AIC

The brilliance of this system is truly unparalled. Most anatomy study in the fitness world is done two dimensionally. We look in books at artists renderings, which are often accurate, but in most cases, we are looking at a cross section of a few muscles or a single diagram of one muscle. It can be difficult to envision how it all comes together. If we are lucky, we can learn how to palpate the bony landmarks and the bodies of the muscles on ourselves or others to get an idea. If we are very lucky, and passionate about anatomy, we may get the opportunity to observe or participate in a cadaver dissection, but even that process can be fraught with difficulty because there are a lot of other things in a body, and you are also taking it apart. You are subtracting.

There is just something about building the anatomy and adding it to the framework of the bones that makes complete sense. I’ve done the essential anatomy twice now, and I feel after only two times, I can name every muscle on the torso, the upper arm and upper leg, without having to look at a book. I also feel fairly confident about the muscles of the lower leg after only once. I’ve looked at all of these muscles hundreds of time for reference in books, but it wasn’t until I had built them and talked about them while I was building them that I truly understood their form and function. The Zahourek system of learning is brilliant.

Once the whole thing is put together, you also can perceive both the complexity and simplicity of the whole muscle system. You process the complexity because it’s hard to put all of that together. The simplicity you see is that there is not a muscle in the system that doesn’t serve some sort of purpose, even if it’s just to stabilize a joint….ha, I make it sound like joint stabilization isn’t important….we’d fall apart without it.

I have to also give tons of credit to Nora, our instructor. It’s not only the system itself that works. Her depth of knowledge, wealth of experience, and passion for sharing the information with focus and purpose made our teacher training 120% effective, if not more…..I know….that’s not very scientific, but I’m making a point. I’m already absolutely in love with the learning process, and I’m going to work doubly hard at teaching so that I can instill the same passion for it that I have and so that I can honor Nora and the work she has put into the process.

Pilates Scientists

I'm in Sacramento, CA right now. I'm taking a course that is training us to teach Anatomy in Clay through Balanced Body University. I'm surrounded by the most intelligent, sensitive, supportive, and hilarious Pilates instructors and bodyworkers from all over the world, and it reasserts this idea that I have about instructors. There are two kinds. There are plain instructors, and then are truly Pilates scientists. There are those who learn a system of exercises and how to modify them, and then there are these amazing people who examine it from all sides, turn it inside and out and come up with purpose and intention for the traditions and new proven ways to use the method with incredible results.

I've always wanted to be the latter, but until now haven't been connected to the resources. Now, I have this amazing network, and the journey begins.

"The readiness is all"

I'm reading this article:http://www.anatomytrains.com/explore/kq

The author quotes Hamlet. It makes me happy.

I love when all of my worlds collide. I've been thinking about my history a lot lately.

For my first couple of years as a Pilates Instructor, I found myself apologizing a lot for not "being a dancer." My first Pilates mentor was a dancer, the beautiful instructors in the studio where I trained and my classmates were dancers. I understand the connection. Dancers, especially those that persue it as a profession, are very good at Pilates work, and they were amazing instructors.

I was an actress. Sure, I've danced, but my creative work  involved acting on motivations and trying to get something out of another person who was trying to get something out of me, in a sometimes barebones, sometimes extremely elaborate, pretend environment. What I didn't realize at the time was that acting WAS preparing me to be a Pilates teacher. Acting made me perceptive about how people reason and what they will do, and not do, to acheive a goal. Play enough roles and analyze enough of other actors and you become an amateur psychologist. Understanding why people do and don't do certain things is a great asset when your job is to develop their understanding of themselves and how they move.


My time spent in theatre has given me other skills that I use to teach. I'm comfortable in front of an audience. Now, it's just called a class. I think quickly on my feet. My career as an actress involved lots of artistic success and fulfillment, but not very much money. So, dayjobs of waitressing and office work have also prepared me for my life now. Thank God that SPSS made me take a class in Excel. As a studio director, I can make payroll reports and fill out expense reports. Both jobs put me in the body of a waitress and and office worker so now I have similar physical experiences to most of my clients. I don't have to empathize or speculate, I've been hunched in a chair with my phone under my ear while typing and maneuvering a mouse. It almost ruined my body by the time I was 28.

I couldn't always be IN the show, so I cultivated other ways to be near the show. I liked to sew as a teenager, so costume design was something I did for a while. Working with a theatre company with big ideas and tiny budgets, I learned to "make it work" before Tim Gunn ever met Heidi Clum. Combine an eagerness to please with an insurmountable task and it was either innovate, or fail. One learns a lot about engineering when trying to make 17th century costumes for thirteen characters on a $400 budget. As I study anatomy, the mental connections I made out of sheer desparation as a designer, are like skelton keys to unlocking the way our bodies are put together.


My point is this, the path to where you want to go is rarely straight and narrow. Keep your eyes on the prize, but embrace and involve yourself where you are right now. The skills you learn in any moment could serve you amazingly well when get where you want to go.

Why I Do It

I have the best job in the world. I move people. I meet people, get to know them, and help them figure out how to connect with the vessel of their humanity. I know that sounds grandiose, but Pilates can do that for people. The work gives them a comfortable place to live wherever they go. Understanding and connecting to your body can be the most powerful knowledge a human can have.

In the process of doing that work, I make a lot of great connections. My clients are just as wonderful and supportive of me as I try to be of them. When I sit down and think about what I do for a living, I feel truly blessed.