Author: Dana Belkholm

For years I have not done Bicep Curls. You know – the dumbbells in the hands as you bring them up to your shoulders, either alternating arms or both arms at the same time. They are not part of the Pilates repertoire and Crossfitters definitely make fun of them saying they are not functional movements and silly. And for years I said the same thing.

Not so any more. It started when I realized that in spite of my Pilates and Crossfit workouts, I was not building the kind of body I wanted. I admit it, I am shallow enough to say I wanted pecs and biceps. And it wasn’t happening. So I thought, “Screw it, I am going to go back to old school bicep curls to pump up my arms”. And so I started with 15#ers and worked my way up.

Naturally, I brought my Pilates brain to the exercise. So I made sure that I wasn’t swinging my body around to do the exercise. I kept my body in good alignment and didn’t let my elbows either brace against my rib cage nor move from their starting position. And what did I discover (to my chagrin)? The shoulder stabilization that takes place during a correct (in my opinion) bicep curl is amazing and incredibly valuable.

Most of us in our modern world are pulled forward too much in our shoulders so our rotator cuff muscles and the shoulder blade stabilizers are weak because they are in a too-lengthened position for them to work effectively. But if you stand up straight, pull your abs in and, without moving your at your elbows, do a bicep curl, your shoulder stabilizers will be the muscles that fail first. The rhomboids, traps, rear deltoids as well as rotator cuff muscles will get a terrific workout. Triceps will also work.

If I allow my body to swing around and use momentum to do the curls, I could probably use 45# dumbbells. But doing them correctly? I am back at 25# in order to do a set of 8 or so (per arm). They are hard! I can feel all of this terrific shoulder blade stabilization that is so important for good posture. Yes, my biceps fatigue and they are getting a workout but how amazing to feel my back working so well and so right. Yes! it feels right – like this is the way my upper body is supposed to function.

And so bicep curls are back. For me and for my clients. We work hard at shoulder stabilization in all planes of movement. And if you think this stabilization is not functional, think again. When my clients are lifting up their babies (or holding anything out in front of you for that matter), those exact shoulder stabilizers must ‘kick in’. When carrying a laundry basket full of laundry, those muscles need to work. If you’re carrying anything heavy out in front of you – whether a sofa or a load of lumber, the stabilizers must work.

Lesson learned. Try it. Feel it. Analyze those feelings. Question your previous assumptions and understandings. And then evaluate. I found that bicep curls are not nearly as silly as I thought. On the other hand, “there is no bad movement, there is only movement done badly.” (Ron Fletcher – original Pilates master teacher)

At Mind and Body, naturally, we continually strive to ‘put your brain in your body’. Joseph Pilates’ famous quote is of course – “It is the mind that builds the body.” This is more than an abstract concept. It really is at the very heart of a. getting the most out of every exercise, b. feeling and understanding what your body is doing and c. becoming your own teacher as you dialogue between body and mind to improve your body.

When I am taking a class or doing my own workout, I strive to see what I am doing by watching my alignment either for myself (why mirrors in a workout space are so valuable) or by what my teachers may observe. But I also ask myself. “What am I feeling? Am I feeling what the teacher is saying and if not why not?” and “How could I improve this exercise for me (and in turn, for my clients)?” I have had many experiences where what the teacher was saying was not what I was feeling. In many cases, it is because the teacher themselves had not asked that question of themselves when they were being taught.

And I have learned from it. Exercises that I had previously dismissed as being counter productive or even contra-indicated for many clients have come back into my repertoire because I found a new understanding of the exercise because of what I started feeling on my own body and not what any teacher had said about it (unfortunately). It is hard when you have been taught that an exercise is bad or dangerous to try the exercise with an open mind. And fitness trainers of all ilks are guilty of dismissing exercises out of hand.

One of my clients yesterday used the phrase ‘using a Zen/Yoga mind to do an exercise’:

• What do I feel
• Where do I feel it
• Is my alignment correct
• Does it make sense
• Does it fit with my understanding of the body

Maybe this is too much to think about when all you want to do is get a good workout.

BUT THIS IS HOW YOU WILL GET A GOOD WORKOUT. If you can put your brain in your body, your workouts will be more efficient because you will get more out of every exercise. When you put your brain in your body, the movement pattern in the exercise can then translate more easily to your other activities athletic or just in daily living. When you put your brain in your body, you body will work harder, more efficiently and get injured less because you are bringing awareness to real, actual functional training. And putting your brain in your body is the only way to truly transform your body.

“There is no bad movement, there is only movement done badly” – Ron Fletcher – Pilates Master.

I just finished taking a Ballet Barre class locally and came away very frustrated as well as tired. It was a hard class and the exercises were generally good, valuable, hard, fatiguing and doable. Mostly. I took ballet as an adult years ago so I had some experience to fall back on to say nothing of my Pilates experience which teaches AWARENESS and PRECISION. However, in this class there was so much to work on in order to get all the pieces moving together in a coordinated fashion with sacrificing technique.

And when the teacher said ‘And now double time’ – I knew there was no way I could keep it all together so I just kept going at the same pace – mostly. But all of the girls (6 in the class) gamely tried to do the double time. And FAILED – 100% of them. It irritated me that the teacher didn’t look around the room and say, “Wow, they’re not getting it – they look like shit doing this. Maybe I should just go at the old tempo and work on technique”. But no. Choreography is everything so she just kept forging ahead.

“There is no bad movement. There is only movement done badly.” This has been the theme for this week. It is also one of the foundational principles of my teaching.

Pilates is all about getting it right and getting it right at the beginning – as much as possible. True ballet starts with Barre work so the student can get the movement correctly and slowly before starting to move faster so that when the student gets to floor work, they know what they should be doing and where they should feel it and what it should look like. Not so in Ballet Barre.

I know how hard I was working to get it right. It was doable but hard. There was nothing wrong with the exercises, except for the speed and the inability of the students to do them. My rule for teaching is that if more than 85% (or so) can’t do the exercise, there is something wrong with my teaching (communication or demonstration) or there is something wrong with the exercise. Too damn fast!!

At what point will these girls get it right? If they keep coming, will they get strong enough or flexible enough to make the correction? Not if they have been practicing the movement pattern incorrectly, with the wrong muscle. Either make the movement less complex or slow it down so the brain has a chance to learn and catch up.

It’s fine that they all felt tired and worked out (as did I) at the end of class. But wouldn’t it be better if they learned about their bodies as well as worked them? If they learned where turn out came from? If they learned that knee and toe alignment are important for knee health? If they learned where their spine was in these various positions? If they learned how to STABILIZE their spine and core while moving their limbs rather than shaking around like an aspen tree?

This Ballet Barre class was both better than I expected – not too many repetitions, decent variations, good movements and as bad as I expected – lack of technique, lack of correction, too much speed with too little stabilization. I’ll go back – because I know what I need to work on and I am still hoping to get to the splits sometime in my lifetime. But I will only ‘double time’ it when I know that my technique won’t completely fall apart. Because that is how I’ll get better. If I keep repeating a movement badly I will become very proficient at moving badly. Not pretty. And not helpful.

For years, I would never sweat when I worked out. I always assumed it was because I was thin and cooled down quickly. Even so, my ears would get really, really hot – they almost felt like they would burn up and fall off. Several of my friends said I needed to drink more water and I dismissed it because I did drink some water and ate fruit and vegetables and usually had a bunch of milk every day.

But I decided to read up on dehydration and did a google search; the sheer number of hits was astounding especially on the topic of ‘chronic dehydration’. Several sites suggested that a large percentage of the population were chronically dehydrated. They also suggested that to reset the body’s hydration meter would take a few weeks. I decided to give it a try.

At first it was hard to force myself to drink water often. I often added some lemon to make it more interesting. But as I kept at it, I did notice several changes.

• I started sweating. During my harder workouts (especially Crossfit) I would start to more than glisten – I would actually sweat!
• I started feeling thirsty. I think I reset my thirst reaction and wanted to drink more water
• I think my moods evened out. This of course is subjective but it really does seem to correlate; I find myself much more even tempered (unless I get too hungry of course).
• I think my skin is a little smoother although I am not as sure about that one

So, drink your water. Force yourself to drink several glasses a day. What could be an easier cure for so many ills?

2 days ago, my right foot started hurting in a way that I am sure is exactly the dreaded Plantar Fasciitis – an inflammation in the fascia of the bottom of the foot that can make walking painful with lots of pain on the heel. Inflammation would usually indicate some icing and rest and maybe some stretching. But I’m stubborn. And curious.

So I didn’t ice (which I do think would help) but no rest although I wore shoes more carefully and tried to not irritate my heel more. And I started stretching. Exploratory stretching – always trying to feel what made it felt better. Logically, I would think some tight calf muscles or arches would help. They did – a bit.

But over the years, I have learned that the body is a fascinating puzzle that has its own understanding. My job is to try to decipher my own or other people’s bodies’ organization. Years ago, I had just a touch of Plantar Fasciitis and surprisingly it went away when I did exactly the wrong things: I started jump roping at Crossfit more. And I started running the stairs more. My theory is that constant controlled stretch on the foot helped the fascia loosen up. Maybe. But you can’t argue with results and my foot pain disappeared.

So I’ve been stretching. Calf tightness? Yes. Arch tightness? Yes. (BTW, I am doing the stretch on the unaffected leg to compare. If my right is tighter than my left, I conclude that on some level it has to be contributing to the foot pain.) But surprisingly, glute stretches – figure 4 and pigeon and especially intense hamstring stretches have made the most difference. It almost completely disappears after some hamstring stretches. Maybe the fascia down my entire leg is a little stuck and the stretches are helping loosen that up. I’m not sure but it is working.

Lesson learned? The most obvious is NOT always the right answer and to keep looking around my body – asking and learning what I need to do to heal myself. I need to become my own diagnostician. It’s fascinating to learn the language of the body. And that knowledge might then possibly (but not always) be applicable to another of my clients.

It’s great to have a career that fascinates even after 16 years.

Frog in the Air

This is one of the exercises from the L5 Workout. The shoulders are working like crazy to keep your body up as high as possible while your abs are working equally hard to keep the spine in as straight a line as possible. Ultimately. you are able to take the body out at a 45 or so degree angle without collapsing in the lumbar spine. However, if you aren’t careful about the low back neutral spine, you can really do a number on your back. Oh yes, your inner thighs, glutes and quads are also working plenty hard for the ‘plie’ in the air in order to maintain the turnout throughout the bend and straighten of the knee. Contrology (the original name for Pilates) at its best!