Episode Show Notes
In this episode we’re joined by Joakim Valsigner. Joakim is the founder of Bälans Pilates Studio in Perth, Scotland and is a former Australian Bondi Beach Surf Lifesaver, Army Reserve Commando, and Physical Training Instructor (PTI) with the British Army Reserves. Joakim has been teaching Pilates since 2004, having trained with the Pilates Foundation and Body Control Pilates in the UK before completing the two-year Pilates Master Mentor Program with Lolita San Miguel, and then becoming an Educator with the Lolita’s Legacy™ Program.
In 2014 Joakim was awarded the Spirit of Flame at the UK Active Awards ceremony where the best and the brightest in the fitness industry are recognised for their efforts. Joakim has also trained Great Britain Body Building champion Michelle Morris, amongst a range of other athletes, but has a special interest in teaching Pilates to those with a disability.
[02:02] Joakim gives his background – he was born in Sweden where his mother was a high-level gymnast. He moved to Australia and became a surf lifesaver, thereby gaining early experience in teaching people how to move. Looking for a challenge, he joined the Commando selection course in Sydney. The opportunity to do lifeguarding for a season took him to the UK.
[04:38] Bruce asks what led Joakim to Pilates, and he blames the injuries he acquired in the Commando selection.
[06:02] Joakim continues his story about planning to re-join the Australian Army Reserve after his working holiday in the UK/Europe but instead he followed his Sergeant’s advice to join an Army Reserve unit in the UK. They put him through courses to be a Physical Training Instructor and paid for his Pilates Teacher Training.
[07:36] Joakim explains that his desire to age well motivated him to do Pilates when he was in Sydney, but things changed when he found Body Control Pilates in the UK. He acknowledges the influence of having Bruce and Ben Brown as two of his teacher training instructors, in a very female dominated industry.
[09:38] Bruce delves into Joakim’s first contact with Pilates and he remembers struggling compared to the middle-aged women in the class because his greater upper body strength didn’t make up for his lack of full body integration.
[11:40] Joakim acknowledges the tenacity of his mother whose daily routine resembles the Pilates Advanced Mat Work.
[12:24] Joakim mentions that when he was a sports therapist, his clients were there for the massage but were not interested in homework. His Pilates clients always did their homework and their attitudes led to better results which made working with them more rewarding for Joakim. He felt out of place as a Pilates teacher in an industry that, 20 years ago, was very dancer and female oriented.
[14:33] Bruce asks about the changes Pilates had on Joakim’s life early on and he explains it changed his business model – he could fit more clients into a Mat class than just the one-to-one of massage. He worked with a lot of small apparatus until he moved into larger premises and set up the first apparatus studio in Perth, but it took a while for that to generate interest.
[16:12] Joakim gives some background to a neck injury that led to paralysis of the right hemisphere of his diaphragm. Pilates helped him recover more completely and quicker.
[18:02] Joakim recalls his two years learning with Lolita San Miguel through the Passing the Torch mentorship program. For his thesis, he created a three-strand “Pilates for the Military” program comprising an online strand, an online plus one live session variation, and an in-person version. The in-person version showed especially good results.
[24:55] Lolita obviously made a significant impact on Joakim and Bruce asks about his other influences. Joakim mentions working for British Military Fitness (BMF) which is ex-military PTIs teaching fitness classes in the park to people often starting at a very low fitness level. Watching the transformation exercise made in peoples’ lives and realising that he had the capacity to help them with that, gave Joakim an amazing sense of achievement.
[29:33] Joakim describes how rupturing his Achilles tendon taught him empathy for the person who has anxiety about hurting themselves and made him a better teacher and person. It also proved to him the absolute worth of the Method.
[31:22] Joakim gives some insight into the effect having Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) has on his son, Albie, and praises Albie’s determination and progress. Joakim also credits Lolita with teaching him the value of patience and that he has the tools to make a big difference to people like Albie.
[35:34] Bruce asks if there were any forks in the road where Joakim could have gone in different directions and Joakim contrasts working with good people to make them better to working with people with disabilities who cannot achieve without input from well-meaning and well-educated people. Joakim’s background as a movement professional and his experience having a son with a disability gives him a unique perspective to help kids with delayed development.
[39:55] Joakim contrasts the professional high of presenting at the PMA conference in Monterey a few years ago with the personal fulfilment of doing a road trip while there, working with special needs families. He gets passionate talking about giving back to the special needs community and about inequality and discrimination in the sphere of disability.
[43:19] Joakim discusses some of the challenges of PWS.
[44:43] Joakim thanks the pandemic lockdown for making his life better- he had been doing occasional “Training with the Team” sessions with the teachers in his studio, and he continued these over Zoom during lockdown but made them open to all fitness professionals for free. The regularity and frequency of the workouts have benefitted all who participated.
[47:27] Bruce asks about Joakim’s plans for the future, and he lists teacher training and developing his skills working with kids with disabilities.
[49:19] Joakim’s advice for every person going into the Pilates industry is for them to value their background and the unique abilities, passions, and experiences they being to their teaching rather than making themselves fit public, or industry, expectations.
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Episode Transcript
Bruce Hildebrand: In the spirit of respect, The Pilates Diaries Podcast acknowledges the people and elders of the Bunurong people, members of the Kulin Nation, who have traditional connections and responsibilities for the land on which this podcast is produced.
Hi, I’m Bruce Hildebrand and this is the Pilates Diaries Podcast.
The mission of this podcast is to share the stories of the impact of Pilates We’re inviting Pilates enthusiasts to share with us the notes they’ve taken down in their Pilates journey as we seek out the answers to the intrigue Pilates has been able to ignite inside millions all over the world. Our hope is that The Pilates Diaries Podcast goes some way to answering the question " What is it that makes Pilates so special?" Join me for privileged peek into this episodes Pilates Diary.
In this episode we’re joined by Joakim Valsigner. Joakim is the founder of Balans Pilates Studio in Perth in Scotland is a former Australian Bondi Beach Surf Lifesaver, Army Reserve Commando, and Physical Training Instructor with the British Army Reserves. Joakim has been teaching Pilates since 2004, having trained with the Pilates Foundation and Body Control Pilates in the UK before completing the two year Pilates Master Mentor Program with Lolita San Miguel, and then progressing to educator level for the Lolita’s Legacy Program. In 2014 Joakim was awarded the Spirit of Flame at the UK Active Awards ceremony where the best and the brightest in the fitness industry are recognized for their efforts. Joakim has also trained Great Britain Body Building champion Michelle Morris, amongst a range of other athletes, but has a special interests very close to his heart in teaching Pilates to those with the disability. Joakim welcome to the show.
Joakim Valsinger: Thanks mate, it’s great to be here.
Bruce Hildebrand: Joakim, we’ll begin by taking a look back. Can you tell me about life before Pilates? What were your pursuits where did you see yourself heading at the time, and in hindsight, what do you now see with some of the little threads that might’ve led you to discover Pilates?
Joakim Valsinger: I’ve had a very winding road to get to being a Pilates teacher. Joakim is a Swedish name, but it’s an Australian accent. So I’m born in Sweden, my mum was a high level gymnast in Sweden. she tried out for the Olympic teams and she instilled in me a lot of interest in movement and self-contained movement, not so much with weights or anything like that- she’s always kept herself fit. Her morning routine at the age of 78, 79 is awesome- she’s a super cool woman, and big inspiration for me in the first place. So that’s how far back we need to go, I think. We moved to Australia and I became a surf life saver and wanted to do something challenging so I tried the Commando selection course in Sydney and it was challenging but worthwhile. And I have an interesting parallel between that course, the two years it took me to go through that course to my later Pilates courses, which is really interesting that Pilates training and Commando selection training are very different, but the emotional experience is quite similar in some ways. So I was interested in movement and fitness. I cycled a lot, I ran, swimming all the surf sports, those sorts of things but most people that don’t live in Australia, don’t realize they think the surf club is full of surfers- when it’s a different cultural together. So I was not a surfer as such, but I loved being in the surf. I was with the surf lifesaving club inflatable rescue boat driver these sorts of things. So I’ve been teaching people since I was maybe 21, 22- the surf club put me through teaching courses so I’ve been teaching people how to move for a very long time.
Bruce Hildebrand: As we know with Australia, that it’s such an institution the surf life saving culture during summer. And it’s a really critical part of the safety of our coastline, with such a destination to go and hit the sand during the summer.
Joakim Valsinger: And such a natural thing in Australia. What brought me to the UK is that I came here as a professional lifeguard just to do a season’s lifeguarding- so took that, which was normal backyard, Sunday stuff from Australia and turned it into a professional trip to the UK whenever people said, why would you want to live in Scotland, why do you want to live in the UK? The only thing that I miss from Australia is the beach, and everything that goes with the beach. Cause it’s a lifestyle! The beach to my mind- is a state of mind- it’s not necessarily a place.
Bruce Hildebrand: There’s an interesting parallel there with Pilates, perhaps around state of mind as we dip our toe in the water of your Diaries Joakim curious to hear this journey from Sweden to Australia then to Scotland as we make our way through this episode.
Joakim Valsinger: Yeah. it’s not a linear route. It’s very winding!
Bruce Hildebrand: What were some of the little threads that you feel were in place in those early days that might’ve led you to discover Pilates?
Joakim Valsinger: Injuries! Wanting to get better from injuries. In Commando selection I caused a lot of small injuries that took some time to heal. I killed a nerve in my trapezius muscle from carrying two thirds of my body weight for a long period of time. I tore the soles of both feet off because there was one episode of two hour speed march where we had to stay in pace- it meant that I slipped around in my boots. I found ways of getting around these injuries, walking differently, doing different movements to get pushups going so that I could pass other fitness tests later on. I suppose there was always a desire to overcome my personal little hurdles and just to be better.
Bruce Hildebrand: And I’m curious about the military crossover with Pilates with your vast background .
Joakim Valsinger: That’s become a really interesting, a really wonderful thing to be able to embrace that these days, because when I first started with Pilates that was not seen as a positive, it was held against me and I had to fight through that- I suppose the determination that I learned in the military helped me to go through the less than positive response that I got and it has now proved really beneficial at conferences and with presentations.
Bruce Hildebrand: Fantastic. Joakim tell me where you saw yourself heading at the time. Were you heading down the direction of a fitness career? Were you working in the field? Was it the Army Reserve that was your direction at the time?
Joakim Valsinger: What was really interesting which fell into place of the few things that were my original plans was the Military Physical Training Instructor. Even while I was with the Commandos, I would have liked to have been a PTI, but there was no route for that to happen within the Australian Reserves. So that was something that I shelved and thought I would go and do season’s lifeguarding in Cornwall- just to get away and do a European pilgrimage and six months on the beach, travel Europe, go back, rejoin the Reserves. It was building up to the Olympics in Sydney so there was murmuring our unit, being part of things related to that, so there sounded like they were going to be some good jobs, but then my Sergeant said, go and join an Army Reserve unit in the UK. It was the best mistake that I ever made because in the UK Commandos are Marines, basically sailors but they were awesome, and they just loved having this cheeky Australian and they would send me everywhere. So I went to Egypt, Norway, Switzerland they sent us on exercises and trips. I got to see all sorts of stuff- and they put me through PTI training because they needed more Physical Training Instructors. So that was really cool. I got to do all of those things and that is then what paid for my Pilates Teacher Training, paid for my Personal Training and Sports Therapy course- it was really good best mistake ever made- and led me on to these things later on, I have a very satisfied working experience at the moment and I really enjoyed the winding route that I have taken to get here. And I think with everything that’s happened in the last few years, it’s as if I was supposed to be here- this is what’s crazy!
Before we start talking about all the wonderful high moral, proper, really good reasons why I’m a Pilates teacher what’s so good about helping people. My reason for starting Pilates was vanity. Having just completed my commander selection, I was king of pushup. I was fit and strong and cocky and I met a guy at that time at my Chinese Herbalist- he was one of the dispensers and he was a handsome man and over six months when I went there I spoke to him- he’s very well built, fit, healthy looking handsome guy. And it turns out that he was 45 or something, but he looked about 35 and I asked him, what do you do to train? And he said I just do Pilates- and I thought I need me some of that. So I just wanted to look good when I was old and that’s why I got interested in Pilates
Bruce Hildebrand: And this was back in Sydney.
Joakim Valsinger: Yeah, exactly, back in Sydney. I didn’t start getting into it until I got to the UK found Body Control Pilates then realised that Pilates is worth more than just looking better naked, but it was a good start!
Bruce Hildebrand: If we recount the timeline there, you mentioned that you started to training in 2004- that was just the crossover time of when I had expired my time of four or so years in the UK and was heading back to Australia and we caught up a short time after that, back in Australia.
Joakim Valsinger: So I started my training in 2000, and it took me four years to get through it. I remember hanging out with you in Edinburgh, having two blokes teaching us Pilates- you and Ben, in a very female dominated industry, that was really comforting and it meant that I could see myself moving forward to with it inspired by you. So there you go- you’re inspiring people all over the place with your podcasts, but you inspired individuals all the way through your journey as well.
Bruce Hildebrand: Thank you mate- it was a special time in the UK, a massive shout out to the opportunity for Ben Brown who still runs Balanced in Edinburgh for the opportunity he provided me in 2003 to open a studio there when we cross paths.
Joakim Valsinger: Yeah, that’s cool, right. Everything just by chance falls into place- it’s really amazing.
Bruce Hildebrand: Joakim, can you tell me a story of when you first arrived at Pilates?
Joakim Valsinger: Young fit cocky, my very first Pilates class- the teacher tiny little waif of a thing, all the other people were 45 year old women- mothers of three. I’m just looking around going well, okay. She said, let’s do some pushups. Uh, I’m the king and pushups! She said no, slow it down, stand tall, roll down, walk it out, slowly! I was on the floor crying before any of these little ladies next to me stopped- because they’d been going for a long time. Yes, I had more upper body strength than them, but I didn’t have complete integration of upper body into lower body into core so I fell apart. And because I was trained to deal with challenges and adversity that it hooked me rather than turning me off. It’s not the way that I would suggest that most blokes should be introduced to Pilates- we should have our egos a little bit more massaged than that, but it inspired me to want to improve myself and get better and learn what the secret was so now I can do a couple of Pilates pushups, so that makes me feel better
Bruce Hildebrand: I remember teaching a semiprofessional sprinter. was referred to come along and do classes with me years ago. He was probably one of the most built guys I’d ever seen, had shoulders as broad as- huge! I gave him some Pikes on the Wunda Chair, and he couldn’t move the pedal. And he looked at me and said, you just demonstrated this a few minutes ago, and now why on earth can’t I move this pedal! So what you’re talking about with this full body integration- it was a huge eye-opener to this guy.
Joakim Valsinger: Yeah, and shows the absolute genius of The Method. This is what I love about the springs- you know, the spring conundrum: put a heavy spring on gets heavier. That’s comforting. Oh, that’s easy. It makes me feel better. Oh, suddenly it’s worse! Oh, and then take it off- oh, that feels better, I feel a bit nicer now. Oh, suddenly it’s worse! it’s unbelievable!
Bruce Hildebrand: And an interesting gymnastics background there parallels with Joseph Pilates for your mother, you said- competed at the top level.
Joakim Valsinger: I didn’t realize until I knew Matwork Pilates, that she does pretty much an advanced Mat work routine every day. She does Jack- knives, Roll-ups, Rollovers. She’s tiny, and yet she just does this stuff no problem at all. She’s quite an amazing woman. She comes and joins my classes whenever she can via zoom these days, which is great. When she comes to visit she’s either looking after kids or she’s in my studio taking classes- she’s brilliant, she’s a great inspiration!
Bruce Hildebrand: And can you tell us more about your original Pilates teacher and the other people in the class, you mentioned this demographic that wasn’t necessarily a match with what you expected, but also I’m curious about the other people in your life at the time, who you might’ve mentioned, you were doing Pilates to, and their reactions to it.
Joakim Valsinger: As a sports therapist at the time, I’ll step away from Pilates and say why I was doing other stuff and yet that made me so believe in Pilates. As a sports therapist, I worked out very quickly that 90% of my clients could sort themselves out if they just did Pilates- but they wanted to come in for a massage to get stretched and pulled and interestingly never did their homework. So I would say, go and do this and that. I’d just rather have a massage, thanks. So the Sports Therapy was quite a passive approach from the client’s point of view and as I started teaching Pilates I figured that I might lose my massage clients because they’ll just become Pilates clients and then move on. But no, those people still wanted to just have massage. They didn’t want to actually do anything about it themselves. And then when I started having Pilates clients, my Pilates clients, always do their homework. It’s wild. I don’t know what the difference is- it’s their attitude. They come expecting to have to do something about it themselves. They know that’s in the unspoken deal. So they will do their homework, make use of my advice and go off and get a great result. I suppose that therefore is more rewarding when you see better results out of people. Massage is fantastic and really useful in all sorts of situations, but ultimately you want to get off the massage into general health and that comes from the way that you move. We live in a more technologically advanced world, we’re all spending more time in front of computers, so there’s always going to be use for a Pilates teacher and a massage therapist, which is cool.
You asked about my original teacher and my original place I was out of place I was swimming up stream to try and become a Pilates teacher because at that time, 20 years ago, I was not a dancer. I was not female and it just didn’t fit. I almost felt embarrassed about my background because at every turn, when every exercise was brought up, they’re saying do this exercise- well a dancer can do it, you can’t do it- it’s better for a dancer. So the industry that I saw was very dancer orientated. And it was almost a sense that, because I wasn’t a dancer and didn’t have that background that I couldn’t really be a proper Pilates teacher. For whatever reason I persevered
Bruce Hildebrand: Joakim can you share with us the experience of when you first started to notice Pilates was having an impact in your life.
Joakim Valsinger: For a start, it started to change my business so there became more Pilates than massage- people became more interested in Pilates- I could fit more people into a class than I could in a single one to one massage. I set up a Mat studio with treatment room and spent seven years just doing Mat work. It was an extension of the Sports Therapy, and because I knew the comprehensive concept in Pilates and what the apparatus are trying to do I was able to replicate that with stretchy bands, Magic circles, Swiss balls, Foam rollers, and various things and it meant that I was so much more than a Mat work teacher, even though it was a Mat work situation. Then there was a chance to expand the business and buy more equipment and move into a bigger premises, so then I set up the first apparatus studio in Perth. It took a long time the time to get interest in that ’cause most people in the UK really only know about Mat work Pilates.
So the apparatus is a strange beast that they just don’t see it so often. Whereas most places in the world apparatus is what they see first. But it was really good to have that grounding in the Mat work before I started on the apparatus professional journey because it’s a much simpler thing to integrate into your own body.
If I had dealt with the neck injury more properly with Mat work at the time and not done all the things that I was forced to do I could have sorted that. And the same with the shoulder injury that I got, I could have sorted that had I done Pilates back in my military days.
Bruce Hildebrand: You had some cervical compression of the nerves- that was an old army injury?
Joakim Valsinger: I go fishing in the north of Sweden sometimes and I slept on this bad pillow for a week and got a bit of a sore neck. And the sore neck just got worse and worse and one of my neck muscles put pressure on the phrenic nerve and paralyzed the right hemisphere of my diaphragm. I didn’t realize that the diaphragm was split into two hemispheres. I thought once a diaphragm goes, that’s it, but you can survive with just the one. So I worked on my accessory breathing lateral breathing intercostal breathing as much diaphragmatic as I could and just worked in other ways. It took 18 months to sort itself while the nerve regrew down to the diaphragm from the neck. But at the time, because I was doing all this extra breathing my Drs. sent me down to London and I was tested down there for lung capacity, VO2 max, all these sorts of things. And the scientist boffins that were pushing the buttons said his scores are better than mine and he’s on one lung it was really cool. So I thought I was super human cause here I am working on one lung better than another person. How awesome am I going to be when the diaphragm comes back? But unfortunately it just recalibrates itself so I am merely human, even though I now have a full diaphragm again, but I do have some scar tissue as a result of it, but it was really cool to go through that process and see the benefit of Pilates- the prognosis was about a five year recovery and I did it in 18 months- so that was really cool to be able to recover from that paralysis so much quicker. When I came to realize that these minor injuries that you pick up on the way if you just work slightly differently, you can number one, prevent the injuries, number two, recover from the injuries better, and you can also have a longer career and be more useful for a longer period of time- get more satisfaction out of it. So the military they would benefit a lot from doing Pilates .
So there was this chance to expand the business and buy more equipment and move into a bigger premises, and at that time when you’re setting up an apparatus studio the various suppliers fall over backwards to say come to our conference. One of the things that I got with Balanced Body was conference tickets, and they had a booklet to Passing The Torch, which is senior Pilates teachers passing the things that they’ve picked up over decades to other experienced teachers. At the time I shelved it but I saw there that Lolita San Miguel was one of the people that was in their Passing The Torch booklet. A couple of years after being in my new apparatus studio, I realized I had the time I could go and do it so I applied and was granted to come along on this course, I made the mistake of Googling the other nine people that were on my course- they’re so impressive a male professional cheerleader, two or three professional dancers, people with 20 years experience at that time of teaching Pilates- and it turns out they were all petrified of me because of my background.
During the two years we went back and forth to Florida four times over those two years and Lolita saw this as an opportunity- she’s a professional dancer with many years of experience and you would think that she would be more extreme compared to the dancers that I’ve seen up until now, but she actually really liked the fact that I saw the opportunity in my being not of that background. So when it came to writing a thesis, she said "You’re doing Pilates for the Military". Oh, Lolita, I’ve been out for a long time and I’ve lost my contacts. Can I not just do knee injury- I’ve got a client, who’s got a knee injury and I’d like to work on that. No, you’re doing Pilates for the Military! Okay. Lolita, One of her best skills is to get the best out of people, so she not only gave me permission to be the person with the background that I was, but she wanted me to turn that into a positive, something that I could move on with and take forward.
So somehow I had to come up with " Pilates for the Military" while I was not in the Military anymore. And I came up with a program that had three strands to it- a purely online strand. This is long time before zoom, so sending out PDFs and making YouTube videos. So an online version a one off visit version- I went back to my old Territorial Army unit down in Plymouth, and I gave them one session. then they did the stuff online thereafter, and then one version that was me teaching this military unit week after week and Lolita came to visit us- she ran an exam for her teacher training program at my studio, she came along to the regiment. Lolita, she likes men in the first place, so to walk into this Scot’s Barrack and be surrounded by Scot’s men in kilts and uniforms she was in her absolute element and convinced the Commanding Officer to let me do a Pilates for the Military project. The project that we did of the three types, the online, the half online after one visit and the in-person, the results showed that the online people, they fell off the program, they didn’t stick with it, other things got in the way- we got fair results from the ones that I met once. Interestingly, when the training Sergeant that I worked with to get that started, we agreed that we weren’t going to call it Pilates. So we did not call this thing Pilates for the Military- we said it was going to be body weight calisthenics for making you more flexible- and they bought into that. Then at the end of this hard two hour session, I said fellows, that was just Pilates " Oh, I thought that’s what wives and girlfriends did?" So we presented it in a way, convinced them that this stuff was good, and they then bought into that, so they got fair results. But what was wonderful was the people that I taught myself week after week got the best result. So that was a nice bit of validation that personalized Pilates is the best.
The main thing that is transferrable to any person with any type of client is we spoke the military language to make this project happen. I can walk into barracks in front of soldiers as a former PTI, and I can command their attention instantly- they recognize me and my body language, they feel at home with me and they believe if I say it’s true, then it’s got to work. Therefore we did a military fitness test push-ups and sit-ups best effort for two minutes at the start of the program and at the end of the program. Now, these are very ‘un-Pilatesy’ things to do- we don’t bash out as many pushups as we can- we do a few and we do them properly and we maintain good posture, but that’s not what’s important in the Military context- you want numbers! They want to see metrics of have these people improved? So we did these tests it was a long questionnaire built on the Australian Roland Morris back pain disability questionnaire a version of that, but it elicits a proper, true response of how is your body today?
So we did all those tests beforehand, then we did an eight week program. spread over 12 weeks, essentially eight different lessons starting from very basic to more intense Mat work Pilates. Nothing crazy out of the ordinary, it was just basic work, we never did a pushup, we never did a sit-up. We did some crunches and some curls that they recognised but never a full situp. Then we tested the same two minute tests of push-ups and sit-ups and the psychometrics at the end- we saw psychometric health questionnaire questions, everyone improved on those. The amazing thing was that everybody improved in the push-ups and sit-ups scores. The average, increase was 39% of pushups and sit-ups. These soldiers are fairly well-trained in the first place. one would consider them a fairly high level athletes in the first place. How many athletes spend time and years trying to improve 2%? So 39% is huge as an average. So that was really cool. Now on the strength of that, where has Pilates taken me? Lolita was able to show that Pilates is good for people with a non-traditional background- she then put me into her conference in Mönchengladbach- Joseph Pilates’ home city. Our child is due the week before that conference, so I call Lolita up and say, Lolita, I can’t come to this conference. She loves family so she said, fine, you’re on next year Lolita is an amazing human being because she cares about everybody’s families and dogs. In the first week in Florida she takes us into her home studio and there are pictures on the wall of other groups of people. She says, these are the other groups that I’ve mentored to become advanced teachers- 10 people in each group- we were the 29th group. I just thought, she’d say that’s group A, B and C, but she said, that’s John, he lives there; that’s Sally, she lives there and does this; that’s Tammy, she’s from Texas and she has a dog and she’s got a kid that does this- and she went through every single person on the wall. I don’t even remember who I went to school with. She’s amazing.
Bruce Hildebrand: That leads me into my next question. you’ve mentioned Lolita is a big influence. Can you explain some of the other people that you’ve met along the way at this point that helped shape your Pilates experience Joakim?
Joakim Valsinger: I mentioned it briefly. yourself, Bruce and Ben just gave me permission, to be a bloke in our industry. It was really nice- you guys had a really lovely atmosphere that was inclusive and welcoming and positive, and it was always good fun to hang out with you guys. The other biggest influence on my Pilates beyond that was actually not Pilates- related! It’s British Military Fitness. I was invited to become a trainer for British Military Fitness here in Perth- they have ex-military people preferably ex PTIs teaching fitness classes in the park- very different from Pilates but thought it’d be a fun thing to do. I essentially wanted to get back and spend some time with these sorts of people again. What was amazing about British Military Fitness is that people are drawn to attending that class from a very low level of fitness. Up until then, I’d only spent time with people that really wanted to be fit: in the military, in the surf club, even in the Pilates studio, there are many people that come there, they have to be pre convinced about fitness because Pilates is a little bit niche in terms of the regular population, whereas people go to a military fitness class more easily. So we had some really unfit people that come along to that class. BMF taught me to value those people for who they were in the fitness context and it was really amazing to see the transformations that we could make- people that were so overweight and unfit, that they could not get down off standing onto the ground and get back up again- we needed to help them down and up! But then after a couple of weeks, they could get up off the ground themselves. And then a month after that they could do 10 pushups on their knees. The sense of achievement that I got as an instructor for them, for helping them really transform them lives was just amazing.
So I’ve learned that it’s the person with the least capacity, but the biggest desire that is my absolute ideal client. It’s less interesting to me to have a top level person and I just tweak them a little bit- it’s about the attitude! Shape and size, background, age- doesn’t matter- it’s just, what do you want to get out of this? And how hard do you try to make it happen? That was actually the biggest influence on my Pilates teaching because up until then, I thought people just came along because they wanted to do it, because they knew that it was a ‘dancery’ thing and they wanted to get more flexible. I was just following what I’d been told, but then British Military Fitness showed me that lots of people are where they are, but they want to get out of that and I have the capacity to help them with that. So that was really cool.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s the will that stands out there for me and Joseph Pilates used the word Geist, it’s the body mind, spirit side of the willingness and to be able to have the tools of Pilates to be able to literally help people with these changes in condition their body differently.
Joakim Valsinger: Absolutely- he had his own trials and tribulations when he was interned during the First World War. In reading his books and biographies about him, you just realize that he saw people decline in that situation into deep, deep depression, but he relished that time because he was able to master his craft, but also inspire other people to do something with themselves- and they created a really positive outcome from what was essentially a not very pleasant experience, and that is something that we can all take inspiration from.
Bruce Hildebrand: In the current climate, I think there’s various stages of lockdown all around the world and to have a will and a mental attitude to get strong and be resilient during this time is as good a time as any I think.
Joakim Valsinger: Yeah! Then the parallel with after the First World War Spanish influenza hits, it’s a crazy parallel, isn’t it? Oh, and Pilates makes you have a better breathing capacity. Wow.
Bruce Hildebrand: Pretty intelligent. I think we’re all in constant admiration of that. Joakim can you reflect on the time when you knew for yourself that you were getting hooked on Pilates? There were some hidden gems there for you that were perhaps bubbling away under the surface, or when you realised Pilates had crept under your skin or was an itch you couldn’t avoid scratching?
Joakim Valsinger: I have several levels here- still the vanity project- where it’s just fun to be able to do cool stuff, check this out!
Bruce Hildebrand: And you get to do it in your kilt these days- in Scotland with your sporran?!
Joakim Valsinger: So we’re talking vanity, but the problem with doing it in a kilt is a very gravity friendly piece of equipment and it limits your range of exercises to everything that you can do standing up- there’s just nothing much more you can do- Hundreds doesn’t look good! Any inversions – not a chance! I might get away with a pike on the chair maybe, but standing up- a kilt looks good standing.
In terms of just being able to do things better is really nice. With the injuries that I had the paralyzed diaphragm I still have some scarring from the trapezius. I’ve ruptured my Achilles tendon- it was a freak thing- I was the right age that it happens mostly to guys in their late thirties. I was jumping up and down and the Achilles tendon blew and I’m thinking, how am I going to train when I’ve got my leg in a cast? I can’t cycle, I can’t walk. I had to learn how to walk up and down stairs with crutches, but I was doing advanced Mat work exercises again, because you don’t need your feet for 80% of those exercises. That is what really showed me the huge benefit of Pilates- you know, the, diaphragm was fine because I could still breathe but to be able to overcome the loss of a foot for so long, because the Achilles tendon takes a long time to recover, and you’re in the cast for a long time and it’s pretty painful, but to do so much body weight against gravity- this was before I had my apparatus studio- that kept me sane. It taught me empathy for the person who has fear anxiety about hurting themselves, so I now have a greater empathy for clients that come in and have all sorts of anxieties for their issues. It’s taken me a long time to become a better teacher and a better person to go through all of these setbacks- I wish I could have learnt the lessons an easier way, but maybe I had to go through these difficult processes. But I think recovering from the ruptured Achilles tendon proved to me the absolute worth of this method for people in short-term disability longer-term disability.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s so rich the lived experience that you describe around that value that you’re able to bring to your clients when you can really empathize on that deep level is pretty powerful.
Joakim Valsinger: Yeah. I think it has made me a much better teacher. And it has given me much more patience. It has prepared me for the situation that we’re in now which is I have found a new reason for being in the last four years, and that is the birth of my son Albie- he has a condition called Prader-Willi Syndrome, which presented itself as Floppy Baby Syndrome. His condition, he is globally delayed, he has low tone, which means that he really struggles to do any kind of movement. And he was unable to move as a baby for many months and way beyond what your average kid takes to start moving.
It was amazing because everything that I had done up until then clearly now prepared me for the father that I need to be for Albie because he took way longer to sit, he took way longer to crawl, took way longer to walk. He can walk up and down stairs now, but he falls over all the time, he drops things, he’s an uncoordinated and poorly physically planned kid. He has an idea of walking through a door, but he hits the doorframe just about every time as he goes through and whatever he’s carrying, he’s a bit of a hoarder so he collects stuff on his way through a room- stuff that shouldn’t be held in the one hand together, a soccer ball and a milk bottle something’s going to fall. But his incapacity and his disability is absolutely overturned by his will, as we were saying before. His determination is phenomenal! I have seen some strong, capable people in my life- some impressive people, but I’ve never in my life seen as determined the human being as Albie! He will work until there’s literally nothing left in the tank and he falls over and he’s lying there with his face crushed into the carpet, and he’s just trying to breathe and then he collects himself, gets up and goes again. There’s never a hint of disappointment with himself. He’s not angry that he fell over. He might be angry that he’s broken something, but he doesn’t give himself a hard time. Whereas, when I fail I’m like "oh, for goodness sakes, do a better job!" He just fails, goes "oh well" and gets up and carries on- he is absolutely amazing! And the improvement that he has made is phenomenal- he took a long time to achieve all of these physical milestones, but in terms of the condition, he has achieved them fairly quickly. It’s a spectrum condition, so people can be more effected or less, but he is a really inspirational kid.
Everything that I’ve done up until now has been preparation for this and I’m so glad that I gave into my desire for vanity that sparked this interest because now I have a properly useful thing to give to people. I’ve worked with some other kids with special needs and a few adults as well. The small changes that we can make- You know, we say this to people all the time as teachers- how often do we make a small change in the one session that we happen to see an adult and it changes their life, and to make that change to young kids as they’re building their strength and their capacity and their confidence it’s a real privilege to be able to do that.
It’s a slow burn, he takes a long time to learn stuff. Lolita actually showed me the value of patience her second trip here to the UK with us- she was sitting in my lounge room and she had Albie- he was seven months, I think. She had him sitting in her lap and he didn’t really move- he was too weak to do anything.
And Lolita has some amazing Cleopatra rings- every finger’s got an enormous ring on it and she was dangling these sparkly rings over his face for a good 45 minutes and he wasn’t moving. And then at some point he just reached up his hand to reach for a ring and it was the first time that he’d made a conscious movement like that. She just sat there and had a eye-to-eye communication with him and encouraged him to reach out. It was a heart melting moment to see that. So she has truly changed my life. She has made me accept that I have skills and values with my background in the Pilates industry, but also that the basic stuff that I have as tools can make such a big difference to really deserving little people like him. So that has been a really amazing thing.
Bruce Hildebrand: That’s a really special story- thanks for sharing. And tell us more about that development of Albie and your parallel exploration of Pilates. It’s often at this point in time, there’s a bit of a fork in the road, maybe you’re not certain which direction you’re going to go with your Pilates. Usually some challenges show up and we have to deal with them in our own way. Can you tell us more about where that journey took you when you really saw there’s this unbelievable opportunity to apply everything I’ve ever learned- Pilates and otherwise- to help Albie along and many other people in the network that you’re teaching into.
Joakim Valsinger: Up until then I was probably more interested in the higher achiever. BMF taught me empathy for the person who was not the higher achiever, but could achieve something for themselves. I was working with a professional bodybuilder and she was Miss Great Britain the year before and she came to me with shoulder pain that prevented her from training and she was about to go for the next British title. She was just not able to train, so with really basic massage and really basic Pilates we were able to sort out the pain and put her back into competition mode. That was really cool to see that, and that was the kind of route that I was probably aiming for to see where can I help already good people become better. When I say already good people, the person that can stand, but struggles to get down onto the floor and get back up again- they’re well, compared to many people with disabilities, so they have a lot of opportunities- and someone like Albie and the other kids that I’ve met with special needs without the input from well-meaning and well-educated people around them, they just cannot achieve the world is not built for them, and it’s really difficult for them to achieve. So to see that I could make a difference for someone like Albie, as a dad for a start- you just want the best for your kid, but then to see that you can make a difference in other people it really shifted my focus.
Previously I would consider that I was the ‘Pilates for the Military’ guy. I’d travel the world and go to conferences and I am different to the average Pilates teacher and look what I have done with people in the Military- look what I can achieve for them, we can show metrics of their improved performance, but I really have an absolute reason for being, and it’s helping someone to reach up and grab someone else’s hand.
If we can have that kind of a movement from someone where we couldn’t expect that before, wow. that really is making a difference in people’s lives. The skills that I’ve been given up until now allow me to, presented at conferences for disability, and I went and did a road trip a couple of years ago around the UK where I had a week spare so I thought I’d drive around. I hooked up with six Prader-Willi families and drove the UK I’d drive all day and then have half an hour with these people and then drive on to the next one, half an hour with them drive onto the next one and spanned the whole of the UK. It It was really cool and made a huge difference to all these kids with different issues, different ages.
I filmed it and put it onto a private YouTube link, so the families could see the stuff and remember the exercises and keep going. And they have all seen an improvement from the very basic interventions that I made for them. It’s just really basic Pilates, postural help and looking outside the box. I think because I’m a father of a kid and because I have a different background to the average physiotherapist or occupational therapists, I can come in from a slightly left field point of view and give them an idea that they maybe didn’t consider or hasn’t been shown to them. And we get some really cool results. We had one kid down in Wales he had been threatening to crawl for months because it takes months for these kids to do it. We came along, we did one little session, half an hour, and two days later he was crawling! It is so magic to see that. And you know, yourself, a lot of the time, we’re not really giving people any real strength, we’re just integrating the body so that they are using the strength that they already have to do a better movement. So that was really amazing!
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s fascinating to hear the, evolution of your development with your Pilates skillset coupled with all the other skills that you bring forward from the military time and so forth Joakim- it’s really inspiring! When you saw that this skill set that you are obviously strong in and developing more and more with further training, and it is so broad and it is capable of being adaptable to so many different settings- what was the experience for you at that point? Was there a sense of triumph or calm or some peace that washed over you or even perhaps overwhelm of what was still to come and what you knew that you had the potential to achieve?
Joakim Valsinger: It is absolutely the sense of self worth is huge to know that you can make that difference to people. I have still continued to travel the world on the strength of Pilates for the Military- I presented that topic at the PMA conference in Monterey a couple of years ago- that was cool to go and do that and really great conference to be part of certainly a big professional achievement to be invited to do it. But while I was there, I organized a road trip around California and I covered the same kind of a distance as I did in the UK and met the same kind of people over there in California.
The thing is most Pilates teachers are not the best of business people- you and I have spoken about this before. I don’t charge the special needs families for my time because there are so many other things that we need to spend so much more money on that I don’t want to be a burden in that sense. And I can’t bring myself to profit off other people’s situations. But it’s a really lovely to fundraise for the community and for the research bodies that we’re part of and anyone that wants to pay me anything for those sessions, it goes into the research charities instead. The balancing of doing that road trip and having the phenomenal professional experience of being in a high level conference- that balancing made it really worthwhile personally to be there in the first place. It really made me feel that I have something that’s great for me professionally and personally and makes me feel good about my skills as a teacher, but then we also see how we can truly change people’s lives! We have spent a lot of money, time and effort getting our training and getting our studio set up or getting to and from work. So we have to charge for what we do, and it’s lovely to be able to do that for people that can afford it, but the sense of it’s just right to somehow give something back- and to me, it’s the personal thing to give it back to the special needs community. So I am quite militant about that. I’m a sleeping bear when it comes to inequality against disabilities, I’m friendly with people, but don’t cross me over trying to freeze out someone who has a disability, cause there are so many other ways in which people are discriminated against, but most of the time many people have agency and there’s something that they can do about it- whereas a disabled person, say they’re in a wheelchair and they’re trying to get from one side of the street to the other, and there is no drop in the curb. What are they going to do? Those sorts of things are in built into our society. The Pilates studio that’s upstairs- it’s a really lovely way of self vetting that you’re only going to have healthy need clients turn up to your Pilates studio. I think it’s important thing to have accessibility by chance my studio was accessible in the first place, but I would have changed and gone to the ground floor if I was up the stairs.
Bruce Hildebrand: And just as a coincidence, there was a well known Australian Rules footballer, I saw on one of the Footy Shows at one point and immediately recorded it and send it to Joakim because his son is also born with Prader-Willi syndrome. It was coincidental to notice that with Joakim’s great work broadcasting the special needs required with Prader-Willi syndrome. It’s very inspiring to see you continue sharing your story, mate.
Joakim Valsinger: Oh, thank you for that.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s only appropriate that we drop a link to the Prader-Willi Syndrome Foundation in the UK, in the show notes.
Joakim Valsinger: That’d be great. Thank you very much. In terms of charities one of the things with PWS is that obesity is a big problem. These people have low tone, therefore they don’t burn as many calories as most people- yet they don’t have the capacity to burn the calories and as a double whammy, there is a problem with the feeling of satisfaction in the brain. So people with Prader-Willi Syndrome get hyperphagia- an absolute insatiable hunger, no matter what they eat they do not feel full. So burn less calories and yet you need more food! I’m hangry when I haven’t eaten lunch, but to feel that the whole day what a crazy thing. Research into all of these elements of Prader-Willi Syndrome would be phenomenal, but it’s a small, uncommon thing that most people haven’t heard of- and this footballer’s story on TV stood out to you because you knew of my background whereas there are many conditions that we’ve heard about before – so anyone that can donate anything to it would be phenomenal.
Bruce Hildebrand: Fantastic. Joakim I’m curious around your development at this stage of the Pilates Diary- what are some of the changes in your body mind, and even in your spirit as Joseph Pilates liked to put it that are now second nature to you in the way that you do Pilates and you’ve even managed to carry over into your daily life that you couldn’t have imagined were perhaps even possible before you started Pilates, or even when you were wrestling with trying to make the best progress through Pilates, like we talked about earlier.
Joakim Valsinger: There I have to actually thank lockdown! Pandemic has made my life better- I’ve had my own little internment experience in lockdown. The bodybuilder Michelle Morris when she came to me, she amazed me because she’s a personal trainer, she works daytime in her gym- she trains at one o’clock and I’m like, how can you give up such valuable client facing time for your own hobby? She’s well- this is not my hobby. This is my work. I’m a Fitness Professional. I need to prioritize training. So I fitted in with my nutrition schedule and I make it a priority! That’s clearly why she’s a British champion bodybuilder! right? So I started doing "Training With The Team" sessions within my studio, with my team every once in a while. We had it booked into the diary because previously as a regular person I would do my own training and I love doing training, but I would do it in my own time.
I’d do it in between clients, if a client cancelled I would do it before and after work. Then I started having kids, then I had my own studio. Then I had my own business clients don’t cancel or they fill in. If you push it to the margins, you end up not training! When I was building the studio, I did not train for three or four months. I got all sorts of body issues as a result of not training while I was building my studio. What I found was " Training With The Team" in my studio made me train more regularly with my teachers. Lockdown happened and I continued "Training With The Team" at home, but I started to train with my team via zoom and I just had an open link, so anybody could join the zoom link. Anyone who’s a fitness professional can come along- you’ve got to apply- and these workouts are free, because I’m working out I can see people on my screen, but I’m not giving anyone any value, I’m not giving any hints, I’m not teaching. I can’t charge for me working out, making mistakes. I certainly can’t vouch for it to be an excellent class- it’s simply a workout. What I have found in my own body, what has amazed me is that the regularity of doing three times a week during a difficult time pushing harder and harder on my Mat work- all of us that have been doing it since the start of lockdown our performance now is way more fluid, comfortable, together than previously. It’s very hard to gauge it but there is something to be said for doing a set routine again and again, because when you become comfortable and good with that routine within your own body, and you can start exploring the small nuances and it changes things. And that only happens if you do it again and again, day after day. So that has been the most recent benefit.
Bruce Hildebrand: Those sessions sound inspiring again, we’ll drop a link in the show notes for those wanting to tune in for your sessions Joakim I’m keen to hear where you now sit with your Pilates? What does the future hold for you with Pilates in your life and what plans have you got in store with your Pilates involvement?
Joakim Valsinger: I want to talk more about how to improve my business so that’s a different conversation but Pilates teacher training is an important way for me to spend my Pilates teaching time. If I can spread my knowledge and get other people inspired to teach then it means that we have a bigger reach all round. My daughter she’s older than Albie and she’s a capable little gymnasts and has fun, I can inspire her to be a teacher in my place. If Albie- he is going to be a phenomenal Pilates teacher, whether he’s got the skills to communicate any concepts when he’s older is a different story, but his story, the inspiration that he will give to people, and he is going to spend a lot of time at the Pilates studio- so I now I’m starting to be more efficient with my time.
So teacher training, special needs developing Albie and as he grows, my skills within kids with disabilities will grow because he is going to go through his natural stages of development and that means that I get more experience. There’s definitely a place for me as a professional movement therapist even though I’m not a professional in pediatrics or kids of this age, but I can read a body and see what does this body need to do today?
What’s lovely about a condition like Prader-Willi syndrome is that his progress is so slow that you can try lots of different things, and your trial and error window is much bigger- and eventually you’ll find something that sticks and that works really nicely.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s a good learning, setting by the sound of it. Joakim if you had some advice or something that you wish you knew at the start of your journey that would make the biggest difference to someone who might be considering starting Pilates or facing some of the struggles you did in your Pilates progress- what would that be?
Joakim Valsinger: I think the biggest hurdle that I had was not being confident within myself. For every person going into this industry to realize their personal value and their backstory is an amazing story. Everybody has had an interesting journey to where they are today- that is what makes us all individuals. We can all go to the same teacher training school or learn any skill but if we infuse it with our own experience, we become a unique person. A young instructor should look at what have they done and what are they good at and passionate about and what trials and tribulations have they had and how can their experience help the other person.
We should take all of our learning and our method and mould it around us rather than making ourselves fit a public expectation or an industry expectation of what a Pilates teacher should look like, sound like, feel like which equipment should they have and these sorts of things.
Bruce Hildebrand: Fantastic advice. I think it speaks of the intention of The Pilates Diaries Podcast is to listen to and tap into that unique experience that we all bring to our journey through Pilates- so thank you so much for taking the time to share your phenomenal story with us today Joakim. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you on the call.
Joakim Valsinger: It’s been good fun.
Bruce Hildebrand: And Joakim what’s the best way for podcast listeners to reach out and get in touch with you?
Joakim Valsinger: We have a Facebook page, Balans Pilates B a l a n s. I’m on Instagram @PilatesJoakim. Anyone with specific questions on special needs, anything like that, I’d be delighted to spend time answering any questions and offering any advice that I have and I’ll give you my email for that Instagram or Facebook is usually the best thing.
Bruce Hildebrand: Thanks so much for your time on the call Joakim- we look forward to chatting with you on future episodes of the podcast! Thank you, mate.
Joakim Valsinger: Thank you. Cheers mate..
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