About Pilates

Tapping into the body's Design...

When I took my first mat pilates class at the gym, I didn’t think it was doing much as exercise. I just kept going because my body felt so good afterwards.

A few weeks later a friend asked me, “What have you been doing? You look great?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I just went back to the gym.”

So in the beginning of my pilates journey, I just took this class that felt kind of like a movement massage and got a new waistline as a side effect.

After training to teach yoga, I wanted to add pilates to my offerings and Stott Pilates satisfied my intellectual need to learn more about anatomy and biomechanics.

Stott Pilates is a contemporary approach to the exercises that were first developed by Joseph Pilates during WWI to rehabilitate prisoners of war in Europe.

Pilates later moved to New York, opened a studio, and trained Martha Graham’s dancers in the method.

The Stott method is safe, careful and effective, but I found it difficult to get students to adhere to strict alignment rules of the discipline.

Learning about the fascial system’s application to pilates felt like blasphemy at first. But eventually I started to see how the lines help me to see the Stott principals differently.

Fascia is the body’s connective tissue. It is a tensile force, creating strength through proper movement patterns. It is also a tensile communication system allowing muscles to work together in a coordinated way when the system is connected properly.

It gave me new references for when a client was in good alignment for that body. And it gave me an understanding of how the exercises help to improve alignment through the doing of the exercises.

A pilates session will include the vast array of exercises and modification provided in my Stott training, but with eye for the fascial connections and cuing that helps cultivate those connections.

I am certified in Stott Pilates, both mat and equipment exercises. I am also certified in traditional Vinyasa Krama Yoga.

I trained extensively with Karin Locher founder of UK-based Contrology Pilates Method, in the application of the Anatomy Trains fascial system to pilates. I also did the human dissection Anatomy Trains workshop with Tom Myers, the system’s developer.