Archive for September, 2009

Body Control Pilates Conference

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Back in the Sates now from the Body Control Pilates Conference in London – actually it was held at the prestigious Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons at the edge of Regent’s Park (although it was the weekend, and no surgeons seemed to be about as the conference had taken over the whole building).

Lynne Robinson and her husband Leigh have developed a very strong and influential organization – the exercises on my flight home, the British Airways in-flight TV stretches etc. to save you from going stiff and swollen on the long haul flights had been developed by – you guessed it – Body Control Pilates.

The conference was large and fun. I got to meet Elizabeth Larkham who has been using the Anatomy Trains in Pilates, and saw Wendy Arbuckle, who did part of our KMI training to help her grasp of Pilates. With 7 workshops in three days, some with over 100 people, I am knackered, though everyone was very helpful. Thanks especially to Misty, Charlotte, Tim, and Jacqui.

Posted in Body, In My Life (Pro), Miscellany, Summer, Travel | No Comments »

A visit to Guimberteau

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

I paid a visit on Monday to Dr Jean Claude Guimberteau in Bordeaux. Dr Guimberteau did the research and made the video of Strolling Under the Skin, the first video of living fascia at work in the body. The images of the interplay of fibers and proteoglycans (ground substance) was so striking that it changes the touch of nearly everyone who sees the video. The ‘living matter’ as he calls it, was so responsive, so versatile, so strikingly alive, and so demonstrative of ‘biotensegrity’ at the cellular level that we simply had to make this DVD available to our students here in the States.

subscapularis-epimysium_31

Dr Guimberteau has a new video detailing further research he has done that carries the ‘sliding system’ and the reach of the fascia out to the polygonal arrangement very dermis of the skin. You can buy the DVD here from us or follow his work at: http://www.guimberteau-jc-md.com/en

Posted in Body, In My Life (Pro), Summer, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Fresh round

Monday, September 7th, 2009

Freshly ’round from the fresh and round faces of Mancunian physiotherapists with their fresh, round northern accents and their fresh, round-eyed unspoiled children, I dive into the jaded atmosphere of London to pick up my daughter and wing off to France.

In the midst of America’s discussion on health care, it was jarring to hear how discouraged these physios were / are with British National Health System. I have said ‘Bring it on’ when nay-sayers bring up the specter of ‘socialized’ medicine as if this were an automatic disqualification – and I do think we need something similar to cover the poor and replace our ridiculously expensive and profit-driven system. But these people were complaining about exactly the bureaucratic inefficiency and niggling pettiness in the NHS that the town-hallers are warning us against.

Posted in In My Life (Pro), Miscellany, Summer, Travel | 1 Comment »

New KMI starts in Oxford

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Yesterday we started out a new Part 1 in Oxford England with a richly talented group of 23, from all across the globe – South Africa, Czech Republic, Scotland, Denmark, America, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy – all in a little village hall in the English countryside.

James Earls and Tom are leading it, with Mike Doxey and Jeremy Pearcey helping out. Seems like a good start to me – looks like a challenging but very skilled group. Always a challenge, actually, to take a disparate group – some, like the physios, there for the techniques, some for the psychological development, some for athletic rehab, some massage therapists looking for the next step – and bring them onto the same page. It really happens in Part 2, but we’re laying the groundwork now.

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