The Farmer’s market near the studio when taking a rare bit of downtime!

Portland, Maine

Day 2 of 4 - No Intermissions!

Day 2 was a deep dive into the muscular architecture of the body. We kicked off with an Extension Mat and Reformer workshop led by Kelli Burkhalter Hutchins, and let me tell you, she gave me a serious wake-up call on just how muscular extension work should be!

The big takeaway? The goal is to do extension and actually feel that back working—not to feel like you need to dive into a "rest pose" immediately afterward to stretch out pain. We took a deep dive into the anatomy, looking at images of the latissimus dorsi (those large, flat muscles on your mid-to-lower back) and exploring how the inhale can widen and open the "pecs" (pectoral muscles).

It was fascinating to see how tight hips can actually be the culprit behind a tight lower back. But really, the magic is in getting the muscles on both sides of the body—front and back—to work together. Kelli had some brilliant quotes. While doing Swan on the reformer, she reminded us that you shouldn’t get a break between each set: “There’s no intermission!” I also loved her imagery of a fish in a tank—reminding us that their exhale “isn’t a collapse.”

A New Perspective on Prenatal

After a fantastic mat workout with Ash Salisbury to get my own body moving (which felt excellent!), the afternoon was a two-hour Pre and Postnatal Pilates Workshop with Kaile Ziemba. Phew, we covered a lot!

Writing this while pregnant myself gives the whole experience a completely new perspective. The biggest highlight for me was the reinforcement that Pilates is for everybody. It reminded me that as a teacher, you look at the individual in front of you and you go from there.

The physiological changes a woman’s body goes through to have a baby are not to be underestimated. The body is constantly trying to balance and correct itself while ligaments are getting looser and muscles are often getting tighter to counterbalance. We explored everything:

The emotional component - exploring a start from IVF or whether it’s their first baby or not.
Added complications like hypermobility.
The differences in recovery between a C-section or a vaginal birth.

All these variations impact the body in front of you. It reinforced my decade-plus of teaching pre and postnatal clients—every person is ever so slightly different, but the beauty of the work is that it can be adapted and tailored exactly to their needs.

Channelling "Joe"

I finished the day observing Kelli teach “archival mat”—this is the mat work where we actually have film evidence of Joseph Pilates from the 1940s. It really drove home what we looked at in the extension class.

“Joe” was 5'7" and could really use his upper body! He was a boxer, and you can see how he exhaled to contract his abdominals. It was great to watch my colleagues explore the mat work from that angle. Finally, Kaile led a Level 4 Reformer class where we considered the mechanics of the rib cage muscles so the lungs can actually be free. Watching that change in my fellow students once they focused on the breath was so special.

Another day of being a "body detective" in the books!

Photos below taken by yours truly in Kaile’s Pre and Postnatal Pilates Workshop.