Pilates for Men? Ex-England football captain Steven Gerrard says yes!
I have not written a post about Pilates and men for a while (to read my previous articles please search for “men” using the search bar on the left), so I was very happy to read this weekend that Steven Gerrard, the current Liverpool Football Club Captain and until recently England Captain does Pilates regularly to keep himself in shape.
If you are a regular reader of my blog then you will know that I do everything I can to promote Pilates for men because as we all know, there are still not enough men doing Pilates regularly. There is of course no good reason why this is the case, so anything that might encourage men to take up Pilates is in my opinion worth writing about and worth sharing. A top footballer is therefore a good subject to write about and to tell clients about.
I have people come to Barcelona from all over the world for my Barcelona Bienestar fitness and sports holidays, and a good proportion of these are men who want to improve their performance, so the word is getting out there.
At 34, Gerrard is considered to be a veteran footballer and even now doubts are being raised as to how many more seasons he might have at the highest level. He explains that having the correct fitness routine is ‘key’ to him being able to perform each week.
“If I am playing Saturday to Saturday, managing my workload during the week is key. When I’m training off the pitch I normally do three weight sessions each day to improve my upper-body strength and one working on my lower body to improve leg strength. I also do two core or Pilates sessions to increase my flexibility. On the pitch I train for an hour and a half each day. That includes drills, ball-work, cardio and a lot of running.”
Once again a varied training routine that includes Pilates is the best solution.
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.
Should Pilates make you sweaty? Melanie Griffith has an opinion
I wrote yesterday about hot Pilates and yoga (Hot Pilates and yoga: Is it just a lot of hot air?), but today I want to ask another question about getting sweaty and today it’s nothing to do with high temperatures in the room.
It’s Friday so I have that Celebrity feeling again, my compromise after a week of serious blogs. I have explained before that I am not obsessed with celebrity. I have never bought Hello Magazine. What I am obsessed with is Pilates. And whilst not every one agrees, it’s my opinion that if someone starts Pilates because their friend, neighbour, sporting hero or favourite celebrity does Pilates, then why not?
I’ve had comments about glamorising Pilates, about how privileged celebrities are, about creating false hope, about living on a different planet… Whilst I always respect the opinion of everyone, it is my humble opinion that these people are missing the point of my posts and they are taking everything a little too seriously. All I am doing is raising the awareness of Pilates. If you do not or can not understand that, then I am sorry for wasting your time and please do not read my blog today! 🙂
The media reported this week that Melanie Griffith “proved she was putting plenty of effort into improving her mental and physical well being on Wednesday afternoon when she stepped out with sweat-soaked hair following an intense Pilates class. The Working Girl actress showcased her gym-honed shape as she left her class looking exhausted behind her shades as she left the Los Angeles session.”
Melanie has her Pilates sessions with Mari Winsor, a famous celebrity trainer in the US who studied with Romana. Melanie boasted on Twitter about her Pilates instructor later that day: ‘Check out my gorgeous kick ass Pilates instructor @mariwinsor. She rocks!!!’ Clearly she is very happy with the exercise she is getting.
Whilst her “sweat-soaked hair” maybe more as a result of a shower after the session, for the media to infer that people do and should leave a Pilates session looking exhausted and very sweaty is not a general image of Pilates that I endorse. Whilst everyone sweats to varying degrees depending on many different factors, my general question to you today is how sweaty do you make your clients and do you agree that Pilates should make them very sweaty?
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.
Olympic snowboarder’s rehabilitation creates a new Pilates teacher
We all know that Pilates is great for rehabilitation from many different injuries and conditions.
I love a happy ending. Some people have accused me of being negative in some of my articles (it’s impossible to please everyone and of course when reaching such conclusions, people are often reflecting their own negativity). Life is not always fluffy and sunny, there are sometimes difficult issues that I feel need to be discussed and not avoided: not because I like negativity, but because I am not afraid to speak my mind and debate issues that others may rather avoid.
In fact I am a very positive person. I practise mindfulness meditation and I am Buddhist. So back to my blog today, which is about two of my very favourite things in the world: Pilates and snowboarding. One of the reasons that I moved to Barcelona was because it is very close to the Spanish Pyrenees.
Today I want you to know about the Olympian who broke her back attempting a snowboard jump, spent four years in rehabilitation, found Pilates, and now she’s a Pilates instructor.
Steph Prem had one bad jump in the World Cup finals in Italy in 2010 changed the Olympian snowboarder’s life forever. The 24-year-old from Melbourne fractured vertebrae, compressed discs, dislocated her hip, broke five ribs and tore her pelvis and hamstring. She is now 29, and having had to give up her snowboarding career she discovered Pilates and teaches others from her own studio.
During her rehabilitation she finally accepted that she would never snowboard competitively again but by then she had gained a love of Pilates throughout her long and arduous road to recovery. She tried everything for her constant pain including Valium, spinal cortisone injections and nerve ending operations but nothing worked.
After much trial and error, it was a combination of both traditional methods along with alternative measures that has worked for her. She says ‘I had to try a lot of different things and be open-minded to a lot of different treatments because I was finding I was in a lot of pain for a long time and not a lot was helping.’
But it wasn’t until she tried Pilates three years ago that she discovered exercises she could do without experiencing any pain. After that she says that her quality of life improved out of sight. ‘It completely changed my whole way of being because before the accident I was addicted to daily exercise as a professional athlete but I lost that with my injury,’ she said. ‘I had been so limited and restricted in what I could do that it was so awesome to discover Pilates because a lot of the work was protected using the machinery. But also the lower deeper intrinsic work that I was doing gave me back that daily outlet and there was so much I could achieve,’ she said. ‘It gives you strength from the inside out – it helped me massively mentally and physically because I could do something again.’
Whilst my own story is nothing as extreme as Prem’s, my journey of acute back pain due to a spinal condition I was born with to marathon runner, amateur snowboarder, surfer and most importantly professional Pilates presenter, does have some similarities as Pilates was the rehabilitation technique that also changed my life. This is why I will always be so passionate about it (read more about Pilates EVO from the heart).
I created Pilates Rehab Limited in the UK to give easy access to a range of people who want and need professional Pilates services they can trust and rely on. Still to this day nothing gives me more satisfaction that knowing that I am helping too provide people with the means for them to take responsibility for their rehabilitation and improve their quality of life. I also love to work with sportsmen and women in the UK and in Barcelona.
I am very interested to hear your personal stories of your own rehabilitation thanks to Pilates or those of your clients. The more we can share experiences and raise awareness, the more people we can help to help themselves to a better quality of life.
That was a happy ending and a positively sunny blog for a Monday.
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.
Before I begin, how many song titles did you get in my post last week?
Today I want to write about how we perceive ourselves, and how we present ourselves to others.
Social media and online dating has given us previously unknown ways to present ourselves to the world, and it fascinates me how some people do it. Maybe in a simple picture we can see how an individual portrays them self, what they think defines them.
For example, Tinder Man has recently had a lot of publicity. If you do not know what Tinder is, it’s a simple dating app where you are matched with people close to you by using a very simple set of criteria, and whether you accept the matches is pretty much determined by one picture and a simple swipe left for no or right for yes. Tinder Man has become famous by copying in his own style some of the funnier pictures that people use. And believe me people use very funny pictures of themselves. But it’s not just the strange pictures that people choose that I find interesting. I think it can be pertinent when people use pictures of their children, friends or their pets. As a way to introduce yourself to a potential partner, I think that a picture of anything or anyone that is not you is a rather interesting statement to be making to the world about yourself.
People define themselves by using very different things. It can be their children or dog, or it can be a club they support, a pop star they idolise, and sometimes by their partner. I am not criticising anyone, all I am suggesting is that my profile on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is my profile, so why would I use for my profile picture anything other than a picture of me? That’s not being conceited or ostentatious, it’s simply my profile. My passport does not have a picture of a dog. 🙂
Whilst you will tell that I’m not being totally serious about the profile picture discussion, I have said before that for me the important question is “am I someone” not “am I with someone”. I meet a lot of people and I know lots of people are with someone, but I’m not sure they are someone.
Those immortal words uttered by Tom Cruise “you complete me” only serve to perpetuate the popular myth many people have that we need someone or something else to somehow complete us. Of course this is not and never can be true. The only person or thing that can “complete” us is our-selves. Even Kung Fu Panda learnt this with the Dragon Scroll that contained the secret of limitless power being a reflection of himself. Any other “fix” is a temporary band-aid to try to cover our inadequacies or issues. As we know, after a few showers, a band-aid will lose its adhesive and fall away to leave exposed the wound we are trying to hide, and so it is in relationships as well.
It also interests me how we create an image of our life using social media which is not always a true reflection of the life we are living, it’s only a glimpse. Often it an image of the life we want to have, but is not always the real life we are living. Of course it’s true as well that for every picture we post on Instagram, we live through 10,000 other life experiences that we chose not to share with the world. Would be get so many hits if we posted a picture of us crying or feeling sad, bored or lonely? No, let’s go for the one of us on holiday holding a cocktail and laughing with friends on the beach.
Talking about online image, having just flown from Barcelona to London, it always makes me smile at airports to see people standing next to the VIP lounge so they can post and tag themselves as being in that lounge. But then again, it’s also a little sad when people who are actually in those lounges post their location as some sort of status symbol? Well I’m here to tell those people that you are impressing no one, and if by chance someone is impressed, then they are probably not worth impressing.
People have lost their job, not new jobs, lost relationships and much more seriously caused upset and even suicide by using social media. Some people have also met their partner and shared a lot of love and happiness with their pictures.
We have power at our finger-tips like never before. I hope we use it wisely for good, never forgetting who we are.
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.
I do not go looking for controversy, but I am not afraid to speak my mind either, and after all that is what a blog should be for. I certainly do not write articles to create animosity or bad feeling, so please understand that before you read this article or comment upon it. I write from my own opinion, so obviously you might think me right or wrong depending on your own opinion, but we all have the right to our opinion. I respect yours, so please respect mine.
With that said I want to talk about Pilates and dance. We all know that Joseph Pilates was not a dancer, and that in his early days he did not work to any great extent with dancers. It was opening his studio next door to the New York City Ballet that really began the love affair between Pilates and dance, and that affair is still going strong today.
We also all know exactly why Pilates is so suited to dancers so it is not my intention to discuss that here today. What I want to talk about is not so much how much Pilates has influenced dance and dancers, but how much dance and dancers are influencing Pilates.
I know many wonderful Pilates teachers who are former dancers, some of who were integral in my first Pilates experiences and my decision to become a Pilates professional. What concerns me are presenters who are turning Pilates into dance choreography. This means that I come across Pilates teachers who have only ever trained with certain presenters so their idea of Pilates is clearly and fundamentally influenced by dance.
So how should the Pilates method be taught to new teachers?
Everybody has their own individual take on our beloved system, me included (see Pilates EVO: From the Heart). I respect everyone’s ideas, and many of those individual “takes” are wonderful and enhance the experience. But for me the basic principles are sacrosanct and so is a more classical grounding. I only teach Pilates EVO to teachers who are already fully qualified. I see it as an add-on to people’s fundamental knowledge, not the starting point.
I do not think it is good that people do not experience fundamental training and then different types of Pilates, so they can understand that different presenters do sometimes have very different interpretations of the method. I see conventions year after year that feature the same list of presenters, and whilst I am not questioning the value of anyone’s integrity, ability, knowledge or professionalism, in my opinion that can continue to perpetuate the insular beliefs and experiences in some teacher’s minds about what Pilates is.
So what is your opinion about Pilates and dance? Do you agree that there is some truth in what I say, or is your opinion different? I would love to know, so please share.
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.
When we create something ourselves, it can be a difficult step to share our creation with the world. What will people think? Will they like it? Will they criticize or praise? Will it be a success? I have always followed the words of Aristotle, who famously said, “there is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing”.
When I was young, I suffered from a lot of back pain. I was born with a spine defect and that led to poor posture which made my problem worse. Hours spent playing sports and practising the piano further added to my problems. I tried many things to help, but Pilates was the thing that really changed my life. It enabled me to live a full life, to run marathons, to snowboard, surf, play golf and never think twice about my back before trying something new. From that day forward, I had a passionate belief that Pilates could help many people improve their quality of life.
In the early days, whilst still practising and studying Pilates I was worked in the City of London as an Insurance Manager. I continue to this day working as a Senior Business Consultant so my life has an excellent balance.
I travelled the world teaching Piates and learning (we never stop learning, and anyone who says any different is very sadly mistaken). As well as Pilates, I was interested in kundalini and other methods of functional training. I also developed a deep love of meditation which took me to the Buddhist Temples of Thailand. Whilst there, I also discovered and studied meridians, becoming qualified in Thai Massage. It was not just the body that interested me. I had always been interested in psychology, in what I saw as “total fitness”. I studied Buddhist psychology and other modern concepts such as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP).
As I travelled teaching Pilates, within my subconscious there was a seed that was growing, an idea that I could use all my knowledge to create a different type of Pilates that reflected the ancient and modern. I am classically trained, and it pains me to see some of the new systems that claim to be “Pilates” when they are clearly nothing of the sort. So I took my time to think about how my new system could stay true to the principles of Pilates, to my principles, but how I could add to the experience my own knowledge, character and ideas.
It was important for to me to create a system from my heart, a system where everything has meaning and purpose. In my opinion there are too many systems and teachers who teach not from their heart, but from their bank balance. To quote Einstein, “Nothing truly valuable arises from ambition or from a mere sense of duty.”
Music has always been a massive part of my life. I am a classically trained pianist and I play guitar, sing and write songs. I wanted every detail of EVO to maximise the total experience, so it has its own unique uplifting soundtracks mixed in London designed to enable clients to really connect with how their body is moving and working, giving a deep and rewarding experience.
We should never forget our past. It built the foundation that our present so depends. But the past is not an excuse to stay still and not plan for a different future.
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.
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 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.
Wednesday is sport day. Today I want to talk about Pilates for golf.
There are a growing number of “Pilates for golf” type books and DVDs on the market. As a keen golfer (I have never had the time to get my handicap below 18 though), I must say that many of these publications strike me as people jumping on the bandwagon rather than a serious attempt to improve a golfer’s performance. Many are written by people who have clearly never swung a golf club, and others are so general that they could be a book to improve golf/running/tennis/most other sports.
But the biggest criticism I have is that to actually be useful to golfers, any such material must be written in a way that actually engages club golfers. The average club golfer may have never exercised. Most I work with have never been to a gym or attended an exercise session. I joke that most golfer’s warm-up is a bacon sandwich, and cool-down is a pint of lager! Whilst golf is increasingly a younger person’s game and it is crossing the gender barrier, the basic fact remains that it is still dominated at club level by middle-aged and retired men. As Pilates teachers, I am sure we all know that this demographic is possible the hardest one to get engaged in Pilates!
Those of you who have read my blog before will know that it is a crusade of mine to get more men doing Pilates (for example see “You do Pilates, are you gay?” and “Men do Pilates”) and the fact remains that that nearly all golfers I have ever met would see a big improvement in their game if they did Pilates. So why is this?
I have worked with many golf Pro’s as by working together on technique and body function, we can get the best results. Whilst a golf pro can say to a golfer “swing this way”, many golfer’s cannot swing the way they should because their body can’t physically do it. By doing Pilates, a golfer can make corrections to their body; strengthen the core, increase flexibility, build stability in the pelvis and shoulder girdles, and balance both sides of the body, all of which will allow the golfer to hit the ball farther, straighter and more accurately. But these are just some of the benefits that Pilates can have.
The most successful way for a golfer to reduce their handicap and improve consistency is not to spend hundreds of pounds on new clubs. It is the golfer that plays the game, and not his equipment. As long as the clubs are capable, the biggest results can be achieved by changing the qualities of the golfer. It is for this reason that Pilates has been used by professional golfers such as Tiger Woods for many years.
Why is Pilates so good for golf? I produced a document for the World Golf Federation in which I tried to simply explain the benefits using the most common questions that I have been asked throughout the years by club golfers. To view this document please click the link below.
I hope that this will help many club golfers to understand exactly why they should be doing regular Pilates, not just from a book or DVD, but from their local Pilates teacher! You can also click on www.sportcorestrength.com to see how Pilates can help other sportsmen and women.
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.
Whilst there are many books and articles on the market for golfers about Pilates, I find that most of them are not written in a way that a club golfer will understand or be engaged in. So, I took the most common questions that I have been asked by the golfers over the years that I have worked with and created a Pilates for Golf Question and Answer leaflet.
Chris pays 50% of any money made from this BLOG to his charity partners. More details can be found by clicking on www.chrishuntwellness and selecting the “charity partners” tab.
In my article today I want to ask you as a Pilates teacher, as someone who practices Pilates, or as someone who works in the fitness industry, a very subjective question: do you have an opinion of what constitutes a “Pilates body” shape, and how do you manage the expectations of your clients who do have such an opinion?
As an example, I’m going to talk about Rebecca Judd. Rebecca is a 31 year-old Australian model, television presenter and the wife of Australian Football League player Chris Judd. She caused controversy last week by posting a picture of herself on Instagram in a bikini (click here to see the picture in question).
She has been criticised before for looking “too thin” but says she has never had an eating disorder. Her weight was a talking point after she has lost her “baby weight” very quickly (she gave birth to her daughter Billie Kate in January and son Oscar three years before). In May, just a few months after giving birth to her daughter, she uploaded a slim bikini shot of herself showing she had already regained her pre-pregnancy figure. Last week she told Daily Mail Australia that morphing into her post-baby shape in record time was all down to hard work. ‘It’s all about Pilates, Pilates, Pilates, Pilates,’ she said. ‘I wish I could run but I just don’t have time. And I just work out on (husband) Chris’ reformer equipment all the time, in his man cave. And there’s a spin bike down there I use… it’s all about being fit and strong and toned.’
Some of the comments posted by her 196,000 Instagram followers criticised her whilst others praised her.
@harriet_rose asked: ‘How is this nice? Way too skinny.’ @wendyrpaton said: ‘I like following you Bec but please reconsider the message you are sending to young impressionable women. You don’t need to flaunt yourself like this. Use your beauty in a positive way and a less self-indulgent. I do think you are inspirational, please consider your message. Eating disorders are real and effect many young girls.’ @minnapurdue said: ‘Eat something. Unfollowed.’ @cina_bina wrote: ‘Omg @kaylahayes5 I would rather look the way I do now than look like this, this is so sad poor girl.’
But other comments supported her. @gabstarflossy added: ‘I think you look beautiful @becjudd don’t listen to the haters. Some of these negative comments are appalling. Some people have no idea when they say stupid things about other people.’ and renata_angarano_makeup said: ‘Well done @becjudd. Your discipline and healthy choices should be taken as inspirational. I can only wish to have as much discipline as you. To all the haters – if you all committed yourselves to exercise as much as you do to bitching, maybe, just maybe, you would be happy with yourselves too.’
So to return to my question for this article, do you have an opinion as to what is the perfect Pilates figure? Of course people will all have different opinions and ideas about what “their” shape should be, and there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer per se, but I am interested as to how as an industry we portray ourselves and our vision of health and fitness to our clients, and how we manage the expectations of our clients.
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.
Wellness, self-development and fitness advice and opinions
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.
