Self-care Practices for Pilates instructors
Caring for yourself is the best way to care for your clients. As professionals in health, fitness and mindful movement, our clients’ happiness and well-being are our utmost priority. However, because we place so much focus on others, we can neglect our own well being. Self-care for instructors is important to ensure you’re keeping calm when you’re teaching multiple classes a day.
Therefore, we thought, who better to talk to about self-care than our fantastic and inspirational Dynamic Pilates teachers, Korin and Tiffany! We decided to pick their brains for incorporating self-care into their daily routines so they can perform at their best for their clients.
Tiffany: “this month I am teaching 6 days a week, and 4 classes in a row! It’s a feast or famine kind of world kind of business. As studio owners and teachers we are just happy to have clients who are able to pay, and with Covid we don’t know what next month will bring. Studio owners are literally living on the edge right now so it’s never been a better time to ensure you’re taking self-care measures.”
With these top tips and 3 pints of filtered water a day, you’ll be glowing like a true Dynamic Pilates professional in no time!
1. Preparation.
Tiffany and Korin are big believers in preparation – they write out all of their lesson plans the night before. “Confidence comes from preparation! Especially when you are busy and overwhelmed having a clear lesson plan prevents you from feeling scattered. A scattered teacher can come off as overwhelmed.” says Tiffany. Getting a good night’s sleep is also extremely important for self-care. Korin recommends A.Vogel Dormeasan Sleep Valerian Oral Drops which she takes every night before bed and BetterYou Magnesium Body Spray which Korin sprays on her feet before bed – Magnesium is known to help relax, calm and aid sleep. Korin also makes sure she winds down each evening, away from her mobile phone.
2. Build your Immune system.
Korrin recommends that, “good gut health is the root to a healthy immune system. Take a good probiotic and consider digestive enzymes if you suffer from stomach issues such as bloating and if you’re sensitive to certain foods.”
- Up your Vitamin C intake, Korin takes Solgar Vitamin C tablets
- Udo’s Choice Super 8 Microbiotics
- Digestizyme food supplements
3. Start your day right, get into a routine that works for you.
Tiffany says she is a “huge believer in CBD, it helps with my inflammation, anxiety, insomnia and so much more. And because of CBD I pretty much take no supplements. My biggest life hack is combining CBD with caffeine every morning. The CBD levels my anxiety and provides a sense of calm, while the caffeine creates mental clarity.” Tiffany recommends Core Living CBD.
4. Look after your voice.
Learn to project and use your voice correctly so you’re not overstraining. According to Teacher Starter “…the volume of sound we make when shouting often comes from a closed and strained throat, the volume we can create when projecting our voice comes from an open throat, thus reducing the stress placed on our vocal folds.The most simple way to begin learning how to project your voice is to imagine your voice coming out of your mouth and physically travelling across to the other side of the room. This little mind trick helps us to practice “forward resonance” which is the fancy term for increasing the volume of our voice by making it resonate in the hollow parts of our face. Speaking ‘from the centre of your face’ helps to reduce the strain on your throat and your vocal chords while maximising how far your voice can be carried across a space.”
A mic also helps ensure you’re not shouting. We recommend the wireless Shure SM31FH Fitness Headset Microphone and Wireless body pack transmitter.
Sources
- Cassie, September 2016, Teach Starter, Voice Care for Teachers https://www.teachstarter.com/gb/blog/voice-care-for-teachers-gb/
