Instructor Spotlight: Andre Garraud
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your Pilates background
My name is Andre Garraud and you can find me in Sydney’s eastern beaches. I’ve been a Pilates teacher for about seven years and currently instruct at various studios across Sydney, including The Pilates Nook in Bronte, Moore Health in Redfern and The Pilates Refinery in Pagewood. I think my friends would describe me as basically easy-going and helpful. In recent times, perhaps also as a natural leader.
2. How did you discover Pilates
I started work as a tennis coach, and working as such in Dubai around 2010 when I discovered Pilates. One of my clients who was really keen on Pilates, encouraged me to try some private Pilates sessions. I could feel the benefits almost immediately. My posture improved as my core became stronger. The control of movement and adopting the principle of breath calmed my mind and allowed me to be in the ‘present’. I can now describe that feeling as achieving a parasympathetic state where I felt ‘safe.’ I continued doing my Pilates sessions when I returned to Australia. My Pilates instructor suggested that I should consider training as a Pilates instructor myself and I eventually decided to follow her advice, in 2016.
3. How do you keep learning? What inspires you in your work? Who/where do you get inspiration from?
1. How did you discover Pilates
I started work as a tennis coach, and working as such in Dubai around 2010 when I discovered Pilates. One of my clients who was really keen on Pilates, encouraged me to try some private Pilates sessions. I could feel the benefits almost immediately. My posture improved as my core became stronger. The control of movement and adopting the principle of breath calmed my mind and allowed me to be in the ‘present’. I can now describe that feeling as achieving a parasympathetic state where I felt ‘safe.’ I continued doing my Pilates sessions when I returned to Australia. My Pilates instructor suggested that I should consider training as a Pilates instructor myself and I eventually decided to follow her advice, in 2016.
2. How do you keep learning? What inspires you in your work? Who/where do you get inspiration from?
I always try to surround myself with people who are more knowledgeable and experienced than myself. In Pilates, I was first inspired by Dav Cohen who is a senior Polestar educator. I admired his control, precision and ease of movement, and I remember how effortless he looked especially his composure, performing the Hundred, unlike anyone I had ever seen.
I have worked with Carrie Guest in Bronte. I have followed her progress from Pilates instructor to mentor and her current training to become an educator. I have also followed her experiences in establishing her business now in Bronte, and admired her adaptability and how she has dealt with issues especially over the past few years.
I am also inspired by those who do things a little differently. Audrey Ng from Perth, is a great example. She is a physiotherapist as well as a Polestar Pilates educator and instructor. I admire her work ethic, knowledge, discipline, focus on continuing her education and how well she connects to her clients. What I continue to learn most from Audrey, is that we all need to foster our natural curiosity and urge to learn.
4. The best advice you were ever given as a teacher…
Practice. Patience. Perseverance.
5. Is there something you try and instil in each of your clients?
During the time we spend together, I strive for my clients to feel like I am ever-present with them through their movement experience. This allows me to best guide them, help them discover new things and then bring what they have learnt back into the outside world.
6. The best Pilates course you ever did was…
The Polestar Pilates course is still fundamental to what I practice daily, use and instruct, to this day.
7. What’s your favourite piece of equipment to use with clients in studio and why?
I enjoy using the Reformer with clients because of its versatility. There’s so much you can do with the Reformer.
8. Tell us about your special focus area. How long have you been doing it? And how do breathing techniques help to optimise your health and fitness?
There was something remarkable about the breath and since I started my Pilates journey, I think I have been interested in optimising breathing. During the pandemic, I decided to train for a triathlon. Over the months, I felt constantly tired, lacked quality sleep and I was persistently yawning, Cath Moore, a physiotherapist with whom I work with at Moore Health, prescribed some reduced breathing Buteyko exercises to help alleviate my symptoms, which made a significant difference.
I later discovered Patrick McKeown and the Oxygen Advantage Course, a world-leading breathwork training program designed to focus on functional breath that simulates altitude training.
Following this, I completed a Breathless Instructor Training course in the Snowy Mountains and then a Buteyko method instructor training and then a cold water emersion course with Jason Rice of Apnoea Survival. I also took ocean swimming in winter to build my cold tolerance, working my way up to swimming up to five kilometres. I tried ice baths and observed how my body responded to the cold shock, my heart rate going up, the gasp and then noticing a transference from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic system. I was building resilience and this brought a sense of calm over me.
I have learnt that posture and breathing go hand in hand, Poor breathing leads to poor posture and conversely, improving breathing and posture also go together. Improving our physical alignment then also makes our nervous system more efficient.
In February last year, I decided to create a community beach breath and ice experience at sunrise at Coogee. We commence with guided slow/soft diaphragmatic breathing exercises to improve oxygenation, airway flow and blood circulation to prepare for cold exposure in the ice baths. With time, the numbers have increased. Now we run two sessions three times a week at Bondi as well as some sessions at Coogee and elsewhere. It has been good to see that these guided breathing exercises and joint cold exposure have helped build camaraderie, creating our own community.
Should everyone jump into an ice bath? No, cold exposure is a stressor, which can build resilience but can also be too much for some, especially those with underling health problems. They should certainly obtain the advice of their health provider, before doing so.
Similarly, not all breathing techniques are the same. Some like hyperventilation or breath hold techniques, can be stressors and should be approached with caution and done with suitable guidance.
9. How do you stay motivated?
I subscribe to the saying attributed to the weight lifter Jerzy Gregorek that ‘hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life’. I know that when I feel most uncomfortable that’s when there’s growth.
As for my work with the very early mornings, I stay motivated by just keeping on showing up.
10. What makes you laugh the most?
I’m laughing at myself right now!
11. What’s your favourite way to spend a day off?
I love seeing the sunrise or having coffee or chai with friends. Then a sauna and an ice bath.
12. Does your family ‘really know’ what’s involved in your job?
They actually do. During the pandemic I persuaded my parents to join the zoom classes which I was teaching, and they now understand what I do. So when you ask what makes me laugh, it’s also watching my dad do Pilates, but it’s great that he is benefitting from it.
Andre runs the Ice Baths at Bondi beach every Tuesday Wednesday & Thursday starting at 5.45am as well as sessions at Coogee beach– check out @consciouscommunity_