Neurons explained pt. 1

Throughout life, certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, can form new neurons through a process called neurogenesis.

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Pilates and Hiking - a Testimonial

Pilates has helped me tremendously with my long and diverse hikes. The Quiraing in Scotland and The Sleeping Giant in northern Ontario are but a couple of examples

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A story finally told

I decided to take pen to paper and tell my story of what transpired at the old space on Fairview St. Some of you know, but many of you don’t know what propelled the move to the new space and why.

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Neuroplasticity

The result of this discovery was that if the axon of cell A fires repeatedly in close proximity to cell B that the strength of the connection will be increased therefore making it a successful link. Hence the term “neurons that fire together wire together”

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Somatosensory System and Movement Pt. 2

Since everything we think and do are intimately woven, the parietal lobes are interconnected with the prefrontal cortex (where the motor cortex resides) and together these regions make up the highest order of movement integration in our body.

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Somatosensory System and Movement Pt 1

The primary somatosensory cortex receives information from receptors, while the secondary somatosensory cortex processes and stores it. Injury or disease can affect either of these areas.

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International Women's Day

In my 15 years as a Pilates instructor, I would also be remiss if I do not mention the bold resilience of my clients. Thank you for choosing me to be a part of your health journey and for inspiring me always with your continuous determination to embrace your strength from within.

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March is Women's History Month

When I look back in history, I am flabbergasted at how women were considered to be guarantors of cultural survival who had no place in the political sphere. Women were expected to produce children, care for the home and preserve culture, but the working place, especially politics was no place for them.

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Physical pain versus emotional pain

Pain in one part of the brain can affect surrounding structures involved in many nervous system activities, showing how physical and emotional pain are interconnected.

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Upbringing vs neural development

There is evidence that links movement to memory and if the individual expresses joy when in movement, the memory will be retained. That being said, we use our memory of the past to guide our future decisions, but how can we go back and change our memory to a more positive one to encourage movement for the future?

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Osteopenia / Osteoporosis - A True Story

I discussed this diagnosis with Jocelyne. Her knowledge and training of how the body works, be it muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, etc., helped assuage the fear this diagnosis instilled.

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The Brain in Motion

If you think of us as humans, our behaviours, our choices, our passions all require movement. But each and every thing we do requires a complex set of motor activations that are linked with one another to execute the behaviour. It all happens in a nanosecond.

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Implicit vs Explicit Memories

Pause for a second and think of your favourite activity and then connect it with how you feel when you’re doing it. Procedural memory is intimately connected to our emotions via neural pathways.

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Movement and Memory

Memory is a theoretical construct that explains current behaviours by referencing them to events that happened in the past. Memory is basically how we function everyday. We don’t wake up every day and have to re-learn how to walk, how to dress ourselves, how to brush our teeth. This is cemented, it is learned.

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What is Movement?

Sedentariness today is changing the way our bodies move. Our skeleton counteracts the pull of gravity and our muscles should be able to move freely, but with our current culture, our bones become misaligned and our muscles tend to have to do some of the work of our bones.

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The Ins & Outs of breathing

Poor breathing patterns occur when ventilation exceeds metabolic demands. When stressed for example, we take shorter more sporadic breaths, which results in not fully exhaling. When we don’t fully exhale, it will result in upper chest breathing patterns.

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Don’t make it a resolution, make it a lifestyle change

In neuroscience, it is proven that the brain and the body both react in very similar ways. We KNOW that a pattern can never be erased.

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Reflexology and Fertility

Reflexology is generally relaxing and calming. It relieves tension, improves nerve and blood supply and helps the body to achieve a state of homeostasis.

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So Much More Than Yoga Pants

There are researchers in the field of movement that study and write thesis assignments based on the work that they do. Movement Specialists, studio owners, teacher training schools read these and create easy to understand programs based on this research to be made available to all Pilates Instructors and movement practitioners. This is called continuing education.

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Pilates Footwork - a healing method

There wasn’t a single time, that after my practice on the reformer that my ailments didn’t disappear. I knew it had to have something to do with the feet. There was a connection with the pressure of the feet and the foot barre of the reformer. That’s how I got interested in Reflexology.

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