How to make your personal practice regular or "shoemaker without shoes"

This article will deal with the importance of personal practice and a new project of International Pilates University Fitness4you – “Pilates School".

Pilates instructors for the most part are creative people, with open "mind and heart", seeking to understand themselves and others. They chose this path (consciously or unconsciously) because of the opportunity to develop themselvesthrough communication with other people, helping them to become happier. As saying goes, "make your hobby yourprofession and you will not work a single day."
Sounds inspiring! But is it really that great? Are we able to really enjoy the benefits of the system we offer people around us?

Let’s see.

Question:
Do you find time for a regular personal practice?

Common answer:
At first, yes. Then, as new clients continue to come, you tend to find less time for yourself. As a result, personal practice becomes rarely regular, occasional, usually you just train during some educational seminars. Usually mixing it with lectures and writing summaries. To remove “the instructor’s cap" is almost impossible. We tend to forget howamazing it is to just enjoy the movement, as our clients do.

Result:
Gradually theory begins to dominate over practice, and, therefore, mind becomes the dominant component of the trinity- body, spirit and mind.
There’s a way out - no compromise, find some time for yourself, as it is a professional responsibility. After all, you’repaid for that.

Argument: I’m too tired to practice.
Counterargument:
And how many times do we tell our clients that if they feel tired, they need a good training in order to feel a surge of strength and sleep better? There is nothing more effective than following your own advice.

Complaint:
Constant communication with people is tiresome

Diagnosis and treatment:
This is the first sign that you do not find time for normal recovery. In his book, Joseph Pilates stresses the importanceof a balanced life rhythm. He claims that one third of a day should be for work, one third for rest and the remaining third should be spent on the "play" - an active life full of pleasures. In modern society, it is difficult to keep a balance, but it is one of the prerequisites for Pilates. You need to order your life before ordering the World. Therefore, no other way - just pull yourself together and work out.

Complaint number two:

I can not practice at home. Everything is so distracting!

Consolation:

You are not alone. Your clients are in a better position. They do not know what to do, so they have to visit a specialist. It’s more difficult for a professional. We think that once we know how to work with people we have no need to visit someone else to train with. Sometimes we do that, but not systematically and regularly.

Way out:
Stop being a teacher, relax and go practice with somebody who is good at it. Mary Bowen, a Pilates Elder, still attends Pilates classes 2 times a week and recommends all her colleagues to do the same thing.

Balance (body, spirit and mind) is important for a Pilates instructor who is working with students, clients, patients. In fact, knowledge of the technical process (set of exercises) provides just a framework that allows a Pilates instructor to work with people, not to mention rehabilitation with a sick person. Positive result of the work is dependent upon the instructor’s structure at all levels (physical, emotional, energy).

Instructor’s professional ethics can be reduced to a short list of simple rules:

- Regular personal practice

- Respect for the wisdom of a client’s body and its compensation system. Unnecessarily intrusive intervention into other person’s structure can provide temporary relief, but leaves a person with no chance for activating the mechanism of self-healing.

- Ability to notice manifestations of emotions, as well as the skill to bring them into balance. Ability to observe and clean your flow of thoughts in the process of working with the client, as well as in everyday life. Simply put, it is necessary to develop spiritually.

- Good nutrition and rest. Instructor needs full recovery as much as he needs to work. Otherwise your energy structure will not allow you to be a good source of recovery for the client. Not to be confused with "eat more, work less".  Recovery is a hard work of bringing yourself into a balanced state. Therefore it is better not to go to extremes.


It is not good for an instructor to broadcast his own distortions, so he has to balance himself before meeting the client. Our mission is to be an example. Clients will take as much as they need to recover. We can only help them see what they really need.

Desire to learn and cultivate preserves your soul young and strengthens the body. You only need to take advantage of what you can do to others.

A new project from the International Pilates University Fitness4you – “Pilates School” – was developed to help professionals master their theoretical material in practice. It offers the opportunity to practice the advantages of each of the faculties presented by the University. This is a real school with classes, where you will practice for yourself, learn different techniques through practical application, just be customers, leaving "the instructor’s cap " at home. The program has been planned to help you get into the rhythm of practice, and also to consolidate the knowledge acquired in training programs. We have developed a special package price, to enable our students attend our studio on favorable terms. Join now!

info@fitness4you.com.ua

Author: Kateryna Smirnova
Translation: Galyna Dobrovolska