Welcome to the Pilates Style monthly newsletter. Each month we bring you a calendar of the must-know Pilates events around the country, updates on our conferences, Pilates-related news, original feature articles and bonus material from the current issue of Pilates Style magazine. We want to hear from you! If you have, or know of, a Pilates event, or have news to share with your community, email us at newsletter@pilatesstyle.com.

Our conferences aren’t just for the experts! At each conference, star teachers will offer classes for people who love Pilates but aren’t necessarily professionals. These one-of-a-kind sessions do not require conference registration and are scheduled conveniently in the evenings, making them the perfect way for casual Pilates practitioners to study with some of the country’s best teachers. Plus, registrants will receive a free exhibit hall pass for the whole conference and a goody-bag with a mat and other fun Pilates gear. Register for one class for $100 or two for $175.

To register or for more information, including presenter information and bios, visit pilatesstyle.com.

Florida Conference Day Passes Now Available.

We know everyone wants to come to our Florida Conference but some of you can’t make it for all three days. We know this because you called and told us!  So, just for our Florida Pilates Style Conference, we’re proudly offering Day Passes.  The passes are $200 and get you your choice of classes (including pre-cons) for the whole day, access to the exhibit hall for the whole conference, the goody bag and mat and entrance to the cocktail party.  Click here to register now!

Mama Mia!

1. Keep it simple. When introducing young kids to any sort of exercise, keep it short and sweet. “Depending on the age of the child, make it maybe 10 to 15 minutes,” advises Grace Miastowski, a Pilates instructor and personal trainer who practices with her 7-year-old daughter, Lauren. “Older children will have greater attention span, but keep the initial dip a short one.”
2. Set a good example. “If you just start on your own and are visible, they will ask and want to play,” says Alycea Ungaro, owner of Real Pilates in New York City and mom to 5-year-old Estelle and 7-year-old Emma. “When they come into your zone, don’t ignore them. It’s not ‘Don’t disturb me, I’m working out.’ It’s just natural—this is one of the things that happens during the day.”
3. Bring a friend. If you have a teenager in the midst of her “Mom, you are so, like, totally uncool” phase, she might be more likely to agree to be seen in public with you if she can bring a friend, advises Lizette Anderson, mom to 12-year-old Alina. “Just have them try it and once they do, they’re going to like it,” she says.
4. Let go of expectations. You might have your own relationship with Pilates, but your child’s relationship will be her own. Be open to that, and everyone will be happier. Kathryn Ross-Nash, a Pilates instructor whose 12-year-old daughter, Zoe, has been sharing her mom’s practice practically since birth, doesn’t always find this to be an easy prospect. “The hardest thing as a teacher and a mother is that you want to put your expectations of your child’s experience on them,” she says. “But you can’t. It’s their experience, and they’re coming at it from a different vantage point.”
5. Savor the little moments. “Besides setting a great example that you have to take care of yourself, it’s a good opportunity to talk in the car on your way there, and to be healthy together,” says Stacy Brunell, who practices with her 15-year-old daughter, Caitlin.
   

Viva Pilates!

The PMA’s national event, Camp Pilates, will be held this year at Shake-A-Leg Miami in Coconut Grove, Florida. It will feature classes led by the San Diego Padres’ Pilates trainer Julian Littleford, first-generation teacher Lolita San Miguel, Polestar Pilates founder Brent Anderson, and many others. Participants will also enjoy kayaking, boat rides and nature and fitness walks.

Find out more about Camp Pilates or events in your area by visiting pilatesday.com. And when the day is done, tell us what you did to honor the occasion by sending an email to newsletter@pilatesstyle.com. We’ll highlight some of the most exciting events in next month’s newsletter.

How About Some Yoga with That?

Close-up: Swan

Set-up: Lie face-down with hipbones and pubic bone on floor. Place hands under shoulders, elbows along your sides, legs parallel and together, reaching down from the hips. If you have tight shoulders, hold your hands wider and turn your arms out to a comfortable position.

Collect yourself: Contract your abs and back extensors to support your trunk before the trunk extends.

Begin the movement: Inhale and lift your eyes to gaze forward and lead the movement of the spine.

Lengthen and move: Concentrate first on lengthening the entire spine along the mat, maintaining axial reach through the crown. Then focus on sequencing the spine up, vertebra by vertebra, while maintaining axial reach as the spine extends slowly and fluidly from the floor. Try to keep the breastbone down for as long as possible to get maximum length in the upper spine. Continue drawing in the abs from the pubic bone to the ribs, while the back extensors lace up the back. Extend to where hipbones are still on floor and elbows are bent.

Hold the position: In this lifted position, feel the collarbone widen, the front ribs soften and the shoulder blades glide down back. Take care not to hike shoulders up to ears.

Important points:

• Concentrate especially on softening and lengthening the thoracic spine between the shoulder blades as the spine extends. This corresponds to keeping the breastbone on the floor for as long as possible. It’s especially important for those with rounded upper backs.
• Don’t use the arms to push up. Place the hands lightly on the floor, as though they’re on eggs that you don’t want to break as you extend into Swan. This will ensure that the back extensors extend the spine, instead of trying to lift the spine by pushing off from the shoulders and chest.
• Use the inhale breath to come into the extension, and imagine the breath filling the columns of the back as the spine lengthens and sequences into the movement. Exhale to lower sequentially one vertebra at a time with the same fluidity and control.
• The pelvis and legs stabilize as spine extends. Reach the legs long and down from the hips as the spine extends sequentially forward and up to maximize stretch and stability.
• Make sure to move through all spinal segments, maintaining a long arc from lower back to crown. Don’t hyperextend the neck; instead, think of balancing the extension through the spinal segments. The key is to maintain length, sequencing and fluidity through the movement. It is not about how high you can go.

One for Me, One for You

Subscribe to Pilates Style in May, and you’ll get another subscription for free. We’ve made the decision to subscribe easy—but the decision of whom to share it with? That’s all you.

Doing the Birthday (Pole) Dance

“Last weekend we had 19 girls come from LA,” says Karen Leto, who has owned the studio for the past seven years. “One of the ladies was turning 49. They came in a stretch limo, and when they got here, I went outside and started taking pictures—the ladies stretched from the front to the back of the limo.” The women wore specially made shirts with their made-up dancer names on them—names like Pussycat, Buddafly and Diva. The birthday girl, Diamond, wore a rhinestone tiara.

When they got inside for their lesson, they realized that the hardcore fun of pole dancing is accompanied by the hard-core work of Pilates at this studio. Karen’s daughter Nicole, who teaches the classes, is fastidious about applying the principles of Pilates to her pole-dancing classes. “We’ve done a lot of research,” Karen points out. “My daughter started taking [pole-dancing] classes, and she’d come home and say, ‘Someone’s going to get hurt in there!” So the mom-daughter duo got a pole, started practicing on it, and decided to bring in some mentors, including two chiropractors, to review their program and gibe them pointers on how to do it safely.

To that end, every class begins with a 15-minute Pilates warm-up to get the body ready to work on the pole. That may include moves like Single-leg Stretch, Double-leg Stretch, the Hundred, Roll-up, Scissors and Side Planks.

Then comes the fun stuff—the hot and sexy pole-dancing moves. Most party attendees are novices, so the moves don’t get too advanced (no pole climbing, for instance), but participants will learn how to move and spin around the pole at the very least. Even here, though, Nicole doesn’t stray from Pilates principles. “I use all my authentic Pilates, incorporating it into the pole dancing to make it a fun class,” she says. “I’m big on proper alignment, using the core, using the muscles.”

That’s not the focus of pole-dancing classes universally, unfortunately. “Other places I went they were using their joints instead of their muscles and throwing themselves around,” Nicole remembers. “You have to have a mind-body connection.” And some stamina, too, because you’re sure to work muscles you never knew you had. Don’t worry, though. They’ll all get stretched in the end-of-class cool-down.

After teaching the basics, Nicole turns on the music, and the mood shifts. “Everybody’s hootin’ and hollerin’,” she says. “The girls just have a blast.”

Not a bad way to spend a birthday—dancing, laughing and celebrating with friends. And, Nicole promises, “the fun is guaranteed.”

For more info on Pilates and pole dancing, pick up the May/June issue of ‘Pilates Style.’

Excuses, Excuses
By Deirdre Shevlin Bell
Looking for a reason to skip your workout? Well, you have plenty to choose from, and health coach Jeanne “Bean” Murdock has heard them all. She chronicles—and counters—some really good ones in her book The Every Excuse in the Book Book: How to Benefit from Exercising by Overcoming Your Excuses (beanfit.com; 805-226-9893). Here are some of the best ones. For even more, see the June issue of Pilates Style.

Excuse: I’m on a business trip.
Murdock’s take: See if your colleagues will join you for a walk as you discuss business—remind them that exercise gets the thought process going. Other ideas: check out the hotel gym or get a day/week pass to a gym in the area.

Excuse: I can’t afford to.
Murdock’s take: You think your $15 Pilates class is expensive? Check out the going rate for heart surgery—a possible end-result of neglecting your workouts for too long. Work with what you have. Kick-starting your exercise routine could be as inexpensive as a $40 pair of walking shoes.

Excuse: I can’t commit to anything else right now.
Murdock’s take: It’s time to reassess your priorities (and maybe to take a time-management class). All you need is 15 minutes twice a day, five times a week. What are you doing in those 15 minutes that’s more important than your health?

Excuse: I just got home from work and can’t get myself out again.
Murdock’s take: It’s all about habits. If you can’t bring yourself to leave the house after you get home, exercise before going home. Or if you must go home, don’t sit down—it will be hard to get up and you’ll never make it to the gym.

Excuse: It’s good for my body to take a month off every once in a while.
Murdock’s take: No it isn’t. When you stop exercising for a prolonged period, the muscles atrophy and the metabolic rate declines. Starting again at the end of the month will feel like starting from scratch.