Hello extraordinary humans,

Today I want to talk through my EXACT process for selecting exercises/drills/skills and programming for both my students and myself! It’s a bit of read but it is a valuable one, especially if you are managing your own training and wondering WTF you “should” be doing.

So, story time..

One of the first investments I made in my coaching was Pilates. I had already been using it as an artist for a few years and it was one of the first places where I got to experience nuance and individualization, and what it was like to FEEL GOOD in movement (before that, I was simply struggling to benefit from stock conditioning and archaic training methods)

I had started to connect to what it was I needed and how to fulfill those needs while still working towards what I wanted. This quickly became a core part of my artistic and coaching practices.

In Pilates, we learned 1500000 exercises and were taught how to teach them, but most importantly, we were taught how to break them down, create, recreate and otherwise mess with them.

There was no rigid right or wrong, instead, I was introduced to something the Pilates world called the Essence of the exercise. Example here:

The Essence of an exercise is the core focus or value, the intended input and/or output. It is what we hope to explore while doing it and this concept is invaluable when it comes to exercise selection and adaptation.

For each exercise we learned, we would talk about how to do it the “right” way, what to look for in terms of form, but most importantly, we would discuss the Essence and how to ensure our students got to experience it in a positive way.

Often this meant modifications, progressions, regressions or props but occasionally we would realize that a given student just simply needed a completely different exercise all together. That their body experienced the exercise in a completely different (and valid) way.

If each of you read the above example and had to come up with an exercise that fulfilled that, you can see how every single one of us would create something unique to us!

We would end up with the same experience, but we would get there in very different ways.

You can also see how this concept frees us from needing to do EVERY FUCKING DRILL ON IG..a rant for another time..

Finding and fulfilling the Essence of what we want is a valuable process for all artists, athletes and lovers of big, bad ideas. (Or anyone who wants a positive, healthy relationship with their meatsuit)

We can simplify it through four questions.

• What is it that I am really after?
• What do I need to experience in order to get there?
• Are the things I am currently doing providing that experience?
• What do I need to change in order to get that experience?

Now the answers to these questions aren’t always easy to figure out on your own. This is where good, nuanced, process driven coaching comes in BUT I still firmly believe that trying to answer them on your own is a great exercise, even if the answer is “I have no fucking idea.”

This past December gave me a great example of this:

I was on a month OFF (more on this later) due to a head injury.

• What I was after - ie. what I was told by medical providers… was REST
• What I needed to experience was REST, more specifically a positive experience with doing less and recovering from this injury. For me, (and for many of us) this didn’t mean rigid rules around not moving, this meant finding a way to move regularly that was still restful and made me feel good.
• What this turned into was daily walks, light mobility work, ZERO training in terms of trying to achieve or produce things and time to explore what felt good in my body. This little process is how I ended up exploring arm-less hoop and it fulfilled the essence of what I was after a couple days a week: It felt good, was still restful and had me moving. A snippet of that exploration is HERE​

Note: It probably took 2 weeks of trail and error (and bitching) for me to start finding my way into what felt good and aligned with my goal. While this isn’t always the case, if what you are after is rehab, know that it will likely take time to find YOUR way.

Our relationship with our athletic and or artistic process is ours to build and explore. You’ll note that throughout this newsletter, I have bolded every mention of feeling good. This is because learning what feels good is just as important as learning what doesn’t and if it doesn't feel good, there is probably a better way to get what you want.

So if you don’t know where to start, or feel limited by circumstance try finding and exploring the essence of what you are after. There are endless ways to move towards our wants and needs, we just need to start exploring the many options and choose the ones that feel good and get us there.

Got questions or thoughts?

I would love to hear them, so as always, feel free to hit reply :)

That’s all for now, I’m off to explore the essence of NOT SITTING ANYMORE haha

Until next time,

Sido
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