Teaching To Various Abilities In One Class

By Chantal Grinderslev

Pilates became a part of my life through dance. This background and training has given me the distinct advantage of coming into the discipline with a pre-established awareness of my body, alignment, and muscle groups. I realize, however, that while certain personalities are interested in the more fundamental side of Pilates, not all people enjoy the mechanics of body movement. Nonetheless, as we all know, Pilates offers many benefits, and some fans of exercise may require a slightly different approach to Pilates class to secure their interest. For a while now, I’ve taught a variety of classes, from private classes to general mat classes to sports teams. My challenge in teaching a variety of client types and backgrounds has mandated a subtle inclusion of the fundamentals of body awareness into classes, while emphasizing the daily applications and uses of Pilates in general. Pilates has something for everyone and every type, however sometimes it takes a different sales pitch or class design to keep a-typical clients returning.

When I first transitioned to instructing Pilates, I started with private clients, but soon had the opportunity to teach mat classes in a gym primarily serving college students. The gym’s new director prioritized establishing healthy lifestyles among the campus population (students and professors alike); she also pushed for a variety of exercise instruction to capture the interest of as many students as possible. The college does mandate gym membership for its freshman classes, giving the gym one year to entice students and establish exercise as a life habit. While the ambition driving the gym’s ever-expanding programs is impressive, it also means that classes aim for exposure; dividing classes according to level or ability is not a financial possibility. For me this means that a few one-hour classes have to be able to summarize the goals and benefits of Pilates for newbies (almost all participants), while allowing for a range of ages (some older clients from the neighborhood did attend), and a variety of backgrounds and physical abilities (beginners to athletes), while maintaining individuals’ interest and a feeling of progression and achievement. After all, I know that Pilates is just one name on a list of class possibilities, including the more familiar variety of yoga classes, jumpy/energizing classes, boxing or aerobics classes.

Diversity of Participant Type:
I have found that class participants can most easily be categorized as:
1) athletes, trying out Pilates due to injury or a coach encouraging them to try it,
2) beginners to exercise, hoping for something relaxing and easier, similar to gentle beginner yoga positions, 3) those with body characteristics such as knee problems that preclude other popular forms of exercise such as running etc.
For the purpose of this article I am treating the third category among the first category, as further discussion would focus on particular body traits and relevant exercises.

I have found that classes naturally attract females, with a distinct sub-population having had exposure to gentler forms of yoga who then expect something similar of Pilates. Beginners are often novices to exercise in general, weak in muscle development, lacking control over their bodies when moving/exercising, and having little body awareness. Importantly, they also discourage and frustrate easily and often have a desire for results or more immediate feedback from exercise. The challenge here is to teach the basic concepts at a fast enough pace that they feel they have learned or improved on something. Athletes, on the other hand, either drop in to experiment with Pilates as a supplement to their sports conditioning, or come for rehabilitation purposes after injuring themselves, forcing a hiatus from their normal methods of exercise. Often athletes are more set in their ways. They are mentally resistant to Pilates, and males in particular tend to view it as an inferior “girly” exercise. Moreover, they also lack body awareness, and have little knowledge of alignment or the concept of mentally engaging or separating muscle groups. To them, muscles engage themselves when you move, with limb movement being the initiator. These individuals are often very tight, with an imbalance in muscle development, and an attitude (among males) that equates muscle bulk with exercise results. The challenge here is to change their approach to exercise in general, while
maintaining their interest.

Class Atmosphere:
Importantly, I always arrive early to class and stay later to talk to participants on an informal basis. I find that knowing their schedules, their motivations, their most regular exercise, and the causes of their injuries help me to design classes relevant to their daily routine that are mindful of improving their muscle control to rehabilitate and prevent future injuries. In a gym setting, it is easy for new participants to feel invisible or like they can hide in the back until they are more comfortable. As an instructor, the personal communication, consideration of their backgrounds and encouragement to ask questions makes the class a more social experience where everyone is trying to figure out how to do the exercises, and become more familiar with their own bodies.

Class Design:
The combination of different levels of ability and rates of progress in one class make it essential to both continuously stress fundamental concepts and include modifications for beginners and athletes. First of all, repetition of basic concepts and brief but effective recaps of how to find and engage certain muscles, find correct alignment, etc., are necessary in each class. In my case, as many class participants are undergraduates or medical students, their schedules, energy levels, and daily priorities shift according to their workload. As a result, the class size remains approximately the same, but the participants themselves fluctuate – some students manage to attend Pilates regularly, while many participants attend irregularly
and others only on occasion. This altering composition makes building up Pilates skills over time more difficult, and makes the natural progression of Pilates to more exciting and challenging exercises harder to pursue without losing the beginners or experimenters in the room.

It is absolutely key to continuously review fundamental concepts, but cover the basic concepts and how to feel them (how to find neutral pelvis for example) in quick, explanatory snippets. From my dancing days I know that everyone feels and experiences their bodies in different ways, and one explanation of how to move may help one person but not the person next to them. To keep these main concepts from sounding redundant, I emphasize the key word but try to explain it differently each time. By switching imagery,
adjectives and descriptions, the degree of repetition is minimized. Beginners are able to attempt exercises with comfort while regular attendees have a new way of thinking about their movements. Additionally, to counter redundancy and address the athletes, I aim to frequently tie the basic concepts to the movements they enable. Relevancy to sports and daily habits keep the big picture in mind, while participants work on how to improve in the current exercise.

A second approach is to focus on one main concept each class. As we move through the exercises, I mention the main corrections to watch out for. Then I explain how the main concept (neutral pelvis, for example) is important in the exercise, and explain how the concept enables more effective and efficient exercise. Other days, I might choose to focus the class on a particular area of muscles – how to engage and disengage them while exercising. Always, I include modifications on how to make exercises both more and less challenging. My main goal is to maintain a build up of exercises. Within the framework of each one hour class I find it useful to build up several exercises that relate to the day’s key concept or muscle area of concentration. I link a few exercises in a flow series of Pilates, which together make each exercise more difficult, but also add a sense of improvement and accomplishment as well as challenge to the class for
all levels and abilities.

Lastly, I like to tailor the class to their schedules. While it is essential to have days focusing or returning to the fundamentals, I also like to include days that focus on stretch, alignment, power, stamina, abs, stability, etc. Moreover, I adjust the proportion of energy and relaxation required for class according to their workloads. Sometimes students need a class that energizes them; at other times they need a class that allows them to release energy/tension, or that encourages focus or relaxation. Pilates can fit and benefit all
lifestyles but sometimes teaching a range of exercise personalities and lifestyles in one class requires more multi-tasking in tailoring a class to clients. That challenge, I find, makes it that much more rewarding to reach out to students of different types.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chantal Grinderslev was trained in classical ballet and started Pilates at the age
of thirteen.  She was certified by the PhysicalMind Institute in Mat/Standing Pilates in 2003 and has taught a variety of people in a variety of locations since then.

Tags: Chantal Grinderslev, PhysicalMind Institute