The Movement Studio Pilates

Hello Vancouverites!

We have some exciting news! The Movement Studio along with other 4th avenue businesses including Ice Breaker, Beauty Bar, Comor, and Kits Acupuncture are teaming up to offer a $250 gift certificate bundle in a “Reboot your New Years Resolutions” contest! Hopefully just entering this contest will rekindle your passion for sticking to that resolution you were so dedicated to at the beginning of the year.

If you are interested in entering the contest, check out WEVancouver.com/contests to enter.

Lots of love!

-The Movement Studio

There she is!  The beautiful & talented Stephanie who will be teaching our Prenatal Pilates classes.  Read a quick bit about her below:

Stephanie’s love of movement began early in life with dance. It was in her contemporary dance training at Les Ateliers de Danse Moderne de Montreal that she was first exposed to the Pilates’ method. Through her personal Pilates practice she realized the profound benefits of the work as her own body transitioned out of chronic pain. From there, Pilates became an integral part of her personal well being. As a teacher, Stephanie seeks to be a guide in helping her clients find a new awareness of the body through alignment, and a deepened understanding of their own physicality both in and out of the studio. Stephanie is continually looking for new inspiration as an instructor. She enjoys a rich practice of her own in Pilates, dance, yoga, and workshops in various movement modalities to further her along in her journey as an instructor.

We are excited to announce that we’ll soon be offering Prenatal Pilates with Stephanie.

Pilates is good for you ALL the time, but it’s especially beneficial during pregnancy because it strengthens abdominal, back, and pelvic floor muscles.  Having a strong core supports a more comfortable pregnancy and delivery, and helps prevent injury.

The Pilates method is ideal for exercise during pregnancy because it’s adaptable – exercises can be modified as your body changes so that you’re always getting what you need out of your session.

Interested?  Contact us by phone or email for more information.

604-732-9055

pilates@themovementstudio.ca

See you at the Studio!

The Globe and Mail published an article last week stating that Pilates is a fad and will soon go the way of step aerobics and Jazzercise.

Click here to read the full article.

My favorite part is when it says, “More and more people don’t want to have to work for months getting a handle on Pilates principles like control, breathing, centering or flow. They just want to hit the gym and feel like they’ve got their butts kicked without having to worry about breathing techniques”.

Yeah!  Who wants to worry about breathing?  It’s not like we do it every day all day.  Saying people just want quick results is like saying we should all quit eating for a few days to lose weight.  You’ll get results and you won’t have to think about it!  But wouldn’t it be better to learn how to eat RIGHT so it can become part of your lifestyle rather than just a quick fix?

While it’s true that gyms may be seeing a decline in Pilates class attendance, it’s only because people are moving to studios where they can take classes in the setting Pilates was designed for. No one is going to see results in a 40-person reformer class!  Pilates is based on precise movements that  create dramatic change in the body.  Skilled instructors and intimate class sizes allow for everyone to do the movements properly.

As my grandmother always said… if you’re not going to do it right, why do it at all?!

What do you think?

(In other news:  Jazzercise is making a comeback.  So there, Globe and Mail.)

Walking is not something we think about often. That is, how we walk. How a person organizes their body to walk is referred to as gait. Our gait feels and should feel normal to us although it may have changed over time due to any number of factors. What we do all day, our stress levels, emotional states, injuries, clothing, fatigue, weight change, all can have an effect on our gait. This becomes important because we walk throughout the day. Even if it is not much, we must do it to get ourselves from one place to the next. It is a repetitive and yet beautiful system of many movements that coordinate into the activity we call walking. If one movement is compromised, it can affect gait as a whole. Like putting a wrench in our gears. Of course we are not machines, so it is not as simple as that. Our amazing ability to adapt to change insures that we rarely fall down. Meaning that if the body is restricted in its usual way of functioning, it will find another way of functioning. It is important that we do this, but sometimes these other ways, or compensations, become uncomfortable in the long run. If change is needed, we need a keen sense of consciousness to undo our doing and bring strength back to a more harmonious way. Our nervous system will always work towards making what we do most naturally feel normal regardless of the level of tension or lack of support. This can be tricky, because the sensations of moving differently can feel so wrong or lost to us that it can easily overwhelm the sense of ease created by finding more efficiency. Taking the time to understand gait can be a catalyst to a “wake up” in your own body. It is OK to just go, but “how we go” determines where we end up and in what state of mind and body.

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

Here’s some feedback from one of the workshop participants…
What most stood out for me after attending this workshop was how much
more clearly I could visualize and understand the positioning of my
shoulder blades, the bones of my arms, my ribcage, and my spine – both
at rest and during movement. I especially appreciate how this has
enriched and improved the familiar movements I typically use in ballet
class.
It has been very exciting to apply the tools Danielle shared to my
dancing. I now have a deeper knowledge of how to control and work with
the movements of the shoulder girdle. I am finding I can create more
symmetry in my arms and more freedom from tension. This workshop
cleared up a lot of the clouds in my proprioperception of my shoulders.
It also gave me many new, and better choices, on how to approach
port de bras. Jane Hamaker, dancer and Movement 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/