Peak Performance Pilates

This skill is effective at mobilizing the shoulder and neck. It also clears the sinuses! Lie on your side with your legs bent, your top hand on the mat, your body aligned. Your head and sitbones are in one long line. Your head is on a pillow. Pretend there is a clock on the ceiling and your shoulder is a pointer. The 12 is above your ear, the 6 is above your hip. The 3 is forward, the 9 backward. Float your shoulder towards the 12 (your ear) and then down to the 6 (your hip). Do not have a muscular quality. Think of an apple bobbing in water. 6x. Then float your shoulder forward (3 o’clock) and backward (9 o’clock), 6x. Circle your shoulder forward  4-6 x, and then backward 4-6x. Page 142, Movement Perspectives™.

2012: June 30 – July 7, Come join us for a rejuvenating week in one of the most beautiful areas of France! Jennifer Stacey will teach Pilates at a farmhouse retreat in the gorgeous Dordogne, France near Villefranche du Perigord. For details go to peakperformancepilates/retreats/ .  Pilates’ classes, delicious meals, swimming, relaxing, bicycling, kayaking, canoeing, petanque, swimming pool. Explore the ancient caves, the towns and markets in the area.  For information contact: flyer   Perigord flyer  Jennifer info@peakperformancepilates.com

Join us for the Introduction to Movement Perspectives™ workshop on Sunday, January 22 at Rolates Pilates in Manhattan.  10 am – 4 pm. $112.
The workshop is open to movers, clients and teachers of all levels and experience.  It is a stimulating, fun, thought provoking, experiential, dynamic workshop that will enhance your understanding of Pilates and Movement.  It will provide you with tools to enhance performance, to prevent and overcome injuries and restrictions, so you can successfully teach and/or perform Pilates and other forms of movement.  It will enable you to address many problems your clients may have. We hope to see you there!
Jennifer visits New York often, so if you are interested in taking classes with Jennifer, please contact her: info@peakperformancepilates.com, for info on the workshop roberta@rolates.com   flyer: WS NY MP 1-12

Reminds me of those wonderful workshops and sessions with Ron Fletcher, Kathy Grant, Romana Kryzanowska or Eve Gentry – they all outlasted us in their workshops, and we were at least half, if not one third of their ages!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Df0d_IFLv4&list=PLFA0F95BABBAB8D1A&context=C32909b5ADOEgsToPDskKutu1ExtTbvwQqnRINZq_0

I wish everyone a year filled with laughter, movement and good health!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=264031173645746&set=a.123573717691493.12065.104432782938920&type=1&ref=nf

Your voice in our heads live on and your wisdom and stories you so generously shared with us shine brightly….we’ll miss you.

Blossom’s workshops were inspiring. It is wonderful to see Kathy Grant’s work being passed down by a gifted teacher. Blossom’s breathing tip based on Kathy Grant’s “Accordian breathing”: Try breathing into the diagonal, for example the top front of the right lung and the lower back left lung. Try different diagonals.

While sitting, place your hands over your eyes, arms and elbows zipped together. Inhale into the back of the right lung and turn to the right. Keep the arms zipped and in line with the sternum. Do not allow the arms to move more to the right than the sternum. Exhale and return to center. Repeat on the other side. The arm position is from Jeff Smith. This teaches true spinal rotation (like a cylinder) without winging or adducting the scapula or hyper-extending the thoracic spine.  I call it “The see no evil.”

Blossom Leilani Crawford will be teaching workshops December 3, 10 am – 5 pm,  December 4, 9 am – 4 pm. Saturday: “Matwork Exploration,” “Pilates and Props.”  Sunday: “From Kathy’s Cats and beyond.” “Connected Arms and Strong Torso.”  Blossom was Kathy Grant’s assistant for many years. She is the owner of Bridge Pilates in Brooklyn, New York.  Peak Performance Pilates San Francisco studio. $400 for 2 days. $240 for 1 day.  Flyer: Blossom WS 11  For information: info@peakperformancepilates.com  There is still space available!

At the PMA meeting there was panel headed by Elizabeth Larkam on polytrauma patients. There is a physical therapist working with the American soldiers amputees from Iraq and Afghanistan, using the Pilates apparatus.  It was profound to watch them conquer the challenges of performing Pilates.  They appear to love the competition. The soldiers in Copenhagen work beside the dancers at the Royal Danish Ballet Pilates Center with Jessie Lee. I think Mr. Pilates would have approved. On Friday 11/11/11  Fresh Air NPR covered the lives of some of the polytrauma patients from the war, describing the workout regimens they practice. For information go to NPR Fresh Air. David Wood wrote a series of articles in the Huffington Post called Beyond the Battlefield starting with  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2011/10/10/beyond-the-battlefield-part-1-tyler-southern_n_999329.html