A wrap up of a Pilates Conference in Australia
In late August, Pilates instructors and Studio Owners from across Australia got together at the Pilates Alliance Australia Conference in Melbourne.
It was a weekend full of insights, discoveries and connections made. Some highlights from the weekend included:
- A workshop with a focus on techniques to build adaptable and supple wrists. This advanced masterclass run by Stephanie Sibel from Armature Pilates took instructors through how you slowly and steadily condition clients to work in more challenging ranges of upper body movements. She talked about wrist loading as part of a larger chain and how it connects to the scapulae and provided a checklist to work clients up to a plank position. Her energetically styled workshop kept all instructors on their toes and found many using their shoulders in different ways.
- Meanwhile, Jennifer Guest presented on the Pelvic Floor highlighting its role as the base of support and how it affects the whole spine. Talking through both Hypotonic and Hypertonic conditions and how you work with these clients, Jen’s conversational style kept everybody engaged and understanding pelvic floor conditions on a deeper level.
- Kimi Broadbent from The Pilates Vibe and Ash Berry from Movementality held a great workshop on best ways to support pre-natal women. With both of them drawing on their past experience during pregnancy, they shared insights and the latest research in this area. They talked about avoiding limiting language and focusing on encouraging clients to experience movements in their own bodies. Ash spoke about allowing pregnant clients to be the authority in the room. She talked about shifting the dynamic between the clients and the teacher so the client was also in control of their experience. While Kimi talked about the importance of teaching pregnant clients breathing techniques, helping them prepare for the final 6 weeks and other strategies.
- Julia Frankish from Evolved Pilates’ session on hip and pelvis tightness and pain was an extremely busy session. So many instructors had ‘ah-ha’ moments as Julia explained just how much you could tell about the hips and pelvis just from your clients performing a squat. She also shared some ideas she had to work specific muscle groups including the hamstrings and glutes.
- Carla Mullins from Body Organics taught a wonderful masterclass in spirals, rotations, while adjusting to the instructor’s needs in the room. It was a fun evening session with lots of giggles and laughs.
- Brent Howard’s session on Finding Balance had a full session talking about even weight distribution while Alexander Bohligher ran an effective session called Push and Pulls on the mat. It was a very physical session where Ali was pushing and pulling instructors to get them to feel the exercises like Joseph Pilates, Romana Kryzanowska and her own techniques would make them feel. She wanted them to find the work and talked about how this push-and-pull technique required the instructor to be physically in top shape to do the work too. In her words “if you haven’t broken a sweat, you should as a teacher”.
It was a full three days with so many great sessions leaving many inspired for the months ahead.
