Giving Progressions With Guardrails

Learn to cue progressions in a way that every client only takes a progression when they're ready, and in a way that helps clients understand and deliver the movement you're looking for every time. Tune in!

I want to hear from you! Share your thoughts and follow the podcast on Instagram and Facebook @pilatesteachersmanual. Full show notes, episode transcription, and chapter markers can be found on the podcast website here: http://bit.ly/pilatesteachersmanual. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast for updates, and rate and review wherever you listen!  Episodes now available on YouTube: *https://bit.ly/YouTubePTM*

Email pilatesteachersmanual@oliviabioni.com with your feedback.   

Support the podcast:   

Get your copy of Pilates Teachers' Manual: The Book at https://book.oliviabioni.com/pilatesteachersmanual

Visit https://shop.oliviabioni.com for podcast merch! 

Visit https://links.oliviabioni.com/affiliates to take advantage of some sweet savings!

Episode Music:

Workout Dance Day EDM by Diamond_Tunes, in compliance with Pixabay's Content License (https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/)

Listen/download: https://pixabay.com/music/dance-workout-dance-day-edm-123377/

Transcript

0:08

Hello. Hello everybody. Welcome and welcome back to Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to Becoming a Great Pilates teacher. I'm Olivia. You get the latest updates when you join my community at BuyMeACoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts, or follow along on Instagram at @PilatesTeachersManual.

Pilates Teachers' Manual: 0:27

The Book is now available for purchase as both an EPUB and a PDF at shop.OliviaBioni.com and on Amazon as a Kindle file. Fun fact. You can also convert the epub or PDF version of the book into a Kindle friendly file by visiting amazon.com/sendtoKindle. Just a reminder that that EPUB format is the most like an e-reader style book with page turning and text on the page and everything like that. Today's episode is about cueing for what you want to see from your clients versus cueing what you don't want to see. And you can also think of this as another way of having clients earn their progressions in exercises or offering progressions with guardrails. Let me set the stage with a very common situation that you may see in a group class. You're teaching an exercise like bird dog, for example, and you're teaching legs only. You offer the progression of lifting the opposite arm and the opposite leg at the same time. A person in your class was struggling with the leg only, their hips were lifting, their back was arching, their chest was sinking, et cetera. But when you offered the option to lift both the arm and the leg, they enthusiastically attempt it.. And they're wobbling even more unsteadily as they do. You wish inside that they had not taken that progression because it seemed obvious to you that they had more work to do where they were. And as the teacher, you might feel frustrated by their choice. And if a client doesn't build the foundation for an exercise, they miss out on so much of the challenge and the meat of the exercise leading to the dreaded, "I don't feel anything, that was so easy," comments that make Pilates teachers die a little bit on the inside. And there is some nuance here because we're bringing a lot of expectations to it. We're expecting them to know where they are in space. We're expecting them to know what the exercise is, and that's not always the case. And sometimes there is an immediate intervention that is required if it's a safety concern. So if this bird dog was happening in a four point kneeling position on the long box and they had their foot in a strap and they were wobbling really unsteadily, that unsteadiness could translate to falling off the equipment. So the immediate intervention would be the right choice to have them put their leg down to take the strap off, you know, whatever, to stop them from continuing down the path of potentially falling. However, I do think that there's a way to cue exercises that makes it so that we don't need to intervene urgently in an emergency safety sort of way. I believe that if you cue in this way, you'll never come to the point where someone is taking an unsafe progression because you've led them there in such an intentional way that they only took the progression if it was the right choice for them. Sounds magical, right? A lot of this has to do with how you program and how you build up the exercises within your program, as well as the language you use when you cue progressions. I think timing is also part of this because when you teach in the way that I'm about to describe, you may spend a little bit more time in each exercise, but I do think that the benefits will outweigh the time that you spend in the exercise. Big things you're gonna do when you teach this way are start with a modified or simpler version of the exercise that everyone can do. You're only gonna cue what you want to see. You'll offer progressions with prerequisites, and you'll make sure that there is no value judgement attached to the different versions of the exercise. So clients are empowered to choose the best version for themselves. I am gonna stick with the example of bird dog on the long box. To illustrate this, if I was teaching bird dog on the long box on the reformer, I might choose to start on a blue spring or a half spring, without any straps. The lighter spring means that the carriage wiggles when you wiggle, and it will provide external feedback when clients wobble. Not all clients have the same degree of body awareness, so the wiggling of the carriage will give them another piece of information about what they're doing and how they're moving. I'd start with some really clear setup cues, always focusing on what I want to see versus what I don't want to see. I want to see the spine in neutral, hands actively pushing the box away, hips level, and a still carriage. I'd cue everyone into single leg extensions only and make sure that I'm still seeing what I want to see. The neutral spine hands, pushing the box away level hips. Carriage is not moving, and with the moving leg that that movement is slow and controlled. I like to use an if then statement when I offer progressions. If you can maintain a neutral spine with your hands, actively pushing the box away, level hips, and a still carriage, and the movement of the leg is slow and controlled, then you can try extending the opposite arm with the leg. Sometimes I like to phrase the prerequisite as if you're feeling strong or if you wanna add on, or if you have gas in the tank. I love those phrases, and if you're working with clients who you know and clients know themselves and their abilities and they know how the equipment moves, they can be really great phrases for your teaching. But if you're teaching folks that you don't know really well, maybe they don't know how their bodies move very well, or maybe they're just learning how the equipment works. They may not understand those general phrases. They may 100% feel strong and want to add on and have gas in the tank, but they may not be executing the exercise with the degree of control that you want in order for them to take that progression. So as teachers, we are going to anticipate and avoid that miscommunication by clearly asking for what we want to see before anyone takes a progression and give prerequisites for taking that progression for our clients. And as we're giving that guidance, we're also going to avoid the easy, hard, beginner advanced dichotomy trap. Easy is not universal, and clients usually won't take an easier or a beginner option when it's juxtaposed with something that's harder or more advanced. It's largely an ego thing, but no one wants to do the easy thing and no one wants to do what no one else is doing in the class. But when we focus on specific form, alignment, speed, and control in a neutral way, IE, without any value judgements, it's not better or worse, we can empower friends in our classes to find the appropriate level of challenge and work there, and also build that strong foundation for progressions in the future. There's a bonus here that even people who want to take that progression, who are ready to take that progression, by slowing everything down and starting everyone in that modified and easier version. Those friends who want to take the progression are building strength by working on the foundation as well. We literally cannot work on the fundamentals enough, and by forcing everyone to work on the fundamentals, whether you're gonna stick with that fundamental movement or add on, you win either way. Here's an example of how I might cue through those bird dog options in an intermediate class. All right, friends. Next up is bird Dog on the long box on the reformer, we're on a blue spring, so heads up that the carriage is wiggly. Come to hands and knees on the box. Hands and head towards the pulleys. Toes back towards the springs. For this exercise, I want your torso and carriage to stay still. Find your neutral spine and work to keep your spine and the carriage motionless, extend your right leg back over the foot bar, no higher than your hip. Carriage stays still. Hips stay squared. Begin alternating legs. One over the foot bar at a time. Keep pressing the box away with the hands. Shoulders pressed wide upper back, puffed towards the ceiling. Spine long and neutral. If you're moving here and the carriage is still and your hips are squared, then you can try extending the opposite arm with the leg. Right leg, left arm, left leg, right arm. As you add on the carriage stays still and the movement is controlled. Arm and leg move nice and smoothly the whole time. Keep pressing the box away with the standing hand. Keep the spine long. Hips stay still. Carriage stays still. If moving both the arm and the leg feels good and the carriage is staying quiet and you're maintaining neutral in your spine, then you have the option to add movement to the carriage. If you would like the carriage to also move as you move your arm and leg, we'll take our right foot into the right strap. As you extend your right leg, the carriage will move. If you find yourself wobbling a bit here, that's totally fine, but we're working to control the movement. If you're like, I don't want that carriage to move at all, I am doing just fine right here. That's awesome. Keep the work controlling the movement and keeping the carriage still without that strap on the foot. This is the foundation. Friends who'd like to take that strap on the foot. Lasso your right arch with that right long strap. We're doing right leg on repeat. All the same rules apply. Extend your right leg back over the foot bar. Spine stays neutral. Upper back is puffed. Maybe that left arm reaches forward. If you add the strap and you're like, Ooh, controlling this with the hand lifted is not for me today, bring that hand back to the box. You can move leg only in the strap. Our hips stay squared, and now that carriage is moving in a smooth and controlled way. One more here on the right leg, then we'll return, right knee a box, take the right strap off of the foot, place it back on the peg. We'll set up here for the left side, and then I would cue the left side very similarly. It is also important that as you're giving guardrails for these progressions that you're moving around the room and giving folks correction and feedback on the way that they're moving either verbally with your words or giving tactile cues or both. Again, folks may not have the body awareness to know how they're moving, but we can tell them what we see. Like we can say, your hip is lifting. When you extend your leg behind you. Can you lower the leg a little bit when you reach it back? Nice. Now your hips can stay square. Or I see that your chest sinks towards the box. When you extend one arm, can you really press that box away? Puff up your back into my hand. You also saw in that example that I'm constantly cueing what I want clients to do, not what I don't want them to do. It's so hard to do the absence of something. So we're doing our part to cue positively, what clients can do. When you say things like, don't let your chest sink, you're like, okay, don't let my chest sink, but like, what do I do to not let my chest sink? The opposite of that is to puff up my back towards the ceiling. When we cue the negative, clients need to mentally process in their brain what it is you actually want, and then try to figure out how to give it to you. By focusing and saying only what we do want, then clients can spend their time and energy learning what we want and doing what we want instead of solving a mental puzzle. Now, this exercise might take five minutes, but I think that that's a good thing because by layering up an exercise intentionally and being clear about what is required for the next progression, it increases the likelihood that a client will take the appropriate progression for them, and it will decrease the likelihood that someone will find themselves in an unsafe position. Teaching this way has helped me feel less frustrated by my clients because they're misunderstanding me or going rogue because I am exceptionally clear on my goal for the exercise. And while cueing this way doesn't solve every problem, it does anticipate and avoid a bunch of problems. And I hope it helps you guide your classes in a supportive way. Huge thanks to all my supporters on Buy Me a Coffee. I hope you're having a great couple weeks. The adventure continues Until next time.