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LIVE from The Social in West Chester! A great discussion on the world of Pilates and our connection to spirit1

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Transcription

• Speaker #0

  Hi, folks, and welcome to another episode of Spiritual Dust. I am your host, Little Ricky Wood, and we are at the social this evening. And I thought I was going to do something fun, like have a one-on-one discussion about Pilates with Courtney Davis. You know, kind of a one-on-one thing. But no. Courtney decided I'm going to bring some other instructors with me. And? One of my clients, and we'll all sit at the table with you and talk about Pilates, which I think is a wonderful idea. So we have Carol. We have Dori. I'm going to try to begin. And Joanna. And we have Courtney Davis here from Fluid Pilates, which is here in Westchester. Where's the address?

• Speaker #1

  Church Street 225 Church.

• Speaker #0

  please check it out. This is kind of crazy because I'm trying to do a little bit each week, a little stint to spirituality, even with exercise. I have a nutritionist coming on soon in a couple of weeks. And we're going to talk a little bit about exercise and spirituality and bodies. So I don't know how we're going to do this because y'all are like looking at me like you're ready to bite, but everybody's going to the one that's already had the cocktail. Can you tell us a little bit of the history of Pilates?

• Speaker #1

  I can. It's a long history.

• Speaker #0

  Don't, now, now, now, calm down. Could you give us a pedant's heresie of Pilates?

• Speaker #1

  Yes. So Pilates is a method he moved out that is corrective in nature. And it became popular at the turn of the 20th century when Joseph Pilates, by 1925, brought Pilates to New York City. And it's organically developed through... practitioners, and he kept a very close watch on his method until his passing in 1964, and even then passed it on to people who would keep with his classical movements. And so these movements, so Pilates is movement that creates better exercises and fitness because you move, it's not you learning new movements, it's learning how to move out. where we are okay so you're you're not just you're moving differently and so it's for you personally so as you approach your own well-being which is mental and physical and spiritual if you want to go that far um that you can't comfort mental lives you can't you shoot that team one without the other so learning movement that's right for your body and then taking it through you flexion, extension, side bending, and rotating, all the ways your spine should move, and your limbs and your head should follow.

• Speaker #0

  Wow, that's great. Like, for some big, chunky guy like me, I was used to powerlifting most of my life, that kind of thing. And when I came to see you, it's a much more controlled kind of in-and-out kind of movement. I mean... I enjoy that. I mean, is that better or worse? What's the thing?

• Speaker #1

  Well, if you're more controlled, you're probably using more muscles. You're using your body as a whole to control the environment and you're moving from your core. Control is one of the, what is it, founding principles of Pilates. What do you call it? Founding? It's controlology. It's controlology. Yep. What's that called? Controlology. That's what it was called before.

• Speaker #0

  people started calling it kawaii water well wow that is pretty interesting um now we're going to skip over to the client why did you take kawaii's join on what has it done for you so

• Speaker #1

  for me um i will say that unless with being naturally thin i have

• Speaker #0

  You can go, no, thank you. No, no, get on out. Thank you. You're on my show. You don't start like, I'm cool. Because I'm naturally saying you fat people here. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

• Speaker #1

  But what was really important for me was building muscle. That's not something that came easily for me. And I also had injuries. I had a, I had, this will hit my shoulder. It can wear my leg in. And so I had to do knee have. So. Bodies being a thing to hold really helps you recognize your own body and learn how to use your body and where you can add those boundaries and building up that muscle and building the right pieces. And if you have a really good instructor like Courtney, they really help you to understand what muscles you're using in what areas, when, and in the different emphasize.

• Speaker #0

  I have noticed now I would like to go more often as I've been lectured to do that. but I've noticed like when I've weight trained through the years, I seem to get more instantaneous results through exercise with Pilates than I do with when I'm at a weight training. You were a physical therapist, right? I mean, it's a little different. I mean, I seem to get a bigger, better result. What do you think?

• Speaker #1

  Absolutely you do. It is also the whole mind-body connection. And there's a big breathing component to Pilates. So you're teaching the client not only the exercise, but having them focus on their breath. And science recently has proven how much of a mind connection there is to breathing correctly. There's like a ton of books that were published like in the last two years, three years. And I think that the breathing component follows through into all the other exercises that you try after, especially like runners. They find like doing a few sessions of Pilates, they can run there. And you're not doing running in the Pilates session, but you're teaching them alignment and breath and also the control with their mind to get through the exercise because some of it's tough, even though it doesn't look like it's going to be hard, like hundreds. Right? Uh-huh. Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  They don't look hard yet. Corey goes, lay down on that. Put your feet up in a V. No, no, just your heel. Put your heel up. No, put it closer. Let them touch. But all kidding aside, I find this interesting. I don't know if it was you, Joanna, at all. There isn't a whole bunch of warm-up, like when you go to the gym, you're on the treadmill.

• Speaker #1

  It is your warm-up. That's your warm-up. Oh, and you're talking about. How do you? Hundreds is like one month. Ten years. And footwork. Footwork.

• Speaker #0

  I mean,

• Speaker #1

  there's a lot of different ways to warm up, but that's. You're doing the whole connection there, though. Your alignment. your breath, your control.

• Speaker #0

  Yeah, but there isn't 25 minutes of being on the treadmill before I go over to work out with her.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah, you don't need to. You need to get your alignment and your rep down.

• Speaker #0

  And what's really interesting, getting back to more of the spiritual thing, because when most of us work out, you know, on the treadmill, we're trying to get into that zone. I get into the zone a little differently when I'm doing Pilates. When I leave the zone last floor, so you know that's been an interesting thing now jumping around a little bit because fluid bodies is you know here in westchester and that is a haunted little salon there it's a buff lay salon and there is the hallway that's there and i was there two weeks ago right before the holidays i'm sitting there waiting for courtney you And there's a little girl, I can feel right the face there of the hallway going, Who is going to come back? She goes, Hi! I turn around and there's nobody there. And then I'm working out with Courtney and the door opens.

• Speaker #1

  It opened with Rory and I, yes, Super Monday. It says it opened up. It wasn't his appointment right after mine. It might have been. I'm coming right after me.

• Speaker #0

  The door opens up and I have injuries. I mean, I've just come to worse. And she knows that. So Courtney is like, just hold on a poll. Just breathe. I feel two hits. on my back trying to help me stretch out like that. There was no one else there. There's no one else on the hallway. So that was kind of, I don't know how spiritual that is, but it was pretty angelic for me in some way or form. One of the things though is like, it would be great if I had a personal Pilates instructor with me at all times. But how do you maintain like, I would love to see Courtney every day, but how do you maintain those type of exercises on a more continuous base?

• Speaker #1

  because it does become the way you know. And they'll not, so when clients come to me the first day, I said, you walked in here and you're going to walk out of here. And so how do you get through your day? You stand, you sit, you walk, and you drive. So the first thing I'm going to do is drive out of here. So I'm going to start with seated posture, which I call your driving posture. and then we do walking. And so you're only using muscles. You're decompressing your skeleton and then using your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia in the order from origin to insertion to move your body through space. This is really a very simple educational process. And so when you moon-nest, it becomes the way you move. So there's the saying that everyone knows in the universe, I think. In 10 times you feel a difference, in 20 times you see it, and in 30 times you have a whole new mind-body connection. And the reason that you have it... is because like anything that you do if you do an intentional habit making or breaking that if you do it for 28 to 31 days it's it's done so when you begin to move this way you you will crave anything this way and it's like gloria said earlier you'll be standing in the supermarket line and and saying you don't know what i know look at the way i'm standing it's really the biggest because of my injury to my hip

• Speaker #0

  um, Sherlock Holmes here. Corgi said, oh, you got hit that way. You're, you're, you're bowlegged. You're walking pigeon tube. And she would just say, try to just for the next week, think of your turning your feet and just sit at it. That in itself. helped by 20%. I was always turning like, because they're like this because of the injury, I'm turning them in like that, and it helps. I count my steps more. You know, it's that kind of thing. It has been a much better form of being disciplined in exercise. Most of us can't be disciplined. There are people listening to this broadcast right now that I've done coaching with and stuff. that I know are having a horrible time just getting started with the minimal stuff, like making your bed, whatever it is you're supposed to do. But this seems to be like, I hate missing it. It has to be something where my ADD kicks in, which is usually the latter.

• Speaker #1

  That's why as instructors, we hate canceling. And people, that's why we all do it. We all teach more than we want to. because we want well you like know and it's needed it is we wanted to like i look forward to my ones funny down here here's something we're going to bring out and as

• Speaker #0

  the client maybe should have to leave because it's like underneath secret stuff he said now what is an aspect of the body's business that you guys do not like going on right now

• Speaker #1

  trying to I think they're diluting they're diluting what the core work is or the foundational practices are being diluted. It happens when anything hits the masses that there is this leap into, so the pendulum has to swing from its very controls it's not that it's diluted and then it's going to swing back to and Yeah. Fine. Like, you know, the best Pilates studios and teachers will have a different clientele than people that just want to be a group interest. Yeah. I was going to say, you say the same thing as mine. Yeah. I'm a snob. Take me. I will never. She caught dead. She wanted to get in. Never. Pilates. That's a lie. Like, shoot me first. It doesn't mean that that teacher isn't a good teacher. It is just not meant to be taught as a group interest. It's meant to be very. specific and make you learn you and bring it to the class. And that's the thing is, is that I often know that who me is, who I am, is that I really like one-on-one and like, that's what I'm good at or small or fast because I have a lot of questions. I, you know, like, well, what if I do this and I, you know, shouldn't this today? And I like to change it up. And those classes are not designed for them. Well, they're, they're a program. So you have, and you do what's in their structure. Whereas like. I even have teachers that do like, say, for instance, if you're coming in, Rich, and they know about your issue with their hip, they would be focused on that. And I've just been doing this, I guess, so long that if you show up and like, you know, so maybe you had a bad morning. It has nothing to do with your hip, but it does have to do with your hip because whatever is going on in your mind is going on in your body or vice versa. So if you show up, I just kind of say, what's to notice? I don't I don't have a can.

• Speaker #0

  I just have seems very familiar. This seems very similar.

• Speaker #1

  Like, how are we doing?

• Speaker #0

  That's not what we did lastly.

• Speaker #1

  And what do you do if you go to a jail? You do this? You do upper body, lower body, you know, four. It's like, okay, no. You need to be on your body all the time because your body is not separate. You should think of yourself as one big muscle that moves the whole skeleton.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, you never told me that.

• Speaker #1

  What, that you're one big muscle? No, I thought that. But you thought I was... Start with a Z.

• Speaker #0

  You know, I've never done this again at a table with four women.

• Speaker #1

  You're out.

• Speaker #0

  I mean, three of them in a tough crew. You seem the same one.

• Speaker #1

  Oh, if you only knew.

• Speaker #0

  My psychic vibe, because I am a psychic medium, and that's why I do the podcast. I try to talk about all aspects of the stuff. But the vibe I get from you is very different from that. different how it's a good vibe not that your vibes not as you heard I feel like there was something grabbed you by the shoulders and said do this like you were you had to do it um what what was that transformative energy or whatever it was for you to to do this because you're a physical language person before yeah and I loved the transition

• Speaker #1

  going from healthcare to wellness, because I believe healthcare is safe right now. And like, we're in a healthcare crisis in our country. And I love teaching people to not see your movement, because right now, especially as a physical therapist, sometimes you get caught up in what the injury is when someone comes in to see you, or you go to their house to see them, their hips, their knees, and getting that better. And you will still focus on the whole body, right? And even the mind just... Connection, don't look to the person. Yeah, well, and your goal is to get the knee better so that they can get to the bathroom, so they can get to the door, so that they can get to outpatient therapy. And the rest of them is in. you don't have time to treat everything. And there's other problems, you know, and the other knee is going to be bad then too. And so it's such a nice break to work with. Even some of the people I see aren't fit, aren't healthy, but they're working to be better. And I love working with people that I first show a night and try them. And they want to be well or try to be well. And even, you know, sometimes it's mental wellness. Like you get people that come in that are sick, But they had a lot of mental struggles and Pilates supplies. I like that. Amazing mental. Yeah, it's like so great.

• Speaker #0

  I got it. I got to tell you. I mean, I'm a little tiny. When I go to see it, I don't want to do it. Like, sir, all of that. I'm like, it is not over yet. You know, but when I do me. Yes. It transfers into something else that lasts for a long time.

• Speaker #1

  When you do it for a while, what will happen when you walk in the door? The minute you get there, some of the world transfers. What? United, the reformer.

• Speaker #0

  Like, like Dottie? Like that he said.

• Speaker #1

  You'll drive through a snowstorm and you'll think, and the last thing I wanted to go do was Pilates. But you'll walk in the door and you'll just say, I'm so happy to help you. So it'll be the first. You won't have to get to the end of the session to be glad you're there. We'll be glad the minute you open your door. And the fact that you show up, even though you don't want to go, is already a change in you.

• Speaker #0

  That is true. That is true. It has been wonderful for me to do. The other thing here is our dear friend Corey spends some of her time down south when he gives a little chili. So some of my instruction will be through online. FaceTime. Virtual. Virtual. But I'm looking forward to that. Why don't you guys promote that more?

• Speaker #1

  Because we don't have to, Yon-Earth. Right. I don't have to.

• Speaker #0

  But it's a great idea for someone who isn't around. If I'm going away to the Carolinas, if I want to do my thing, I can do it, you know, virtual with you.

• Speaker #1

  Yeah.

• Speaker #0

  Have you ever done it virtual?

• Speaker #1

  I have not. I've done apps. Yeah. Like, for the trams. Like, for, but not with, like, my actual, so. And it's different with an app. Yeah. Yeah, like, you get a decent workout, and it's not the same. Yeah. So, what I was thinking about is, for instance, like, we have, I have a client. He travels a lot in her business. And so, she comes in when she's in. loybal when she's locally here and when she travels she does zoom a private and that you don't have the benefit of all the different pieces of apparatus however um she's she was to do that and that is great however um what what's lacking in the world is social and intimate interaction and hands-on So, it's what people are liking. It's a great filler. But if you know the person personally, there's nothing better than Harry's on.

• Speaker #0

  Yes, but she won't be here.

• Speaker #1

  Well, you can see, and Gloria will be.

• Speaker #0

  I don't want to work with Vane.

• Speaker #1

  Well,

• Speaker #0

  I'm sure that Courtney has already told her what kind of mess I am.

• Speaker #1

  And that's... I love a good nap. Have a good... I love a good... I'm a terrible housekeeper. She's sitting there.

• Speaker #0

  She's going... You might be working while Ricky would. If he whines, just slap it. I have to tell you guys...

• Speaker #1

  Tell me the door might open. Right. It did anyway.

• Speaker #0

  When I first met Courtney, I was having a tough time. I have a condo where you have to walk the stairs. That was tough. That was a deal. And it's not quite a deal as much. What do you guys want to see happen for Pilates as a whole over time?

• Speaker #1

  I'd like to see that the education of the new instructors remain high or higher. I think they need the standard of getting at instructor good pay, right? So it doesn't delete the brand like we discussed earlier. I think that's really important. And it is available. There's a lot available that's in for being bought. First of all, that it's, you know. manufacturing, if you thought of it really. So, but what does it mean? Okay, so I remember one time a woman who came from a particular style of training said that they made the best instructors. And I said that you do not make a good instructor. A good instructor is not a good instructor, a good teacher. Because an instructor just tells you what to do when you do it. A teacher changes how you think about it. So there's a distinction between teaching and instructing. So good teachers cannot be mass produced. A good teacher is going to be a good teacher no matter what training they go through. And the best training can't make an instructor be a teacher.

• Speaker #0

  I have a different opinion of Pilates now. I really do. I mean, I was jokey with her. She was like, you know, this athlete does it, that athlete does it. I really wish this was something I had known 25 years ago. Because I wouldn't be limping around.

• Speaker #1

  And you won't be limping in the future when you are consistent. Yeah, right. And it won't take long.

• Speaker #0

  Will it make me naturally bend like her?

• Speaker #1

  No, no, no. I'm not going to say that. I'm really, I'm like, I'm better. You know what? Here's what happens. People start feeling better about themselves. They start treating themselves better. Most people do lose weight. People come in and say, am I going to lose weight? My goal is not to have you lose weight. My goal is to have you feel the best you can feel in the body you have in this moment. okay so then you improve and then you start being aware of what makes you feel better and not and then you just continue to get better it's that this wonderful saying about You do the best you can do today with the information that you have. Once you know better, you do better. And it just flows into all the other areas. It's not rocket science. It's so basic. It's amazing how the world is like blowing up and the sky is falling. And then after an hour or a lot, you're like, everything's good. So true. And like Joanna, I'm not naturally thin. Yes, I am. I had Irish staff in Coole. And when I started seeing Pilates, it's Fortnite, in the beginning of 2022, I was up 60 pounds. When I was on the scale, it was my nine-month pregnancy weight, and I wasn't nine months pregnant. Oh.

• Speaker #0

  Oh, it's going correlation. I was like, no. I had that nine-month pregnancy weight.

• Speaker #1

  I'm back. I was down 30 in the year. Yeah. I was by the end of 2022. And then in 23, I'm down another 16. So it's not coming off quick, but it's slow and steady and a stay off. And Gladi's definitely, not cardio-wise, but mentally.

• Speaker #0

  That's where I was trying to be.

• Speaker #1

  It helped me stay on the mind body. And I did do some Weight Watchers as well. But the focus.

• Speaker #0

  You're here to promote Weight Watchers? You don't sponsor my show?

• Speaker #1

  Not yet. Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about that because when you start to feel better about yourself, you'll start to notice that I can't have a bagel I go do for life. I can't. But I can. Or, you know, I can have celery juice. I can have a juice. I can have. If you can even unconsciously. Did she say? What did she say? Celery juice. Celery juice. Celery Celery juice. Celery juice. Celery juice. Celery juice. Celery juice.

• Speaker #0

  I was glad that I did it. The taste is awful. I don't like it, but it was the most beneficial health thing that I did. It helped with my blood pressure. It helped with inflammation.

• Speaker #1

  I'm still looking for somebody to make like packets or something you could just dump in and say I know it's not quite not really they're make packets of everything they actually there are celery juice packets there might be but they need no accelerate they need no accelerate so you know what you can it's

• Speaker #0

  not as as complicated or difficult as it used to be so rethinking and if you want to chat about that with aside from this I could just see Amy in there we wear the like shitty used strainer no

• Speaker #1

  No, it's not like that anymore. Yes, sir.

• Speaker #0

  But, ladies, I can't thank you all enough. This has been so interesting. It really has. Very quickly, Courtney.

• Speaker #1

  I sure as hell didn't know how to scare the shit. You might have had a hell of a moment. No, she... What are you asking me?

• Speaker #0

  That's seven. You look like he could kick all our asses.

• Speaker #1

  She's not. I mean, come on.

• Speaker #0

  She's so...

• Speaker #1

  Especially on a reformer. She's amazing. I wouldn't go against her. It looked amazing. This is Pilates right here. I know. She's amazing.

• Speaker #0

  At 71, your movement, your flexibility, your ability to consume alcohol...

• Speaker #1

  We love it. We'll just say we consume food.

• Speaker #0

  Well, isn't there a saying from the guy who started it about you could eat enough tacos and drink enough bourbon or something?

• Speaker #1

  Bourbon and cigar. Bourbon and cigars.

• Speaker #0

  If you do Pilates, folks, you could drink more bourbon and smoke more cigar.

• Speaker #1

  But, yes, well, you know what? There is something that came up that's really important about cardio. While Pilates is not... cardio in nature specifically a couple years ago i was at a dinner party and sitting next to the department head of pulmonology at a local large hospital and he said to me while i had he's a tennis bow he said well i've not tried it myself most of my friends are elderly but the ones that do pilates for no other reason had better pulmonary function than my other kinds. And it's for many reasons, which all of us could expound on. However, recently I went to Toluca, New Mexico. I was going to go ziplining. And to zipline, we had to go up a tower to get on the zipline. And I was by far the oldest person in the group. And you climbed up. And I climbed up there without losing a breath. And somebody else threw up. So, I mean... that shows that if you are just in better condition in general because of this way of movement, of being in control with contrology of your body, with that consciously, it becomes one thing. But it also, when you are thinking like this, I tell my clients all the time, we will never be

• Speaker #0

  risking our mental health because when you are this into a mental and physically with your body it it just has one package you don't let it in for a minute and you need to be worth free a big needle when i was in my bathroom day even before i had my stuff and then when you were fat i'm glad to be able to do a lot he's probably doing bodies multiplied to eight and crs is the one to need But like, just make video up again and he puts your act together and he's like, the door times a little curry. Well, that's it. I'm never going to be a runner. I have known as EnvyR other than there's an answer to see how many populates there are. I'm not my dad. And now I love doing the TRX because I love TRX too. And so just doing a lot of suspension. Yeah, there was the plot. I was just learning to do a lot of suspension. brings them both together right and looks again that's yeah or oh i love that that everything there be it can a lot of suspicion nothing i'm ready it's hard it's a good workout you look i'm just amazed i mean you have given me i mean she's our goal she's yeah she's michael aging bow agent she's all of our garden you

• Speaker #1

  Arneen. And are you still gonna take us to the Shading Gallery?

• Speaker #0

  For Cheetos without me. I'm going. I'm sorry. I don't need to know you and Cheryl and Artary. Raise them on like two hours. I'll be at times. You can go up with one.

• Speaker #1

  Well, late we. To wrap all of this up, I have to thank all of you ladies for coming and joining me on Spiritual Dust here at the social. I will be live for a broadcast next Wednesday, but I may not be here at the social. I will be in North Carolina. So it will be warmer, nicer, and I may actually have... Chris the Shooterman on with me, who is a nutritionist, and we are going to talk about food, gut health, that emotional stuff that's tied into that. Guys, please follow all my social media on Instagram, YouTube. freaking TikTok, which I don't understand anything about, but I'm on there. And please like smash the like button. Really important for the algorithm and all of that. Please follow Fluid Pilates on Instagram as well. And I will be talking to you guys real soon. And thank you for showing up today.

• Speaker #0

  Thanks for having me. Thank you. It was so much fun. Thank you.