Hi Lynda,

I would like to thank you SO much for your amazing Pilates youtube videos! I am from Melbourne, Australia and have been doing short Pilates workouts every day before work using your videos. I look forward to getting up in the morning and preparing myself for the day using Pelvic Stability and then your 10 minute Bikini body workout or the Core Exercises for Back, Abs and Shoulders. Today I tried exercising with the Ball and enjoyed rolling back and forth whilst activating my core muscles.

I have started out as a beginner, and because you explain everything in detail, I always feel aware of my positioning and can notice if I am doing anything wrong. I am also enjoying sounding smart to my friends and family when I can explain about how important Pelvic Stability is. heehee

My neck and shoulder pain has improved, (because of your videos on them ) and whenever I sense that my posture is out, out comes Youtube and your videos to align me correctly again!

If you have any videos or DVDs for purchase, please let me know, I would buy them in a heartbeat! If I lived in New York (or even came to visit) I would DEFINITELY come and have Pilates Sessions with you, you are AMAZING!!!

Keep up the good work!!

Nicole

One of the men replied, “I haven’t chosen this. If I had a place to sleep, I would sleep there. If you want to occupy my sidewalk, then let me go occupy your house.”

And suddenly I realized that this was my problem with everything I knew and saw about the Occupy movement.

Hubby and I moved back into lower Manhattan mid-occupation, and we live near the park. It was bad – filthy, smelly, and full of rats and roaches, especially at night. Lots of drugs, sex, and music (the STD clinics in our neighborhood were packed) made things seem like a strange cross between an urban carnival and a Grateful Dead concert. I tried to ask people what they were really fighting against (or for), and nobody had anything better to say than the general statement, “the rich have too much, banks are corrupt, and inequity sucks.” Well, welcome to life.

While they did spark a conversation that arguably needed to happen, Occupy managed to inconvenience the working 99% much more than the 1%. As for the representatives of the 1% who showed up in support, like Kanye West (famous for NOT supporting charities) and Russell Simmons, just the two of them could solve world hunger tomorrow and still have cash left over, but choose not to go there. When two businesses around the park and Wall Street closed due to lack of traffic, those owners, employees, and landlords were hurt. When the Port of LA closed, the companies were covered by their insurance policies. The workers and day laborers who couldn’t work and weren’t paid suffered along with their families. And when Occupiers threw buckets of human waste in the Chase ATM, did that hurt the CEO? No, but it certainly inconvenienced the poor workers who had to clean it up!

When will Ocuupy get it? Occupy has in many ways hurt the 99% that they profess to be fighting for more than the 1%! So tell us, Occupy, what’s your point? I, for one, would love to know.

Since I returned to NYC with all of it’s fabulous foods, I have lost all control over what, when, and how I eat. Seriously, I went from being a highly controlled and regimented eater to all over the place. Now instead of grabbing my quick yogurt, berries, and seeds bowl for breakfast I have choices, and not all of them are good. Bagels with cream cheese and lox? Cheese omelets with home fries and bacon? Waffles? Biscuits with sausage at Kitchenette? Even a good old Egg McMuffin can be great when you haven’t had one in years.

I find that when I am really busy, as I am this week, that things are even worse. I end up not eating at regular intervals and gorging myself when I do have food. Even worse, I eat lots of carbs and comfort foods because I get so hungry that I feel sick.

So I am partially writing this to kick myself in the but and start dealing with my food intake. One thing that worked for me in the past was to keep some nuts, protein bars, and cut up veggies with me at all times so I do not go more than a few hours without some high quality food. I’ll keep you posted!

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Not many people know this, but I actually learned how to play acoustic guitar from my third grade homeroom teacher, who was the music teacher. She taught us how to play Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive as our first major song project and my parents very lovingly took me to the local music store and bought me my own guitar!

Even to this day, I have special place in my heart for acoustic guitar, and especially great sounding instruments like rogue acoustic guitars. A well maintained and tuned acoustic guitar produces beautiful music.

Today I started thinking about how correct Joseph Pilates was when he said, “You are as old as your spine.” I see so many people almost crippled with bad back pain, and so many would feel better if they did even one hour a week of appropriate exercises like Pilates or kettlebell swings. A well maintained body produces great movement and function with no pain – it’s worth the effort!

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Over the past couple of decades I have built up a reputation as a very back-safe and back-friendly Pilates and Fitness teacher, so I was always amused when guests who didn’t know me would question the safety of certain modalities for their backs. One that consistently came up was the kettlebell general and the swing in particular. “My trainer told me to never work with kettlebells because I have a bad back and you swing them.” “Those swings look dangerous for the back.” “I can’t do that with my back.”

To which I would respond by first breaking down the swing into it’s component parts of squats with hip hinge and weight in heels, shoulder stability for a safe controlled swing, and core stability for a neutral spine position. Add in the cardio benefits and it is a perfect exercise for a “bad back”. And now I can add the esteemed Dr. Stuart McGill to the proponents of kettlebell swings.

McGill also found that the swing’s ballistic nature creates rapid pulses of muscle activity & that there is very little eccentric component because gravity assists in lowering the bell. This may be why we find that swings don’t produce as much soreness as, say a stiff leg deadlift. This also makes the kettlebell swing a great posterior chain power development exercise.

The forces on the spine were found to be modest & “probably not of clinical significance for the spine”. The one unique effect of kettlebell swings on the spine compared to squats & deadlifts is due to the inertia & centrifugal forces of the swing. This unique posterior shear force on the lower back may explain why some people who can squat & deadlift without complaint may get discomfort from swings. McGill goes on to say that lower back pain comes from movement flaws & correct kettlebell instruction for hip hinge & neutral spine, with maybe an intermediate exercise such as the kettlebell Romanian deadlift will prepare the spine for this unique feature of kettlebell swings.

Lastly, a feature of kettlebell swings which relates to our anecdotal evidence of people reporting reduced lower back pain after a period of kettlebell training is related to the rapid contraction-relaxation cycles of swings. McGill believes that this rapid switching from activation to relaxation acts to flush the lower back muscles with blood, clearing metabolites & therefore reducing lower back pain.

So not only does the kettlebell swing not hurt your back, it will actually strengthen your back and help alleviate back pain! Swing away!

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Related articles

• Kettlebells for Back Pain (fitnessdivablog.com)

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Since I have been back in the states I realize how important it is to carry business cards at all times. In Turks and Caicos it wasn’t as crucial, since people weren’t used to accruing paper. And I don’t even think anyone printed plastic business cards on island, so you never saw one of those.

I chose some very sweet Moo Mini Cards, which take up very little space but have all of my important information on them. Now I just have to remember to take them with me when I go out.

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Today I sat with one of my Pilates cohorts at Real Pilates and our GM and learned how to do metabolic testing with a Body Gem device. We have a registered dietician on staff who can then help people tweak their diets to gain or lose weight, and of course have wonderful resistance exercise in the form of Pilates with springs, TRX suspension training, and some kettlebell training. I was tested today as part of a training session, and my metabolism is so much higher than I thought it was.

My regular readers probably know that I lost a lot of weight in the past year, and gained some back since returning to NYC and lots of good food. But I have so much muscle that underneath the fat that I have gained to be able to require a minimum of 1930 calories a day to simply stay alive at rest. I packed on this muscle doing Pilates, TRX, and kettlebells. And what these have in common is resistance, whether from body weight against springs, suspended body weight against gravity, or swinging a heavy kettlebell.

So my bones are strong, my muscles are strong, and my core and lower back are strong (no herniated disc surgery for me) – and  I have herniated discs!

So why is Poolates (yes, that’s Pilates in the Pool) not the same? Very simply, Joseph Pilates created his exercise system with gravity in mind, and in water we weigh less (which is why we float). This is why there is an entire part of the water and pool fitness industry devoted to different gloves and fins that will increase the amount of water resistance. Pilates created floor work in order to creatively use gravity as resistance, and the springs offer resistance or assistance as required. This is simply not possible in a pool. And it is the resistance that is the work.

Related articles

• Pilates Exercises for Osteoporosis (everydayhealth.com)

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As a Pilates studio owner you may feel as though inventory is not that important, especially if you do not carry an retail sale items. But it is just as important to track your Pilates equipment, including small items like bands, hand weights, and pillows, rings, and other small props. This is where inventory labels can come in handy, so you have a visual reminder.

Since I have no silver bars to sell, I started to look at different opportunities, including one in a “Big Box” gym. The gym is interesting. The hourly rate is definitely lower, but they offer a more guaranteed steady client pool and solid benefits. Now I just have to crunch numbers and decide. I suppose it could be worse! At least I have several opportunities to choose from.