This workshop for me was WONDERFUL! It was comprehensive and detailed,
yet interesting and practical, allowing me to explore and learn
everything that encompasses my shoulder girdle by touching, feeling,
asking, listening, watching.
I spend about 7 hours altogether sitting in front of a computer almost
every day. I also love playing tennis and try to do so 3-4 times a
week. Needless to say, my shoulders / neck / back suffer a great deal.
Danielle’s workshop allowed me to understand and gave me more
awareness about my entire girdle. I came out with a couple of
movements that I have now incorporated into my regular warm-up before
tennis and stretching afterwards, and do also throughout the day while
I take breaks from the computer.
In addition, I now give more importance and have a different focus on my breathing and posture, and feel I have a better understanding of certain cues when doing pilates, taking a reformer or a chair class, and during regular walking and sitting activities.
Thank you, Danielle!!!!
Rebecca Lau, Studio Client
The Movement Studio is excited to be hosting Trish Kazun this Fall for a workshop on Gait and Running Injury Free. Trish is a physiotherapist at Envision Physiotherapy here in Vancouver and an expert on gait. 
The Importance of Running Technique, by Trish Kazun
As some one who didn’t run for years because “I have bad knees”, I can state firsthand that that is a lousy excuse. Once I became a physiotherapist and started learning about the biomechanics of movement, I realized that it wasn’t that I had bad knees…it was that I had bad technique. The following is a discussion of some of the common problems that give people shin splints, knee pain, Achilles tendon problems, etc (the list is endless!) when they run. read more….. http://envisionphysio.com/blog/category/running/
The mountains are calling, the highway is improving and ski season is here!Pilates programming focussed on ski conditioning and injury prevention is high on the agenda for avid skiers. We all want to ski fast, react well to bumps and moguls, negotiate deep powder, rebound from jumps, and learn how to best accelerate and decelerate through each turn to get that perfect run.
Educating skiers on proper core stability and the key muscles that often get tight, inappropriately recruited or overused due to muscle imbalances can go a long way to preventing injuries. Pilates can address the form, technique, strength and muscle coordination required to prevent compensations and injuries. Controlling the trunk through core stability allows us to respond to the rapid motion, speed and extreme mobility our bodies experience while skiing.
Training the adductors will help us recover when we catch an edge and assist us in keeping the skis under the centre of our body, reducing the stress on passive structures like our MCL (medial collateral ligament).
Knee injuries account for 1 in every 3 ski injuries, with ACL injuries involved in more than half!
Insufficient control of joint positioning puts excessive load on the ACL, subjecting it to possible sprain or tearing. Learning how to support and control the joints through Pilates will go a long way to preventing such injuries.
Research shows that women teat their ACLs 5-10 times more frequently than men. Many factors contribute to this stat. The predominant ones are imbalances. Women tend to prefer one leg to the other in terms of power and balance which creates single-leg dominance patterning. They tend to activate quads over hamstrings in an attempt to stabilize the knee joint and at particular angles of flexion this quad dominance stresses the ACL. Injuries to the medial or inside of the knee are also high. Appropriate tracking and stability of the knee and hip joints is required and Pilates uses exercises targeting the glutes and VMO muscles to help accomplish this.
The lower back is also often overused and injured. This is generally the result of poor core stability and fatigue. When we ski we need a strong, flexible, resilient structure to be injury-free. Proper abdominal recruitment will help you ski a full day comfortably, with enough energy to enjoy apres ski!
Inefficient movement done repetitively causes the body to develop out of balance and this causes injury. Pilates’ integration of the trunk, pelvis and shoulder girdle, and emphasis on proper breathing, correct spinal and pelvic alignment plays an important role in helping to keep folks injury free. These concepts practiced through mindful movement promotes strength and an awareness of functional mechanics, educating clients on how to fully engage in dynamic activity injury free. Pilates has become a crucial adjunct to strength and conditioning regimes with top-tier athletes, dancers, and folks seeking to get the most out of life.
This workshop for me was WONDERFUL! It was comprehensive and detailed,