Slice of life. (or how I waste time all day)

August 22, 2009 – 10:02 pm

(note to Readers – while my new blog is built I am blogging all my topics here – some admittedly non-Pilates as is this entry.)

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I have serious time management issues.

Let me be perfectly clear. By no means am I suggesting that I get nothing done.

But sometimes, (maybe more than sometimes), I get . . . nothing done.

I have mastered what I call “the Art of the Putter”.

I putter at work. I putter around the city. I putter especially well at home.

To the casual observer, I appear busy. And to be fair, I want to appear busy. A part of me is certain that if I appear busy, I might in fact, be busy. But most of the time, I’m just puttering.

Here’s an example.

I have been away from my home with my children for a month. You can imagine the amount of luggage that we arrived with. Add to that a month of acquisition and gifts (birthdays and wrat not) and we are a heavily laden group.

For the past 2 weeks, I have been packing for the return trip home. Nearly a dozen suitcases, duffels, backpacks and roll-aways are strewn about the house. Some are half packed while others are overflowing.

Today is the proverbial 11th hour. Tomorrow morning I will drive home – luggage in tow.

I have spent the entire day walking from one bag to another, adding items here and there. Each adjustment takes time requiring me to navigate from the laundry room downstairs to the luggage upstairs picking up things along the way and depositing them in the appropriate bag.  You can hear the Putter, can’t you?

Periodically I rest. Sometimes I log on to check my email. Distractions weave in and out.

However, there has been no significant interruption. No phone calls that had to be tended to or tasks that got in the way.  I’ve managed to spend the entire day on a job that should have taken no more than an hour.

Puttering. I simply . . . . putter.

It would have been infinitely smarter to bang out the job lickety split and then nap. Or stroll the beach. Or watch TV. Read a book. Get some work done…..anything.

I know this.  And yet, I didn’t do any of those things – opting instead to fritter the time away extending the task into a full-day activity. At work this manifests in a totally different way. But the bottom line is my puttering is hampering my productivity.

How do you keep yourself on task?

Send me your very best tips for time management.

By Alycea | Posted in On Life | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Contracts are Signed!

August 13, 2009 – 11:55 pm

Woo-hoo!

Here’s a funny story.

This week I signed a contract with a major wellness company (hereafter referred to as The Company, or Company).  This was not an accident.  But it was utterly unexpected.  Here’s the story:

Two years ago I decided I should work with this particular Company. I put out some feelers among friends and colleagues  and quickly procured a lead.  A name and number of a key person at the company I so coveted.  When I finally sat down with my prepared pitch and summoned the nerve to call my contact, the number didn’t work.  I hung up utterly disheartened.  I did make a few attempts at finding a working number but after each one failed, I simply gave up.  Not sure about next course of action, I relegated the number and the project to my To Do list.

A word about my To Do list.

I am a list girl.  I have made lists since I was a small child.  Lists are comforting to me.  They assure me that all is right with the world and that I am, on a day to day basis, accomplishing something.  When technology became an inextricable part of my day, I established a new To Do list.  Or rather, a To Do email.  Every day I delete completed items from my To Do email and add new ones.  And then I email it to myself.  I do this every day so that the list appears at the top of my Inbox every day.   Type A, you ask?  In fact, I am.  But I digress.  Back to the story.

The project, The Company, the name and number of the contact sat on my To Do email for almost two years.  To be fair, it was pretty far down the list so I didn’t really see it every day.  But it was there.  A simple scroll function was all I needed to remind myself of the goal.  At least once a week I was reminded.  But nothing came of it.

Fast forward: Last month I got a call from The Company.  It was random and out of the blue. We starting discussing project ideas and several phone calls later it became clear that we both wanted to move forward with a collaboration.  The next step was to have “their people talk to my people” – so the appropriate paperwork could be drawn up.

Emails were exchanged.  Introductions were made.

And who do you think called my agent to initialize a formal contract?

One guess? Yeah, it was him. The “lead” that had been sitting on my To Do email for 2 years.

Fate? Karma? Law of Attraction?

All of the above maybe.  But it was worth jotting down how it all came to pass and if I can make just one tiny reccomendation -  if you really want something – keep it on your To Do list!

By Alycea | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Tools of the Trade

July 31, 2009 – 1:20 am

 

Teachers use tools.
 
All kinds of teachers in all kinds of disciplines use all kinds of tools.
With respect to exercise - teachers have very specific tools. 
 
Consider the group fitness experience.
 
Walk into any spin or cycling class.
Instructors use the dial on the bike to make you burn.
 
Peek into a body sculpting class.
You’ll see weights of varying degrees designed to increase your intensity
 
Yoga is no different.
In this forum instructors use the tool of time.  Want a deeper workout – well you’ll just have to hold that asana longer.  Yes, keep holding.
 
Runners have hills to climb,  dancers have the beat to keep and swimmers have the clock.
 
 
Pilates teachers have no tools.  No obvious ones that would assist in a Group class anyway.
 
There is no dial to turn up the intensity, increase the resistance or push the limits.
Unless you consider the box that resides within the teacher’s throat.
 
For a Pilates teacher, your voice is your tool.
 
A sampling of what this tool can do:
It yells.
It whispers.
It hisses.
It barks.
It coos.
It cajoles.
It cheers.
It compliments.
It growls.
It screeches.
It directs.
It disciplines.
It motivates and intensifies beyond any single other device.  In fact, if you have other devices, the voice will amplify the effects of those tools.
 
It is, the ultimate dial.
 
Do your clients a favor and Turn it up!
By Alycea | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Daisy Fuentes Teaches Pilates

July 23, 2009 – 9:14 pm

Yes, it’s true, the Pilates technology you’ve been waiting for is about to be released.  Pilates has come to the Wii

, merging fitness and fun in the newest incarnation of mass market health and wellness.  Your teacher is none other than the delightful and engaging Daisy Fuentes.

Wait, what?  Daisy Fuentes? Uh, ok.  Why?
I knew Daisy Fuentes did

Pilates but when did she become a teacher?  Common sense dictates that she must have expanded her credentials and become a trained Pilates instructor.  I mean the corporate bigwigs at Sega wouldn’t have dared to allow her to instruct what will be roughly, oh I don’t know…. millions of people for fear of injury.  Hmmm…..maybe not.

I’m thinking Daisy did not enroll in a certification course and log in hundreds of practice hours so that she could teach you the perfect form and proper execution of the Pilates method.  I’m guessing she didn’t hit the books hard to learn human anatomy

or the basics of exercise physiology either.

To be clear, I’m not really picking on Daisy here.  I’m sure she’ll make do just fine.  Maybe as good as Jane Fonda

even, or the myriad other celebrities that suddenly become fitness experts overnight.  Personally, I just like to believe that my teachers are really teachers and that the experts I let into my life are really experts.  So far as I can tell, Daisy’s claim to fame here is ….her fame.

Think for a moment about the people you learned the most from in your life.  

Your first grade teacher.  Not famous, I’m sure.  A coach or dance teacher.  Similarly off the radar by media standards.  A professor somewhere along the way.  These people were educators.  Trained not only in their discipline but in the discipline of teaching.  Teaching is a craft.  A skill set not easily learned and one that is very difficult to master.

Legend has it that Joe Pilates was not a very good teacher.  

He was a remarkable inventor, an unparalleled innovator but none to impressive with his communication skills.  By contrast, his wife Clara is touted as the real teacher at the original Pilates studio.  Her gentle touch and soothing voice are recalled even today by her devoted students.

I’m happy that Pilates has come this far and that people worldwide will have the benefit of Pilates in their homes.  

It’s thrilling to see the growth of this method still soaring after all these years.  And I guess that celebrities not only endorsing but now branding Pilates as their own is a hallmark of the method’s success.  So what’s next?

Will Miley Cyrus launch a Teen-ilates DVD?
Let’s hope not.
 

 

(Should we look to actors and actresses for our health and wellness in addition to our fashion and lifestyle choices?  Put in your two cents.)

By Alycea | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)

Teachers, teachers …everywhere!

July 20, 2009 – 10:02 pm

In 1993 when I began studying with Romana to become a Pilates teacher, things were mighty different.

Every day, I would arrive at 7am ready for my session with the other eager apprentices.  Romana would teach us after which we would embark upon our teaching hours.  Since Romana ended her days at 1pm – so did we.  In those days, there were no formal requirements for completion.  When you were ready, you were done.  And the investment was less complicated too.  Each day, I would pay Drago at the front desk $45 dollars.  That was it.

Some time later, Sean Gallagher and the Pilates Studio Inc. came into the mix.  Some time after that, they left the picture.  But in between those two events, a plethora of teacher training programs opened up across the country.  Seemingly overnight, small programs, large programs, specialty programs and modular programs afforded the Pilates teacher wanna-be more options than they ever thought possible.

Fast forward to 2009.  The economy is in the toilet.  Pilates studios are struggling nationwide (along with the entire industry of Personal Training) and yet these teacher training programs continue to sprout up.  Just this week a major acquisition was announced which effectively catapults the country’s biggest certification program into the realm of corporate monoliths and big box businesses.  A far cry from our humble beginnings indeed.

While I don’t object to the formal or organized or even big certification camps – I have to wonder, where are all these teachers going to teach?  Shouldn’t we be guided by simple supply vs. demand guidelines here?  How many more teachers are really necessary to satisfy the market?

This summer at my Tribeca studio is the slowest we’ve seen in years.  And yet, I recieved no less than 10 resumes from instructors looking for work.  And while many of them were new graduates, a fair amount were from very seasoned teachers.  From where I’m standing, this doesn’t bode well for our industry.

Consider this: flooding the market with teachers will likely have the effect of bringing pay rates down for instructors.  As competition stiffens, jobs will often go to teachers who ask for lower salaries.  Is this what we’ve worked so hard to achieve?

What are your thoughts?

~alycea

By Alycea | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments (2)

Pilates is Hard!

May 12, 2009 – 12:33 am

Apologies first, for the too-long delay.

You must know however, that it is not that I have nothing to say that causes the long stretches of silence.  Rather it is that I am overwhelmed with far TOO much to say and cannot imagine whittling my thoughts down to just one lonely topic.

 

Alas, it must be done so here we go;

 

I had the pleasure of presenting in Toronto in April to a delightful and hungry group of Pilates and Yoga teachers.  The conference was spectacular in scope and quality.  I had the distinct pleasure of presenting alongside such Yoga luminaries as Seane Corne and Rodney Yee and even had a few dinners with Pilates superstar Mari Winsor.

 

But the event that most inspired me in my three days at the conference was during one of my courses which explored the idea of “Pushing The Envelope” within a group Pilates class.  I had presented this course before but as you know, teaching is an organic process and my outline notwithstanding, the lecture took off slightly to the right, landing still within topic but with a particular bent. 

The thrust? 

“What type of teacher do you want to be?”

 

I posed the question to the group and was met with wide eyes and tight lips.

 

A little prodding produced some single word responses.  A short list of adjectives from the back of the room.  Some further mutterings emerged, but nothing definitive.

 

And therein may be the problem for our industry.

How can you, or anyone for that matter, develop as a teacher without a clear vision of who you seek to be? 

 

Here’s a tool I came up with for my Canadian attendees.  I’d like to share it with you and hope it helps you to find your own vision as an instructor.

 

Describe, if you will, the exact words a student would use upon leaving one of your classes.  It can be a phrase, or an expression. 

 

Limit it to 7 words or less.

 

For some this is simple.  For others, I suggest thinking back to when you first fell in love with Pilates.  Who inspired you?  What did you say about them?  What words did you use to describe their teaching?  Is that the way you want your students to feel?  If not, how is it different?

 

For the record, yes, the students did ask me for my own answer.  They wanted to know specifically what words I wished to hear my students utter upon their departure.

 

My answer, without hesitation, was simple.

 

“Pilates is Hard!”.

 

 Over to you…………..

 

 

 

Alycea Ungaro

May, 2009

 

 

By Alycea | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

New Year’s Rant!

January 17, 2009 – 4:48 pm

Because I haven’t said it, Happy New Year.

 

2009 lies before us full of promise and I am burgeoning with plans, resolutions, and visions for the year.  Convinced
I am already way behind schedule I wanted to share a few thoughts with
you to keep you on track as the end of January nears.  Why is this a significant time?  Sadly because a huge percent of people abandon their resolutions by the middle of February!

 

But not you!  Not this year.

Know why?

Because you are not going to fall for some random guru of the month making glorious promises that no reasonalbe person could ever fulfill.

No cabbage soup diets this year

No lofty aspirations of working out 2 hours every day

No falling for the newest workout  - if you look close you’ll see its simply an old workout recycled anyway.

 

This
year will be different because I’m about to arm you with some simple
facts that will free you of guilt and put you on an honest path to
wellness.  Buckle up!  Why am I doing this?  Because every January, fitness frauds come out of the woodwork – selling some brand new trend that just. wont. work.  And frankly, I’m sick of it.

So here goes!

 

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Cardio is fantastic for you!

Unless of
course you are doing it to lose weight and speed up your metabolism –
it which case the ONLY benefit you will realize is however many
calories you burn during your workout.  Think you’re getting a significant metabolic benefit after your workout?  ‘fraid not!  The bump is all but insignificant and doesn’t last but a few minutes beyond the treadmill.   Don’t believe me?  Check it our for yourself.

 

Anyone
who tells you that you have to dance around, run around, or skip hop,
jump or climb around for hours on end is dead wrong?  Tell them that, the next time you see them ok?  In fact, tell them I said so!  And give them my number.

But don’t just believe me – ask your doctor!!

 

Weight training bulks up women.  Women should only lift light weights.

Uh, no!

Sorry ladies, there is no excuse for avoiding substantial weight , weight bearing or resistance training.


Want to trim down and tighten up?  You have one option; weight or resistance training.  Whether it’s Nautilus, Free Weights,
Pilates training on the apparatus or something else, working your
muscles against resistance is the absolute only way to build strength! Which is the only way to build muscle.  Which is the ONLY way to burn more calories all day long.  One other thing, if you’d like to avoid things like osteoporosis, get in line behind me and start using something over 3lbs – puhlease!


Want to speed up your metabolism so it’s cooking when you’re napping?  Yeah, I thought so. Guess what, it’s not cardio.  It’s creating more lean muscle mass.  How?  Oh right – weight bearing exercises!

Are you following me here?

 

And just to bust a few more myths while I have your ear!

 

-Muscles aren’t really that bright.  They either contract or they don’t.  You can’t tell the upper abs to work and the lower abs to shut off.  Your nervous system doesn’t work that way.  You
CAN leverage your position to allow physics to help you target an area
but you will still fire the entire muscle, no matter what.

 

-And speaking of target or spot reduction,  you’ve heard it before – I’ll tell it again. Spot reduction – not so effective.  In fact a muscle has pretty much nothing to do with the fat around it – they are not even distant cousins.  Fat
must be burned off by calories – and while you can tone and strengthen
a muscle – you cannot reduce the fat around it simply by exercising
that specific muscle.

 

If you’re throwing your  hands up and saying well, what am supposed to do now Alycea?, I’ll  tell you.

 

Pick a thing.  One thing.  Drink more water.  Take one workout a week.  Eat more fruit.  Pick one simple small thing that you can do – and do it consistently.  When you have mastered that one thing, add one more thing.  A habit takes 21 days to build (at least).  Consistency is the single most important thing in building a healthy life.

 

And one final thing;  go on a workout exploration.  Try something new every week.  A new dvd, a new class, your friend’s at home workout – whatever!  Find the one that’s the most fun for you!  Because that’s the one you’ll stick with.  When I found Pilates in 1984 I was hooked for life!    

 

So there you have it- my New Year’s soapbox!  Barely edited and from the heart!

As fitness trainers, we have an obligation to our clients to tell the truth  -
any trainer who promises you the world with no credentials and no
research to back it up is a trainer you need to run far far away from!

 

Now, go get started!

 

Alycea

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Functional Pilates????

April 13, 2008 – 12:10 pm

September always brings with it a flurry of personnel changes and this September was no exception.
Departing staff means only one thing to me: auditions!!

And so it was that Jan (she whom I affectionately refer to as the boss of everything) and myself sat down to audition the last applicant on our list on a random Thursday afternoon.
The teacher was absolutely lovely.
A great eye, a soothing voice, targeted instruction.
Still new to the craft, they were able to navigate smoothly through the material with a fair amount of confidence.
Still, there was one little wrinkle.

I didn’t recognize any of the exercises.
Not as Pilates exercises, anyway.

What’s more, the student (read: “guinea pig”) we assigned to be a willing victim, remained flat on her back for the entire 20 minutes executing a series of exercises which fell into two extremes; either barely perceptible to the naked eye, or extremely basic.

Now, I consider myself fairly well versed in this Pilates stuff. I’ve been studying since 1982 and I’ve seen a lot of Pilates. A Lot of Pilates! If I don’t recognize a single move as part of a Pilates curriculum – well, I think that’s saying something.

After 20 minutes of waiting for some recognizable exercise to materialize before me, I had to call a cease-fire.
Call me controlling, but I do feel some obligation to know the material that my clients are paying for.
I’m simply not comfortable walking through the studio and seeing sessions conducted in some type of vague pseudo-exercise mode.

I discussed with the applicant their ideas about Pilates and their philosophy on movement and after some delicate maneuvering, I was informed by the teacher that in their opinion the exercises which had been performed were the most “functional” execution of the Pilates method.

Functional.
It’s a buzz word in Pilates.
Functional implies useful in everyday life.
Functional implies that the body can use these movements, that the body in fact, needs the movements for the most basic activities.

As a physical therapist, I understand functional body mechanics.
 I’ve not only seen my share of manual therapy whereby patients are trained to recruit their multifidi while prone on a table and being palpated by their therapist, I’ve also conducted it myself.

But Pilates is exercise, right??
If our applicant was using methods to facilitate proper lying down, I’d say they were right on target.
If, on the other hand, they wanted to effect any actual change  in body mechanics, strength, stamina or even alignment, than the routine I saw before me was absolutely NOT functional.
Not by a long shot.

I quizzed the instructor about their choices of material and was informed that the certification program had really “empowered” their teachers to make changes to the material and choices about the exercises.

And then I got really irritated.

Because here’s the thing. (and it may rustle some feathers, but hey, it’s my opinion).
We are fitness trainers.
Not bodyworkers.

If you want to be a physical therapist, massage therapist, applied kinesiologist, feldenkreis practitioner or other such thing, go and train for that.

Pilates is fitness.
It can be slow, or meticulous or both.
It can be corrective in nature.
It can be incredibly healing (as exercise often is).
But it’s fitness plain and simple.

I am seeing more and more often our field a push among instructors to self-aggrandise.
A desire to elevate their craft to something more than just exercise.

As though teaching exercise isn’t important enough. Well pardon me for saying so…..but basic fitness training is likely the MOST beneficial thing you can do for just about anyone. AND I’m offended by teachers who feel that the Pilates method with all it’s variety,l complexity and nuance doesn’t offer enough to their clients to achieve critical benefit in a typical 60 minute session?

Where is our self-respect? What exactly are we trying to accomplish here?

Now this may sound a little harsh but I’m going to say it anyway because …..what the heck!
Here’s a reality check.

As fitness trainers, we are the “help”. The hired help, at that.
We provide a service – that makes us the “help”.

I know it’s not flattering sounding but it’s true.

We are in the business of helping people and we do it for a fee.

It’s not medicine; it’s not some other lofty measure.
Some people don’t even think it’s necessary! But it is!


It’s the most healthful, most accessible and most necessary thing we can do for our planet.
Get people moving!

Now why does it have to be more important than that?

~Alycea
Where do you think our craft is going? Leave a comment!

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Fusion Follow Up

April 11, 2008 – 3:09 pm

I must have struck a chord somewhere because a slew of people commented on my last post.

However, there are some things I didn’t say, or didn’t clarify and since I do strive to be utterly clear (most of the time anyway), I’d like to add a few things!

Pilates by definition is mindful exercise.
It relies on concentration.
Focus.

It inherently requires you to immerse your body and mind in the movements.
To my mind, any form of Pilates which asks the student to use less mental exertion is not Pilates.

Anyone who has experienced true Pilates knows that the reps are limited because if you are working to capacity in any given move, you couldn’t handle any more reps.

Real Pilates means you will not, can not do a lot of reps!

Ergo, if playing music serves only to distract the student so they can do more reps……well, you do the math.

I don’t think doing less work so you can do more work really adds up.

But call me crazy!

As far as I’m concerned if we took Joe Pilates original exercises and told someone to do the moves exactly as prescribed while counting backward, it just wouldn’t be Pilates anymore.

Fast results require you to think.

Cycling, aerobics, rock-climbing will all achieve phenomenal results …IF you are focused, attentive and “present”.

This my fellow practitioners, is why I love Pilates!

You can’t really do it properly if you aren’t thinking.
Exercise for smart people!
Gotta love that.

Alycea

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Reflections on a City

April 10, 2008 – 10:38 pm

New York , New York.

I always say it takes one to know one – A native New Yorker, that is.

I had a brand new client last week who after 10 minutes of spontaneous mutual banter I assuredly asked, “Where did you Grow Up?”.

Before she’d answered “here.” I knew full well she was made of the same stuff I was.

Born among a resting level of noise that is not found in nature.
Thrust forward at birth into a rapid-fire tempo unmatched in the rest of this great country we call America.

And, like any born and bred New Yorker; Expectant.
Perhaps above all – expectant. New Yorkers expect things.

They expect to get what they need.
They expect others to expect things of them.
They expect to be….heard.

Expectation may be indigenous to New York City.

As a hub of success and achievement, people don’t come to New York to settle down and raise a family.
Nor do they associate setting up in New York as a quality of life change.

People come to New York to do something.
Not just something – something important.
People come to New York to accomplish something.

It’s pretty hard to accomplish something if no one is listening to you.

So they practice.
Native New Yorkers practice being heard.

They speak out loud. Loudly.
They voice their displeasure. To perfect strangers.

They talk on their phones in public, read their books out loud on the train, sing while strolling and carry on conversations with coffee cart servers and taxi drivers ad infinitum.

They try to be heard.
They, in fact, make themselves heard – above the din.
And at any cost.
Adding their volume to the organic clamor that defines this Big Apple.

If they persist – someone, somewhere will take notice.
But more often than not, it’s just another native, recognizing one of their own.

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