In last week’s blog I shared my excitement with you about finding and becoming certified to teach as a Restorative Exercise Specialist™. I hope all my gushing and fan-girling was enough to peak your interest, and so we’re on to the burning question – what is Restorative Exercise™?
First, Restorative Exercise™ is an alignment model for optimum health. In it we use 25 skeletal alignment markers that are free from social, cultural, and learned model (military, dance, athletics, or disciplines such as martial arts) influences that minimize friction and torque in the joints, maximize relationship to gravity for bones, and optimize muscle length to maximize nerve function, blood flow, and waste removal down to the cellular level.
Or, to say it more simply, there’s an ideal alignment of your structure for whole body health, and Restorative Exercise™ can show you what that is.
Second, Restorative Exercise™ is exercise! We use the alignment points as assessments for where our body currently is versus where it could be, and where we can use some adjustment or ‘waking up’. Then we apply movements that help our body move closer to those points, strengthening alignment, function, and optimizing flow. The exercises are not complicated, but don’t mistake them for easy! You will definitely find blind spots in your body, the nooks and crannies you didn’t even know you didn’t know about!
Third, Restorative Exercise™ provides us with education about how to recognize and lessen those habits in our daily lives that discourage our optimized alignment and movement, and ways to add healthy natural movement to more of our day, every day.
So RE is a science-based approach, free of context, that is accessible and appropriate for everyone, whether you are a high performance athlete, a professional desk jockey, or struggling with illness or injury. And it provides that vital component (health!) necessary whether your goal is improved physical performance, general health, recovery, or simple self-efficacy and quality of life. It can be learned one on one in a lesson, together in a group class or workshop, and practiced anywhere. It really is the missing owner’s manual to the body, the tune up that we can all use to maximize success and enjoyment in everything we love to do, including our Pilates practice!
Next time I think we’ll chat a bit about optimum health, the difference between fitness goals and health goals, and how they can work together. In the meanwhile, I hope you check out the schedule for lessons and classes, and shoot me a message or email with any questions!