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Episode 332

332. You're using layers wrong, with Heath Lander and Raphael Bender

Many instructors use layers, but most miss the most powerful part of this amazing programming tool.

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Transcript

WEBVTT

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That is Elephants. I'm here with Heath. Hey, Heath.

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Hey, Raph. We want to talk today about something that is, we've been talking

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about a lot off air, which is how to use layers in your class to teach the mixed ability group.

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Now, dear listener, before you turn off this podcast,

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because you already know how to do this, Let me tell you, you very likely don't

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know how to do this, even though possibly you think you know how to do this. Now, why do I say that?

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Because we have people say to us all the time, yes, I teach layers,

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been teaching layers for years, think layers are awesome.

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And then when we look at their layers, we're like, you don't really get it.

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There's something very important, a very important aspect of layering that you

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are missing. And I would say that applies to almost everybody that we see that

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we have this conversation with.

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For example, we have studio owners inside our Mastermind program,

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we often have studio owners write out their best class programs for us so we

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can roll those out to their team.

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And they give us a program with layers in it and we look and we go.

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Good start, but you've missed something pretty fundamental here.

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So yeah, talk us through the problem there, Heath.

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So how do you know if you, what do we see if you think you know layers and you've

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been teaching layers for a while, but when we look at it, we think like there's

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something missing here. What do you see? Okay.

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Yeah, what we see time and again is that if you're, especially when we're talking

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in the context of studio owners,

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if you're doing a bang up enough job of running a studio to need business support

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like we offer, then you're doing a lot of things right.

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You're delivering great classes you're making great client connection all of

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those things are nailed down and whatever it is you're teaching is working well

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enough to fill your classes enough that you've grown your business so like first

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off congratulations that's freaking awesome,

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and then when we talk about layers and we look at the layers that you're teaching

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what you've done as well equally as well is to have solved this fundamental

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problem of the group reformer teacher which is to teach a room of mixed abilities

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so there will regardless whether you've got tiered classes or open classes,

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there'll always be someone who's stronger than other people,

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always someone who's more flexible or less flexible than one another,

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etc., more skillful, etc.

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So you've solved that problem.

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Through your programming so that you can run a class that's compelling.

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And we know that's true because you've got a busy business and you're seeking

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business coaching to grow your business further.

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And when we look at your layers, what we realize is that the way you've understood

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layering is to change the movement, but to still remain focused on the same muscle group.

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So a classic example would be a forward-facing hands in straps,

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let's say reverse chest expansion or arm circles movement, which of course can

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be low knees or high knees. Let's just assume we're low knees for balance.

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You've got a plow arm, straight arms up and down. Then you move after 10 or

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15 reps when your room of 10 people have got the hang of it.

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Maybe it's more, maybe it's less, to a teardrop. Maybe it's teardrops out, do a bunch of reps.

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Once people have got the hang of it, maybe you've added hips up,

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which adds some load, but you're still fundamentally working the same muscle

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group and you've already done 20, 25 reps.

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And then you maybe change your teardrop in the other direction,

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exactly the same muscle group, minor change to the movement pattern.

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And then maybe you go to a crucifix or an offering, straight arms up,

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arms apart, arms together, arms back down.

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And let's say you do 12 to 15 reps of each of them. You're now at 50 reps. Okay.

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And by now, guaranteed, anyone, unless they've been just freaks and have been

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with you forever, is just feeling the burn like crazy.

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And so tick, job done. You smoked that muscle group. Clients got what they wanted.

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It felt like they worked really hard. And they did in one physiological dimension, which is endurance.

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But what you've not successfully done

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yet is organize your layers around adding actual

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load to the muscle group so that the muscles

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fatigue and have to stop or change their range of

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motion or their movement before 20-25 reps

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because you've been able to go to 50 so by definition you haven't

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added enough load to sufficiently challenge that muscle

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group and that that's the problem that

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we see and of course then that if you were to add load which

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many people have discovered you make it heavier jump in before we

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before we move on to that so essentially the issue

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that we see is when people are layering typically they're doing that by just

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doing different variations of a move so they might do footwork heels together

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toes apart footwork parallel footwork feet wide footwork on the toes footwork

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etc right or they might do you know arms in straps arm circles straight up and down, reverse circles,

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offering, whatever it is, which is essentially a different variation on the

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exact same movement through the very similar range of motion with the same amount

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of spring tension or body weight, right?

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So basically what we're changing is slight variations to the movement itself,

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or we might like add a ball between the ankles or, you know,

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whatever, add some kind of minor prop that doesn't fundamentally add more resistance

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to the primary movement,

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it just adds generally one or both of endurance and coordination challenge.

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So adding complexity to the movement and slash or, we're just doing more reps. And.

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What we see is like, okay, that's part of the concept of layering,

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but it's missing a fundamental piece, which is adding more load to each layer.

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And why is that so important and why should you be doing it?

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Not just because we think load's important and we like load,

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but because this actually will give you fundamentally a much more powerful,

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versatile way of teaching a very mixed ability group, including literally your

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grandma and your most experienced clients been coming three times a week for two years,

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literally in the same group without having one person off in the corner doing

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footwork and someone else, you know, doing some completely different exercise

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because they're at a different level of ability.

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So yeah, so this like, now, so rather than teaching layers that involve just

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adding more reps, basically in a slightly different body position,

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we're going to talk you through

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our model of adding load in

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each layer and and then why you can't just do all your layers back to back to

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back to back to back if you do that you have to add breaks in the middle so

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first thing talk us through heath.

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I guess, you know, there's a little experiment that you do with people when

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you run a workshop, a workshop on layering, that basically talks,

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shows them with a series of five what the problem is.

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Well, firstly, I think we need to talk about what's the difference between endurance

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and strength, right? Because I think a lot of people are unclear on that.

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Uh and and a lot of you dear listener if you're thinking about uh if you sort

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of say on your website or in your classes that like we get people strong you

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know pilates build strength,

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uh do you actually or are you actually building endurance um and just giving

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people a good good feeling bird uh so yeah talk to me about where he where you feel people,

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mistake this difference and help us clarify what it actually is.

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All right. So the difference that we're talking about is between strength and endurance.

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And straight off the bat, we've got to remember that endurance is not a dirty word.

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So having endurance is important. Any sport you play, unless it's powerlifting,

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tends to require endurance.

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So we're not actually sort of we're not denigrating endurance

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but trying to clarify the

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difference between strength and endurance and the

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reason that's important is because if you

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if endurance is the only tool in your toolbox like if a hammer is the only tool

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in your toolbox well the only way that you can challenge people is by doing

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more reps right we do you know more and more versions of footwork or arms in

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straps or whatever you know back to back to back to back in order to cook our

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most experienced clients.

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You have to do like the 99 different arm positions in arms and straps before

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their abs start to kill them.

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Whereas your grandma in the corner, just, you know, three reps into,

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you know, head down, knees up, like she's cooked.

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So the problem here is endurance.

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Fails to provide the right level of challenge for a very diverse level of abilities in the room.

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So once you understand this fundamental distinction between endurance and strength

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training, you can provide a high level of challenge so that your grandma is

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like, oh, this is a 7 out of 10 effort.

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And your most experienced client is also, oh, this is a 7 out of 10 effort.

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Like they can both be working at exactly the right level once you understand this concept.

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So then the concept we need to understand as instructors is that if we're going to,

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prioritize or organize what we're teaching around load, strength,

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in the sense that we're going to add load, then,

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sounds weird to just repeat myself, the movement that you're doing has to require

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you to move more actual load.

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You have to create force against an external object

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to create more force rather than the same force for

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more time or more reps so we have to add more force

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more more direct uh weight and you can add that by either adding springs or

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taking off springs or by changing body position but we need to add more challenge

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directly more resistance to the muscle,

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And yeah, so that's what we have to do to challenge strength.

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So if your client can do, I always come back to the number 20, we'll get into that.

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But if your client A can do 20 reps of footwork on four springs,

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to increase their strength output, you don't do pulses, you don't lift the heels

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higher, you have to either put on another spring or take on one of the legs.

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Let's just unpack that because I think that's really an important distinction here.

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So there's a spectrum of rep ranges in the strength research that will stimulate

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both strength and endurance.

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And if you're doing, and when we say a rep range, what we mean is how many reps

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you can do before you lose form substantially, right?

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You really struggle to do the last one.

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And I think your example of push-ups is great that we talk about a lot here.

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Like if you do push-ups in strict form, like elbows tucked in by your sides,

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shoulders broad, spine straight, knees straight, everything in a straight line,

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okay, and slowly lower until your nose touches the floor and then slowly push

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up until your arms are completely locked and just repeat that.

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Like most people are going to get within a point of, you know,

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10 to 20 reps or even fewer for some of us where you literally can't do another one.

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Now that is the point of muscular fatigue and like one or two or three reps

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before you get to that point where you literally can't lift at all,

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you're going to hit a point where you substantially distort the shape of the movement.

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Your chest is going to lift before your hips, you're going to kind of twist

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around, your elbows will flare out, like all kinds of different changes will

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happen, which are essentially you are reorganizing your body so you can punch

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out one or two more reps, even if they kind of look ugly.

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Okay and so that that

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that point of where your form dissipates that is like

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the immediate precursor like two or

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three reps before you literally can't do another one and you kind of need to

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get to that point in order to stimulate any kind of meaningful muscle growth

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which is the main requirement for increasing strength.

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And if you do that in under about 20 reps, you're going to substantially increase strength.

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Whereas when you go much beyond 20 reps, like up to 30, 40, 50,

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60 reps, you're going to mostly build endurance.

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And if we think about this on a spectrum from, you know, the two extremes with

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the extreme of high load, low reps being a power lifting one rep max.

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So you're just dead lifting the absolute heaviest thing you can lift one time.

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That's one end of the, of the spectrum that's going to maximize like the load

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on the muscle versus running a marathon.

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Okay, which would be like 100,000 steps or I don't know whatever number of steps,

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but you know, let's say 100,000 steps, which is essentially 100,000 quarter

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lunges, you know, really shallow lunges, okay.

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Running a marathon is not going to build any appreciable amount of muscle on

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your legs, okay, it's going to build your endurance.

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And so there's a spectrum of how much strength and muscle you build depending

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on how many reps you do to failure.

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Right so if you if you did one rep of a quarter lunge that you could do a hundred

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thousand reps of one rep isn't going to make you stronger but if you do one

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rep of something that is so hard that you can literally only do it once that

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is going to contribute to increasing strength.

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So how many reps you do to the point where you can't do another one,

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is a very, very important determinant of whether you get stronger or whether

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you build more endurance or a little bit of both.

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And the crossover point is about at 20 reps.

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So, you know, 20 reps or fewer, you're mainly optimizing for strength.

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Above 20 reps, you still get a little bit of strength, you know, at 30 reps, at 35 reps.

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But once you get much beyond that, you know, above 20 reps, it starts to be more endurance.

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And beyond like 35 reps, it's basically all, it's you're just doing cardio you

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basically just which is nothing i mean i love cardio nothing wrong with it but

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in terms of for our purposes here today if we're talking about how to teach

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a mixed ability group so that everybody works at a really good level of intensity for them,

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regardless of how who's in the room once we understand this concept of strength

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really is optimized at that 20 reps or fewer level where you literally can't

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do another one or you're very close to it,

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your form substantially dissipates, like imagine in that push-up example.

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Once we understand that strength is stimulated primarily in that rep range of

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20 reps or fewer, then this makes a lot more sense.

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Sorry, that was a long sidebar.

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No worries. I've lost track of what was sidebar. Oh, yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, I've got it. So what you've just illustrated or, you know,

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underlined is what the importance of that rep range and what it should look

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like when you think of that rep range.

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So don't count 20 reps and think that you want everyone doing good form at the

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20th rep before you move on.

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Because if your form's good after 20 reps, it means you can do way more than 20 reps.

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Right. And this is one of the things that I think over the last however long,

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and especially this last 12 months working in studios with instructors,

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that's been one of my big takeaways is that fundamentally what Raf just said breaks Pilates.

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Right like at a you

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know generally speaking pilates focuses on controlled

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movement and that an expression of success of being

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good at pilates means that you're doing the movement with control

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so then when you say if you want to get stronger you've got to make sure that

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your client's form dissipates that they lose range of motion they change the

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movement slightly then you're breaking that fundamental concept but that's what

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we have to do if we're going to introduce effective strength training within our Pilates classes.

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And, you know, there are three fundamental attributes or dimensions to any human

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movement that we've talked about many times in this podcast,

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and they are strength, range of motion, and skill, or sometimes we call it control.

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And all of them are important and, you know, valuable attributes,

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but I think in Pilates, a lot of the time we emphasize range of motion and skill,

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but we actually don't really address strength most of the time,

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even though we may think we are, because when we don't get people to that point

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of substantial form alteration within about 20 reps, we're not substantially strengthening.

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And if you do 20 reps with or 15 reps of

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footwork with your feet in a V then 15 reps with your heels on the bar then

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15 reps with your toes on the bar then 15 reps with your feet wide like you've

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done 60 reps and so if you can do 60 reps of a thing there's not enough load

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to cause any appreciable amount of strengthening and especially if you never lost form at any point,

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So you're basically doing the opposite of what's required to strengthen,

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which is high load close to failure.

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You're doing low load far away from failure.

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So the mistake that might, you know, not the mistake,

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what the layers might look like if you are primarily programming based around

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endurance or complexity would be if we did footwork, like we said,

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15, 20 reps in a V, then exact same springs, exact same range of motion,

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heels together, toes on the bar, heels on the bar, feet out wide,

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lift and lower, add some pulses.

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Um, and it's, you know, et cetera.

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And so all of that, what we're doing is we're increasing challenge by adding

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more reps because, you know,

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heels on the bar compared to toes on the bar or V versus parallel,

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the actual, which muscles you're using in terms of your quads,

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your adductors, your glutes,

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you know, all of that kind of stuff is going to change almost not at all.

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Like the, the, the, the, the difference in which must be activation of,

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you know, different quad muscles or whatever is going to be so small that it's

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essentially not measurable.

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You know, it's not detectable on current instrumentation. So you,

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you're, you're pretty much exactly using the exact same muscles.

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In a very, very, very slightly slash not even really measurably different way.

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And so we're literally just doing 15 reps, then another 15 reps,

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then another 15 reps, then another 15 reps. So we're adding more endurance.

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And then if we add a ball or we add pulses, it's just more reps.

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So pulses are just very, very small range reps of the exact same thing.

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So it's just more reps just with a very small range of motion.

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So we or if we stop and do lift and lower your heels or flex your toes or whatever

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the thing might be it's again we're just adding more endurance we're holding

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more time in the position,

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which is adding more endurance not more load load being more tension pulling harder more force,

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which you would have to either in footwork you'd have to add more springs or

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take one of your legs off the bar in order to add more force.

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So let's talk about that concept of how you would add more load rather than just adding more reps.

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Great. And this is...

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One of those things I think that we need to be really explicit about until we

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eye roll with it because it's the overlap of these two concepts that can get curly.

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So the way we describe it is that the layer, which is the way you're going to

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add challenge, and we're organizing that challenge around load,

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as Raf's been explaining,

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that can be done in what we call a movement layer or an equipment layer.

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Both of them are adding load, but a movement layer is adding load to the muscle

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group in question via the shape of the body.

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And the equipment layer is adding load via the equipment settings.

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So as a quick example, the series of five or single leg stretch followed by

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double leg stretch followed by single straight leg stretch.

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One bent leg, sorry, one straight leg versus one bent leg in the first version,

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one leg is heavier than two legs.

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So the next version is two legs. Translate that for people who haven't read

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Return to Life through Contrology and maybe know those exercises by different names.

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So if you're doing supine ab work, whether it's on the mat or the reformer,

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right? Let's keep it on the reformer for now. So maybe doing arms in straps, okay?

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So both knees bent versus one leg straight, one leg bent versus both legs straight

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pointing at the ceiling versus both legs straight at 45 degrees versus both

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legs straight under the foot bar.

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You're making it harder and harder and harder, adding more load,

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you haven't changed the springs, you haven't changed the equipment settings,

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all you've done is change your body shape.

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Sorry raf say that again as you switch from both knees bent to one leg straight

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to both legs straight putting at the ceiling both legs straight 45 degrees both legs straight low,

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you're adding more load more resistance to the movement but you're not changing

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the equipment settings same spring same foot bar position you know all of that

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kind of stuff all you've done is change your body position,

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which basically makes gravity pull harder on your legs, which makes your abs work harder.

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When we say harder, we mean more tension on those abs.

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So not more reps, but a higher amount of tension per rep.

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Spot on. So that's a classic and literally a classic expression of a movement

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layout straight out of the classical Pilates repertoire or the return to life through contrology.

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You don't need equipment to do that. It doesn't change the equipment.

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And then an alternative example would be footwork on two strings.

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Or if we use that same example, like of soup on arms and straps,

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let's talk through how we would use an equipment layer to make that harder.

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Well, bear with me, because where you've gone there is where I see a lot of

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people getting confused. so.

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Well as an okay so as an example let's say single leg stretch where your head

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comes up one leg is long switch grab so,

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in a single leg stretch the single long leg is the heavy thing yeah,

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so we're on the reformer if we're going to do this series of five on the reformer

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we curl up pull one knee to our chest one leg long above or below the foot bar.

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So the long leg is the heavy part of the movement.

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And then if we go to the double leg stretch, which is the next in the layer,

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two legs long above or below the foot bar, two long legs are heavier than one long leg.

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So that's a movement layer that we've, as Raf just described,

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we've used the gravity plus limb length and an extra limb to make the weight

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heavier for our abs and hip flexors.

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If we want to use an equipment layer example, let's say we would take the single

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leg stretch version, so one long leg, one bent leg, but we put our hands in

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the straps, straps down, head up, as the leg goes long.

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Now the ropes are pulling us, trying to pull our head and shoulders down,

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and the leg is long, and the more springs we add, the more resistance there

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is, but the movement hasn't changed.

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And the curly bit there is we've added the arms, we're not holding onto the knee.

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So when we're trying to uh illustrate the idea of equipment settings equipment layers.

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A simpler way to think about it would be footwork or indeed shoulder bridge

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where when you push the bed out the movement there is no change to the movement

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you just add more springs and it gets harder so the the increased load is coming

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from the from the equipment,

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not from the shape of your body at all.

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And in our example of supine ab work versus footwork, well, in fact,

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both of them are kind of similar.

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Some exercises lend themselves much better to body position changes in load,

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where other exercises lend themselves much better to equipment setting changes in load.

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So for example, in that supine ab work, if you start with arms in straps,

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one red spring, and you're doing single leg bent,

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single leg straight, and you're curling up, arms down, head up,

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and then curl down, arms up, head down.

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To use an equipment setting, you would have to stop, transfer the straps to

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one hand, sit up, add another spring, lie back down, put your straps in both

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hands again, and go again. Now, we've got two springs, so we've changed the equipment setting.

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It is harder. We've added more tension on the muscles. We're doing the same

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exact movement, one leg straight, one leg bent, curl up, arms down, head up.

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Curl down, arms up, head down. Uh, and we've used the equipment settings to

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add load, but it's extremely clunky.

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And if you've got a room of 10 or 12 people of mixed spectrum of ability,

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you know, it's going to be literally a one minute process to add a spring,

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you know, by the time everybody gets it, then, you know, Mrs.

::

Jones lies down and she's lost one strap under the reformer and someone else

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got their straps twisted and,

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you know, we've

::

all been there so so you know

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arms in straps is one of those exercises where it's way easier

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to just change the leg position to add

::

challenge and add more tension rather than change the equipment settings so

::

what's it what's an example heath of an exercise where it is actually pretty

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easy to change the equipment settings rather than the body position per se although

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sometimes body position can be easy, you know, as well.

::

But yeah, what's an example where we would have changed the equipment settings

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to add more tension on the muscle?

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Well, a good example would be a lunge, but we have to make some assumptions.

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So if we say we're going to add, in fact, one example's a lunge,

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but we'd have to talk a bit more about it than we would if we say long stretch,

::

which you and I have talked about before.

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So and this is where the overlap occurs so long stretch the the full version

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would be a straight body plank hands on the foot bar knees straight body straight

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arms straight bed out bed in,

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And if you wanted to change the spring tension, that's easily done because the

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springs are right in front of you.

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If we're drifting into talking about how you work with these in a group programming

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and a kind of flow of group programming context,

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then you would, for me, you would always start knees down with your long stretch,

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and then you would get the idea of the movement.

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And with that knees down, that's a less complicated skill for people.

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And you don't have to come down from it to change the spring setting.

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So then the example Raf was asking me for is, if we're looking for a position

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or movement where you can use spring tension easily that doesn't break the flow of the class,

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I'm going to teach long stretch, but I'm going to teach it with knees down because

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your knees are already down when you're going to change the spring.

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So we're going to do it on one spring.

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If it looks easy, I'm going to suggest we go to a half spring.

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That's if I'm hitting the armpits and abs.

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And that change is easy and no one has to come down out

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of the full movement and and then

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this drifts us into because the other problem is

::

if you've got a strong especially a strong long person

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doing long stretch with their knees down they're just banging into the pulley

::

arms so then you're reducing the foot bar which in turn reduces the spring tension

::

further so and this is what we're talking about now where raf and i are riffing

::

on this is the blurring of using the equipment to increase load,

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where the foot bar is a variable,

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the springs are a variable, even the straps are a variable,

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and using the body to change load, whether the shape is the variable.

::

And then the beautiful thing about the reformer, but the thing that also complicates

::

these concepts is that you can do both at the same time.

::

So you can change the body and the equipment, but you've got to bear in mind,

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you've just changed two things.

::

So at the fundamental level in the vocational course that we teach,

::

the first thing the student needs to understand is one way of layering is the

::

body, another is the equipment and then we you know we merge those two things as our skills develop.

::

And dear listener I'm by no means I'm by no means.

::

I don't mean to at all talk condescendingly to the skills you do or don't have,

::

but I've learned over the last 10 years that that concept is not taught well,

::

broadly speaking, in Pilates.

::

So coming back to brass tacks, taking a moment to just really think through,

::

am I actually adding load?

::

And if I am, is it from the shape of the body and or the equipment settings that I'm using?

::

And then where Raf went with that was, then the next level of sophistication

::

is, am I doing it in a way that makes my class run smoothly,

::

which is another chainsaw to juggle.

::

So we could do something in, say, a long stretch, which is a great example,

::

hands on the bar, kneeling version, knees on the carriage.

::

Let's start on roughly one spring, which is going to be a good kind of generic

::

setting that most people can manage at some level.

::

And it's relatively easy then to do that and then come back in,

::

hold the carriage on the stopper, put on a half spring, now take off the full spring, go again.

::

Right it's it's not that's not going to be a 60

::

second break while everybody figures out how to swap their

::

straps to a different hand and then get them untwisted and you know it's pretty

::

easy most people are going to be able to do it pretty quickly so it is feasible

::

to use the equipment settings to change the load there the resistance the tension

::

on the muscles per rep without disrupting the flow of the class right.

::

In long stretch, you can also achieve that same goal by just push out,

::

come back in, now lift your knees up, now push out again. We haven't changed

::

the equipment settings, we've just changed the body position.

::

So in long stretch, we could use body position or spring settings or both.

::

We could push out on one spring, come back in, okay, put on a half spring,

::

take off the one spring, keep your knees down, go out again, come back in, okay.

::

Okay, next layer, put on a one spring, take off the half spring,

::

lift your knees up, now push out again. That's going to be for most people,

::

depending on body weight, et cetera, but for most people it's going to be a

::

little bit harder again.

::

Okay, then we could come back in, drop your knees, put on a half spring,

::

take off the one spring, now lift your knees up again, now push out again, that's harder again.

::

So we can use these two tools, really body position and equipment settings,

::

to incrementally, incrementally increase or decrease the challenge.

::

When I say challenge, I mean load tension per rep on the muscle groups.

::

And we can do that also in things like lunges by adding or removing springs.

::

We can do it in shoulder bridge by adding or removing springs.

::

But then when we get to something like shoulder bridge, we're back to the situation

::

we had with arms and straps where it's kind of slow and clunky and time-consuming

::

and breaks the flow to change those equipment settings.

::

So when we're in something like a shoulder bridge or a footwork,

::

for example, it's much easier to use body position changes than it is to use

::

equipment setting changes. So talk us through.

::

Now, I think this is where we get to the crux of this fine distinction because

::

the example we used at the start.

::

Of when someone we think doesn't fully

::

understand this concept in layering is they're doing like four

::

different body positions in footwork they're doing v feet

::

then they're doing heels together then toes together

::

then they're doing heels on the bar then like so they are doing body position

::

changes but it's still not quite the thing so yeah talk us through the the fundamental

::

distinction there of how you would add load increased tension on the muscle

::

per rep through body position changes in something like footwork or shoulder bridging.

::

Okay, great. So let's go with footwork.

::

So we're starting our class. Hey folks, I'm your instructor for today.

::

I'm going to ask you to have your footbar all the way up and I'm going to choose

::

three springs. Lie on your back, head on the headrest, feet on the footbar.

::

Take your 14 minutes for everyone to find their way to the start position.

::

We're going to go with toes apart, heels together, press the bed out,

::

bring the back, could be parallel, whatever.

::

And we get the bed moving. And now let's say it takes six to eight reps for,

::

you know, Michaela in the back corner to put her phone down and get her drink bottle organized.

::

And now she's doing some reps, her first two reps while Barry in the front corner has already done 10.

::

So that's this kind of reality of the group instructor.

::

So Barry's going to be doing 20 reps by the time Michaela's done about 10.

::

So there's our first problem.

::

But what we're looking at is the room and we're counting someone.

::

And I try and count the person who's roughly in the middle. So Barry can do some extras.

::

Michaela can do some less. but I'm counting the person

::

roughly in the middle and I'm watching them get to

::

around 20-25 reps and that's my warm-up layer

::

I don't care if it's 30 but I'm

::

watching for how their bodies move now rather than continuing to 60 reps with

::

a few foot variations I think okay no problem we got to that 25-30 rep range

::

for the whole room and no one got up and left no one needed to stop and take

::

a break so now we'll park the carriage and we'll do some shoulder bridge and

::

that takes us from the front of the leg to the back of the leg, roughly speaking.

::

And I'll do the exact same thing. So let's put our heels on the foot bar,

::

peel your hips up, peel your hips down.

::

Shoulder bridge has got a few more refinements available to it than footwork,

::

I would argue. And so there's a bit more to talk to in that.

::

But same principle, watching for how people move. If we're getting up around

::

the 15 rep mark, the 15 sort of,

::

range and no one's looking fatigued, I'm not going to keep going to 30 reps.

::

I'm going to think, okay, next time we're here, it's got to be harder in load.

::

Now I'm going to park, put our butts back on and go back to the footwork.

::

And you could do the same foot variation, or as Raph described earlier,

::

you could go to parallel feet, which a client will think of as different,

::

but in terms of the muscles working, it's nominally different.

::

So you're really working the same muscle group in essentially the same way.

::

If people did 20 reps, no problem with the V feet, now is the time to say to

::

the group, hey folks, last time we were here, you made this look easy.

::

So your job is to put an extra spring on and my job is to watch you do that.

::

And now we're all going to sit up and change the springs. Now that breaks the

::

flow of the class, but as Raf, you know, what Raf asked me to do was illustrate how you would add load.

::

That's how you would add load to footwork and that would be the trigger.

::

If the room made 20 to 30 look pretty straightforward, it needs to be harder.

::

Now, an alternative would be to go to single legs, but that's single leg on

::

three springs for some of the room might be quite a shock because single leg

::

on three springs is going to be a bigger jump than...

::

Double leg on the three and a half to four springs so

::

then you kind of have i'm illustrating raf's uh

::

raf asked me to illustrate how you would add load

::

the easy answer would be

::

go to single legs but for some people let's say my mom in the back corner the

::

jump from three springs double leg to three springs single leg might be a shock

::

but i could easily mitigate for that by saying okay folks you made that last

::

one look easy get it moving again on the parallel legs now we're going to try it on a single leg.

::

And this is the way I've taught it for years now. I load up the springs at the

::

beginning. Don't change them as we teach.

::

When I see the room make the first pass at footwork look pretty straightforward,

::

we'll come back to it again.

::

We'll start again on the double leg. And then I'll say, push the bed out,

::

hold there, take one leg off, use that single leg, bring the bed in, push it out.

::

Well done. Let's do it with the other leg. Do it again. Hey,

::

well done. And I'll say to the room a little bit like I'm at a five-year-old's birthday party.

::

Hey folks, that was awesome. You just proved to me that you can do a single leg rep of footwork.

::

So now I'm going to put a two minute timer on my timer and your job is to do

::

single leg reps for as long as you can.

::

You can do singles, doubles, triples, quads, fives, sevens, eights,

::

tens. I don't care, but we're working single legs.

::

And if you need to drop back to double legs, but your job is try and keep the

::

bed moving for as long as possible.

::

And that's a way that I've found that works effectively to blend the movement,

::

the body position version of footwork that adds load without massing about with the spring tension.

::

But it also empowers people to choose their level of challenge and it gives

::

them rep ranges to play with.

::

And it took me a while to work out that little protocol and it works really well.

::

And so hopefully, Raph, I've illustrated that that's how you can add load to footwork.

::

The easy answer would be if you made 25-30 look easy, add another spring or two.

::

But of course, as Raph explained, that means you've got to sit up.

::

So then you default back to the movement version.

::

But then the problem with that is it's a bit of a jump. And so then good programming,

::

your delivery of the program, should we say, gives people options even within

::

that layer to choose the number of reps.

::

Which would be you could do one rep on each leg alternating which

::

basically you're doing a set of one then a rest for a

::

bit which just does make it easier than if you did like one minute

::

continuously on the right leg followed by one minute continuously on the left

::

leg right and then and with a bit of practice when you get that going if you

::

watch you know sophie in the front right corner and she's doing like 15 reps

::

on her right leg before she changes it might be like hey sophie what do you reckon at a spring,

::

you know, like, and then that's when your skill as a coach and,

::

you know, your studio, studio, um,

::

your skills moving around the room come into play, you know,

::

that you're, you're moving around all the time, you're watching how people go

::

and you can make spring tension changes for people.

::

And so, uh, fundamentally here, I've got, I've got a question.

::

About why not, you know, why go from footwork on three springs where everyone's doing like 25, 30 reps.

::

And we said that that's, you know, 20 reps is really optimal.

::

So why are we getting up to 25 or 30 reps? That's number one.

::

Number two, why do we then go to a completely different exercise,

::

shoulder bridge, right?

::

Why not just like add more load in footwork and then add more load in footwork

::

and then add more load in footwork.

::

So firstly, why go to 25, 30 reps first?

::

Well, in the example I gave where footwork, when I teach footwork,

::

it's these days only ever in the first cluster.

::

So if you do footwork in my class, it will be the first exercise you do,

::

and it'll be in the first cluster that you do. And then we'll visit it a few times.

::

And so when I sort of wave my hand in the air and say, you know,

::

25, 30 reps, I don't care. It's the warm-up. That's the warm-up movement.

::

Yeah. So I don't care if you could do 100 reps, I'm just getting your body moving.

::

But I want to see that you, you know, you don't, oh, if you could do a hundred

::

reps, I needed, you need, your springs needed to be heavier.

::

So that would be the answer of why 25, that's the first answer of why 25 to

::

30. And then the other part of that answer is. Before we go in there.

::

So I think this is another important distinction. This is like an advanced concept.

::

So just a micro sidebar here.

::

Okay. So we're saying you need to get to a point very close to failure where

::

your form dissipates within about 20 reps if you want to substantially stimulate strength, right?

::

What we're not saying is you have to

::

do that every set of every exercise you just

::

have to do it literally once per session per muscle group right so this is not

::

continuously everybody like officer and a gentleman richard gear doing push-ups

::

in the mud crying you'll never break me uh you know that like it's not boot

::

camp it's just like you just teach your normal class.

::

Sort of but a few times

::

in the session people get to the point

::

where they're like holy shit this is really freaking hard and

::

i cannot do another rep or i'm very very

::

close to that point where i can't do another rep to the point where

::

my form substantially changes right so but

::

that doesn't have to be every single set of every single movement in fact

::

it's much better if it's not because you'll just make your clients hate

::

you because it's really freaking hard work and it's not necessary you

::

only need to get to to that point of failure like once if you

::

want to do it like two or three times per session that's a bonus but like

::

even just once per session per muscle group will stimulate

::

substantial strength gains so we don't have to do it every

::

set right yeah i

::

think that's a great catch um and i often i'm

::

often guilty of this in that i kind of

::

get run down the the the the avenue

::

of explaining the concepts but forget

::

to come back and look at the kind of meta view of it which is as

::

you said you the number of times that you need

::

to hit that level of fatigue is once or twice per session two or three times

::

per week and there you accrue the health benefits of the exercise guidelines

::

which we've talked about before and maybe now but and and and with in regards to that.

::

There are particular movements that we can do on the reformer and on the mat,

::

but the reformer is the context here, that really lend themselves to that.

::

And for me, those examples are push-ups off a long stretch, lunges,

::

thigh stretch, light spring shoulder bridges, heavy spring feet and straps,

::

heavy spring hands and straps, and there's a few others.

::

They're easily scalable, roughly speaking, easy to change the spring tensions

::

on, easy to change the load.

::

And they're simple compound movements where the bed is not moving around crazily underneath you.

::

And so people can really concentrate on force production. And then if you do

::

that once or twice a class for those muscle groups, push, pull,

::

squat, like legs and arms,

::

you've just made people stronger and given them a longer, healthier, happier life.

::

And then you can go and play and do fun stuff with all the other things.

::

Legs and straps on two springs or whatever you want to do.

::

And this is sort of, I suppose, the paradox of what Raph and I are talking about,

::

or the conundrum, is that we're really pushing this agenda of being able to effectively add load.

::

But when you do, when you crack the code of being comfortable pushing,

::

giving people load inputs that make them really struggle and letting them really

::

struggle, then all of a sudden their strength actually measurably improves,

::

which improves their endurance.

::

And all of a sudden, you know, their ability to do things increases and you'll

::

find yourself doing lots of reps of things.

::

And that's okay. like then it's that's when you can start to

::

play with the way people do

::

movement because you've built you've actually built increased

::

physical capacity through strength you know right so

::

so we're not like we said there are three fundamental components

::

of movement strength range of motion and skill and we're not saying strength

::

is the only thing you need we're just saying strength is sort

::

of often neglected or overlooked in

::

pilates sessions and it should be part

::

of the mix it should take its rightful place there and in

::

order for that to happen we need to add load by which

::

we mean adding more tension per rep not

::

just adding more reps and once you do that you

::

don't have to do it every single move you just do it like once or twice per

::

muscle group per session and then the rest of the time we can be working on

::

range of motion and skill and you know things that just feel good and all of

::

those other fun things all right so back to your example of doing 25 30 reps of footwork,

::

okay, which is the warm-up because we don't have to push people to failure every

::

single time we put them in position, right?

::

So then why is the next question is why do that and then switch to shoulder

::

bridge, right, rather than just adding another layer of footwork?

::

Why not add another layer of footwork straight, you know, back to back to back?

::

Hmm alright so there's a few there's a lot of there's a number of reasons behind that,

::

If you'd listened to the first 20 minutes of this conversation,

::

your initial response might be, well, because you want to hopefully have added

::

enough load that people need a break before they come back and do it again.

::

But as we've just said, it might just be the warm-up layer, so you could actually

::

just add more load then if you wanted to.

::

But Raph's warm-up is my mum's strength output.

::

Right so if i've got raf in the class and my mum in the class i've got to keep

::

an eye on my mum and i've got to bear in mind that raf needs something harder

::

not too far down the track,

::

so that's the same way they've got michaela at the

::

back who you know only did her first rep when barry at the front was doing you

::

know rep number 12 right you've also got you know you know pauline at the at

::

the back who is really struggling with double leg footwork on three springs and she's like,

::

holy crap, this is really freaking hard because I've got almost zero muscle

::

mass in my quadriceps and I haven't exercised for 40 years.

::

And like 25 or 30 reps is close to my max on double leg footwork on three springs.

::

Whereas then you've got somebody else at the front who's like three times a

::

week for the last three years can easily do 50 reps of single leg footwork on three springs.

::

And so this is literally their warmup. Whereas the lady at the back,

::

it's actually getting up towards a pretty good level of challenge for that person.

::

So this is where the rubber meets the road on teaching a diverse group of people

::

with different levels of fitness.

::

And that's why you have to start with something that is very easy so that there's

::

a hundred percent chance that everyone in the room can actually do it.

::

All right and so why do we and and so then why do we not just straight away

::

go from this to like okay everybody now you know lift off one leg and do a single.

::

Well, the first part of that is because my mum might be in the back corner and she needs a break.

::

Right. So she's like, so for, you know, for the more advanced client,

::

they've just done their warm up. Great. Now they're ready to do some exercise. Right.

::

Whereas for your mum at the back, she's like, oh, holy crap,

::

that was really hard. I need a cup of tea and a lie down now.

::

And so just go, okay, great. Now let's add more load and keep going is like,

::

that's not going to work for that person.

::

So, and so. Yeah, right. And so she'll have to have a break while everyone keeps going.

::

And that breaks, one of my core values is everyone rides together.

::

If someone's sitting out, we're not riding together. So give us the example,

::

which I love that you talk about of the series of five.

::

And I know we're talking about reformer here and whatnot, but you were talking

::

about like crisscross, bent leg, straight leg, double straight leg,

::

et cetera, and why you need a break before you do the last version of that.

::

So talk us through that scenario. I think it's a really good example. All right.

::

Yeah and it does it applies broadly anyway so and we do this in the workshops that we run,

::

so we i'll call people through series

::

of five doesn't matter if you know it or not because i've got a little bit of practice calling

::

movement so we'll do single leg stretch followed by double leg stretch then

::

a single straight leg stretch followed by double straight leg stretch followed

::

by crisscross so that's five movements and we'll do 15 to 20 reps of each one

::

because that's how long it takes for a group of 10 to 15 people to really get

::

the hang of a movement for Michaelia to catch up all of those variables.

::

And so there are basically five versions of lying on your back,

::

lift your legs, curl up, you know, it's abs.

::

Keep your head up. You'll primarily feel it in your abs most probably.

::

Absolutely. Especially because those leg variations give your hip flexors a break.

::

And, you know, the thing that never gets a break is your neck abs and your front

::

abs, like your tummy abs.

::

So that's where you're going to start feeling it. And we get to crisscross and

::

then, you know, there's that old chestnut where your elbow goes to the opposite knee.

::

And then because you're kind of turning your volume down on a pair of your obliques,

::

suddenly your other obliques go, oh crap, this is really hard.

::

And then you go, okay, cool. So now we're going to do straight leg crisscross

::

and everyone keep your legs straight and do the same thing.

::

And by then, we've done 50, 65, 70 odd reps of the abs and neck abs and even

::

strong, experienced, capable,

::

fit Pilates instructors are smoked because they've done 70 reps and they just

::

go, well, I'll give you two or three reps of straight leg crisscross, but I need a break.

::

By the time I get to the, like, you know, because typically,

::

or traditionally, you do like 10 reps of crisscross in the original kind of contrology sequence.

::

And it's the fifth out of, or it's actually crisscross isn't in the original

::

contrology sequence where Amarna added it.

::

But typically, by the time you get to that one, you've done,

::

that's the fifth in the sequence of five and you've done like,

::

you know, 40, 50 reps total.

::

And by the time I get to rep number five or six in crisscross,

::

I'm like, when the fuck are we going to stop? You know, can we please stop now? You know?

::

So then if you, if you go straight from that into, and crisscross is where you

::

bend one knee and straighten the other leg and your opposite elbow comes to the bent knee.

::

So it's kind of like bicycle with the legs plus twisting with the torso,

::

hands behind head, you know, elbows wide.

::

And so by the time you get to that point you

::

are pretty cooked or i am at least most people

::

are i think and then if you if you were

::

to say okay great now keep doing the same upper body movement but

::

just do hundreds legs so just have your legs both straight both long heels two

::

inches off the floor and still press your low back to the floor and just twist

::

your upper torso bring your left elbow towards your right hip right elbow towards

::

your left hip etc like most people are going to go,

::

yeah, maybe I can do one or two reps of that.

::

And then I just literally can't hold my legs or my torso up anymore.

::

Right. And, and while, and once that, once we reach that moment and everyone

::

says, yeah, now we all laugh about it as, you know,

::

as, as is fun, I give people a break while I explain essentially what Raph just

::

explained, how it's reasonable that you couldn't do that.

::

And once we had a 20, 15, 30, 45 second break, I said, okay,

::

folks, now give me 10 reps of straight leg crisscross.

::

So scrap all the earlier layers, just do the hardest layer that just a moment ago you couldn't do.

::

And then they, and it's like, Hey, hey, presto, your body had a chance to reset.

::

You know, muscles got refreshed. Now you gave me 10 or 15 or maybe 20 reps of

::

straight leg crisscross.

::

So you're all strong and capable enough to do this hardest layer.

::

But because you were pre-cooked on the earlier layers, you couldn't do it,

::

which is not the same thing as not being able to do it.

::

It's just that we used all of your capacity on the earlier layers.

::

If you put that into a class setting, my poor mom in the back corner who can

::

actually only do single leg stretch, right?

::

She's dead at the 15th rep of the whole thing.

::

And you folks need 70 reps to get cooked, but you didn't even get to do the

::

thing that's fun and challenging for you.

::

So I need some sort of strategy that lets me make multiple passes at that layer,

::

where you get enough of a break that you come back fresh enough to do the next thing.

::

But my mum also has an option that she can keep returning to.

::

And in her case, will continue to get that strengthening input.

::

So my mum gets lots of working sets and you folks get a couple of working sets,

::

but the good news is you're already strong.

::

So we do footwork on three springs, two legs, which for strong or even average clients is a warm-up.

::

But for some people, for new clients or very deconditioned people or whatever,

::

is going to be quite challenging.

::

And then because for those people it was quite challenging, we take a break.

::

And whilst we're taking a break, instead of, you know, hopping up off the reformer,

::

wandering out, everyone grabbing a cup of tea and a biscuit and having a chat,

::

you know, about what you did on the weekend, while we're taking a break from

::

footwork, we do a different exercise.

::

And in this case, we choose shoulder bridge because you don't have to change

::

the equipment settings or body position to do it.

::

So it really helps the class flow.

::

Whilst giving a break to the muscles that we just worked without actually stopping

::

moving or disrupting the flow of the class.

::

It's just like two exercises that work together, like, I don't know,

::

Chardonnay with cheese or whatever, coffee with a croissant.

::

Footwork and shoulder bridge just work together, the same body position,

::

same foot bar setting, same spring setting, opposite muscle groups.

::

You know, footwork, you work in the front of the legs, you know,

::

the quads essentially, shoulder bridge, you work in the back of the legs,

::

the hamstrings essentially, right?

::

It just happens to be the case that those two exercises really complement each other.

::

And so it doesn't matter how cooked you are in footwork, if your quads are a

::

quivering mess, you can still easily do shoulder bridge because it's completely different muscles.

::

So the muscles that you use for shoulder bridge are not fatigued by footwork

::

so we can do our shoulder bridge bam bam bam bam bam and whilst we're doing

::

our shoulder bridge for a minute or so,

::

our quads are recovering because they're not really working very hard like yeah

::

sure they're on in shoulder bridge but they're they're working at a very very

::

low percentage like the equivalent of like walking around you know relaxed easy

::

strolling you know it's not yeah sure your quads are on,

::

but they're, they're basically, you know, recovering, you know.

::

And so after, after doing shoulder bridge or some version of shoulder bridge

::

for a minute or so, your mum's quads are ready to go again.

::

And she can do another set of 25 or 30, you know, reps of footwork on three springs, two legs.

::

And Sally at the front, who's really experienced, could maybe do single leg

::

footwork, but your mum doesn't have to do single leg footwork because if three

::

springs, two legs was enough for her, she can just do the same thing again.

::

Mm-hmm. Spot on. And then after we do that, we can go back to shoulder bridge,

::

but maybe your mum can do the same thing again, and Sally can do single leg shoulder bridge.

::

There it is. So the activity that we would do if we had time and we were running

::

the workshop is we would put some instructors together at their reformer with

::

a fixed spring setting and foot bar height. So you don't get to change the equipment settings.

::

And here's your basic movement. So shoulder bridge is your basic movement and

::

one and a half springs is your spring setting. You don't get to change it.

::

And now your job is to build some layers using only movement,

::

like only the body, that actually add load.

::

And load being increased tension on the muscle per rep.

::

So not adding more reps, adding more tension per rep.

::

And there are a variety of places we do it.

::

But interestingly, and I mean, this is a reflection of my bias,

::

but over the years I've been teaching this way.

::

My joke, and we've explored this in podcasts, is my joke is I only teach three exercises.

::

Slightly more realistic would be this. I only teach five clusters.

::

And within those clusters, I sort of teach the same thing all the time.

::

And and those because those clusters are

::

organized around movements that layer really

::

effectively through the body shape and

::

spring tension if the springs are available and they

::

couple together really effectively so footwork shoulder

::

bridge hands and straps feet in straps lunges long

::

stretch lunges where the lunges become scooters cossacks

::

curtsies so they're the layers within all

::

of that with spring tensions and then

::

there's a you know anyway so the the

::

layer is how you add load the cluster

::

is how you organize the layers and what we've been exploring

::

is how you can go back and forth from muscle group

::

to muscle group without messing up the flow of the session essentially by supersetting

::

like one muscle group another muscle group come back um and when you organize

::

your reformer programming within those parameters,

::

a lot of the movements that I used to teach regularly start to not make much sense.

::

An example would be one of my bugbear exercises.

::

To be clear, I don't have a problem with this movement per se,

::

except for the setup cost versus the layering return on investment.

::

Right. So quadruped on the box with one foot in the strap.

::

Fantastic. It's a fantastic exercise for the obliques, for the shoulder girdle.

::

Wonderful exercise. Great exercise. Only thing is it takes like 15 minutes to

::

get everybody into the start position.

::

Yeah. Yeah. And then once you're there, you're guaranteed that a third of your

::

class are going to be completely smoked within 10, 15 reps, which is fantastic.

::

Not particularly great for like overall strength

::

output because you're worried about falling off the box but at

::

least they're smoked but then the rest of the group who's been

::

coming for six months well the problem is the people like in

::

that kneeling one leg pull on the box uh where you're you're facing the the

::

pulleys you're in quadruped you've got one foot off the edge of the box with

::

the legs straight with the strap around your foot you're probably on like one

::

spring maybe one and a half something like that and the the problem is.

::

When you get it precisely in the right position, like you don't lean your hips

::

across to the other side and you actually maintain square hips,

::

it's unfucking believably hard. It's a really hard exercise.

::

And the more precisely you position yourself, the harder it is.

::

So actually the better you are at it, the harder it is.

::

If you're a beginner and you're just completely out of position,

::

your hips are leaning way across to the other side. It's like you can do 20

::

reps and you're like, oh, where am I supposed to be feeling this?

::

So the problem is, and it's because it's really, really tricky

::

to get in the start position strap falls off your foot all the time really

::

hard to get in the start position the people who

::

are really good at it like they get in the start position the

::

strap doesn't fall off their foot they position their hips correctly after just

::

waiting in the start position for 20 seconds they're fucking smoked because

::

it's really hard whereas you know your grandma at the other side she's still

::

figuring out which foot do i put the strap on oh no i'll put it on the wrong

::

and she's still trying to get on the box and there are people already smoked

::

it's so it's such a painful exercise to teach.

::

It's like the opposite of a group-friendly exercise.

::

You know, great exercise to teach one-on-one, you know, for your high-level

::

client. Really, really great exercise. Yeah. Absolutely.

::

Yeah. And that's what I was trying to capture. Just, I feel like I need to just for my own, just, I –,

::

The only reason that that movement is a bugbear for me is that in-group classes,

::

the cost to the flow of the class just to get everyone doing it,

::

and then the layers, you can't add more load once you're there.

::

The return on investment is just not great enough to justify the effort,

::

but it's a fantastic use of the reformer, but not on a large group level.

::

You know, like we said with footwork and shoulder bridge, they kind of just

::

really go together well because they're both in the same body position,

::

supine on the reformer, feet on the bar.

::

They both have the same equipment settings, foot bar all the way up,

::

and whether you're using, you know, one and a half springs or two springs or

::

three springs or whatever you're using, you can do them both on the same equipment

::

settings, and they also work good.

::

In this case, opposite, but essentially different muscle group,

::

non-overlapping muscle groups, right?

::

So basically you can have a rest from the first exercise whilst you're doing

::

the second exercise and vice versa.

::

And it just so happens that there are several pairs or even trios or quadrupeds

::

of quadruples, quadruplets,

::

of exercises that fit that series of criteria.

::

So they're in the same body position, same equipment settings,

::

work different muscle groups.

::

And so one of those pairs of exercise is long stretch with lunges,

::

right? You do lunges on one spring, works, you know, cooks your legs,

::

your glutes, your quads.

::

You can do long stretch on one spring, one spring cooks your abs, your shoulders, right?

::

And, and you don't need the foot bars up the one spring.

::

You don't need to change, you know, you're basically just, yeah,

::

you're in the exact same position pretty much. You're just really,

::

really small shifty body position. and you're resting from long stretch while

::

you're doing lunges and vice versa.

::

So you can really easily use those two together.

::

And then there are other ones like kneeling facing the back of the carriage,

::

facing the pulleys, you've got thigh stretch.

::

You've also got what you call reverse table, or we could call like reverse quadruped

::

or reverse knee stretches or whatever.

::

So kneeling, you know, hands on the rails, you know, pulling your,

::

you know, you're working your abs essentially and your hip flexors.

::

Yeah. Yeah. And so we can use those two exercises basically,

::

you know, as a superset to work different muscles and say, well,

::

you're resting from one, you're doing the other and vice versa and vice versa.

::

And so it turns out that there are, you know, of the hundreds and hundreds of

::

moves you can do on the reformer,

::

there are a handful of these pairs or triosal or quadruplets of exercises that

::

just go together really well.

::

You know, same body position, same equipment settings, different muscle groups.

::

So you can just switch seamlessly from one to the other, rest from muscle group

::

A whilst you're doing muscle group B, and then go back and do a harder version

::

of muscle group A whilst you rest muscle group B and harder version of muscle group B while you rest.

::

And so you can layer in more load each pass of those movements by changing body

::

position or changing spring.

::

For example when you're doing lunge and long stretch it's really easy to change

::

the spring because you're already basically your hand's basically there you're

::

looking at the springs anyway so we can change the we can add more tension.

::

Each pass, each set, each layer, okay, rather than just, you know,

::

going from heels in a V to feet together, which doesn't actually add more load.

::

It's just like distracts you minorly and adds more reps in the same muscle groups.

::

We can do each layer, each time we come back, we can add more tension or not

::

depending on the ability of the person, right?

::

And this is the crux of why adding more tension

::

adding more load understanding the difference between strength and endurance

::

allows you to effortlessly teach

::

the most diverse group like literally somebody

::

who can't do 30 reps of double leg footwork on three springs which is going

::

to be somebody like severely deconditioned versus somebody that could do one

::

leg footwork on all springs you know you can work with both of those people

::

and both of them can be going holy crap this is really freaking hard, right?

::

And they can both be working at a 7 out of 10 or an 8 out of 10 in the same

::

movement because you've layered in different amounts of load.

::

And you can only do that when they have a rest in between sets.

::

And when you rest in between sets, rather than just sitting around and doing nothing.

::

Or rather than just wandering off and grabbing a box and completely doing a different exercise,

::

You just stay in the same position, lift your hips up and do some shoulder bridge

::

instead of doing footwork, or you go from lunges to doing long stretch,

::

or you go from thigh stretch to doing kneeling,

::

whatever the heck we call that, reverse knee stretches.

::

Yeah, that's what we got taught. And there are a handful of other pairs of exercise

::

that we can sort of put together.

::

And sometimes there are sequences of three or four exercises that we can put

::

together in the same body position with the same equipment settings that work

::

different muscle groups.

::

So like you said before, footwork, shoulder bridge, both supine,

::

foot bar up to two or three full springs we can

::

then go to hands in straps same setting we can then go

::

to feet in straps same setting like it's literally no

::

equipment setting changes or we could do

::

all of those moves also on one and a half springs you know which changes the

::

challenge so shoulder bridge on one and a half springs compared to three springs

::

way harder arms in straps on one and a half springs compared to three springs

::

way easier so so we could we can we can play with all of that But the point is,

::

you have these pairs or trios or quads of moves that go together without equipment

::

setting changes, without body position changes,

::

that us and the other components of those moves is they have to be simple and

::

they have to be easy to scale.

::

And they have to, in order to be able to add load each time you come back to

::

it, so that we're not having to add more complexity, i.e.

::

Skill, or more reps, i.e.

::

Endurance, we're actually adding more tension per rep.

::

Sorry yeah and then with all of that circling back i think so we we spun off

::

into all of that from you saying why would you why would one do footwork then

::

shoulder bridge right and that's kind of where we ended up there and you know

::

the the last part on that is.

::

Just to you know you said the 20 odd reps we've we've talked about how you don't

::

have to do that in every movement,

::

and you really don't, but I've

::

found that 20 is a golden number as a group teacher for a few reasons.

::

It's roughly the number you need to get everyone doing the movement and doing

::

a few reps just to settle in.

::

And then it's also, is the weakest person in the room looking challenged by

::

the time I get to 20? Great.

::

Now I'll make it harder for the stronger people and

::

pivot to another muscle group before i come back and

::

so yeah the last part

::

of trying to answer your question that we started

::

that on is for a variety of reasons one is the strength output versus endurance

::

one is the the time people take to do things one is the time it takes me to

::

get around the room and get my eyes on everyone 20 is just a good number it just works well,

::

you know, because, and you all, and you also always get it wrong.

::

Cause if I count Raf's 20, it's not my mom's 20. If I count my mom's 20, it's not Michaela's 20.

::

So it's kind of like a good ballpark number would be the last kind of.

::

And if you're doing, you know, if you're doing these layers where you're adding

::

load as intention per rep.

::

Rather than just adding more reps or adding more complexity by

::

adding pulses or ball squeezes or something like

::

that um if you've

::

got somebody deconditioned or a beginner at

::

you know in in the group and they end up doing

::

like the easiest version every single time you know

::

they're doing long stretch kneeling on one spring and then

::

the next time you do it they just do the same thing again because that's all they can

::

do like they can't lift their knees they can't drop to

::

a half spring that you know that's that's enough for them

::

and they end up doing 30 or 40 reps each time like

::

that's fine because there's something called newbie gains

::

and it's actually a that's a scientific phrase

::

newbie gains and what it means is when

::

you first start doing resistance training

::

which is what reformer is you basically

::

get stronger with very

::

minimal stimulus like you don't need to maximize the

::

stimulus when you're a beginner in order to maximize the

::

response right you could get stronger even if you don't go

::

very close to failure even if you don't do a lot of sets even if you don't use

::

a load that is going to get you to failure within like 20 reps like it's very

::

forgiving when you're a beginner right you just kind of kind of sort of do something

::

that resembles resistance training and you get stronger.

::

Whereas as you get stronger and you get more experienced, you need more and

::

more stimulus to get a smaller and smaller result, right?

::

So when you've been training four times a week for five years and you've been

::

pushing yourself really hard that whole time, it's like you need to go close

::

to failure and you need to do multiple sets,

::

in order to get some kind of progression.

::

So when you've got that diverse group.

::

And, you know, your mum at the back is doing 35 reps and not,

::

you know, working that hard, like she's, you know, maybe the 6 out of 10 or

::

5 out of 10, but she's, you know, she just couldn't do the next harder version, maybe.

::

That's fine. She'll be fine. She'll actually get stronger from that.

::

And also the clients that you've got that, you know, get up into the full,

::

you know, one leg shoulder bridge on one and a half springs and can only do

::

five reps, they will also get stronger from that.

::

And that's and that's how you teach a mixed ability group and you can truly teach,

::

a group that has somebody who has literally

::

never done pilates or even exercise for the last five years and somebody who's

::

been in your class three times a week for two years in the same group without

::

having anybody like sit out and exercise or do something completely different

::

like one person's doing footwork while everyone else is doing arms on the box, you know, whatever.

::

Like everybody rides together, like you say, and we start with an easy layer

::

that you know everyone can do.

::

Then you switch to an opposing muscle group in the same body position.

::

Then you come back to the first exercise again, but you do a harder layer.

::

But some people stay with the easier layer if they need to.

::

And then you rinse and repeat and you just ratchet up the tension,

::

every cycle when you come back to that move you

::

go okay now we're going to do a harder layer now we're going to do a harder

::

layer until everybody's like holy cow this is really really hard but some people

::

are saying that they're still doing the first layer just the fifth set of the

::

first layer whereas other people are doing the fifth layer which is way way harder,

::

and that they're at the right level for them.

::

Yeah. Yeah. And just to tie that all up, because you said that really clearly,

::

and I think this is another topic for another conversation, if you're listening

::

to this and thinking, wow, these guys must just teach the same moves all the

::

time, their clients must be bored because I do really interesting stuff, I'll see you next time.

::

I just want to flag that I've been teaching like this for years and I have,

::

well, until I left Australia, I had a lot of clients who'd been my client for

::

like five, eight, 10 years and they never said they were bored.

::

Like boredom was not a problem.

::

So it might be a culture shift if you've been teaching with a big focus on variability,

::

but when you embed this stuff into your teaching,

::

it simplifies your teaching it makes your life easier

::

and i can guarantee that your clients

::

won't come to you and say it's really boring because they're too busy working hard

::

i think the fundamental the fundamental reframe

::

for that mindset because i used to have that mindset of like i've

::

got to make my classes you know like varied

::

and never teach the same thing as i was constantly in

::

the studio going oh crap how can i come up with a

::

brand new move that no one's ever seen before so it's like

::

going to be oh my god you know um the fundamental

::

reframe it goes from pilates classes

::

as an entertainment like so i'm an instructor i'm here

::

to provide like fun interesting you know

::

uh choreography that the clients go oh this

::

is cool you know i've never had a you know

::

like this particular move with this particular number

::

of you know squishy balls plus a fitness

::

circle on a bosu on a box you know with a.

::

Strap in one hand and whatever it's never done that before so i'm

::

thinking of it as kind of like an entertainment or like a performative thing

::

to thinking of it as exercise to get better when i say better i mean stronger

::

more flexible more skillful and the way you when people get stronger and more

::

flexible more skillful like that is inherently rewarding.

::

What I mean by inherently is people take pleasure in it for its own sake, right? It's not.

::

It's not entertainment, it's just there's an intrinsic value, you know, in doing that.

::

You know, it's just good because it's good, right?

::

It's just, it's not a, and so you don't need to entertain people when they're

::

doing something that is inherently motivating.

::

You know, when you feel yourself getting stronger and more flexible and more skillful,

::

like, that is its own reward right

::

it's inherently motivating and there's lots of

::

literature on this in the in the exercise adherence literature

::

and when you know like getting people

::

to work out and helping them like stick to their exercise plan there's like

::

a bazillion freaking studies on how to do that and one of the things that we

::

know in that literature is that people who stick with exercise like when they

::

come for the first time people often have extrinsic goals so goals that aren't

::

related to doing the activity,

::

but it's like the activity is more instrumental.

::

So they want to lose weight or they want to get out of pain or they want to

::

feel better or they want to look better or whatever it might be.

::

And they see exercise as the way that they can achieve that goal,

::

right? Or they want to be cool or whatever.

::

Whereas people, when they stick with it for a long time, they shift to an intrinsic

::

motivation where they actually find the activity rewarding in and of itself.

::

Like they just enjoy doing the thing.

::

Right? And so it's not because they want to lose weight or look good or whatever.

::

They might still want those things, but they actually just find the activity

::

itself inherently rewarding, right? For its own sake.

::

And so you don't need to make, like the paradox is the more people do it,

::

the less they need variety because they find the activity intrinsically rewarding, right?

::

So the more they, the longer they're with you, the less variety people need, right?

::

It's, because if you, if you're giving somebody, you know, so getting stronger,

::

getting more flexible, getting more skillful, these things are all inherently

::

rewarding that we, we value them inherently.

::

It just feels good. You know, like you all know this, dear listener.

::

Um and so but you

::

don't the only way you can know that you

::

got stronger is by doing the same

::

thing again and noticing it was easier right you walk up the steps at home it's

::

easier or you you do long stretch on one spring you're like fuck i couldn't

::

do this three months ago you know now i can do it like you it's you have to

::

compare to some previous level of strength you had and notice that you can now,

::

that's easier now, right?

::

And so if you never repeat the same exercise, how do you know you got stronger?

::

Like you do one long stretch today, next week you do elephant,

::

next week you do, you know.

::

Whatever, some other, you know, upstretch, downstretch, you know, planks, push up.

::

And so, you know, and you never get back to doing the same move again.

::

It's like you never have a point of comparison. So you don't actually know you

::

got stronger, even though you may have, but you, so you, you miss out on a lot

::

of that intrinsic reward that people crave and that is so valuable,

::

that actually is what motivates people as they become,

::

you know, more habituated to exercise is that inherent value of just like,

::

it's just good to do it. You know, it's good to have that experience.

::

So again, I think the whole variety mindset is really,

::

it really mistakes the matter that we, and I think we do ourselves and our clients

::

a disservice by feeling like, oh, it needs to be so varied. It needs to be so varied.

::

One, you know, it doesn't produce the same results. We know that,

::

you know, in order to get good at the thing, you have to do that thing a lot of times.

::

And if you never do the same thing two sessions in a row, well,

::

that's the opposite. You know, like if, if, like if you're learning piano, right.

::

And you have a lesson twice a week, but you never, ever practice the same piano piece ever.

::

You just practice a different piece every lesson. It's like,

::

well, you never, you're not going to build the same level of skill as if you

::

practice one piece until you master it.

::

Plus, yeah, just, and you won't get the sense of reward. Right.

::

Because you won't get the feedback. You'll be learning something brand new every

::

single time. You'll be like, fuck, I still suck. You know, two years later, I still suck.

::

I'm still struggling here. But it's like, but if you've just been playing one

::

piece for two years, you'll be so good at it.

::

Yeah. So I think that whole, like, yeah, when you teach this way in layers,

::

Whereas you do limit the variety, which is a good thing because people can then

::

observe their own progress and go, fuck, I'm getting really strong.

::

I can now, I'm more flexible. I can go push the carriage out further.

::

I can lift my legs up higher or drop my legs down lower or do a different spring

::

setting or whatever it might be.

::

Right. And if we circle that back to something we were talking about way back,

::

like right back at the beginning of this conversation, particularly in the context of being a studio owner.

::

If you're wanting to bring alignment into your team, and you also want to upskill

::

your team, the skills that you need your team to be good at are not just programming.

::

And in fact, the skills you need your team to be good at in terms of communication

::

with your clients and connection and all of those things are equally as important

::

as the programming and their teaching skills, the conveying information,

::

rather than the variability of their programming.

::

In fact, I'd argue that's more important than the variability of their programming and,

::

If you need to work on that with your team, then you need to constrain what

::

is taught in your studio so that

::

you make time and space for your team to develop their teaching skills.

::

You know, everything Raf just said about getting good at the piano,

::

et cetera, for your clients is exactly the same for an instructor who wants

::

to improve their teaching skills.

::

If you're teaching different movements every week, you're not getting better

::

at teaching last week's movements.

::

You're working out how to teach this week's movements. so there's a virtuous

::

cycle and so for the studio owner who wants to level up their studio's.

::

Quality well part of that quality is the teaching skills

::

of the team and if you want coherence then you want to constrain

::

what's taught in the studio and get everyone good at teaching it you know which

::

is what in my experience i think yours too rap talking to studio owners that's

::

usually not what people are doing they're usually letting instructors teach

::

yeah differently and wondering why it feels so sort of hard to contain everything.

::

Yeah, well, I would say, I mean, when you think about what does it even mean

::

to be good at programming, to be highly skilled at programming,

::

like what we've just discussed, like exactly fits the definition of highly skilled behavior.

::

Okay. So if we look at the, like, if you're highly skilled at anything,

::

you know, throwing darts into a dartboard or long jump or playing a musical

::

instrument or whatever it might be, the elements that, you know,

::

somebody who's highly skilled versus someone who's not highly skilled is very consistent.

::

Okay someone who throws darts in the dartboard they always you know or almost

::

always hit the same spot you know it's not just like random where the dart goes uh and it's precise.

::

Okay. And it's automatic. You know, when you're really good at playing the guitar,

::

you don't have to think about where your fingers are going. They just go there.

::

It's automatic. And so what we're talking about here in terms of layering,

::

using a limited number of exercises that go really well together,

::

it's very, another, another element of highly skilled behavior is economical.

::

You know, people who run well or play the music well,

::

or even just watching these like crazy like indian guys on youtube you know

::

cooking uh some kind of street food or whatever and just watching their hands

::

they're so skillful at the way they you know create the the the.

::

The dish it's like you can only get that from

::

doing thousands and thousands and thousands of reps right

::

it just becomes completely automatic and like what

::

we're talking about here fits that exact description you know

::

it's it's repeatable it's consistent it's

::

precise it uh is economical

::

you know because it's efficient like we're not

::

you know doing extra stuff uh

::

uh and it's unconscious it's automatic

::

you know because you've just done it so many times it

::

becomes unconscious and automatic for the clients as well and just

::

i think in terms of the variety for the clients like we really are gamifying

::

it in in a real way because we have these layers that are increasingly challenging

::

by adding load okay so we go you know shoulder bridge on two two legs shoulder bridge on one leg, okay,

::

like, well, clients unlock the next level at various points along their journey,

::

but that's really fucking fun, you know, it feels good to like,

::

oh, I can do the second layer now, I couldn't do that three months ago,

::

now I can do it, and then, oh, I can do the third layer, that's incredible,

::

I never would have thought I could have got here,

::

right, people find that inherently motivating, and so there is your variety,

::

because for three months I've been doing layer one, and now I've unlocked layer two.

::

You know, congratulations, you have reached layer two, unlocked, achievement unlocked.

::

So I think it's a mistake to focus on variety.

::

I think that's actually part of the problem here. And I think being skilled

::

at programming means you don't spend much time programming.

::

It's efficient, right? It means it's consistent. It's automatic.

::

Like that's what being good at programming means.

::

So if you're spending two hours a week programming classes, that means you're

::

not very good at programming.

::

Right. And if your programs are always different, I would argue that means you're

::

not very good at programming because the hallmarks of highly skilled behavior

::

is automaticity, efficiency, you know, block with just accuracy,

::

consistency, like we talked about.

::

And it's like, well, if you're spending hours doing it, that's inefficient.

::

Right. Which is not skilled. If you're, if it's varied every single time,

::

that's not consistent, which is not skilled.

::

So you know and it's not accurate more to

::

the point because when we say accurate like if you're playing darts

::

accurate means hitting the the center of the target okay if you're playing if

::

you're playing a musical instrument accurate means hitting the note the right

::

note at the right time okay if you're programming pilates accurate means actually

::

helping people get stronger more flexible and better skill right that's that's

::

what we're trying to achieve in a darts game you're trying to hit the middle

::

of the target in pilates class you're trying to help people improve themselves.

::

And if you're constantly varying your programming and not improving people's,

::

not adding load, tension per rep on the muscle groups, then it's not accurate.

::

You're not actually hitting the center of the dartboard.

::

So I would say what we've just described here literally fits the textbook definition

::

of highly skilled behavior. And so This is what it means, in my view,

::

to be skilled at programming.

::

And just doing something fucking different every week is really,

::

it's, you know, with love and respect, and I did this for a decade, it's a newbie mistake.

::

Yeah all right so um i think

::

that was a good talk and i think there's there's so much more to

::

talk about on this topic of layering that uh

::

i think we've got we've got i don't know if it's a

::

dozen but maybe maybe a dozen podcasts in

::

us on this topic because there's so there's

::

so much more to talk about like we could go

::

into the same level of depth on uh you

::

know um various different aspects

::

of it for example uh like

::

you know talking about some of those other pairs or quads

::

of of moves and think about how to adjust them

::

in those fine increments you know like what's the

::

layer between you know double leg

::

or even i mean we didn't even go through it in in the in

::

the exercise that we talked about like what's the layer in between you

::

know a shoulder bridge on three springs and shoulder bridge on one and a half

::

springs you know um or how do you you know what about like the the nuances of

::

body position so in a lunge why does it matter so much where your foot is.

::

You know um and how does that change it

::

and like and and it when when it matters so

::

much it profoundly influences the amount of load that

::

various muscles will experience and and what

::

about if somebody's different body proportion someone's taller

::

or shorter versus or heavier or lighter

::

or more or less flexible in their hips or shoulders

::

or spine like how does that influence the amount of load that is on a given

::

muscle group in a in a certain movement and so why do we have to adjust that

::

range of motion or foot position or spring setting or foot bar setting or whatever

::

for somebody who's taller or shorter or whatever it might be.

::

There's so many different things that are valuable to understand in order to

::

create this simple masterpiece of layered teaching that looks simple,

::

but there is so much under the hood that makes it so powerful and such an unlock

::

for amazing client results and retention and just satisfaction with teaching.

::

Yeah. And depending on people's tolerance for nerd factor, maybe that's something

::

we should do is just spend a whole session on one of the clusters or even a

::

pair of ways. I think one cluster is too much.

::

Yeah. All right. Good talk. Yeah.

::

All right, mate. Cheers.

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Pilates Elephants
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Raphael Bender