[00:00:00] Olivia: [00:00:00] Welcome to Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to becoming a great Pilates teacher. I'm Olivia and I'll be your host. Join the conversation on Instagram @pilatesteachersmanual. Today's chapter starts now
This is the first half of my two-part conversation with Sarah Dami. Part two is also available, so be sure to check it out once you've finished part one.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to Pilates Teachers' Manual. I'm Olivia and you've got a special treat today, my friends. I'm here [00:01:00] with my good friend and colleague, Sarah Dami, and she is a Pilates instructor in Club Pilates West Loop with me. I actually met her for the first time when she was doing her teacher training. She observed and then practice taught some of her hours in my classes and I was like, look at you, doing that thing. Pilates. Amazing. I've got some great links in the description to her social.
Her Instagram is fabulous. If you love Pilates, you'll love her Instagram. She has so many cool tips and tricks and just behind the scenes of Pilates and life, I think you'll get a super big kick out of it. But I'm going to turn it over to Sarah and she'll tell you a little bit about herself and also how she found Pilates. So hi, Sarah. What's happening?
Sarah: [00:01:40] Hey Olivia, thank you for having me. I feel like that question of how did you start doing Pilates? is such a massive question for any Pilates instructor because it's such a personal thing too. I don't know if you're shifting your career or you know, just taking some [00:02:00] type of step towards sharing this with other people, but it's such a personal calling, choosing to share the practices and to convince others that you're not insane when you say that you can heal back pain.
That's the number one thing. I'm like, you guys, you don't understand. You could fix it. So for me, like backing was really prominent my entire life. I've had back pain since high school was really the first time that I felt the negative effects of not having a strong core. I actually passed out one time from the pain.
It was so bad. It was so bad. I went and did chiropractors. I did physical therapy. I did all of that. If you really notice, I mean, those are really just temporary solutions, right? You either need a doctor's note or you need extra cash to be able to afford a chiropractor, you know, cause that's not covered by insurance.
So it definitely had a time limit on that treatment, which is something that you know, [00:03:00] obviously is not sustainable for the rest of your life if it's something that is so physical. And so just who your body is is you have a course. For me it was like being able to educate myself that this isn't just like a one, quick, take a pill, it's done, oh and I can move on with the rest of my life.
I actually experienced back pain throughout my entire life, starting with high school. Then it hit again in college. I was in physical therapy and then I started in the workforce where you're sitting at a desk eight hours a day, what have you, and I was living that desk life, that nine to five desk life.
My old job, the one before Pilate is the one that was the final nail in the coffin. No offense to my old companies, but in order to survive sitting at that desk, I had a lumbar pillow. I had a standing desk and I had a heating pad that was draped over the back of my chair. It was horrible. Yeah. The [00:04:00] final thing that really got it was.
In December, 2018 I was just kind of casually laying on the couch watching TV, just draped over like French girl style, you know. I was home alone. My fiance was out of town, now husband, on a work trip, and when I got up from the couch, I felt this massive pain in my left shoulder and it just kept getting worse as time went by throughout the night.
I actually had to call a friend who was a nurse to help peel me off the floor. I couldn't move. I was like, FaceTiming my husband crying, laying on the floor is a really bad experience. So she finally was able to get me up and in bed, but then I ended up waking up at three in the morning and I just knew I needed to go to the ER.
So I called an Uber three in the morning, took myself to the hospital.
Olivia: [00:04:51] What happened? Can I ask?
Sarah: [00:04:52] It was a back spasm. Yeah. It was a really bad back spasm and the doctor actually wrote me a script for [00:05:00] physical therapy that actually ended up being nine months. I was in physical therapy for nine months after that. I had a second back spasm a couple months after I started physical therapy.
Olivia: [00:05:12] That's so unsustainable as a life.
Sarah: [00:05:14] It was ridiculous. I was going two times a week for, I want to say about the first four or five months and then spoilers. I started doing Pilates and ended up being able to reduce it down to once a week and eventually once a month. So.
Olivia: [00:05:30] That's awesome.
Sarah: [00:05:32] Spoilers: Pilates was the answer.
Olivia: [00:05:34] Yes. And there's just so many things that you can do in Pilates that you can't do in a chiropractor's office or in physical therapy. I think that there are great chiropractors and there are not great chiropractors, and there are great PTs and not great PTs.
But what it kind of boils down to is it's like you have one problem and then there's kind of this laser focus. I'm like, Oh, well, you can't bend your knee, [00:06:00] so I'm gonna. Show you how you can bend your knee again with instead of addressing you the whole you.
Sarah: [00:06:05] Yes. I think that's a great point because I feel like physical therapists, they have their set regimen of certain exercises that they know are going to help and they're super helpful.
But being able to take a step back and look at the whole picture. That doesn't necessarily happen in those types of environment. It's more like, what's your symptom? How can we fix it?
Olivia: [00:06:26] Right. And especially because PT is covered by insurance and a lot of cases. There was another teacher who was at Club Pilates, West Loop who was actually training to be a physical therapist, and she said that sometimes someone would come in and you'd have 10 minutes before you had to like have a plan for them.
And so if someone says back pain, you're like, Oh, these are the back pain exercises. Just because it has its own structure, the medical world and insurance world.
So tell me more. Tell me more about this introduction to lattes.
Sarah: [00:06:52] I was in physical therapy and I started to notice that the exercises that were progressing my healing the most were [00:07:00] Pilates based. My sister lives in New York City and she actually told me about Pilates first. So being the typical New Yorker she is, they're always on the hot trends of things. She's like, wait, what exercises are you doing for physical therapy? And I'm like, well, we're doing this thing where I like squeeze my shoulders together and I press my hands back. And she's like, that's chest expansion. That's a Pilates move. And I'm like, wait, what? Tell me about this Pilates thing, like, what is it? And she's like, Oh my God, you have to look it up online. It's so amazing, blah, blah, blah. And she starts telling me all about the principles and who Joseph was and all this stuff. And she, she's like the best marketing person ever for Pilates cause she had me sold.
What I ended up doing was going back to my physical therapy, started noticing which exercises were progressing me the fastest, and it was those exercises that you know I started to notice were online and that were this [00:08:00] Pilates thing.
I decided to invest in a one on one session with an instructor. Googled "Pilates in Chicago." Lo and behold, there's this whole world and there was a studio down the street from me two blocks away called Pure Pilates, ended up booking a private session there. Shout out to Danielle who works at pure Pilates because she is fabulous, and she really helped me not only learn about Pilates as a whole, but she respected the progress that I've made in PT.
So everyday I would come in and she would say, how was last week? How did you feel? What does your PT say about this? So it was kind of this partnership between PT and Pilates that was really nice. This, you know, for me, who I was like in all this pain, I didn't know what was going on with my body. I've never really studied anatomy outside of high school.
And it started to kind of spark this interest of, [00:09:00] well, hold on a second. If we do this, this, and this. And I feel this as a result. Why is that? And I starting to get more of a personal interest in it rather than just, I just want to feel better.
Olivia: [00:09:15] Something that Pilates does, again, because Pilates teachers aren't physical therapists, aren't doctors, aren't chiropractors, is that they can work with those professionals and also kind of fill in the gaps and make it a little bit more personalized.
Also, because there's not really a time limit on doing Pilates. It's not like you have eight sessions and then your insurance runs out. It's like you can do Pilates classes for the rest of your life. I hope you do, and you keep progressing and you keep feeling better.
Sarah: [00:09:45] That was one of the things that for me, I was looking for life beyond PT because I knew, first of all, I loved the practice. It was super fun. I used to dance when I was little. So it kind of sparked [00:10:00] this choreography, mind, body control thing that I've really missed in my adult life. And at the same time, it's giving me these great health benefits. So I'm like, I want to continue doing this.
And that's how I ended up at Club Pilates because I was researching group classes. The group classes are affordable, but you still are able to learn stuff in the sessions, and that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to keep learning and learning and learning.
Olivia: [00:10:25] So I'm seeing all of these, not red flags, like green flags, that you're already a fantastic candidate for becoming a teacher because that sense of agency, that like connection to the movement and that curiosity: how does my body do that? Why does my body do that? Those are all green flags like you need to be a teacher because that's what it's about.
Sarah: [00:10:45] It honestly was a perfect storm. Right at the heart of it, I got an email, a marketing email from that said, now looking for instructors for this teacher training program. [00:11:00] And I read this email and I had a little flutter in my heart. I'm like, what? I could do this.
Great marketing, great job. I opened that email and talk to the manager at Club Pilates, Kelly, and she was like, you would be absolutely perfect. And I was like, I know you're probably just saying that to sell it, but I totally believe you. Signed up for it right then and there.
I, Oh my gosh, I just remembered I had this moment. Where I was walking to work. So like I said, I had this nine to five desk job and I had this moment. I was walking down the sidewalk, going to work in the morning, coffee in hand, and I had this internal struggle, this battle between myself of, I've been working on this career my entire twenties I have invested so much time and energy into this one, career path, networking and all of [00:12:00] that, but then I have this calling to help other people to spread the amazingness and the amazing healing power of Pilates.
And I remember staring down at the sidewalk as I'm walking and I verbally said out loud, just do it. You have to do it, Sarah, shut up and just do it. Yes. It was like I finally allowed myself to give myself what I wanted.
It's weird going through a career change. You're so invested in this one path, you almost guilt trip yourself to staying on that path and this internal conversation I was having with myself, I allowed myself to, I don't want to say be happy, as like depressing as that sounds.
Olivia: [00:12:50] I mean, I totally feel that you can get caught up and you stop sort of asking questions.
You just keep doing the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. And it's not like, do [00:13:00] I feel fulfilled? It's like, well, I did this step and the next step is to do this. So A plus on you, I don't want to say snapping out of it because you can have a very fulfilling life in marketing, but I'm so glad that you recognized that there was another world for you.
Sarah: [00:13:16] It wasn't for me. I knew I wasn't feeling fulfilled, and like I said, it was the perfect storm. Everything kind of clicked together and. It was the right time. It was it.
Olivia: [00:13:32] Hi there. I hope you're enjoying today's chapter so far. There's lots of awesome stuff coming up after the break as well. Please share this episode with your friends and followers and share the Pilates love.
[00:14:00] So then you get in teacher training, you're rocking your socks. There's a lot of questions about teacher training when I was looking at, you know, what do people want to know about Pilates? And one of the biggest things is what's the best teacher training? Like where can I do teacher training? So you're not, not alone if you're out there wondering.
So I was hoping Sarah would share a little bit about your experience in it, what you loved.
Sarah: [00:14:35] Sure. I got certified through Club Pilates , which means, you know, it included a lot of contemporary methodology and equipment, not just classical Pilates. It was in addition to the classical stuff, and I really liked that because I felt like I could bridge Pilates to a larger market.
Again, that that marketing mind in the back of my head. And you know, maybe people who have done [00:15:00] barre or personal training would be more likely to try something that had that element of familiarity. So that's why I went with Club Pilates. Also, it was my local studio. I was a member there for, I want to say six or eight months before I got that magical email calling me to be a teacher.
So I was already familiar with the studio. I knew the format of the classes. Started to know the instructors a little bit more, and then started talking to Kelly, the GM. So I really just felt like it was a welcoming environment and it was a good place to learn because, you know, we say you can't really do wrong. It's more just progressing on what you already know as a foundation.
My absolute favorite part of teacher training was the in-studio weekends. There were 12 weekends where you get to go into the studio and spend eight hours a day just learning [00:16:00] and practicing, and it was so much fun. It honestly felt like a camp.
Yeah. At first I was dreading it because I was like having this full time job. And I had to start doing the teacher training while I was doing that, and I was dedicating all of my Saturdays, Sundays to the studio and learning and working out. You're working out the entire time, which like did wonders for my abs, but it was super fun.
And you know, our master trainers, I had Courtney and Jackie, they were incredible. They really pushed us to be hands on. They teach an exercise and then they'd have us perform it with their cues. We would take notes on it and we would then cue each other and be hyper-critical but like in a good way, right? Cause we all want to make sure that we're the best versions of instructors we can be.
Having that quick turnaround between learning the [00:17:00] master trainers cuing and our cuing. It really was able to pinpoint the differences between the two and cuing is, I think the hardest part in being an instructor. They spent so much time teaching us visualization of the words, different ways of saying it, because one person might hear one cue, but then another person might understand that a different way.
So you kind of have to have all of these different cues in your back pocket to be like, if you're not able to squeeze your shoulders together or visualize that, pretend like you have a pencil between your shoulder blades and try to keep that pencil there, but the pencil doesn't work. Maybe change it to a hundred dollar bill and that might motivate them more. You kind of go through all of these different steps and I feel like the in studio sessions, it was like a crash course that was like super awesome and fun. And we got to hang out with everyone and [00:18:00] you know, I became really great friends with Allie, who is also an instructor at Club Pilates. I expanded my network greatly just by having those in person sessions. Yeah, that was definitely my favorite part.
Olivia: [00:18:12] And it's so important, I think in any teacher training program, whether you're going with Club Pilates or you're looking at another training program, just the fact that they get you teaching as soon as possible because that can be a ripping the bandaid off moment where that is such a barrier or to people or you're like nervous.
You're like, What if I say the wrong thing or confuse right and left and you're like, welcome to being a teacher. We do it all the time, but we recover and that's what makes us great. You know? So the fact that you get to practice that immediately.
There's no like, okay, I gotta plan out how I say chest expansion. It's like, no, we're doing it right now. So you also get used to thinking on your feet, which is a huge part of being an instructor.
I love having multiple ways to cue things. One thing that I say a lot is that there is no perfect cue because if someone has their shoulders [00:19:00] back and down, telling them to draw their shoulders back and down is not going to be the right cue for them. Being able to see what people are doing and like when things are connecting and having something else to offer them.
Sarah: [00:19:10] Cuing is one of those things where if I hear a good cue, I'll write it down. Even just regular conversations with instructors, take notes on my phone. If I'm watching a seminar or even something on Instagram. Instructors that verbalize things or if they have it written in the comments and I'm like, Ooh, that's a really great visualization. I'm going to keep that in my back pocket because it's not competition. We're all just trying to come up with the best way to click it in the client's mind. It's not like my cuing is better than your queuing, so I'm going to not give that to you or give advice to you. Our goals are all the same thing. We want our clients to be happy and healthy.
Olivia: [00:19:52] We all get to grow together because when you get a great cue and then you share it, everyone wins. No trademarks [00:20:00] on cues, only sharing cues.
I'm always jealous of the weekend immersions. I did a teacher training that wasn't with Club Pilates, but was also contemporary, so we built on the classical choreograph., and if you do teacher training outside of Club Pilates, and then you want to teach at Club Pilates, they do a bridge training weekend or two where they get you caught up on sort of the Club Pilates method and philosophy and how they work through exercises.
And that was one of my favorites things ever that bridging where you just crash course everybody together. One of the days we did all of the different class formats of Club Pilates, like we each got a different class, so someone was teaching, Suspend, someone was teaching Control, someone's teaching flow 1, 1.5 and then 2 and someone taught cardio and we had to take everyone's class and it was a sweat fest.
But also so fun and important to be able to give feedback to the instructors so that they know. Cause like you sometimes know when things land and [00:21:00] when they don't. But when you're just getting started, you may not, you may think that nothing landed and really you can have a lot of good stuff.
Sarah: [00:21:06] And that's one of the things that I miss from the corporate world a little bit, that coworker feeling because when you're instructing ,you're in the studio, chances are you're the only instructor in the studio unless there's someone doing a private. So it could feel a little isolating being the only instructor there with a room full of clients that are trying to learn things.
So having those further educational classes where everyone can get together, we're all talking on the same page, you know, we're all learning from each other. Those are the moments that I really liked and that I'm looking forward to in the future as a new instructor.
Olivia: [00:21:56] Thank you so much for joining me for today's chapter of Pilates [00:22:00] Teachers' Manual, your guide to becoming a great Pilates teacher. If you loved today's episode, subscribe and leave a review. You can reach out to me on Instagram @pilates teachersmanual or send me an email to pilatesteachersmanual@oliviabioni.com.
The adventure continues. Until next time.