You’ve probably heard a teacher somewhere along in your training journey say these words “trust your body”.... Right??
When we say that mostly, I'll speak for myself but it generally means - believe that you can do it / believe in yourself.
That’s one thing and pretty important to your practice, to be fair. You’ve got to have some kind of faith when we ask you to do something that you don’t think your body is up for, to give the trust to your body and actually, what I'm going to get to, is to trust the work itself.
We touched on this in a previous post, about believing in the work when your confidence isn’t so great on a particular day. That was about believing that the Pilates techniques can carry you through those challenging days when you feel a bit “meh” or just not up for doing much.
This posting is more about HOW we build trust between client and instructor. And what “trust your body’ actually means, or the few things that it might mean.
When you have a teacher who you don’t really resonate with, it’s harder to trust what they’re teaching, it’s harder to let your body go there, if you don’t feel safe or supported. Would you agree?
As a teacher, I can tell when someone trusts me or when they don’t. I also know how to build up trust. It’s a lot about give and take. I’d never push someone too soon, who's new to my class. I’d see how they move, notice the times they get a bit nervous to try things, perhaps work on that one specific thing, for a bit, once we see progress, the trust is pretty much gained. Then I have the green light to take them deeper into the work and deeper into exploring what they can actually do.
From this point, then it’s about helping that client understand the work itself is trustworthy. Again, dependent on the teacher, who respects the work and the body in front of them. Not trying to take someone to advanced moves too soon, for example. Or not putting people into shapes or positions they’re really uncomfortable in, or not “good at” (which by the way would be their words, not mine / a teachers).
On that note, generally, a person only dislikes an exercise when they think they aren’t “good at” or aren’t “confident with” it. Once a person can do something with more ease, they suddenly enjoy it more. Or at least don't hate it LOL! (Also considered to be progress.)
And to continue that note, this is the absolute magic of the Classical System. There are so many exercises on the various apparatus, that you don’t actually need to do a specific exercise to get good at that exact exercise. You can do many other exercises that target the same part of the body or detail in the movement, and then magically just do random other ones.
So for example, if you aren’t feeling say, stomach massage so much, we can look at what the struggle is, find other exercises to assist with those parts and then try stomach massage again at a later date, and it’s pretty much a guarantee that stomach massage would feel quite different, perhaps more achievable, more comfortable. To be honest I'd be surprised if it didn’t, just based on my experience of teaching and what I've seen clients achieve over the years.
That also allows you to go a bit deeper, work with less brute force, you get to target what you need and then try again in a softer way. Using your power house more than those external muscles, which a lot of the time stop us doing things with ease anyway as they hold waaayy too much tension. That’s a whole chat for another day.
As a teacher of this wonderful practice, I have immense trust in the work, which is why when someone gets bogged down by not getting something right away, I genuinely feel supportive of them, not because of my skill as a teacher, but just because I know that system can be beneficial for anyone. I feel like I can support anyone here because I trust the practice so much. I find a real comfort in this method, for myself and others. It’s utterly reliable. However, only if we trust it and trust our capacity to digest the work in our body. Holding back will only limit a persons movement and progress potential.
The practice then helps you trust yourself, believe in yourself. That’s easier when you suddenly start to find something shift in your practice.
The first step though…. Turning up to class and being committed in the moment.
The rest is magic.
Writer : Lucia Farina
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