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 second half of my two-part conversation with Sarah Dami. If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out part one. Enjoy!
What is driving you on the day to day? Now tell me about all of your Pilates adventuring.
Sarah: [00:00:57] Well, on a personal note, [00:01:00] obviously my health is what's driving me on a day to day basis. I know that I owe my strength and my flexibility to Pilates so I know it's going to be a lifelong practice for me. And when I hurt my back a few years ago, I made a promise to my husband that I will do everything I can to be the best mom for our future kids. And that included, you know, the ability to bend over and pick things up, which at the time I wasn't able to do, like I'm telling you that I was in bad shape.
But yeah, I made that promise to him. And you know, when I say him, I really mean myself, that I will do everything in my power to be the best partner and the best person I can be. That is really what drives me day to day to get up and roll out the yoga mat and just, even if it's just stretching, you gotta stretch every day. Man. Stretching is so important.
Building into that, I've always kind of had this personality where I want to be my own. [00:02:00] As I mentioned before, I have done marketing, I've done business operations, sales operations, and my mind immediately goes to how can I spread this to more and more people? I decided to use Instagram as the way to share that information.
One, because it's so visual. It's an amazing platform to be able to collect all of these different exercises and ideas and really just collect them together. So it's really just using it as more of like a resource center for people for, I don't wanna say my followers cause I'm like not that cool of a person, but I really loved Instagram for that.
So this past year I've been slowly building up content that is little tiny snippets of what taking a class would look like. So it's one specific move, a couple different cues on how to do it. Here's a really great tip on [00:03:00] how to make it more difficult, or if you're not there yet, here's something else you can do and just share that as a post.
My strategy with Instagram, like I said, is just to kind of use it as a little bit of a curiosity bubble. If you tag hashtag yoga, it's not yoga, it's Pilates, so they're seeing something different. They see it different. They're like, what is that? They go to my page. They see that it's something similar to something that they're interested in, but they might not have seen it before or they've heard about it, but they've never done it personally. Well, here's an opportunity for you to maybe try one of the exercises safely at home, and then if they're interested, they could learn more, take class, all of that.
So I'm kind of using it as just kind of a little tap on the shoulder, like, Hey, have you guys heard of this Pilates thing? Look how easy and fun it is.
Olivia: [00:03:48] Oh, that's so awesome. And I think that that's so important that as a teacher, we have this amazing technology at our fingertips, not just Instagram, but Pilates. And to be able to share that with [00:04:00] people who might be, you know, having that same struggle with back pain or working at a desk and just like not having fabulous biomechanics and their body is starting to yell at them about it.
One of my teachers always said that your body keeps the score. So if you are a dancer or an athlete or a weekend warrior, like your body kind of keeps track of that in your habits. I remember back in my teacher training, something that really stuck with me is like, even if you're a truck driver and you're always having, you know, one foot on the pedal, you know, that's gonna cause some imbalances.
And so much of philosophies is not just telling you, "you have imbalances," but letting you feel for yourself and then as an agent of your own health and your own body to begin to adjust or make different choices because Pilates is unique in that you do it in the studio, but then you do it in your life.
You sit taller when you do Pilates because you know that it feels [00:05:00] better to sit taller, like you have that awareness. So thank you so much for being an agent of sharing Pilates. The whole world gets better. I feel like I'm on a soap box all the time, but I'm like, everyone wins when you do Pilates, like the whole world wins.
Like you go and you see your partner and you're not in pain and your life is better and the world is better because your life is better.
Sarah: [00:05:20] Absolutely. Standing on a mountain top and like, "anyone who is feeling back pain, try Pilates!"
Olivia: [00:05:28] I love it. Just like yelling out of your apartment window, like, "Pilates is the answer!"
Sarah: [00:05:33] I just visualize myself standing on my balcony and my neighbors being like, what the heck?
Olivia: [00:05:38] And then I'll be interviewing them down the road and be like, so what got you into Pilates? They're like, well, my neighbor was on her balcony screaming about it. Be that neighbor.
And then just one more thing I want to ask you as a fairly new teacher, but also like not that new of a teacher, I would say.
Do you have any experience for anyone who's, or any advice that you'd like to share with [00:06:00] any teacher friends, new and not new?
Sarah: [00:06:04] Yes, I absolutely have advice. My number one advice for new Pilates instructors or existing ones, just be proactive in your learning. I downloaded this app, which has been so helpful.
It's called essential anatomy five. Like the number five. It costs a couple of bucks, but it is absolutely worth it. So it gives you a skeleton. You can choose between male or female, and you can add layers building muscle. And if you tap on a specific muscle, it gives you the name, the origin, the insertion, the function, the nerve supply, everything anatomy that you would need to know as a Pilates instructor.
So I would just be like laying in bed, playing around with this app, desperately trying to memorize where the, psoas was and why it was so important. Oh, I was so naive back [00:07:00] then. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, and this muscle connects here, and then I would, you know, feel my own body. I'm like, Oh, this is the muscle that I'm seeing in the app. Or if I'm like, wait, I don't feel that muscle. Then I'm like, okay, I know I need to lift some more weights. So definitely download that app. Again. It's called essential anatomy five.
Be super proactive about your continued education. I would say getting certified is just the foundation of getting yourself in the door. There are so many different avenues you can go down for continued education. Right now I'm in a course specific for pregnancy and postpartum and I'm loving it so much, learning so much.
Another thing I would encourage people to do is to record yourself cuing. I am telling you, it really opens your eyes to what your clients are experiencing, both good and bad.
For me, like if I get a little low energy, like if it's a [00:08:00] bad depression day, you can really see it all over my face. You could hear it in my voice, and I know that's going to affect how my clients feel during that session. So now I know to make sure that I amp myself up a little bit, remind myself that, you know, this is about them and their practice journey. And you know, maybe grab a venti caramel macchiato before class starts.
It's really helpful to be able to record yourself, go back and watch it and pretend like you are taking your own class and then kind of give yourself a little bit of constructive criticism. How you feel about the cuing that you said, or maybe your tone of voice wasn't all that inspiring or something like that, or you know, maybe, or even the opposite.
If you said something pretty funny. I use humor a lot. I also try to be like really real with things. If something reminds me of something, I will say it. Like right now, the thing popping in my head is [00:09:00] trying to activate the pelvic floor muscle or your glutes or your deep six muscles. The thing that I always refer to is, you know, feel like you're holding in a fart.
Olivia: [00:09:10] That's true. That will tighten what you need to tighten.
Sarah: [00:09:13] It tightens up. You feel it. Realize who you're talking to. Gauge the room. But yeah, you know, I might throw out a fart joke every now and then.
Olivia: [00:09:21] You know, when it applies, it lands well.
And I think that's something that you can definitely do now is we're doing a lot of virtual offerings, is that you're relying even more on your verbal cues and you have even more opportunity to record the class you're teaching, whether it's on Instagram or Facebook, or if it's like a recording through zoom. Maybe in the world where we aren't teaching everything online, you don't have as many opportunities to like listen to yourself.
But now I'm teaching a class for the University of Chicago on Facebook live. I've got four weeks of classes that I can go back and see myself. And I think that that is super valuable because I've had moments when [00:10:00] I'm teaching where I'm like, that was great. And then at the end of the class, I'm like, I can't remember what I said. That was great. It was awesome, but I've no idea what it was.
So having that recording, being able to go back and then learn from yourself, props to you, that is such an amazing commitment to just like being a better teacher all the time. Look at you go.
Sarah: [00:10:19] It's hard. Trust me. It's hard listening to yourself, but you'll thank yourself later.
Olivia: [00:10:24] I love that you said it's not all bad things that you're going to notice like sure, some things are going to miss and that's going to be like even when you're the best teacher in the entire world, like there's still going to be things you're like, that wasn't what I meant to say, or that was weird. But the fact that you're going to keep growing and you're just going to keep in your back pocket, the best things that you can just draw from.
Sarah: [00:10:44] Yeah, and I think it's also important to recognize the good things that you do. You know, you have to be kind to yourself. You can't be so critical if you're watching it. And, you know, if, especially if you're doing the moves along with it, give a, give yourself a little [00:11:00] pat on the back. It's always good to recognize when you do a good job.
Olivia: [00:11:04] And especially when you're teaching virtually and you're doing it at the same time you're teaching it, like cut yourself some slack.
Sarah: [00:11:11] Oh God. Isn't that the hardest thing in the world?
Olivia: [00:11:14] Oh my gosh. Like a little bit I just want to go back to pacing because sometimes you're doing the move and you're like, "I cued it for the first two, you get no cues for the second two because I need to breathe and focus."
Sarah: [00:11:25] Can I just tell you the first time I tried to do the hundred and count at the same time was so hard, but I'm proud of myself now because I'm able to do it. I've done it enough, I'm able to do it, to cue and do it. Granted, I'm not doing the super-intense version where my, you know, my feet are six inches off of the ground, but I'm doing it.
Olivia: [00:11:48] Also fun fact, most of your students are also not doing that version, so like, no worries.
Sarah: [00:11:54] We're all in it. We're all in it together trying to talk and do the exercises.
Well, first of all, [00:12:00] that in and of itself is hard because Pilates obviously is about breathing. Talking also requires breathing, so you're, you're breathing incorrectly as you're doing the moves, so that makes it hard in and of itself. And then you also have to think about a million other things while you're trying to perform correctly.
You're like, okay, what's the next move that I have to do? I want to look at my piece of paper, but I don't want them to know I'm looking at my piece of paper. There's so much going on in these live, these recorded sessions. Definitely a skill.
Olivia: [00:12:33] I probably would not have practiced that skill at all unless I absolutely had to, which we currently do.
So really, we're all growing. We're all growing together.
Sarah: [00:12:42] Give yourself grace.
Olivia: [00:12:49] 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 [00:13:00] love.
Now back to the show.
So jumping back to your Instagram world, Sarah, I noticed that on your bio you've listed yourself as a mental health advocate. You also mentioned depression a little bit earlier, and I was wondering if you could share a little bit more about your mental health journey and how that plays into your life in the Pilates land.
Sarah: [00:13:48] Sure. Yeah. I love talking about mental health. I think it's something that needs to be talked about more. It's one of those things that always has a stigma attached to it, whether it's anxiety, [00:14:00] depression, you know, what have you, and the more opportunities that we have to talk about it and make it a normal conversation in everyday life, I think the better that everyone will be.
On a personal note, I do have depression. I have had clinical depression my entire life. It's not situational. A lot of times people associate depression with something that happened that made you depressed. Not saying that one doesn't outweigh the other, it's just one of them might eventually go away. The other ones you need to take medication for.
I realized I had depression in high school when I, I definitely was an emo kid in high school, having the, you know, super-intense Green Day albums and Panic at the Disco and, you know, Dashboard Confessional, all of that. So I definitely knew I had it.
I didn't think that I could do anything about it. I didn't think I could talk about it. I [00:15:00] didn't think I could have a cure about it. No one really asked me about it either.
My way of getting through it was really just my own. I mean, I hate, this sounds braggy, but it was really just my own thoughts telling myself, you can get through this, you can do this. It had a lot to do with proving to others that I can do it. I'm the youngest of four, so there's a lot of competition kind of built into my personality of, well, if they can do it, I can do it and I can do it better. So for me it was a lot of, Oh, my friend stopped talking to me. Well, I'm going to make myself a better person so that I don't need them anymore.
That was how I just kind of dealt with it back in the day. It definitely helped. I went to college, majored in something that I was super interested in, which was film and TV made really great friends. They're better people, better friends. And [00:16:00] every now and then it would just kind of slip back in. And paired that with the physical pain on top of it, it wasn't really a good combo.
Olivia: [00:16:07] I don't know if it contributes to the story at all, but there is a clothing company called Self Care is for Everyone and they have a tee shirt that says, "if you can't make your own, store bought is fine." And it's for antidepressants.
Sarah: [00:16:21] That is awesome. That is absolutely awesome.
That's the thing is there's no shame in admitting that you need help because it's a chemical imbalance in your brain. So if you need, if you need medication, if you need external stimulants to be able to counteract that feeling, that's totally okay. It's not you as a person. It's, it's chemicals, it's the body.
Olivia: [00:16:44] Right. The same way you would take medicine if you had high cholesterol or if you had an injury, and you needed antibiotics to treat an infection. Like we don't look at those things and say, Oh, how could you take medicine for that? And you're like, well, I have condition.
Sarah: [00:16:57] Absolutely. It was really my [00:17:00] sister, actually, the same woman introduced me to Pilates.
Olivia: [00:17:02] You know what? We need to get your sister like a card and a cake.
Sarah: [00:17:06] She, yeah, she's great. She's the oldest of the four. I'm the youngest, so she probably has a little bit of, you know, mama bear in her. She also struggles with her own her own stuff going on. And she asked me a very simple question. She said, why would you live with something if you don't have to live with it?
And that really hit home for me. I was like, Oh my God, why am I living with this? Why am I struggling when there are resources out there to help fix it? It's therapy. It's, if it's medication, whatever. Why am I, you know, kind of having this, I don't want to say self pity party, but it was kind of that depression, snowball effect of, Oh, you don't deserve to feel better, you know? It's, no one wants to help you. It's kind of that snowball effect. And I just needed to blow up the snowball. And that question [00:18:00] really did it for me.
So that's when I started to seek help a little bit. And at the same time as I'm going through this mental health focus, I started to, you know, you feel better about yourself.
You start to see yourself in a more positive light, you start to lean a little bit more into self care because you believe that you are worth it, that you are worth that little bit of extra money to get a massage or that little bit of, Oh, maybe I could hire that personal trainer. So it's all of these different things that feed onto one another.
So that paired with the, Oh, maybe I should treat myself to a private Pilates instructor session. Then you start to feel better and you start to notice the changes not only in your body happening, but in your mind because you're accomplishing things. Your nailing that exercise. You're focusing on something outside of the [00:19:00] storm happening inside of your brain, you're able to focus on that one particular muscle, that one part, and then when you nail it, you feel so proud of yourself and you want to keep doing it.
Olivia: [00:19:10] I think that's a way that Pilates teachers like in a very, small way can have this really positive impact on people's lives. Not just in that Pilates is amazing, but also how you carry yourself as a teacher, how you interact with your students, that you can really be this source of unconditional positive regard that's just cheering for your every success.
Like when I have a student who was struggling with the roll up, but then you know, they get it, and then there's just like so much pride and so much excitement and it's just being a cheerleader for your students can have a hugely positive impact in their lives. Way beyond the fact that they did a roll up.
Every person you interact with in the Pilates studio, but in your life, has a whole world going on that doesn't involve you. [00:20:00] And you don't know what's happening with their relationships or with, sometimes you know what's happening with their physical health, but maybe not the entire picture or what's going on with their family or their job necessarily. And to just have an hour a day where you can focus on Pilates and the movement and to see progress.
I feel sappy, but I'm like, that's life changing.
Sarah: [00:20:21] That was something that was unexpected. As an instructor, I feel like I was not prepared for the excitement of a client performing something correctly and bonding over that and building your relationship with them.
I was not expecting that benefit. There are so many times when we're working out and yeah, it distracts your brain a little bit. But there's something about Pilates that really just Holmes you in and distracts you from the outside world that is so refreshing and so cleansing for your thoughts.
Olivia: [00:20:54] I see it as a moving meditation, that it requires so much focus that you [00:21:00] can't worry about a to do list or a thing or anything in your life because the amount of attention that you need to perform that exercise while breathing, while doing a thing, you can't be anywhere else but in your body.
Sarah: [00:21:16] And you can see the difference as an instructor. You can see if someone's not paying attention, if they're just going through the movements, their brain is somewhere else.
And then you take a moment and you say, Hey, let's talk about this. What's on your mind? And if you have that relationship with them, they might share what is hurting them or what's distracting them, but then after they share it and it's off their chest. Okay, let's revisit that exercise. Let's distract your brain for 10 more minutes away from whatever was bothering you.
And, you know, you're kind of there for them. Not only, obviously, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.
Olivia: [00:21:52] I think a lot about the way I teach Pilates is that you're really using the language of Pilates to just [00:22:00] be a better person. It's like we're all wanting to be our best and our healthiest and just feel good in our lives. And as a Pilates teacher, you're just allowing that to happen through the language of movement and through the exercises of Pilates.
Sarah: [00:22:14] You know what I love is this conversation that we're having. It's making me fall in love with Pilates again and again.
Olivia: [00:22:20] I think that's the goal and that's what I love about doing, continuing education and going to conferences or workshops or anything, is that the Pilates community especially just like loves Pilates and loves the impact that Pilates has and loves what comes from doing Pilates. The connections, the great people, the phenomenal success stories. It's just, it's like the place to be.
Sarah: [00:22:45] Pilates is so great.
Olivia: [00:22:47] Let's all do Pilates now forever and ever.
Sarah: [00:22:50] We'll all just quit our jobs and hang out in the studio and just do Pilates all day.
Olivia: [00:22:55] Never wear real pants again.
Well, Sarah, I think that you are incredible as a [00:23:00] teacher and as a human being, and thank you so much for taking some time and being on the show.
I really encourage everyone listening to check out Sarah's classes and her Instagram and her website and just all things Sarah. I think she has so much to share from a Pilates perspective, but also as a neat human being perspective. I hope you check her out.
Thank you so much for hanging out, my dear. You're great.
Sarah: [00:23:24] Thanks for having me. This was so fun.
Olivia: [00:23:27] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much for joining me for today's chapter of Pilates Teachers' Manual, your guide to becoming a great Pilates teacher. If you lovde today's episode, subscribe and leave a review. You can reach out to me on Instagram @pilatesteachersmanual or send me an email to pilatesteachersmanual@oliviabioni.com. The adventure [00:24:00] continues. Until next time.