Fresh from Toronto!

Wow! What a week - the weather here in the UK unbelievably scorching - Toronto was a different story - we had snow, sleet, hail, rain oooh and a little bit of sunshine and a whole 8 degrees! I had to buy an additional jacket as I was soooo cold...

On the good side though - we caught up with friends and family and I also visited the Stott Pilates Head Office where I did 3 private workshops; cardiotramp, jump board and the edge. All the workshops were great and they have given me additional ideas for my classes and clients - so beware!

The first workshops are in London in May. Check out ymcafit website for details. See you there.

My husband and I also had some photos taken by a professional photographer friend and these are fab... here's one for you at the top!

Volunteers!

Seriously guys I need volunteers to practice soft tissue and articulation techniques for exams in June. Anyone wanting additional treatments or even to top up after a pilates session - let me know xx

Side Bend with Fitness Circle

Lie on your side in neutral spine. This means keep slight activity on the waist below rather than allowing the waist to collapse on the floor. To ensure that the waist in neutral consider sending the top foot away lengthening both sides of the waist.

Draw the top hand along the leg and drag the underneath arm towards your shoulder to activate the shoulder stability muscles and latissimus dorsi to allow you to side bend. You should squeeze the inner thighs together and lift these simultaneously off the floor.

Modification: Use fitness circle between the ankles or around the ankles for adductor/abductor connection and additional lower body resistance.

Notes: Ensure that you lift up sideways as if between two sheets of glass. You will find that your buttocks and waist muscles will be working hard.

This exercise is good for people who need strength in the gluteus medius and oblique muscles.

Home Again!

Blackpool is over for another year. It was great fun and I ensured that I attended a range of sessions; not only in pilates but I even managed to do Denise Page's Advanced Choreography class - it was fab. It was great to meet so many people along with hanging out with my old work colleagues from YMCAfit. We had a great time. I even helped out on the trade show stand and met Anna from Stott Pilates Canada for the first time. I really loved it - although extremely tired when I finally got home at 8.30pm last night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Blackpool here I come!

Yep packed and raring to go. Managed to squeeze everything into the smallest suitcase and I'm so proud of myself. Hopefully I wont see too much I like at the trade show otherwise I wont have any space to get it home! Although Im doing many pilates and yoga sessions, Im also experiencing Zumba for the first time and of course my old boss' and buddy - Denise Page's advanced choreography ... well at least for her entertainment if nothing else. See you there

SIJ Draft Complete!

Did I tell you I have finally managed to complete the SIJ Essay that has taken me some time. I really enjoyed researching this and although I have some feedback to change a few things prior to submission, its been a fabulous learning process, one that I still believe is over diagnosed currently in the clinic - if our student college clinic is anything to go by!

Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction - there appears to be evidence that it exists - although not many researchers in agreement of how to test for it and in fact, due to the pain referral patterns and the highly ligamentous/innervation - it could be many years to come before there is total agreement on this subject area.

Fabulous reading if you are interested - start with www.dianalee.ca and then start delving into google scholar - its amazing what you can find!

Mat Course (Day 4) at Central YMCA 14-24th March

Sara and Jaro - Rolling....

I love teaching especially when you see some great improvements over the course of a few days. No doubt this group is still working extremely hard as they have Brigitte this week teaching them the postural analysis and programming as well as the intermediate repertoire! Good luck - just keep practising and your body will eventually got into positions that you didn't think possible... or am I thinking of yoga now!

Just to show you what we get up to - here's some photos of the latest course. If you want to become a STOTT PILATES instructor, please contact either YMCAfit or myself x

Carla and Dagmara - Sawing...


Fiona and Shauny ... Sawing

Sara and Dagmara - Stroking ....

Merry and Gina - Stretching....