It’s funny how things can be so much the exact same AND completely different all at the same time. I’ve totally tasted the Kool Aide now, and while I can’t say that my mantra is Trust The Method, I am getting a completely different workout. It takes less to do more, and the more is so much harder.
The apparatus is so similar that until years later I didn’t know there was a difference other than what I thought was a diva-ness I wasn’t willing to buy into. I didn’t know about the 2 way stretch, I knew about reaching and lengthening, but now it seems to come from a whole new place, deeper even than I thought possible. 10 reps is now overkill except for footwork, there are no gold stars for overachieving, a harder body comes with less and more. Less reps, heavier spring, no reds, blues, yellows and greens to choose from, just 1 2 3 or 4, simpler and much more concentration required. Not that there wasn’t concentration required before, it’s just almost impossible to complete a move without absolute focus now.
The last inch, the last inch was the Holy Grail to me, I was just introduced to that feel 3 years ago at Siri Dharma Galliano’s LA Intensive. I thought I knew pilates, I’d been doing it for nearly 20 years and teaching for close 15, been certified, and re certified, taken classes from the tough guys Rael and John Garey, for example because I like my pilates animal style, been to all the conferences from Inner Idea, to Polestar, Body Mind Spirit, been PMA-CPT’d, for years….and here I am in a reformer class on an aluminum reformer with no risers, leather straps, stirrups for handles ( where do your feet go for frogs, circles, short spine, coordination etc…and this old guy named Jay Grimes teaching. He doesn’t look like the cut, sinewy muscle-y men I’m used to looking up to as my athletic vision.
Oh yeah, what are the long black straps used for that are on the back of the reformer, and the pole by the box? Ohmygosh, how do I spring it? I use 3 reds, now what do I do, where are my colored springs? Get the heck outta here, these people move without much direction through a routine that looks like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’m an albatross in a sea of dolphin. Where did these transitions come from?!?!?! This workout flows and I’m behind, looking around trying to see what to do next.
I thought I was going to wow the teacher with my strength and finesse and knowledge of the exercises. Instead I’m humbled and taken aback. Mr. Grimes is annoyed with me I can tell, but he doesn’t really let on. I can’t get the damn reformer to move home very easily WTH! I considered myself pro at this stuff, I’m the tough guy in the studio I teach in. The advanced clientele want me for their teacher. I don’t even know what I’m doing here.
Paradigm shift: I’m truly a student again, no certification required, just loads of hard work. So I sell all the ‘other’ apparatus I had just purchased all shiny and new with towers, and ropes and pulleys, split pedal chairs with handles, and I buy used Gratz and I go from teaching groups to privates, one on ones. I add different apparatus to my studio, ( I’ve since got my own studio) the Baby Chair, Guillotine, Pedi Pole, things I’d never even heard of and my chair is a Wunda Chair. Funny! I can finally do the exercises on the chair, it fits my body better, and some, no lots of the exercises have changed, the emphasis is different, the setup is different, the moves are different in the guise of being the same, but the spring changes things. The springs are SO hard. I really have to work. Cool!
As confused as I was with my new direction, my clientele was very forgiving. We enjoyed the new learning curve, we fine tuned, we made alterations to the ‘way we were’ and struggled with losing old habits, but we’re coming out the other side now, stronger, committed to finessing the transitions, and flowing through the workouts. We get the routine of the reformer, and I OWN that last inch now. I take my clientele to the apparatus that is appropriate for them ie. their arm series, the baby chair…it can no longer be done on the reformer, it’s just too heavy a spring, unless you’re a guy or a super strong female.
SDG’s Big Bear Intensive 2013, I’m again in classes with Jay Grimes ( I know who he is now) and he’s no longer 
annoyed, I’ve got a great handle on this new/original Joe’s way. The original intention, I get it! It’s work! I absolutely love it, and am still stymied by it all at the same time.
I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but now I do…I’m getting it, and it’s for me. Bring me that sippy cup of Kool Aide.
Sunni is owner of Studio S Pilates, which has recently hosted a few big named Classical teachers, such as Siri Dharma Galliano, Jennifer Kries and Andrea Maida, and has some more workshops and goodies in the works for the coming year.
Website: www.temeculapilates.com
Email: studio_s@icloud.com