Often, it's the small competitive advantage that makes the difference between a good performance, and a great performance. The best athletes understand that it's not big improvements that make a great day, but small, steady improvements over time. Consider as a runner, stride length.
At 170 strides per minute, at 44 inches per stride, a runner will cover a mile in 8:30.
At 160 strides per minute, at 46 inches per stride, a competing runner will run the same 8:30 pace.
At 170 strides per minute, at 46 inches per stride, the winner will run the same mile in 8:10.
That's a 5% improvement in stride length – and most runners would agree that 5% is a small improvement. This small improvement in stride length is largely a function of core strength (power in alignment) and flexibility (increasing range of motion through the rear ankle, knee and hip), both of which are core concepts of the Pilates Method. However, the Pilates Method goes further towards increasing your competitive edge. You'll train your body to react to athletic demand with control: alignment and breath control both reduce fatigue.
The Method:
The bodē fokus method is focused on a single nuance of understanding: there is a difference between education and training. The well-educated quickly adapt to new circumstances, but often lack precision in early attempts. The well-trained perform specific acts with great precision, but often lack tools to adapt to new situations. In this, the bodē fokus method is unique in emphasizing education through practice, leading you to a sustainable lifestyle. You'll understand how to handle day-to-day health and diet needs with the practiced ease of an athlete, and how to adapt to new challenges with the iterative invention of a scientist. In each case you'll feel that your bodē continues to refine, and your fokus continues to improve.
The Theory:
The three primary components of the fitness cycle require constant tuning as your lifestyle and fitness level change:
The Practice:
Every human on this planet is in a different place with their fitness; those who come to us for education and training are proof of this. Because of this, it is important that the high-level constructs fit everyone, and that the low-level application can be specialized. Everyone starts in a different place, and works bodē fokus differently, but the work is always consistent in one respect: the lines, shapes and spaces are always consistently aligned and focused on enhancing core strength, flexibility for natural motion, and functional endurance. bodē fokus will show you how to stack the fundamental building blocks of general fitness towards the unparalleled gratification of unconscious competence in Pilates, Triathlons, Yoga or whatever discipline you choose.
The Discipline:
The Pilates Method is an interesting, adaptive discipline like no other. While it's well-known for creating the slim lines and strong core that are sought after by models, actors and dancers, Pilates is a powerful corrective tool for regular human beings. Since application of the method is designed to vary with individual needs, each and every session will focus on 'Your Work': slumping shoulders; a weak leg; tight hamstrings; and old injuries are just a few.
For athletes, Pilates is a great complimentary training tool to help focus on the small things that give you a competitive advantage. For a runner, abdominal strength can help increase stride length. For cyclists, abdominal and inner thigh work can help keep you tucked and aligned longer into your ride. For triathletes, learning to regulate your breathing through repeated exertions will improve endurance. And for ex-athletes, particularly collegiate athletes who worked too hard for too many years to build muscle, and sustained injuries that never healed, Pilates can help lengthen, strengthen and slim.
Single, Duo, & Trio Sessions:
We offer private Pilates sessions for singles, duos and trios on equipment orginally designed by Joseph Pilates. You'll come to crave the energy and invigorating feel of the 'internal shower' (ask: we'll loan you a book), and enjoy the counter- syncopated rhythm of breathing and motion that is unique to Pilates. Pricing varies based on schedule and availability - we believe in the law of supply and demand: come at an off-peak time, and we'll cut you a break.
Mat Classes:
Pilates is unique in another aspect, when compared with other disciplines, in that group classes are both the most simple and the most advanced implementation. Why? As your skill increases, your ability to provide a more challenging experience for yourself improves, and the difficulty advances to a new level in correlation with your skill. While our Pilates Mat classes are geared for beginners, our advanced Pilates clients enjoy them side-by-side with beginners and claim (often, loudly and with exhausted grunts) that, done properly, mat is harder than work on a reformer. Mat classes are $12 each, with significant break for multi-class passes. See our class schedule for more information.
The Next Step:
The traditional personal training regimen focuses on building strength through arbitrary muscular movements. While this does improve muscle strength and body composition, it often does little to improve the quality of Activities of Daily Living. Strains, pains and pulls from ADL's are still common despite often significant strength gains in arbitrary activities like bench press and curls. We believe a more fundamental approach to personal training is overdue. By focusing on activities that promote strength and proper alignment through self resistance and proper bio-mechanical loading, we create a more meaningful and useful daily application of strength gained through personal training. While this may sound simple because it requires less equipment and less overall joint strain, it does require a trainer that can communicate the proper shapes and spaces which each exercise demands for proper execution.
A Critical Eye:
In many cases, the only difference between the effect of two 'identical' training sessions is alignment. Proper alignment, particularly for compound movements, is a learned activity. Repeating an activity under the watchful, critical eye of a properly educated trainer will ultimately force your muscles to remember the proper motion, to the point that it is nearly impossible to do the work improperly. Unfortunately, muscle memory also works for motions and activities that are out of alignment, and often detrimental. It has been postulated (by tanya, mostly) that sitting at a desk for extended periods may actually lead to looking more like a hunched-over Computer Troll than a human. bodē fokus personal training sessions can help correct Computer Troll syndrome by working complimentary muscle groups in alignment, reminding your body what proper alignment feels like.
What to Expect:
You can expect a challenging workout that you'll find more interesting, invigorating and challenging than a workout performed on your own. We employ the use of weights, tubing, athletic drills, tethers, whips and chains...practically anything that will force you to work your body against gravity and against itself to find 'your work', and maximize the effect of each workout towards your goals.
The Power of Touch:
We believe in the value of personal touch and hands-on interaction, and we handle our clients accordingly. There is no more important or interesting part of our business than the time we spend with you. Fitness Coaching is no exception, and in fact is where we distance ourselves from other fitness coaches and personal trainers. We believe that in order for you to get the most out of the 165 hours you spend monitoring yourself every week, that the hours we spend with you each week should be focused. And while it's only a few hours we spend together, that's a few hours more than many coaches spend with their clients on a regular basis. It matters, and we know why.
Many people approach their fitness from a 'What can I fit in?' standpoint. And while this can often be turned into a sustainable approach for maintenance that we'll help you craft once you've reached your goals, you can not expect for it to be a path to fitness improvement. By the same token, understanding this alone is not the only challenge: many coaches see this problem, and simply prescribe a brute force diet of cardio mixed with a little cardio until you drop. However, because this is not a sustainable lifestyle change, once the cardio stops or slows down you'll find that your fitness will slowly degrade to what it was when you started. The Brute Force Cycle is unecessary if you understand the interplay of strength, eating and cardio, and how to tune your body for sustainable fitness, and how to understand where you are on the Fitness Effort Curve.
Putting It Together:
Fitness Coaching is truly the laboratory course work for the bodē fokus method where the 'soft stuff' of your accountability to self (your lifestyle choices) melds with the 'nuts and bolts' of personal training (the proper lines, shapes and spaces your body will memorize). You'll become increasingly self-directed as your sophistication with tuning your own feedback loop improves, and you find that you need us only for the tricky problems, or perhaps when you feel a new program will help you take a leap to the next level of fitness performance.
Helping you design and deliver your Corporate Wellness program is one way we fulfill our passion for improving the health of our community. We believe (and we have both common sense and scientific studies on our side) that preventative care is not only more effective, but is also more efficient in sustaining the general health of the population than treatment. In this, access to preventative care is the critical aspect: fitness must have a low barrier to entry, and must be available as a part of everyday living. We address this directly by delivering classes, seminars and personal training at your office as part of your Corporate Wellness Program. Eliminating the “Where do I start?” barrier to entry is often the most critical step in shortening the chain and integrating meaningful fitness experiences into healthy everyday living.
By offering bodē fokus in a group-oriented format as a benefit to employees we will help your work force take control over their health. Because your work force is more healthy and energetic, your company will benefit not only from the increased productivity of an alert and active work force, but also from more manageable health care premiums (some health providers even offer discounts for qualified preventative programs). We'll dig into our virtually bottomless bag of fitness tricks to help you create an affordable program that is perfect for your company. Consider some of the bode fokus services which companies like yours are already enjoying as part of their Wellness program:
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pilates mat level 1: Master the fundamental concepts of the Pilates method while perfecting intermediate level exercises designed to strengthen and stretch all major muscle groups stemming from the core. All work is performed on the mat, and work with the magic circle is often included. Space is limited, so come regularly, and please call to reserve your spot. 864.236.4468 |
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Turbo Kick, piyo, Step and more: We're currently planning an expansion into a group-exercise-only (aka gxo) facility so we can offer a complete and exciting program including all of your favorites: Turbo Kick, Body Pump, Step, piyo, Yoga and an expanded Pilates Mat program. rēform bodē gxo will get you started and stretched every morning with invogorating Piyo, Pilates and Yoga, and will lend you that even boost with a fun, night-club environment for high energy classes like Turbo and Body Pump: bass pumping, disco ball sparkling, and moves like The Happy Cowgirl. |
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gxo-to-go: We're also quite pleased to provide any of our gxo services at your office as part of your Corporate Wellness initiative. If you have a group of eight or more people that are interested in group exercise, and a facility that will accommodate the activity, we'd love to bring gxo to you. We serve groups that are company sponsored (the company pays) and/or company supported (the company provides the facility, but the participants pay), and can often start a new program in about a week. |
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We'd love to tell you what a great job we've done for our clients, but it turns out that fitness is a private subject - a bit like looking through someone's wallet. However, some people are quite comfortable with sharing their private life online, so we're going to make it possible for you to plan, share and extend your fitness life online, if you like.
In the next few months we'll launch bodefokus.com: the online extension of your fitness life. You'll be able to monitor your diet with our unique DietFlow Tracker and integrated BMR feedback tool; track fitness progress with personal goals, event planning and event results; review your programming; socialize with others; and share any of it you choose with the world. We'll also offer the full line of bodē fokus digital products as part of your monthly subscription: 'portable trainer' podcasts, e-versions of our books, tips for business travelers, and digital one-on-one sessions with reform trainers.
We'll have a whole new set of spring and summer clothes ready soon - we've stuck with the same flattering styling, but updated the look and feel for a fresh and sporty new look.
rēform running club:
Periodically, we select an event, such as a half marathon or 10k, for which to train, and then train and particpate as a group. Currently, we're training for the Rock & Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach on Labor Day. We meet most Friday mornings at 6:00 AM in front of rēform bodē at 14 south main st, greenville sc. (email Tanya if you'd like to participate, and she'll respond with a schedule of off-days, oddities and other interesting things.) There is no charge - we like social running, so we offer it for fun.
YWCA - Women's Fitness Program:
Melissa is a speaker at the YWCA at noon the second Thursday of each month and will speak on nutrition.
Tanya is a speaker at the YWCA at noon the third Thursday each month and will speak on various fitness topics.
St. Michaels - Health Awareness Series:
This free four-week lecture series will be offered periodically throughout the year at St. Michaels Luthern Church on Augusta Road in Greenville, SC, and is open to anyone. The lecture series focuses on teaching the fundamentals of the bodē fokus method and applying it today, for predicatable, measurable results. Please see the St. Michaels website at http://stmichaelelca.org for details.
Friends,
At the risk of sounding too much like a bureaucrat: the process matters. At the risk of sounding contradictory: the result matters. At the risk of sounding too much like a salesperson: this is why bodē fokus works.
In truth, almost any fitness system on the market will show results if applied rigorously and regularly, because almost any problem can be approached with brute force and solved at least temporarily. It is when you begin to consider (over the long term) the sustainability of any program or method that these programs really begin to show signs of stress. Some programs, like the famous grapefruit diet of the 70's, have obvious flaws. Some are less obvious, but clearly are designed to confuse the issues at hand. I'm here to set things straight:
Fitness is learned.
Metabolism is not a mystery.
Patience is not an option.
Proper execution requires a critical eye.
No one will ever care about your health as much as you do.
Your body takes care of you every day, you should take care of your body every day.
Shortcuts are for suckers and cheaters.
but
The process can be learned.
rēform bodē is here to educate, train and listen.
Thanks for your commitment to fitness,
Tanya
Mother, Educator, Friend
Tanya Dillard
Dillard owns Reform Bode Pilates Studio on South Main Street in Greenville. She instructs in classical Pilates, and designs personal training plans with emphasis on weight reduction and sport specific training. Dillard has a bachelor's degree in Health Science from Clemson University, and has been teaching group fitness in Greenville since 1993. She is also the creator and talent for the Kayak Fitness Program DVD produced by Confluence Water Sports, and is affiliated with Powder Blue Productions as a Master Trainer where she teaches, certifies and provides continuing education for others who teach or are learning to teach Turbokick and PiYo.
Melissa Adrian
Adrian is a professor of personal training at Greenville Technical College, competitive tri-athlete and sports nutritionist. She is a Certified Personal Trainer and Lifestyle and Weight Management Coach. She is currently training clients at Reform Bode Pilates Studio. She is the Nutrition Specialist for the Greenville Chapter of Team-in-Training and also works as a coach and mentor with iRun Greenville, a beginners running group. She is a runner, cyclist and tri-athlete who has completed events such as the New York City Triathlon and Fabulous Fourth Metric Century Bike Ride.
Brook Smathers
Smathers began her fitness career with 12 years of classical ballet study, and is now a marathon runner and spinning instructor/enthusiast. For the past four years, she has served as the Wellness Manager of the Cliffs Communities, where she has developed Corporate Wellness program, managed four fitness centers and developed sports specific training programs in golf, skiing and tennis. She has been a yoga instructor for 10 years, and is a certified Pilates instructor, with training specialties in golf, weight-loss, running training/programs, fitness for the frequent traveler, day-to-day motivation and total body conditioning.
