Reformer Workshop
How do we help clients understand their bodies, challenge themselves appropriately, and still keep a Reformer class moving?
A great Reformer class can be more than a workout. It can be an opportunity for clients to learn about their bodies, understand why they are doing what they are doing, and become increasingly confident making choices for themselves.
In this workshop, we’ll explore how to weave simple, meaningful education into a dynamic Reformer class without turning it into a lecture or interrupting the flow. Teachers will practice translating anatomy, biomechanics, and movement principles into everyday language and creating brief “micro-teaching moments” that give clients just enough information to make their movement more meaningful.
Just as important as knowing what to say is knowing when not to say anything at all. We’ll explore how to intentionally weave space into our teaching – allowing time for clients to move, feel, notice, experiment, and make discoveries of their own. Rather than continually filling the experience with our instructions, we can begin to trust that the experience itself is one of the most powerful teachers in the room.
As movement facilitators, our role is not always to provide the answer or tell someone what they should be feeling. It is to create the conditions for discovery: offer information, ask useful questions, guide attention, and then leave enough space for the person to have their own experience. Their awareness of that experience is where much of the learning takes place. We can then help them make meaning from what they notice and, importantly, validate their experience rather than replacing it with our interpretation of what their body “should” be doing or feeling.
This approach also makes multi-level classes easier to teach. Rather than giving everyone the same choreography – or trying to manage several different exercises at once – we can teach the concept and intention behind the movement and offer layers of challenge. When clients understand what they are exploring, they become better equipped to choose the variation, resistance, range, or complexity that is appropriate for them in that moment.
We’ll explore:
- How to explain the “why” of an exercise in simple, relatable language
- Translating anatomy and biomechanics without overwhelming clients
- Creating memorable micro-teaching moments within the flow of class
- Teaching movement concepts and intentions rather than simply choreography
- Using imagery, metaphors and questions to stimulate curiosity and awareness
- Using silence and space as intentional teaching tools
- Knowing when to explain, when to cue, when to ask a question – and when to simply let someone move
- Creating an environment where clients gradually need less external instruction as their internal awareness grows
The goal is not to fill every moment with information. It is to offer the right information at the right moment – and then create enough space for that information to become an experience. Ultimately, education is empowerment, but education does not only come from what the teacher knows. The experience is the teacher. Our role is to facilitate experiences that invite curiosity, awareness and discovery, and then help clients recognize and trust what they are learning about themselves.
The more our clients understand what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what they experience while doing it, the more responsibility they can take for their own movement and well-being – bringing us closer to Joseph Pilates’ larger vision of people becoming active participants in their own health.
Participants will leave with practical strategies for creating Reformer classes that are challenging, inclusive, educational and fun – where clients don’t simply leave thinking, “That was a great workout”, but also, “I learned something about myself today.”
This session is part of the two-day Polestar International Intensive with Shelly Power and Christi Idavoy – two amazing international senior Polestar Educators.
To register for this particular session, you will need to register for both days – individual sessions are not available.
Please review our Registration Policies here before signing up.
