Episode Show Notes
Welcome to the Pilates Diaries Podcast.
Our guest on this episode is Jen Findlow from the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Jen is a Pilates teacher and Somatic Movement Therapist.
The mission of this podcast is to share the stories of the impact of Pilates to help you live and move with more joy, physical vitality, and renewed vigor.
Pilates was a somewhat unknown word until it started creeping into conversation somewhere around the 2000s- maybe even before then depending on who you asked and amongst which circles, and has largely remained and enigma for many reasons- one of which perhaps is that Pilates really has to be experienced to be understood.
There are now a wide range of Pilates styles available when you attend a Pilates class, perhaps borne from the variation of interpretations of how Pilates was originally taught by its founder, Joseph Pilates.
With The Pilates Diaries Podcast we’re inviting Pilates enthusiasts around the globe to share with us what they’ve noted down in their Pilates Diary. Our hope is that the Pilates Diaries Podcast goes some way to answering the question ” What is it that makes Pilates so special?”
We’ll take a privileged peek into the Pilates Diaries of our guests to gain a greater insight into the impact Pilates can have in all of our lives and contribute to the health and wellbeing of the community at large.
I welcome you along for the journey and welcome your comments and discussions through the links found on your favorite podcast platform. Enjoy.
The Pilates Diaries Podcast
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Episode Transcript
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.
Our guest on this episode is Jen Findlow from the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Jen is a Pilates teacher and Somatic Movement Therapist. Jen, welcome to the show.
Thanks Bruce. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Jen, 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 were some little threads that might’ve led you to discover Pilates?
Back when I was in high school my dad owned a flying school and so I got my pilots license. It seemed a natural fit that I’d go and do a degree in aerospace engineering, so that’s what I did. Around about the start of uni I first discovered gyms, I was pretty much hooked on exercise and the gym from the very first time I stepped in there and I’d look at all this equipment and think " What can I do with that?" Weights machines that no one ever used- I was thinking, I want to try these things out. After five years working I left to go and do a master’s in biomedical engineering, which in hindsight the biomedical part was interesting to me that it was much more about the body than about aeroplanes. Throughout the course work I fiddled it around so I could do as much physiology as they would allow me to do, which I absolutely loved! Around the time my marriage fell apart and I was thinking I’m not cut out to be a stay at home mum. My hobbies throughout my twenties had been scuba diving, rock climbing, skiing, and I thought maybe I can be an instructor in one of those areas. It just seemed a natural fit to become a personal trainer so I went and did my Cert 3 and Cert 4 and worked for a small gym. I felt like I had very little knowledge- I felt like the scope of what a personal trainer could do was so wide and I had so many different types of clients! From a guy who was doing plyometrics, to a lady who had epileptic fits every time I saw her, to a lady who hated exercise. I didn’t like that I felt so unprepared, so lacking in knowledge and at that point decided being a group exercise instructor would probably be a better fit.
I lasted about three years doing that- it was a really heavy workload on my body because I’d teach up to nine classes a week- pretty full on. At the same time the gym I was working at they had Pilates classes so I went to a couple of classes and I remember the pelvic floor was talked about as an elevator. I thought at the time, I don’t need this, this is not for me- it didn’t click with me… until later on when I found out that I really needed it! After my couple of years of teaching these choreographed group exercise classes I got to the point where I could barely move and it just got worse and worse. And I was thinking what on earth is going on? Why am I struggling to move? Why am I stiff? Why am I tired? Why have I got all these aches and pains? Why do I need to drop my kids at school and go home and go back to sleep? Basically I felt like I’d burnt out and in hindsight, I think that’s a common experience that people teaching these pre-choreographed classes, high energy, heavy weights, that sort of thing- it seems to be a common experience of people at some point burning out. Not everybody, but unfortunately I was one of those ones that did. So I ended up a couch potato for 18 months or so, and spent all my time not at the gym, but at myotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, massage therapists, doctors, physiotherapists saying what’s wrong with me? Why can’t I move? I’d get treatment after treatment and it would work for day and then the next week I’d be back again! I’d go to the doctors and they’d talk about fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue or rheumatoid arthritis, but none of their tests ever revealed anything. I was so frustrated. What finally got me into Pilates was there was a Physiotherapist about a kilometer away from my house that teaches Pilates. I’d tried everything else and no one had ever said do Pilates and I thought might as well things can’t be any worse than they are. So off I went to my first Pilates class!
What an amazing backstory! An interesting link there with these varied backgrounds that you’ve got, particularly your alignment with the engineering side of it before you stumbled across Pilates. My general cliche is that Joseph Pilates was a self-professed engineer- his way of thinking, I think was a huge contribution to his designing of the apparatus that we now know commonplace with Pilates.
Having an engineering background in hindsight now, after coming through the Diploma and after getting used to all the equipment because the human body is full of forces and lever arms and all this sort of thing. That’s exactly what engineering is and exactly what Pilates is.
And there was an obvious link to your interest and passion towards the physiology and understanding the human body further with various parts of your master’s study, too.
Definitely.
Jen, can you tell us a story about when you first arrived at Pilates? You mentioned the Physiotherapist up the road had this thing called Pilates. You weren’t perhaps sure what it was and it was worth a shot. Can you share with us what that first experience was like, what your first impressions were and even what your teacher was able to share with you?
I went in there and said I was interested in doing Pilates and the very first confronting thing that I had to do was prove that I could engage my deep abdominals and my pelvic floor before I was allowed to join the class- it was three people all on Reformers. I remember very clearly the first couple of things they asked me to do engaging your pelvic floor, your deep abdominals, and then doing simple foot work- oh my goodness, why can I not do this? And coming from my background I was so weak and it was very confronting. I was just so shocked that here was I thought was strong and fit and healthy, struggling to do the most basic exercises.
I think many listeners will be able to relate to the humble beginnings of each of our arrival at Pilates to see this is a whole new world and I had no awareness and no understanding of what this body is that I live in on a daily basis! How on earth do I work and move like this?
I don’t think I ever got past their rehab-style classes but what I did do was whenever I was offered weights to add to something, I was always striving for the heaviest weights. I always wanted the heaviest resistance because that was what I knew- I had no concept of this idea of less is more.
That was only to be discovered in years to come
Yes, and it was a long time to learn that lesson.
It’s understandable given the intense background that you’d had with your physical activity and lots of pursuits- I can certainly relate to that having a very athletic childhood as well, and then arriving to this pursuit of Pilates, where that was no longer, the so-called objective. an interesting thing to get our head around I think. Jen, can you tell us about the perception of other people in your life when you told them that you’d begun this new thing called Pilates and some of your earliest progress.
The most common question I had and have had for years, not so much now, because I think people are really starting to understand Pilates, but the question was " Is that like yoga?" No! It’s not like yoga! in And it’s many years ago since I started Pilates but I remember I just couldn’t believe how quickly it made a difference. I still felt weak, but I felt 100 times better within a matter of weeks. So much so I found that I wasn’t getting up in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and I thought, oh, my pelvic floor must be doing something- must have learned how to use that. It was about three months of twice a week of classes at the Physiotherapist- I thought this is fantastic- I’m fixed! So off I went back to the gym! Ditched Pilates, went back to the gym and went back to my weights, went back to what had been doing before and fell apart again within three months or even less so off I trotted back to the Pilates studio and I’ve never looked back since! It was that period of going back to the gym and starting to fall apart again, that really cemented that Pilates is really good. I’m not quite sure why at this point but I know I need it and if I don’t do it I’m in trouble.
That’s an amazing awareness to arrive to- and that was on the back of you already having a very physical life at that point, you were snowboarding instructing, you were rock climbing, you were a regular at the gym- so to have this body awareness, I think goes miles towards getting that sense for yourself of how much you needed Pilates.
It was still very early days in my Pilates journey and I knew I needed it but I didn’t know why at that point. I just knew that without it, I would be back on the couch again and it was a feeling in my body that this was really good and was doing amazing things. It wasn’t until I went and did all the study that I’ve done, that I could articulate why Pilates was so good. I could just say I felt better to the point where I started looking at going back into the workforce to become a swimming teacher.
Jen where the parts of the experience that you didn’t like about Pilates, or you didn’t want to accept at this early stage that you perhaps found challenging in your pursuit of wanting to improve at it.
Oh, many things! From that first experience of going in there and realizing I was so weak- that was enormously confronting obviously- I didn’t want to know about that- I didn’t want to accept that I wasn’t strong. I didn’t understand at that point that less resistance can be harder. I didn’t want to accept that here I was in the beginners class and not moving on to the advanced class
Pilates has always been good for the ego is a real leveler! I regularly say to my clients that I’ve got a humble pie in the fridge if they ever need some- when they’re doing the more challenging Pilates exercises!
Yes And I didn’t want to accept that there’s things that my body struggles to do- like the ability to slow down and not take things like a bull in a china shop. Yeah. Very confronting. And I had one of my students just recently said " It’s killing me to slow down- but I know it’s really good for me and it works!" And that’s exactly how I felt and still struggle with now, even as a qualified somatic movement therapist which is all about slowing down- I still struggle to slow down.
It’s one of the best things you can do for your body after an intense period, which didn’t work for your body.
That’s right- and it was a very slow, painful lesson for me to learn.
Can you share with this Jen some of your breakthroughs when you arrived in this setting- and how you’ve come to reconcile that now to be confident with where your body’s at, what you’re able to share as a qualified teacher and how you might help others who are perhaps facing the similar challenges to find themself in their own body.
The biggest breakthrough was when I came to the Diploma. I did initial training that was basically a weekend here and there to become a Matwork, a Reformer, and a Small Equipment Instructor. That was training for the group fitness industry, which I didn’t know at the time and had the potential to be pre choreographed, which very much suited my black and white brain and my history. That was my thing- you give me the instructions, I’ll follow the rules and tell people what you tell me to tell them. It didn’t serve my body too well- still had a lot of issues, still couldn’t understand why I was struggling physically, even though I had come so far in my own personal Pilates journey. When I came to the Diploma I suddenly had this realization, which was not apparent in my previous Pilates teaching, but is a very strong part of Joseph Pilates’ teaching and a very strong part of Somatics- and that is what muscles are not working. So my history and I think history of anyone who spends a lot of time doing weight training in the gym, it’s all about what’s working- there’s no emphasis on what is not working! My breakthrough when I first came to the Diploma was: " Wow, we can have muscles that are not working- it’s not all about just focusing on what’s working!" and that was when I realized that so much of my body was trying to help out and through the Diploma I got that message a lot that there’s various parts of your body that are trying to help out that don’t need to help out. So if you’re doing an abdominal curl, why are you holding all this tension in your legs right down to your feet. And starting to realize that you just don’t need a lot of these muscles to be working- I had a reasonable idea of anatomy and what muscles did what job but I didn’t know in my own body that all these other muscles were helping!
Can you talk about the efficiency breakthrough that you had and what the benefit was of finding that distinction between muscles being on the whole time versus finding a state of rest sometimes?
That was the next piece of my puzzle- why I was so tired, why I was so fatigued. The first piece of the puzzle was to learn Pilates- the second piece of the puzzle that made things even better for me was to realize that not every muscle in the body needs to be working- that’s inefficient! We need our body to be working as efficiently as possible otherwise we’re overloading muscles and we’re just going to end up fatigued. Certain muscles are designed to hold us up all day but other muscles are designed to move us- so why are those muscles working when we’re sitting still?
Starting to get an idea of that was the second part of my own puzzle and I like to think that as an instructor, all these teachings have given me the ability to put my clients three steps forward. Teach them from the beginning that if we’re doing a particular exercise, certain muscles don’t need to be working! The next part of my journey was when we learned Somatics within the Diploma, and starting to understand a little bit about the nervous system and realize that muscles, aren’t separate from the rest of the body- they’re all tied in with the nervous system and has control over these muscles. But I still thought that the nervous system was doing it all by itself- I didn’t realize that I had control over how my nervous system worked my muscles. But once I got into Somatics, that was the next piece of the puzzle- Somatics and meditation. For years I’d been wondering why I was so stiff and tight and had it been going to all these allied health people, but I also knew that I could meditate my muscles into relaxation. I used that learning in my teaching as well to have people think about a muscle and think about it relaxing- think about the fibers lengthening, think about the two ends of the muscles moving away from each other. And that was the type of thing that I was thinking about as I was meditating. I’d be thinking about bones settling into joints. I’ll use those things a lot in my teaching- I usually start with my clients teaching them how to relax into that position before they start moving. So it’s slowing down rather than just jump on a piece of equipment to start moving. We don’t do that- we settle our body into the position, we settle our breathing and then we start moving so that we’re moving with the most efficiency and we’re not starting from point of everything being tense. You’ve got to have a chance to calm down and arrive before you start the exercises. And each one of those pieces of the puzzle that I’ve learned, I’m able to put my clients ahead on their journey so they don’t have to battle their way through like I felt I did.
The next piece of the puzzle for me was 12 months ago I had a breast reduction. For years, I’d be thinking, why is it so hard to stand up straight? I spent a lot of time watching other people, looking at their postures and here I am standing up for five minutes and I’m exhausted! That’s when I worked out- along with seeing various people who said you’ve got postural strain- of course I have! If I’ve got a large chest then I’ve got postural strain. It was never in my plan to have that surgery, but having that surgery was life-changing and gave me an idea of how other people might experience postural strain. Having come through that I have a greater depth of empathy for other people with different body shapes and how that might be affecting the way they move the way they hold themselves. And since I had that surgery the last 12 months, I’ve come an awfully long way overcoming this postural strain, changing my posture.
One of the biggest changes for me that I have used with other people is that knowledge of your shoulders and you’re supporting your arms with your shoulder blades! That just wasn’t a possibility for me the way my body was structured before that surgery. So that allowed me to learn that piece of the puzzle, that your shoulder blades are holding your arms up.
Amazing number of connections you’ve been out with a make over the journey it’s fascinating, to unpack that little bit and hear how all the pieces of the puzzle have come together for you. I could visualize thumbing through your Pilates Diary and seeing lots of astericks beside the key information and lots of highlighters as well.
It’s a very long diary with plenty of golden nuggets. I think some of my favorites, I really like the concept of backing your client into a corner- putting your client into a position where their body moves in the way it’s designed to move. I will use that a lot- I’ll take my knowledge and I’ll put my client into a position that gives them the best chance of their body moving the way nature intended it to move. I’m a big fan of helping people to learn how their body’s supposed to move. For example, getting people breathing into their pelvis and getting them exhaling in such a way that their body teaches them what it feels like to activate your pelvic floor. That’s one of my favorites! Rather than saying to people do this to activate your pelvic floor, I would much rather have their body show them what it feels like to activate their pelvic floor and have their body show them what it feels like to activate your glute muscles. If you put them in a position where their body will move how it is intended to move, rather than taking my initial teaching, which was: " Lie in this position move like this"- and not really knowing why am I doing this?
I cringe to look back now and think " Yeah I didn’t really understand why I was telling people these things!" I knew it worked to a certain extent, but I didn’t really know why until I did the Diploma until I studied some of Eric Franklins work, until I studied the work of Thomas Hanna and the somatic therapists, bringing more pieces of the puzzle together. And I think it makes me a more efficient instructor, so I can straight away get my clients onto getting something out of their very first lesson so they’ll really take- like I’ve done- take ownership of their journey.
It’s a great place to be in the empowerment of what Pilates can help us with and impact in our bodies. Jen, I was curious to ask your thoughts on Joseph Pilates compiling his set of exercises. Do you feel like that’s a version of accelerating his client’s experiencing certain things in their body with the exercise selection or the exercise grouping that he put together through his life’s work.
I have to admit I’m not terribly knowledgeable about why he put his exercises together in the way that he did. What I do understand is he started with his Matwork and found that people were struggling. So he’d help people hold their legs up, for example, so that it made it easier for them. From there, he was able to design various pieces of equipment that took that job away from him and gave that job of supporting people’s bodies to the equipment.
Jen, can you share with us some of the people that you met along the way at this point and ongoingly with your Pilates that helped to shape your Pilates experience?
Pretty much everybody that I teach, everybody that has taught me- there’s been something to learn from everybody. I’ve learnt a lot when you see people struggle with something that you find easy, there’s something to be learned from that. There’s something to be learned from every Chiropractor, every Myotherapist, every Physio that I go and see for my own body. All the personal trainers that have had, all the Pilates instructors that have had, all the other student teachers that I’ve worked with. I just really enjoy geeking out with them all and learning from them. Everybody that I see that has anything to do with working with the body, I’m always talking to them and I’m always gaining a little bit of knowledge and watching people- watching how people move, watching how they hold themselves. And I like to teach my clients- from everything that I’ve learned is that we are stiff, tired, sore, have aches and pains, fatigue some injuries, some musculoskeletal damage in our middle age not because we’re middle-aged, but because of the way we habitually hold and move ourselves. I’ve learnt that through Somatics, I’ve learnt that through my own experience, I’ve learnt that through watching other people, I’ve learned that through everybody that I speak to. My clients say "I can’t do this because I’m getting old."
Generally these are the people around my age in the early fifties and I’ve not knowing why until now that it’s not aging- it’s why we hold and the why we move our bodies. So there’s been a few experts along the way that have given me lots of information, but everyone that I see, everyone that I speak to, there have just been little nuggets of information coming at me from all directions.
I think you can attribute that to the willingness, to have a growth mindset and to be constantly a student of life Jen, that no doubt holds you in great stead for continually growing as a teacher. Jen, was there a time when you knew you were getting hooked on Pilates? You’ve given us many different experiences, but was there one in particular where there was a hidden gem that you were beginning to find your participation in Pilates was something that you just couldn’t ignore, that had gotten under your skin and was an itch that you couldn’t resist in scratching.
I think it was way back in the beginning when I had had my three months of Pilates, thought I was fixed. Back to the gym, realized I wasn’t fixed- back to Pilates. I think that was when I was hooked from that moment on I’ve been living and breathing Pilates ever since!
Can you tell us about some challenges Jen, that you had at this stage in your Pilates progress- were there some factors that had you fall more deeply in love with Pilates, or were there some elements that you were finding perhaps were rubbing you up the wrong way? Some hidden conversations in the studios that you were attending or the industry at large that you didn’t like, or he didn’t feel aligned with?
The initial training that I did- I didn’t realize at the time that this was for group fitness Pilates, I didn’t understand the difference between group fitness Pilates, and I suppose you call it Clinical Pilates or Remedial Pilates. It served me okay in the beginning- I wanted that black and white approach- and my vision was to have a portable Reformer and take that to people’s homes. I thought everybody should know Pilates- why don’t they know Pilates is great. Everybody should be jumping at this opportunity to have someone come and bring a portable Reformer to their house. But I really struggled with how to get the message across to people of why they might want to do Pilates first of all and why they might want to do Pilates with me. I wanted more for my own teaching. Similarly to when I’d started as a personal trainer, I felt under-qualified and I felt disillusioned that I couldn’t get clients.
I felt disillusioned with the group fitness industry because- I wanted to teach classes, but I had young children and there were only certain places that would allow you to job share and work every second week- that sort of thing didn’t exist in the industry. By this stage in the gym industry, you didn’t go and work for a gym anymore, you went and hired space in a gym. I thought I can’t find a way to fit into this industry- what should I do? I thought of going back to generic group fitness and I did that for a little bit, but it was one class in this gym, one class in that gym running around all over the place, trying to fit that in around young children. I thought of becoming a Physiotherapist- by this stage, my kids were early teams. I thought, no, I don’t want to do that because that’s going to take my time on the weekends away from them. And this is the time that I want to be spending with them. The other option was the Pilates Diploma that was what I ended up choosing to do. When I first came to that the most confronting thing that I found was the world was no longer black and white. As I said before, I was always having discussions with the Osteos and Chiropractors that I went to see and I remember one Osteo saying to me, if you can’t say the word in greys- don’t work with the body. That and my experience with the first few weekends of the Diploma really rubbed me up the wrong way, really threw me for six. The way I came through it was to learn all the exercises on the different pieces of equipment to really dial into what is this exercise trying to achieve. Not what is the one thing that it’s trying to achieve- what are the different things you can achieve with this exercise? I came to the understanding that yes, things are grey, but there’s still a certain amount of black and white, because if I’m teaching someone to breathe then I choose the outcome that I want for them and I adjust the exercise to reach that outcome. For one person it might be learning to breathe into their rib cage- I have a way of doing that. For another person that might be learning to breathe down into their pelvic floor- I have a way of doing that. So there still is an element of black and white but there are many, many, many elements of black and white within each exercise. And I choose the outcome. I want for the exercise to match the person and then I choose the way I want to teach it to get to that outcome. No longer is it the black and white of the group fitness Pilates model of we’re doing footwork to strengthen our hamstrings- there could be many different reasons you might be doing footwork. It took me quite a long time to come to that realization and I had to go through the painful stage of " the world’s no longer black and white, that there are so many shades of grey" but I think in hindsight all of that makes me a better teacher.
It’s one of the intentions of the Pilates Diaries Podcast to share these sort of stories Jen, because I’m asserting that you’re not alone in having these experiences and by sharing your story, I think it’s going to be interesting for listeners to be able to relate to that and to be able to feel for themselves that Pilates does have a place in their life- it’s just a matter of taking the time to find what that is for oneself. So thanks for sharing.
I’ve spent a lot of time studying Eric Franklin’s work and I got to understand there is quite a lot of black and white. Your body’s designed to move in a certain way and studying Eric Franklin I got to understand how our body is designed to move- like how are your feet designed to move when you walk, how your thigh bones moves in your hip as you squat. Just knowing some of those things that are fact- they are black and white- it helps to know those things and it helps my engineering brain, logical brain to be able to bring those sort of things into my teaching so that if I’m giving somebody footwork on the reformer, then I can be cuing them for how I want their legs to move. There are still plenty of black and white things to be found to satisfy my logical mind.
What better pursuit than Pilates to find a perfect combination of the art and science of the way the human body works.
It fascinates me every day and there’s never not something new to learn. When I came to the Diploma, there was no end to this. My first training- was pretty much "Do this: course complete: off you go: teach your classes." Coming through the Diploma it’s a little bit like my engineering degree- here’s your background knowledge, now go and put that into practice. It’s close to 18 months since I finished the Diploma and I learn something new every day. I’m always trying out new exercises, walking around the house saying " Oh, wow! I didn’t know you could do that. I didn’t know the body did that. I’m going to go try that."
A lifelong journey of learning?
Yeah, it is! Keeps the brain active!
I think it’s worth acknowledging the persistence that you’ve shown up with Pilates that you knew was critical to stick at to have the breakthroughs for yourself transitioning from that disillusioned phase when there was many things that weren’t working for you to actually stick at it and really get to the point you are now, it sounds like you’re in a completely different place- so that’s really great to hear! Jen, I’m curious about that in relation to the next question is often at this stage, you’ve been in the game for long enough to be getting a really good feel for what Pilates entails and getting a picture of actually being in the game. Were you beginning to sense a little that the time was coming, that you’d have to turn more inwardly and perhaps it is the Somatic journey that you’ve ventured down- that would help to shape your involvement with Pilates, perhaps the process of determining if you were actually going to move forward with it or whether it was something you weren’t sure whether it was going to be for you. Of course, I’m assuming that where you are now, you’ve decided to move forward with it in a big way. Can you tell us what that turning point was for you?
When I came to the Diploma, or even what I started with my fitness Pilates journey, it was always something that if I never made a career out of it, never taught it, it was always something there for me. It was that valuable that no matter what I did with it, it was always going to be a very large part of my life. I was always going to live and breathe Pilates. Getting my Diploma, I really didn’t know where I was going to go with that. I’ve always had this idea that I didn’t want to teach group Pilates- I’ve done the group fitness thing and wasn’t really for me- I really wanted to work with people one-on-one because that’s where I felt the most benefit was going to come for my clients.
But after getting my Diploma it’s been a mixed bag because my style is more clinical I’ve been given classes and I’ve lost classes because I have a more clinical style. I also knew what I was never going to do was have a studio at home. But what I now have is a studio at home. I’m also doing a combination of zoom classes, and teaching classes at the gym so it’s been a mixed bag. With the Diploma, I don’t feel that lack of knowledge anymore- I feel like I really know what I’m talking about and really fit in to the industry and there’s really a place for me now.
That’s amazing to hear that progress- congratulations! Jen, were there some key factors that influenced you and determined this outcome and this breakthrough of finding yourself and finding your feet in Pilates and having the confidence to move forward with things like you would never have imagined having your own home studio. Also further from that was the experience one of triumph or relief or calm or peace, or even overwhelm of what you knew was still to come ahead of you?
Oh, there’s been lots of overwhelm! A lot of triumph, a lot of feedback that: " Yes, you are a good teacher, people love your classes!" And even little things like noticing getting some followers on Instagram, and I’m having people say: "Oh, I try your exercises and that really works!" Of course it does- it’s Pilates!
It’s simple to say that at this point in your experience.
I think what’s really settled me into the type of teacher I’m becoming and the type of teacher I want to become is the Somatic Movement Therapy- that’s been the biggest turning point. Again, so much more to learn, but it’s been so pivotal in my own journey and how I feel in my own body that it’s become a part of every class that I teach, whether it’s a group class or a one-on-one or two-on-one class, somewhere in there there’ll be an element of Somatics. I knew all along, as I said before, it’s not age that’s making us stiff in middle age- it’s the way we use or don’t use our bodies. I knew it was an excuse- I’ve had a baby or I’m 50, but learning about Somatics, learning more about the Franklin Method on top of Pilates and looking at Joseph Pilates himself, and he knew about Somatics- he didn’t call it Somatics but he knew about it and you look at how his body was in his eighties. And you think well is he can be like that in his eighties there’s no reason why the rest of us can’t. So since finishing the Diploma it’s the Somatic Movement Therapy that’s been the most pivotal change in my teaching style and where I want to go with my teaching.
Do you think that Somatics is a missing piece of the puzzle that doesn’t get promoted sufficiently in amongst Pilates training and the historical message of what Joseph Pilates was working on? Do you think the exercises essentially get pushed to the fore because they’re the most obvious things like do this exercise rather than the Somatic element? Or do you think that it just takes time and, inquiry and it’ll come eventually when you’ve been doing Pilates for long enough?
A quote that Joseph Pilates said that really cemented that idea for me, that Joseph Pilates did know about somatics- his quote "You have to learn how to tense your muscles if you want to really know how to relax"- and that’s part of Somatics so clearly it was a part of his teaching. We did learn about Somatics in the Diploma, but I didn’t understand what it was. It was only once I started to dial into the teaching that I understood what it really was. I think what Pilates suffers from just as much as any other form of physical fitness is: " What looks good?" If you go on Instagram or Facebook it is full of skinny, young, beautiful people doing amazing exercises, bending like pretzels, but we know that you can’t see Pilates- you can’t see Somatics because it’s working with the nervous system, working the little muscles that you can’t see. So I find it rather difficult to promote it from that point of view and I said earlier as a fitness Pilates instructor, I felt like I had to talk to people and tell people what Pilates was about and convince people to do Pilates that way. Now, I feel like if someone comes to me after seeing a little bit of information about what I do- I feel like Pilates and Somatics talk for themselves. I think it is unfortunate that the message does get a little bit lost and get a bit confused with what looks good. So yeah, I think the message of Somatics and Pilates gets a little bit lost because you can’t see it, but you can sure as hell feel it!
It has to be experienced to be believed sometimes I think, and that requires often a skilled practitioner to be able to deliver those sort of teachings because they are quite unique teachings- they are special the way that we, as skilled practitioners, can cut through and have that sort of information land with someone that they’re working with. I think that takes a lot of skill and refinement and takes some time to develop.
Definitely. I’m still very early in my journey as an instructor, but have been given a massive step up with the Diploma and with the people that I’ve been lucky to work with and the natural inquiring mind. I know that this is a journey I’ll be on for the rest of my life and I’ll never know everything and for once that doesn’t scare me- this excites me that there’s always more to be learned. And when I’m finished with Somatics- or when I’ve learnt as much as I want- then there’ll be something new to learn- whether it’s delving more into Franklin Method, whether it’s learning about Anatomy Trains- there’s always going to be something more that’s going to add to my teaching, but I feel I’ve come far enough to be doing a good job.
It sounds like you’ve really come to peace with the overwhelm that is potentially there- some way in the chaos of the middle of the journey.
Yeah and I think Pilates and Somatics have been the teacher in that regard on a n intellectual level as well as a physical level.
And that sums Pilates up so beautifully! Jen, what have been some of the changes in your body, your 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 that you’ve even managed to carry over into your day to day life, that you couldn’t have imagined where either possible before you started Pilates or couldn’t have imagined were possible during the time when you were wrestling with some of the things we’ve talked about.
In terms of physically, you can’t learn everything when you do a Diploma. There have been some gems that I’ve learned- the idea that we move from the inside of the body to the outside- we’re always wanting to be moving from the center of the body- I like to use that one a lot in my teaching. Spiritually, my biggest change was when I started doing some meditation and through Somatics I really feel like I’m connected to most parts of my body. Also having that breast reduction surgery really taught me to connect into the posterior of my body that was by having a larger chest there was really no hope for the back of my body to be able to do what it was designed to do with the extra weight that was pulling me forward.
It was constantly under load and didn’t know any other state than just being really active ongoingly.
Exactly and I suppose I didn’t really understand that fully until that weight was gone! When I had my breast reduction surgery I woke up the next morning and the scalenes which are the muscles in the front of your neck that had been on all the time to hold the weight up suddenly the pressure was taken off those muscles at the front of my neck and it’s been an amazing relief- and it’s been like that ever since! That was such a pivotal moment. I’d always thought I just need to straight through my back muscles, it’ll be fine but then I just got to the point where I felt like my skylines were holding me up all day long. And to have that pressure taken off has enabled me to do so much more- enabled me to develop so much strength in my back, strength in my neck, strength in my shoulders. That there was no hope for it before. And that’s taught me so much about how the shoulders work. That has given me the insight into other large chested women, how do they feel? it’s given me so much more knowledge around the shoulders and around how they work and around how the back works. Every day there’s something new that I learn- I’m blown away constantly by these new gems that Pilates and Somatics teach me every single day. It’s fascinating, it’s amazing for your own body to be able to go, wow, I could do a pike. I could never do that before I can do the tendon stretch- it makes me so happy.
It’s wonderful to hear of such a success and achievement and triumph in your progress with Pilates. And like you say the happiness- the "elevating your spirit"- we’re Joseph Pilates’ words.
Yeah. I think he was teaching along those lines as well. Again, not that I particularly know- I’ve spent more time experimented with my own body than I have studying other people’s writings. I’m much more kinesthetic than wanting to sit down and read somebody’s book.
Jen, where do you now sit with your Pilates? What does the future hold for you with Pilates in your life? What plans have you got in-store with your Pilates involvement?
My biggest plan at the moment is to extend my studio- it’s quite a small space at the moment and I can have one or maybe two people, but I can’t do much in the way of the type of videos that I’d like to be putting out for my clients and for Instagram so I need a bigger space and that’s been COVID that has brought that on. I still plan to teach a few gym based classes and start to look for more private clients – go and do little talks at Chiropractors or other places- give a little seminar on shoulder stability, or give a little seminar on some Somatic exercises. Start to get out into the community and let people experience what Pilates and Somatics is all about and hopefully gain some clients through that. At the moment I teach between three and five private clients a week and four group classes. I would like to have some more equipment- I’d like to have a ladder barrel so that needs that extra space. At the moment I’ve got my Wunda Chair, I’ve got a half Cadillac and Reformer and I’d love to have a little bit more equipment to be able to help just a couple more people.
I’m not looking to teach a lot of people. Every person that I teach that says: "That was fantastic- I feel so much better!"- even if it’s just one person that makes me feel great! I’m not looking to change the world- I’m looking to help a small number of people and make a big difference in a small number of people’s lives. And if I can have people have the sort of breakthroughs with their body that I’ve had with mine, then that’ll keep me happy. A lot of what I do is for my own personal learning and for the breakthroughs that it has in my body so if I can have my own Pilates journey to continue so I can keep rock climbing and snowboarding until I’m in my seventies, then I’ll be happy.
Sounds wonderful. Advice time- what do you wish you knew at the start of your journey that would have made the biggest difference to someone who might be either considering starting Pilates or is facing some of the struggles you did with your Pilates progress?
I’m not sure if the industry is a little bit different now, but those eighteen months/ two years that I spent on the couch, if someone had said to me: " Try Pilates" eighteen months earlier- that would have saved me a lot of heartache. I hope that Pilates has become more mainstream that people who are having the sort of body struggles that I had -give them the message maybe Pilates can help you give it a try.
Nice and simple. If we can keep broadcasting the benefits of Pilates I think that’s going to be benefit for the community at large.
Jen, thank you so much for your time on the call today. It’s been wonderful chatting with you. I think unpacking your story with the detail that we have today has been really valuable- so thank you so much. What is the best way for podcast listeners to get in touch with you?
My web page is pilates-somatics-byjen.com.au and on Instagram it’s pilates.somatics.by.jen
People can reach out and have a conversation with you through those channels- we’ll be dropping those in the show notes as well for those listening on the various podcast platforms. It’s been great chatting with you, Jen. Thanks again for your time.
Thank you, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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