Are you starting the week feeling a bit discombulated? Join us in Somatic Strength every Monday at 9.30am and put yourself together!
Somatic Strength is a class format that grew from my almost decade of teaching Pilates and Somatic Movement – a class that is slightly faster in pace than a traditional Somatics class and with a bigger focus on true full body movement integration than a repertoire -based Pilates class can offer. We use some props to make movements accessible, to find our version of a repertoire movement and gain better clarity of our connections.
Somatic Movements can unlock your ability to do a traditional Pilates exercise better and more efficiently, as they help you to understand and release your excessive tension habits.
For example, if you tend to hold a lot of tension in your neck, shoulders and middle back, doing a chest lift (lying on the back with legs bent and lifting head neck and shoulders off the floor) will neither be comfortable nor very effective without knowing how to relax any additional engagement of muscles. While you will feel ‘work’, and it’ll be tough on your abdominal muscles, you are able to use their full potential if you first figure out how to sufficiently relax the muscles in your back before attempting to lift the head up off the floor.
Well lucky you! The Somatic Strength class will provide you with very effective strategies to release tension so you can engage the muscles you intend to contract, without the noise of stress tension! In my experience, a lot of people join a Pilates class to strengthen up because they feel weak, as their movements are restricted and all their energy goes into tightly held shoulders, braced ribs and belly and tense hamstrings. While they gain strength, they usually don’t feel a considerable change in those tensions even after years of regular classes, as Pilates simply does not address this.
So when I started to include Somatic Movements in my Pilates sessions, my clients usually commented how much better they feel right after doing the movements and after class. They were also able to do the actual Pilates repertoire with much better form and less strain, as the fundamentals could be addressed quickly with Somatics (like ability to sit upright to be able to do a Spine Twist correctly without needing a chair).
If you would like to practice movements that feel good and make you capable of more join me every Monday morning at 9.30am for 45min and for some three dimensional, generous and self-respecting practice!
