KSs Wellness

Save this for days when you’ve got good intentions to workout, but your energy is on the floor.

Start there. On the ground, with a block or a pillow in between your knees, take deep cooling breaths. The first action is no movement. Don’t overthink it.

When you’re ready, follow these movements. Or maybe you decide to stay on the floor and keep breathing. Either way, you’ll know after a few moments. Your body will let you know, so try to listen.

Learning to regulate your nervous system will make future exercise all the more effective. Movement should help you feel more present and alive. 🤍

Summer is coming and so are the requests to “tone” the arms. My favorite answer is the California Rowing series.
3 positions. 3 rounds. The hand weights get suspicious by round three.

🤍 Curls 🤍 Rows 🤍 Hugs … Very sneaky.

My preferred modification is for oblique hugs: work only the bottom arm. Shoulder or neck issues? Lose the weights entirely. Bodyweight is more than enough and keep focus on an uplifted core.

Save this one for when summer hits. 🔥

If your shoulders are tight, this is for you. 🙋🏼‍♀️

The Push-Through Bar is the tool I reach for often when I’m coaching the shoulder connection – known in Pilates as the “second powerhouse.” Most of us train the core and hips obsessively and forget that the shoulder girdle needs the same kind of articulation work.

A note: start without the spring. Tight shoulders need time to release and build awareness before you load them. Work the movement clean first.This is great prep for bigger extensions—Cobra, Upward Dog, anything that asks your shoulders to work.

Save this for your next playtime. 🤸🏼‍♀️

Pilates people! Tell me if this is you 👇

Compulsive. Perfectionist. A little obsessive about getting the form exactly right. (I’m raising my hand.)

Here’s what’s funny: the practice that pulls us in teaches us to stop chasing someone else’s version of perfect. Pilates doesn’t reward perfection so much as it rewards curiosity. Every session is a small evolution, with the Principles as a guide.

I work on the exercises like it’s playtime. It stops being a workout and starts being practice.

Are you a Pilates perfectionist? Tell me in the comments 👇

A client asked me last week if I ever get bored teaching the same exercises. No …

Almost 30 years in. I’m still surprised.
Because Classical Pilates was never about the exercises. It’s about the principles underneath—the way movement teaches you to connect mind and body with intention, precision, and care. The exercises are simply the most efficient vehicle we have.

Next time you’re in class, ask the why. The answer will give you so much more than a workout.

🐘 Elephant variations — because the classical repertoire never stops teaching you something new.

I got excited exploring contemporary variations of Elephant on the Merrithew® | STOTT PILATES® apparatus this week. The dimensions of the jumpboard gave me something to think about.

What I love about the STOTT PILATES approach is exactly this: honoring the original intention of an exercise while applying what we know about biomechanics, posterior chain loading, and hip mechanics to make the work more accessible - and more precise - for every body.

Elephant is another Classical gem that gets a bad rep. It’s rich for hamstring mobility and hip opening, but for clients with shoulder sensitivity, wrist issues, or limited posterior chain flexibility, it often gets abandoned before the good stuff happens. The jumpboard height gave me a great angle to prep for long back stretch, with full spring load to build scapular stability and control before reducing resistance.

I’m an innovator at heart, and I love what intentional design makes possible.

This series is heading into the classroom soon. It works beautifully in a jumpboard sequence too. 😈

Save this if you teach Elephant and want programming ideas. 👇

The pelvic floor has been trending in wellness circles lately, so of course, there are lots of products that promise activation and strength. Most of them work - more or less.

Here’s what you need to understand: deep core muscles are less about resistance and reps, and more about breath, intention, and body awareness. That’s the whole movement philosophy, honestly.

My forever favorite tool for this is the Pilates magic circle. Versatile, simple, and deceptively effective at facilitating a deep abdominal connection. This is what deliberate training looks like. 🤍

Do you love or hate the magic circle? 👇

Least favorite exercise I still do every single time I get on the Reformer? The Short Box Series.

It’s humbling, especially if your hamstrings are tight or sitting up straight isn’t easy yet. And honestly? Those are the reasons not to skip.

What looks like a beginner exercise is layered to reveal something new every single time. It’s what makes Classical Pilates special, the simple choreography is never actually simple.

It’s “Contrology”. It’s a benchmark that brings me back to center in a way nothing else does. I always walk away stronger — in my body and in my understanding of movement.

Some exercises earn their place not because you love them, but because they tell you the truth. 🤍
Which Pilates exercise do you low-key dread but can’t skip? 🧐

Feeling nerdy lately and obsessed with movement profiles. If you’ve trained with me, you already know this is my love language. 💕

This week it’s side angles and all the side-body good stuff. What are we after? Lateral stability, deep core strength, and spinal control. This is the stuff that changes how your body holds itself all day long.

Yesterday turned into something that felt more like choreography than a workout. Side bends into kicks into leg pulls. flowing, precise, intentional. But today my waistline can confirm it worked. Sometimes the most powerful training session isn’t the heaviest one. It’s the most deliberate one.

What are you exploring in your movement practice right now? 👇