-breaking material which will change the way you approach your Pilates work, change the way you teach which in turn will bring only benefits to your clients.

Fiona McIntosh

Teacher at Sarratt Studio and at South-West-Studio, Chippenham

After several workshops introducing the relationship of the works of Thomas Myers ‘ anatomy trains and the legendary teachings of Joseph Pilates, I became aware that many Pilates teachers today are not aware of our every-day functionality within the roots of Contrology. That every move is designed to re-pattern aspects of our mechanical, functional and multi- dimensional design; to restore and promote the self-regulatory nature of the human design.

That the roll up, for example,  irons us out  front and back giving the spine the possibility to be straight , whereby it  can align with and be supported by gravity , or is it about  strengthening of the abs? The elephant, jack rabbit, knee stretches, mountain climb, single leg stretch  all re-pattern the natural principles of walking, giving the body the possibility to renegotiate compensations, habits and  re-turn to its design template. The spring design re-communicating the coiling and recoiling nature of our movement, thus resonating with our deepest tissues …

The goal?  To walk easy, be well, live long,  live strong,  be efficient, be resilient,  to enable the orchestration of our mechanical and functional organism to cooperate at its best as only it knows how .

With our relative, somewhat ‘pea’ brained ability to run the immensity of the bodies machinery and understand the enormity of its creation, we can but have the decency to pay attention, to observe and attune ourselves to its genius,  so at the very least we can keep ourselves from getting in its way.

Karin Locher

“No matter how much someone moves around to try and change a pattern of habitual behavior, their strongest tendency is to continue moving in the same way they have always moved, guided by the same deeply seated postural habits, sensory cues and mental images of their body. However, if they can surrender to the movements that another person imposes on their body without the disturbance of their own system of cues and responses interfering, THEN it is possible for them to become mindful of a flood of  sensations that are new and important and may well indicate what that person had been doing to produce their aches and pains. More importantly, the moment of surrender and new sensation can demonstrate that the person is not obliged to act out habitual compulsion.”

I wanted to share this quote from Deane Juhan’s ‘Job’s Body’.
In my understanding as a teacher the words above ring a strong resonance within me. I believe that we all, as Pilates teachers, feel the reciprocal joy when the person we are working with suddenly lets go of their previous movement preconceptions. The multiples of: how, what, why am I doing this; should it be like this; why can’t I feel it; dissolve as they finally ‘give in’ to the beauty of the work and all their disturbing internal chatter stills and you can almost see the body and mind sigh with relief simultaneously.  Internal stillness reigns. It is a majestic place filled with lightness and great strength. Not only that, the freedom from whatever they have carried into the session suddenly ceases to be their norm. The pain and holding disappear – in an instant! Yes we can fall backwards because we set up years, sometimes, of needing to be the way we were and that form has served its purpose. But now we have felt how good it can be and how quickly and easily we can regain that sense of well being. So we can, if ready to, recreate it without too much fuss.  We can live in the wonderful healthy bodies we have been gifted. And we can live in them with joy.

Tacye, teacher at the Contrology Pilates Method Studio, Sarratt

Our journey to achieving effortless work  and to “transform the body into a perfect instrument of the will”, (one) that is kinesiologically proper, physiologically sound and psychologically correct” continues with our study of the advanced exercises from the original 34.

The second class examining the advanced work continues next Saturday.

Fiona McIntosh

Teacher at the Contrology Pilates Method Studio

Fiona

I have been teaching   now for 6 years and the more I do it the more I discover about the work – the ingeneousness of it all.  What I have found over the years that actually the most difficult part of any session is the beginning – the preparation; the invitation of the body and of the mind to be present and ready for work.  To negotiate new patterns, to re-discover new pathways of communication for all the soft tissues of the body.  

Clients can arrive full of outside distractions whether it be family, home or work and depending on their health history clients can initially find the Pilates exercises very tough or they are frightened to attempt them as even the smallest movement is foreign to them.

To begin each session, to re-connect the body and to be ready for the work i.e. the Pilates exercises themselves, I have used and borrowed a series of simple but yet profound exercises that assist the re-connection of moving with the breath, to find and create spaces where it was previously fixed or held but I wanted more for my toolbox and so I decided to attend the Post Graduate Mat Course run by Karin Locher.

The first two days of  the current Post Graduate Mat course was a brilliant masterclass in “moving connections” – offering simple but great ways in which to commence the re-connection of the whole body.  Exercises that anyone could do and would prepare you for the mat work sequence itself.  One exercise which I love (which I have named sausage rolling) involves the the legs spiralling out of the hip (whilst lying down with long legs) working from the tops of the legs to the feet.  So simple but one where you can instanteously spot any tightnesses in the hip and where from the rhythmic rolling you can tease them out.  Beautiful – and one which my clients are already really enjoying.

The next two days of the Post Graduate Course will cover the Advanced exercises from the mat work sequence which are by their nature more difficult to master.  I cannot wait as I am sure I will have as many revelations during those days as I did in the first two.

For further information about this Post Graduate Mat course please contact the studio on 01923 275024 or you can go to the website: www.contrology-pilates-method.com

Fiona McIntosh

Teacher at Contrology Pilates Studio, Sarratt

I’ve just returned from a long weekend in New York where I was lucky enough to be able to meet and have an hour with Deborah Lessen, the founder of the PMA, at her home. Deborah and her loft are both amazing. She is softly spoken and gently precise in her instructions, although you have to figure out your own body lines as her terminology doesn’t include that. However, she remembered Karin with a big smile and I assume that
in due course they will share knowledge and merge it all seamlessly together. The loft is the height of a normal house and all that space above and around you makes you want to burst out of your T-shirt like superman and fly up off the apparatus. The work we did on the cadillac and reformer differed very slightly from ours and it was interesting that where she assumed the UK method of teaching some exercises would be quite different from hers, they were not. After all, at the Contrology Studio we clearly do not cheat! Deborah definitely added to my trip and I walked for hours afterwards round Central Park feeling like I was walking on air. She also complimented Karin by saying that I had clearly been well trained so thanks to Karin for the introduction and the years of teaching!

So for those of you planning your Christmas shopping in the Big Apple, look up and contact Deborah Lessen in advance and go and have your superman moment between the eating and drinking and amazing museums as well as the stores……….

Elizabeth Ramsey

Contrology Pilates Method Teacher

 After a busy week teaching, the effort of dragging myself out of bed early on a saturday morning to make a 250 miles round-trip for a Pilates workshop is tough.  Last Saturday was no different.  I was booked on the Contrology Pilates Method Studio seven-hour workshop looking at the reformer work through the fascial lens, led by Principle, Karin Locher.

From practice, observation and discussion I learnt to take my growing and developing knowledge of the function and picture of the fascia into the Pilates work – and what a difference it made.  I am always stunned by how many light-bulbs moments I have doing this work and how it I look for it, I never stand-still.  While picturing the map of the fascia and maintaning the consistent contact with the equipment and by paying attention to the rhythm and the quietness of the movement how the work becomes even more equisite and even more graceful than before.

Once again I was surrounded by excellent and intuitively intelligent Pilates teachers who were open to share their experiences and their insightful observations.  I think we all learnt from each other!

At the end of the day I felt completely energized and was really glad for making that extra effort – another excellent workshop!  Thank You Karin.

Fiona McIntosh

Teacher at the Contrology Pilates Method Studio, Sarratt