Treating the whole body
The Pilates Journal speaks with British Osteopathy and Classical Pilates teacher Alexandra Bohlinger. Aly is a second-generation master teacher from Joseph Pilates and will be presenting a number of topics at the upcoming PAA Conference in August.
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There’s something unique about Alexandra Bohlinger’s knowledge and approach to teaching. It’s clear from speaking with Aly that her knowledge and care for a client's body or anybody’s body really is at another level. Her clients have described her as having magic hands and for many it has brought them to a transformational point in their life.
With a background in martial arts and dance, Aly was hungry to understand the body on a deeper level, hence her studying Sports Science and soon after Osteopathy. Having a guiding teacher at the helm like Pilates elder, Romana Kryzanowska, also shaped a lot of Aly’s approach to teaching Pilates. “Romana was a wonderful role model. Always such a passionate mover. She was always dancing in the studio. Clients would come in with shoulder injuries, hip and back injuries and she would always treat the whole body. She would avoid the area that was in pain and that area would get stronger by moving the whole body. She taught me to not focus on the problem area and to teach the rest of the body for that session,” she explained.
It's something that now comes so naturally to Aly. “I also discovered that much like Joseph Pilates I also start working with my clients by first sitting and listening to them before using manual therapy. Joe used to sit on the Cadillac or on the table and talk to his clients first. I always sit with them and then use my hands to rehab them before I get them moving in the Pilates studio,” said Aly.
“Another great role model for me was the founding father of Osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still M.D. who believed the body has the ability to heal itself. These two great role models made me understand that the body has a great capacity to heal and it’s my role as an osteopath (osteo) to encourage that process – the body will do the rest.
“I’m not just interested in the injury, it's how you got the injury in the first place and how well your body moves overall. Sometimes I use my psychologist hat or my doctor’s hat in order to identify what the body is telling me,” said Aly.
As part of Aly’s presentation at the PAA conference, she’ll be covering the latest research on how to work with clients with Hypermobility.
“Most people don’t know that they are hypermobile. Every time I diagnose a client to be hypermobile they often tell me they thought that was normal. I believe knowledge is power so when we give them this information, we empower them to manage it,” said Aly.
“I can see a hypermobile person a mile away. As teachers, we need to be careful as often those who are hypermobile can cheat through the things you teach them. You might look at a person and think they are doing it really well but they are probably not feeling what they are doing.
“The ranges of motion are so big, for example in the Roll Up they can do it but they aren’t feeling it in the right muscles where they should be feeling it. You need to look for signs like they aren’t sweating as much as they could. If they don’t find the deeper work it can lead to multiple injuries. So the question becomes are you hurting or hindering them? Leading Pilates expert, Jay Grimes always used to say all injuries are, is wrong repetitive movement.
“In my sessions with clients, I don’t like to use the word pain, I use the word symptom – for example how is your symptom today? Pain triggers a negative connotation. We need to remember that pain can be a good thing, it can show you that you need to do something in a better way. It can be a protection mechanism like when we stop before touching a fire. It’s an alarm system for you to stop. On the other hand, chronic pain is not so fun.
“There’s such a large spectrum when it comes to hypermobility and it comes with lots of other pathologies. It can affect the heart, the lungs, blood pressure, heart rate, all sorts of things. It affects multiple joints, and it affects systemically, having an impact inside the body’s digestive system and also impacting things on the outside of your body. It’s a connective tissue disorder that affects the whole body.
“In the old way of thinking we’d say your joints are flexible or loosey-goosey and the more we dig we find that many have minor injuries. They are less proprioceptive than most people. They don’t know where their joints are in space. The body isn’t as grounded – they don’t have as much feedback as other people. It’s hard for them to fire the areas they need to fire.
“Lots of them have minor injuries like a meniscus tear, knee or hip issue, shoulder subluxation, Sacroiliac joint dysfunction, lower back pain or weaknesses in muscles – because it’s the collagen and cartilage that are different. We now also have enough research to link to fatigue and depression, ADHD, dyslexia and autism” - Aly will be sharing and explaining these links more at the conference.
“You can definitely restore people to the strongest version of themselves. The more put-together, reliable and autonomous version of themselves. You want them to feel it in the core, the glutes, the back muscles, unfortunately, they are feeling it in other areas and it’s our role to direct them to feel it in the right place,” said Aly.
Aly will also be doing a workshop on how to strengthen your client's neck as they move through a Pilates workout, noting that this is a problem area for a growing number of clients.
“More and more people are noticing the weaknesses of their neck. A lot of this relates to posture. Our clients are on their phones and computers a lot, they’ve all got the forward head posture and it increases gravity and the pressure on the neck. We need to take care of the neck strength,” she said.
“When it comes to exercise you need to pay attention to how clients move their heads. The head weighs 9 to 15 pounds and in our classes, we ask them to move and their heads feel so heavy. They recognise they have weaknesses so we need to help them build the strength. Everything is leading to strength – it’s the most effective way to work.
“In exercises like the Hundreds or the Roll Up, I try and educate that the stronger your neck and your core is the less you will use your neck as a structure. We don’t want to just use the cervical spine itself, we want to use the muscular system inside of us. We want to lift from the core, in and up. Strengthening those small neck muscles and the superficial and deep ones.
“In the Roll Up we think of that giant front c-curve shape we’re creating in the whole of the front body that helps you lift your head. We’re not just relying on that flexible range of motion that we have in the cervical spine but controlling the muscles around it. The core and your neck are always in communication with each other. We want to move the whole spine as one strong connected piece. We want to unify and have all parts of the spine working together.
“In this workshop, I’ll start like I do with most of my clients. We’ll begin with isometric movements using your hands, then use the theraband, magic circle and neck stretcher. I go from the easiest way to move the structure of the neck and then strengthen the musculature around the neck and then introduce more advanced props,” said Aly.
These are just a couple of the topics Aly will be covering. Learn from Aly at this year’s PAA Conference.
Alexandra Bohlinger has taught Pilates in the original classical method for almost 20 years. Aly is presenting at the PAA Conference this August on a range of topics. The conference runs for three days in Melbourne, Australia and includes other prominent Pilates professionals including Brett Howard, Pilates Elder Lolita San Miguel and a selection of Australian presenters. You can view the full agenda here. It’s not too late to register.