[00:00:00] Welcome to Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to becoming a great Pilates teacher. I'm Olivia, and I'll be your host. Join the conversation and the Pilates community on Instagram at @pilatesteachersmanual and visit buymeacoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts to support the show. Today's chapter starts now.
[00:00:56] Hello. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. [00:01:00] Today, we're going to be talking about intuitive transitions, which is a topic that comes up frequently on the podcast. I know I've talked about this in terms of progressing exercises, seamless progressions. I've talked about it, about structuring your class with flow, but it's one of those things that is very integral, in my opinion, to teaching Pilates and always worth revisiting and chatting about.
[00:01:30] So what are intuitive transitions? What are we talking about when we say that? Why is it important to teaching Pilates and what tools can I share with you that might make your class planning a little bit more straight forward in some ways, or just maybe just giving you tools to think about your programming in perhaps a slightly different way. We know from this podcast, we [00:02:00] know as Pilates teachers, that there's so much that goes into teaching Pilates that is not just the exercises and knowing the choreography and the equipment settings to do them on. There is a lot of teaching Pilates that that is that, and it's almost like that's the baseline is knowing the choreography knowing the exercises, but there's an art to the presentation how you present yourselves how you present the exercises. There's an art to putting those exercises together.
[00:02:33] And it's something that we know that when we take a class, you know when the teacher has it. And we also know when we take a class, if the teacher does not have that component in their teaching. I do think that developing intuitive transitions is something that you get better at the more you teach. So if you are a new teacher and you're like, Oh my gosh, how do I do that? There is a tried and true method, [00:03:00] which is trial and error and constantly practicing and learning for yourself what works and what doesn't work. But I also want to talk about today again, some tools that let you jump the line a little bit. The experience always helps, but having a toolbox, uh, for approaching these problems is also quite helpful.
[00:03:19] There are intuitive transition types. It's been called around the world programming, in yoga land it's called Mandala style programming, but It's that idea that you work in a circle when you're doing exercises.
[00:03:36] I want to think about 90 degree turns when we're doing around the world. We'll go into that more. I want to talk about taking the path of least resistance when you are transitioning between exercises and minimizing equipment changes.
[00:03:55] As always, unfortunately, there aren't hard and fast [00:04:00] rules about this. There are things that are situational that you might like. It might look on paper like this is going to be a great transition. And then in practice it isn't the best transition. And I also think that this is just another component to teaching that you will continue to develop, you will continue to get better at it just because you'll see how people do things and you'll get better at guessing what that path of least resistance is.
[00:04:34] So when we talk about around the world programming, I think this is something that new teachers can get hung up on and they really try to fit all choreography into this box because around the world, like most things in Pilates, It's a good idea, but it's not a rule book. So it's a good idea to incorporate, but it's not something that you can necessarily regimentally [00:05:00] plan your entire program so that it's one around the world.
[00:05:05] And as soon as I say that I'm like, well, maybe you could, but I think that there are ways to implement around the world that might be a little bit more doable and might make a little bit more sense than trying to do everything around the world.
[00:05:19] So what we're talking about in intuitive transitions, usually when you're teaching a class, there's a couple of transitions we're talking about.
[00:05:25] They can happen simultaneously. They can happen separately from each other. They're not mutually exclusive, but we're talking mainly about changing body positions. and changing your equipment settings. So if you were teaching mat and you didn't have equipment that you were playing with, you're looking at body position changes, talking about going from lying on your back to lying on your side, to lying on your front, to kneeling, to standing, to lying on your other side, you know, all of those changes in body postion.
[00:05:56] When you're working on the equipment on the reformer or other apparatus, we're [00:06:00] talking about moving between pieces of equipment is a transition, and moving body positions while on the same piece of equipment is also a transition. Spring changes are transitions. Grabbing a piece of equipment you didn't have before, hand weights, straps, handles, pedals, whatever, those are all transitions.
[00:06:22] When I think about around the world, I might think about doing an around the world series with one equipment set up. And what's changing is the body position. So a very generic around the world series, if you were on the reformer. would be like a long box arm series. If you started sitting on the long box on the reformer with your feet on the headrest, you're facing the pulleys, you've got the straps, you do a bunch of pulling exercises while you're sitting facing the pulleys.
[00:06:56] Then you turn 90 degrees. You sit on the long edge [00:07:00] of the box. You might do some single arm work or some oblique twists or some, I call it the Van Gogh. It's a seated version of Joseph Pilates lifting, uh, arm straps exercise performed in his choreography as kneeling. And then you can turn to face the foot bar. You're now straddling the box like a pony. You've got both straps in hands. Again, you're doing some serve a tray, some hug a tree, some arm circles or salute or shaving something like that. And then you turn to the other side. So in that case, your around the world all happens on the long box, all happens on the same spring setting, and you are turning 90 degrees each time. So I think of that as an around the world series.
[00:07:44] What's nice about it is that the transition is really simple. I talked about the path of least resistance, and that's really what you're looking for when you transition ever is what is an intuitive thing. What are people going to want to do from here? What is going to be easy [00:08:00] to explain or ask them to do from here? And if you're sitting on the box and you turn 90 degrees and now you're sitting facing a different direction on the box, that is a pretty intuitive transition.
[00:08:12] Even though it falls in around the world to do long box sitting on the box, feet on the headrest, doing some chest expansion, and then standing to the right side of the reformer and doing lunges.
[00:08:27] You did change 90 degrees. You were Well, I guess it's 180 degrees because you'd be doing lunging facing the foot bar or facing the center aisle. But you could, even if you said like, I'm going to do side lunges or something. So I really just went to one side, but you can see how getting off of the box, moving the box and then setting up for lunges, whether you're facing the reformer or facing the foot bar is going to be less intuitive in a bigger transition than just turning where you are on the box.
[00:08:56] So in that regard, going front, side, [00:09:00] back, side for an around the world, you do want to think about like, what does this transition entail? Is there a big spring change? Is there a big equipment change? Because that might fit better in its own series of exercises. So if you were doing an around the world on the mat, which I love to do in person, it works less well if you're teaching virtually because you end up facing away from the camera. But I love lying on your side, lying on your front, lying on your other side, lying on your back. And there's a little bit of wiggling because the mat's not infinitely long, but that is an intuitive transition to go from lying on your side to lying on your front and doing some swans and then lying on your other side, doing your other side kicks and other, uh, clams and side exercises you were doing, to lying on your back makes total sense.
[00:09:49] Things that are really intuitive are things like lying on your back to seated. We've got a great roll up as a transition. So [00:10:00] that makes sense. You would go lying on your back to seated. You could even go lying on your back to standing on the mat if you do, I call them rock and roll ups, where you kind of do rolling like a ball, plant your feet and come up to standing. That would probably be a more complicated transition, but if you've done that before in your classes or you want to introduce kind of a fun way to get from lying down to standing, that's kind of cool.
[00:10:25] But it would be a little bit of a transition to go maybe from lying on your side to standing, you know what I mean? It would be easier to go from a four point kneel to standing so sometimes you're when you're thinking about intuitive you put on a hat of a person who is new to Pilates who is trying to figure out what's going on and you think like what would be the easiest thing for them to do from here?
[00:10:53] And it's not saying that you can't do it. And maybe there is a big transition where you were sitting and now we're [00:11:00] going to come and do standing. We've got a bunch of standing stuff. So you're not as worried about that transition because it's just one big transition. As always, there's no, you can do this and you can't do that, but there are easier ways to do things and you can make part of your job as a Pilates teacher easier by leaning into things that are easier to do.
[00:11:23] Coming up after the break I've got more thoughts on around the world and thinking about ways to do equipment changes that are again easier for everyone, yourself included. That's coming up next
[00:11:40] Hi there, I hope you're enjoying today's chapter so far. There's great stuff coming up after the break too Be sure to subscribe wherever you're listening and visit buymeacoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts to support the show. There you can make a one time donation or become a member for as little as $5 a month.
[00:11:59] [00:12:00] Membership comes with some awesome perks, including a shout out in the next episode, a monthly newsletter, a monthly zoom call with me and more. You can also visit links.OliviaBioni.com/affiliates to check out some sweet deals on products I use and love.
[00:12:20] Now back to the show.
[00:12:23] Around the world is easy in theory and is more difficult the more you look at it, but it can be a really great programming tool. I think the important thing for around the world is that there isn't an equipment change with the body position change necessarily, or if it is, it's a faster equipment change like adding or taking off a spring [00:13:00] versus getting a box, removing a box. Things like that.
[00:13:05] I saw a teacher teach an around the world series that involved side lying on the short box, all springs on, top foot in the safety strap, then turning to face the foot bar, taking off all springs except for red to do some seated arms on the box facing the foot bar, and then put all the springs on to do side lying, side over kind of side sit up series on the second side.
[00:13:32] So that follows around the world. You did something on the side, you did something on the front, you did something on the other side, but when you're thinking about how can I make this transition really smooth, if you've ever tried to add and subtract springs with the safety strap pulled out, which is pulled out because we were doing side overs and we're using the safety strap. That is difficult, not impossible, not wrong, but more difficult than perhaps necessary. [00:14:00]
[00:14:00] A more intuitive transition for that specific series might be side overs on one side, turn to face the foot bar, short box series, long spine rock backs, round spine roll backs, tree, you know, whatever else you want to do, twists and rotations and side bends, whatever you want to do in the center in short box, and then turn to the other side because it doesn't have the added spring change in it.
[00:14:29] If you were to do a similar side center side around the world transition- and around the world also doesn't have to be a full circle. Side center side is what I think of more for around the world, although you might be able to do full circle, which is nice- is something like lunging next to the reformer on one side, stepping onto the reformer for something like a plank or kneeling plank series, and then stepping off to the other side to get lunges on the other side. That's a really nice intuitive transition.
[00:14:59] [00:15:00] It might involve a spring change, depending on what springs you're lunging on, what springs you'd like to plank on, depending on what you're doing in that plank as well. But that is again, one thing, the more you feel it in your body, the more you see people transition through exercises in class. You'll begin to know more about what's going on and what might work better as far as when you make those changes.
[00:15:31] I think another part about making those transitions intuitive is that there aren't a million of them. Once you're in a body position, can you stay there for a little bit? Can you do maybe three to five exercises in that body position and they don't all have to be just variations of one exercise. Like if you are doing, you know, supine arms and supine feet and straps are [00:16:00] really easy transition because you just go straps from your hands to straps on your feet. Now people might want to change their springs for things and that's totally valid and they totally can, but in terms of group class programming, that's a really nice transition to go from feet in straps to hands in straps.
[00:16:17] One of the ways I used to program my classes a lot was footwork, bridging on one spring setting and then come up to seated, change your springs for hands and feet in straps and then I would do all of that together. So there is a little roll up in the middle, but spending big chunks of time doing things if you're gonna do a big equipment change get the box put all the springs on do some short box again, you want to do a lot of stuff there and how can you do transitions within that equipment setup that is going to be most doable for you?
[00:16:55] So if you've got something like all the springs on because you were [00:17:00] doing short box, it's going to be a big transition to get out of that sequence. So one thing that I like to think about when I'm teaching group classes, especially large group classes on the reformer is subtracting springs. Can I start on the heaviest springs? And then as I program, I'm just taking springs off. That might mean that if you had that short box set up, maybe the transition is you leave it or you put the box away, change springs to whatever you're going to do next. If it's feet and straps, you changed like two reds or red and a blue, and then you use a different piece of equipment. You use the chair. Can we do an around the world on the chair doing Standing leg press facing the pedal. Can we do it sideways? Is there something we can do on the other side? Can we go back to the middle? Can we change legs? Can you step off to the springboard or the tower and do a series there of around the world?
[00:17:50] So around the world, again, as I'm trying to communicate, is a good idea. And when you implement it well, it makes classes move really [00:18:00] smoothly because what around the world existed to solve was stand on one side of the reformer, do lunges, walk around the reformer to the other side and then do lunges on the other side.
[00:18:13] That's not wrong and it's not bad, but what it creates is some dead time where people aren't doing exercises. And I think as teachers, we're trying to maximize the time that we have our clients with us and we want to do as much as possible within that time, the time of your class. And so if you make that transition an active transition, it's a roll up to seated, it's stepping onto the reformer to do some side splits or some lunges or something on the reformer or kneeling on the carriage and doing hands and straps, something to do, something to get you to the other side is a really nice thing to kind of refine in your own teaching.
[00:18:53] I think about 90 degree turns instead of 180 degree turns. I love lying [00:19:00] on your stomach up to hands and knees again, if you're on mat, but even if you're on the equipment, you know, lying on your stomach to hands and knees, if you're doing pulling straps on the long box, and then you come to hands and knees on the long box, do some cat cows, do some single arm or single leg hand in strap stuff, potentially, that's a really intuitive transition.
[00:19:21] Sitting to lying down could be an intuitive transition if you're able to roll backwards, it can be a less intuitive transition on the reformer. So again, doesn't mean you can't do it, but if you are going to do it, can we really make it count?
[00:19:34] I think teaching beginners is a really great way to see what the path of least resistance is going to be. When you teach people who are really familiar with the equipment, really familiar with the exercises and sometimes the transitions themselves, even an awkward transition can become smooth if you've got people who have Pilates in their body.
[00:19:54] So working with beginners to see what do they want to do and [00:20:00] whenever you can teach in a way that enables people to do what they kind of think they should be doing or what they in the back of their head, like subconsciously want to do, that solves the problem, some problems for you as a teacher, because sometimes the, again, the transitions are part of teaching and it's part of the class. And how can we make it meaningful?
[00:20:23] The way I program, the way that I transition between exercises continues to evolve. And sometimes you find a really good one and you want to keep it. Um, or, you know, that there are two exercises that just link together so nicely, like keep those, keep those and use those continue to refine it.
[00:20:42] Teaching Pilates is not something you perfect and then you never work on again. It really is a process that changes with us as we change, as our focus changes, and transitions are something that I think I've been really interested in, uh, in the past few months. So that's why I'm sharing that today. [00:21:00]
[00:21:00] Huge thank you to all my supporters on buy me a coffee. I appreciate you being a part of the project and I love having coffee chats to catch up with you and see what you're up to and answering any questions that you may have.
[00:21:15] It's June, which means we're doing it again. I'm looking forward to connecting with you all soon, and I'll be back in a couple of weeks with a super cool podcast conversation. Uh, stay tuned for that and I'll talk to you again soon.
[00:21:38] Thanks for listening to this week's chapter of Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to becoming a great Pilates teacher. Check out the podcast Instagram at @pilatesteachersmanual, and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen. For more Pilates goodness, check out my other podcast, Pilates Students' Manual, available [00:22:00] everywhere you listen to podcasts. The adventure continues. Until next time.