Tag Archives: education

Are you a Pilates grunter?

Are you a Pilates grunter?

www.pilatesevo.com

In a week dominated by “that” Puppy Pilates video (has the world really gone that mad?) I noticed another news story about celeb Kate Hudson and the fact that she isn’t afraid to grunt whilst doing Pilates.

Kate is well-known for being a lover of Pilates, and the story got me thinking about the effects of grunting during exertion. Am I sure that you have experienced this in Pilates classes and we are all familiar with grunts on the tennis court. So is there any scientific evidence?

Of course there is! Researchers in past studies have looked at the effects of making noise during workouts, with two of the most notable cases being a 2014 study (The Effects of “Grunting” on Serve and Forehand Velocities in Collegiate Tennis Players: O’Connell, Dennis G.; Hinman, Martha R.; Hearne, Kevin F.; Michael, Zach S.; Nixon, Sam L.) examining tennis players and a 2015 study (Effect of Vocalization on Maximal Effort Dynamic Muscle Performance: Sinclair Smith and Justin Smith) dealing with jumping distances. In both cases, results showed that grunts and groans boosted athletes’ physical performance.

“Most investigators believe that the deep breath with the momentary breath hold actually helps to stabilize the spine during heavy efforts,” Dennis G. O’Connell, PhD, lead researcher of the tennis study explained. The sound-emitting portion of the breath cycle comes from exhaling, and the whole process contributes to a controlled breathing pattern. “This serves to protect the athlete from injury, and subsequently provides a stable base of support for a powerful effort.”

From a scientific standpoint, the grunting noise is made as we exhale against a closed, or partially closed, vocal fold. The vocal folds, or vocal cords, refer to the two bands of muscle tissue that open into the windpipe. The vocal folds are open and relaxed when we breathe in, sometimes producing a rushing noise. But when the vocal folds close as we exhale you might going to hear some turbulence. Some experts say that we get an extra Ooomph by grunting that is probably related to a communication signal from the part of the brain that controls breathing to the part that controls muscle function. When we forcefully push air out, the brain sends information down to the muscles, which either excites muscle groups or decreases inhibition — or both. The result might be enhanced performance.

Because making noises can be so beneficial, some trainers encourage it during their sessions with clients. I have also heard it said that making noise helps students channel their frustration or pain in a helpful way and remain focused.

Of course on the flip side is that particularly noisy clients can be a big distraction for other people trying to focus in a Pilates class.

Personally, I do not encourage grunting to the PilatesEVO students and trainers here in Barcelona as for Pilates I do not think it is appropriate, necessary or conducive for the correct form. So are you a Pilates grunter? What is your experience and opinion? Are you a Pilates grunter? Do you encourage or discourage grunting, or do you not mention it at all? Have you had a particularly noisy client and if so, how did you deal with the situation? Please let me know by emailing me at chris@pilatesevo.com.

Study NLP and MEDITATION WITH PilatesEVO Online

Study PilatesEVO Online

www.pilatesEVO.com

The PilatesEVO Online School gives access to everyone who wants to study with us. We offer online courses that can be studied where and when you choose.

PilatesEVO NLP
The connection between PilatesEVO and NLP is a very important part of the PilatesEVO system.

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication, personal development, and psychotherapy. There is a connection between the neurological processes, language, and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life.

NLP was created by Richard Bandler, a mathematics student, and John Grinder, a linguistics professor at the University of California in 1972. Since then other people have added their own techniques and ideas, and NLP has grown globally, but PilatesEVO is the first Pilates system that uses NLP as the foundation for learning and teaching.

The name NLP is quite self-explanatory:

Neuro or neurology is to do with the study of the nervous system and of the mind. It’s all about how we think and also about our physiology.

Linguistics is all about the study of language and how we use it and its effects on us and others.

Programming is about the sequence of actions that we take and the order we take them. Why we do and think the way we do, and how we get ourselves out of bed and motivated to do the things we want to do.

There are 7 main reasons why we use NLP in PilatesEVO:

1) It will make you/your client understand Pilates movements more easily
2) It will give you/your client more enjoyment in classes
3) It will enable you/your client to get more benefit from Pilates classes
4) It will enable you to become the best communicator that you can, and deliver information more effectively
5) It will enable you to understand your and your client’s needs and requirements
6) It will enable teachers to engage with all their clients including groups
7) It will help you in your everyday life to understand yourself and achieve the things you want to achieve.

A really important aspect of PilatesEVO’s use of NLP are representational systems. This is a simple thing to determine but is incredibly powerful and will help you understand yourself and your clients if you are a teacher. This is priceless because it will enable you to become a better communicator with everyone in your life, including yourself.

You can read more about Pilates and NLP by CLICKING HERE.

Pilates and Meditation

We believe that meditation should not be accepted a being a spiritual belief, but it also requires hard scientific evidence. We teach that the best way to live our lives is to be in the present moment, and not being lost in thought about the past, or worrying about the future, not being distracted or overwhelmed by difficult emotions. Instead learning how to be in the here and now, how to be mindful and how to be in the present. It sounds so ordinary and easy, but the truth is that it is anything but ordinary.

A few years ago a research paper from Harvard concluded that our minds are lost in thought almost 47% of the time. This constant mind wondering is also one of the main causes of unhappiness. Our lives are short, so to spend almost half of our life lost in thought and potentially unhappy is tragic, especially when there is something we can all do about. There is a positive, practical and scientifically proven technique which allows our mind to be healthier and less distracted. Even better news is that this need only take only 10 minutes a day and it is free! It can have a massive impact on our whole life.

Most people assume meditation is about controlling the mind, but this is not the case. It is about stepping back and seeing the thought and emotions clearly, witnessing them coming and going with a relaxed focused mind.

But we need to know how to do it. Mindfulness meditation is essentially familiarising ourselves with the present moment. So how can we approach it in the right way to best the best out of it?

So what is meditation?

One definition is:
Meditation is a practice of concentrated focus upon a sound, object, visualization, the breath, movement, or attention itself in order to increase awareness of the present moment, reduce stress, promote relaxation, and enhance personal and spiritual growth.

The definition that PilatesEVO teach is that meditation is making the gaps in-between our thoughts longer.

In his book A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle says that the space between thoughts probably arise sporadically. Why we have not been aware about these spaces is because our consciousness had been so mesmerized by experienced and conditioned to identify with form that it does not become aware of inner space. You may be tempted to look for the Gap. However, you will not be able to seek for space; it just arises.

“Discover inner space by creating gaps in the stream of thinking. Without those gaps, your thinking becomes repetitive, uninspired, devoid of any creative spark, which is how it still is for most people on the planet.”

Eckhart Tolle suggests breath meditation to help bring space into our lives. When we become conscious of our own breath, we are absolutely present. Conscious breathing stops the process of thinking. But we are not asleep in this state. We are fully awake. Meditation offers the arising of space consciousness.

In Deepak Chopra’s book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, he talks about the Gap under the Law of Intention and Desire. Deepak shared that intention has an infinite organizing power. “Intention lays the groundwork for the effortless, spontaneous, frictionless flow of pure potentiality seeking expression from the unmanifest to the manifest.”

He then went on to outline the steps for manifesting our desires and getting them fulfilled in 5 steps. Here is the exact excerpt, making up the steps for 1 & 2:

(1) Slip into the gap. This means to centre yourself in that silent space between thoughts, to go into the silence – that level of Being which is your essential state.

(2) Establish in that state of Being, release your intentions and desires.

When you are actually in the gap, there’s no thought, there’s no intention, but as you come out of the gap at the junction between the gap and a thought, you introduce intention. If you have a series of goals, you can write them down and have your intention focused on them before you go into the gap. If you want a successful career, for example, you go into the gap with that intention, and the intention will already be there as a faint flicker in your awareness. Releasing your intentions and desires in the gap means planting them in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, and expecting them to bloom when the season is right. You do not want to dig up the seeds of your desires to see if they are growing, or get rigidly attached to the way in which they unfold. You simply want to release them.

We hope that Meditation Explained has given you a basic understanding about meditation, so that now you want to learn more. Now CLICK HERE to learn more.

As part of our commitment to the Pilates Carnival Foundation, we also offer some sponsored educations. Pilates Carnival was created to raise money for charity and give access to training to more Pilates teachers who may not be able to afford the usual cost. There are Pilates Carnival conventions all over the world where all profits go to a local children’s charity. No presenters or organisers make any money, and the cost for attending a weekend event with a full schedule of classes from international presenters is typically around 50€ to 100€. If you want to apply for a sponsored education, then please email us at pilatesEVOschool@pilatesevo.com. You will need to provide a covering presentation as to why you should be considered for sponsorship.

For more information on how to study PilatesEVO online and all our PilatesEVO online school courses, please click on the PilatesEVO School web page.

Every journey starts with an intention, and the first step. You are about to take your first step on the journey to become part of the PilatesEVO family.

www.pilatesEVO.com

Pilates: Mental Illness, Robin Williams and Ignorance

Robin Williams Chris Hunt Pilates

www.chrishuntwellness.com

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I feel very passionate about mental illness and its link with physical fitness. If this topic interests you, then you can read Let’s talk about depression: Is it Real?, Depression: Positive Thinking, and Exercise is only one part of Total Fitness.

As I said in a previous blog, “If you know someone who is suffering from depression, don’t judge or offer them advice. They don’t need that and it doesn’t help. They need your understanding and support. Question is, can you give them only that?”

My father died whilst suffering from Alzheimer’s. “Dementia: I lost my father, don’t lose yours” was the hardest post I have ever written. So it’s with interest that I have been watching the media following the tragic death of Robin Williams.

The increasing number of public figures who are having to apologise for comments they made in the past few days clearly shows the absolute and total ignorance some people have when it comes to depression. There is no excuse, no excuse to make such stupid comments, especially when you are in a position where some misguided people may actually listen to you and take your words for the truth.

Rock star Gene Simmons has apologised about his “spur of the moment” remarks about people who suffer from depression. The Kiss singer and bassist sparked outrage after saying he is “the guy who says ‘Jump'” to those who are suicidal. He is quoted as also saying that his advice was that if you are depressed you should “kill yourself”.

Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda has quit Twitter following the abuse she got from followers. People were telling her that her Dad was selfish and a coward to kill himself. Fox News TV anchor Shepard Smith sparked criticism after also suggesting the actor was a “coward” to kill himself. Meanwhile TalkSport in the UK has apologised after its radio presenter Alan Brazil said he had “no sympathy” for suicide.

All of these people have now apologised of course, no doubt worried about their ratings and future job prospects, but I have little doubt that their first words were the true way they feel about depression. And that worries and scares me in equal measures.

Make no mistake, anyone who thinks that Robin Williams is a coward or that he is selfish, or that suicidal people should “jump”, have a serious problem. These people should go educate themselves about depression and think before they make totally ignorant statements. I am serious. If there is even 10% of your mind that when reading this is thinking “they should pull themselves together” then please read my blog articles above and then go educate yourself because you are misinformed.

In my blog today I want to ask you to share your opinions and experience with clients who suffer from depression. Many distinguished Pilates teachers say that Pilates can help people suffering from depression. Pilates without doubt helps to relax the mind and energise the body, gives body awareness, can improve self-image and has meditative qualities if taught in the correct way. I found meditation after my own personal experience with depression, and this is why I travelled to Bangkok to study meditation in a Buddhist monastery. This is also why in my Pilates system Pilates EVO, I integrated mindfulness meditation. When I am travelling the world to train new Pilates EVO teachers, this is one of my favourite parts of the education because most teachers have little or no experience of meditation, and at first some find the whole concept very difficult to grasp.

Meditation is becoming more and more acceptable and proven in Western medicine as a treatment for depression. There are many books on the market, but one of my favourites is The Mindful Way Through Depression. Click on the picture below to read more.

Thank you Robin Williams for all the joy you bought into this world. You will be missed. I hope that your torment will continue to bring the debate about depression to a wider audience, and I hope that more and more people will gain a greater understanding.

In the U.S.: If you are contemplating attempting suicide, there are people who can help. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

In the U.K.: For confidential support call the Samaritans  on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch

Chris is an international Pilates and functional training presenter and educator based in London and Barcelona, Spain. He is the creator of Pilates EVO©, bodyFUNC©, and CEO of Pilates Rehab Limited and Sport Core Strength.  He also created Pilates Carnival and Fitness Carnival, conventions where all profits go to local children’s charities. He organises fitness holidays and sports holidays in Barcelona, as well as retreats. For more information about training with Chris in Barcelona, please click on Barcelona Bienestar. To learn more about Chris, please read Just who is Chris Hunt anyway? You can also subscribe by completing the form on the this BLOG to receive articles and special offers straight to your inbox.

Chris pays all profits made from this BLOG to his charity partners. More details can be found by clicking on www.chrishuntwellness.com and selecting the “charity partners” tab.