There is a powerful but secret thing that: 1. never goes out of style, 2. instantly up-levels one’s appearance, 3. helps energy flow, 4. promotes better breathing, 5. is always underestimated, 6. money can’t buy, yet 7. all of the great beauties of the world have it. What is it? Good posture…that’s organic. Good posture is proper body alignment where a nice and clean plumb line runs down from the crown of the head, through the middle...
The British government, during World War II, created a poster that read KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. It was intended to boost the morale of the British citizens and was widely distributed via newspapers back in the day. We still come across this saying today on throw pillows and memes, and often times, the traditional saying is altered a tad to things like, “Keep Calm and Buy the Bag” or “Keep Calm and Call Your Mother.” It’s fun...
In the US, Labor Day weekend is upon us. Monday (Labor Day) is commonly a day off, and it’s known as the summer’s send off, where people barbecue, lounge by the pool or kick back at the beach. Ironically, it’s about not laboring. It has occurred to me that I’ve never ever had an un-laborous Labor Day weekend. It has always felt unsettled as it is a major cusp, where some things are leaving and new things are coming. There’s a subtle panic of,...
I advise not labeling your fitness level, or anybody else’s for that matter. What’s “beginner” anyway? Someone could have been taking Pilates class for years and still call themselves a beginner. And what does “advanced” mean? I had a legit professional cyclist take my class last week. He raced in the Tour de France and had big sponsorship from a bike manufacturer, but he struggled to sit cross-legged at the starting line of yoga. Fitness...
If you were to imitate Grace Kelly, the late actress and former princess of Monaco, one of the first things you’d do is bring your shoulder back and down. No one would tell you to bring your shoulders back and down, you’d just take on that alignment quality because it’s a cornerstone of great posture and connotes regality. Grace Kelly was queen of shoulders back and down and famous for her outstanding posture and alignment. “Shoulder back and...
Pilates Fusion has arrived, and it’s the type of workout I teach regularly. It’s effective, it feels good, and it works for just about every body. The Pilates Method is a series or exercises, but it is also a way of looking at the physical body in both a zoomed out/big picture way, and in a zoomed in/micro-focused way. The goal of Pilates is better-ing the body. That includes better body awareness, better movement control, better balance and...
There’s a lot of talk these days about the nervous system and for good reason. We live in a hectic world and our nervous systems are constantly put to the test. I think many of us “soldier on” day after day and never care for our nervous systems. Why is this? For one, because our society indirectly rewards the “type-A go-go-go” personality, making a jacked up nervous system seem like a positive thing. And two,...
When I was in my twenties, and completely clueless about bone health, I trained an opera singer, who was in her sixties. To this day, she’s the most disciplined person I have ever been around. In order to perform at such a high level, and keep her voice in tip top shape, she was all in. She fastened a silk scarf around her neck to keep her throat warm! She traveled a ton, but whenever...
“A boat in the harbor is safe, but in time its bottomwill rot out.” – H. Jackson Brown The older I get the more spiritual I feel about the human body. I mean, just wow…what a divinely designed masterpiece, right? We’re lucky to have a body and even when a part of it is injured or out of whack, it’s important to remember there are millions of other parts in perfect flow. An especially vulnerable part of the body is our knees....
Every form of martial art, whether it’s karate of jujitsu, integrates. It integrates the muscles of the body, and it integrates body and mind. I’ve always admired martial artistry and it’s, without a doubt, mindful movement, but with a fighting spirit thrown into the mix. Fusion Kick is this month’s new workout, now streaming on Let’s Move! I’ve wanted to offer a 30minute, modern, non-hyper tae bo-type class for a long time, and Phoenix is seriously the most perfect instructor for...
