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Health & Fitness

From Trauma To Rehabilitation Through Physical Therapy & Strength Training

The following is an interview with Kristen Rubin of Bodylogic Pilates and Fitness Studio on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr to get to know more about her fitness and health background.

The following is an interview with Kristen Rubin of Bodylogic Pilates and Fitness Studio on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr to get to know more about her fitness and health background. 

 

From A Car Crash To Rehabilitation Through Physical Therapy and Strength Training

What inspired you to get into fitness?

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Growing up she had always been an athlete and very active with sports. At thirteen years of age, she got hit by a car and had pretty significant injuries. For her physical rehabilitation she got started right away with physical therapy. Her Physical Therapist was also a personal trainer so they started her on a free weight machine.

Besides healing the injuries and helping her recover she also became a lot more well-rounded, stronger and fit. She was very athletic ats a teenager and the physical therapy and working with weights helped improved her sports performance as well.

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When she finished college, she was initially a civil engineer. When she finished college and got married and then started having kids, she realized that being an engineer wasn’t a good fit due to long hours. She thought she would be a science teacher. She then started to learn anatomy and phsiology which blended her artistic side and her athletic background with science.

From Physiology and Anatomy To Health and Well-being

Learning about anatomy and physiology was a way to get her more immersed in problem solving in the body’s anatomy and helped her in recognizing the beauty of each indivual body.

She had 4 kids in 3 and half years. She couldn’t start a career that required long hours away from home in a corporate type of environment so she started to take post grad classes at West Chester University and then she did her personal trainer certification and aerobics certification.

How did you get into Gyrotonic and Pilates exercises and what made you want to become an instructor?

When her twins were born, she discovered some imbalance in her body, including plantar fascitiis. Pilates helped to heal her plantar fascitiis. Since she loved teaching and was benefits so much from taking pilates as a student she went on to receive her certification in that.

She continued her studies in health, fitness and wellness to get a holistic nutrition certification. Kristen loves to take classsic recipes and make them healthier and lighter.

She met Aimee Backer when they were studying together with Thomas Myers where they were researching the progression of injury. Aimee was later a mentor for her at Body Precision.

Corrective Movement To Unwind and Release

Some of the guiding principles for Kristen when looking at corrective movement include unwinding and release work where you “Open up and unwind the weak part before you strengthen the other parts”.

Kristen then received her Gyrotonic certification through Bodylogic. According to Kristen, “ Gyrotonic is a nice blend of bodywork and myofasical release, as opposed to a spa massage which is a specific release work for tight areas in the body.”

Besides improved health and fitness, what do you hope your students gain from your classes?

Biggest goal is to understand that they are not going to find an endpoint in a certain movement modality. She wants her students to have an understanding on how to intuitively integrate all the modalities into their lives as well as empower her students. She wants to be a guide to help people so they can heal their own body.

Kristen states, “It’s not what they’ve done in the studio it’s what they take out of the studio and how they can integrate it into their own life which will make the most difference to them,” so they learn how to carry their body and move their body in a healthier way as well as learn the practical application about their anatomy.

 

Posted in CHRONIC PAINEXERCISEFITNESS INSTRUCTORGYROTONICSPHYSICAL REHABITLIATION,PILATES | Tagged CAR CRASHFITNESSGYROTONICMAINLINEPILATESREHABILITATIONSTRENGTH TRAINING | Comments Off

Interview With An Instructor From Byrn Mawr’s Bodylogic Pilates & Fitness Studio

Posted on MAY 3, 2013

The following is an interview with Emily Smith of Bodylogic Pilates and Fitness Studio on the Main Line in Bryn Mawr to get to know more about her fitness and health background. 

“What inspired you to get into fitness?”

I became interested in fitness through my life long loves of movement and being close to people.  I started dancing when I was 3.  Through adolescence I was trained in classical ballet at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet and continued to dance on and off throughout my life. In the off times, I would workout at the gym, step aerobics, circuit classes..I enjoyed participating in group fitness classes.

While studying Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University I broadened my dance horizons and found that I loved the fluidity and alignment modern dance offered…also african, jazz, hip hop and improvisational dance.

From Dancing and Ballet to Pilates

It wasn’t long before I was back in the ballet studio.  It was then that problems with muscular imbalance became apparent.  I was suffering from low back pain and hip pain. This reoccurred after college when I pursued Ballet again as means as stress relief from working with emotionally disabled youth. It was then  that I found Pilates through physical therapy.  My interest in dance lead me to pilates.

My natural inclination to be sensitive towards others lead me to a career in social work with kids.  Ironically, my sensitivity is what lead me out of social work and my injuries from dance which lead me to stop dancing.  Pilates was the solution.  It combined my interests of  movement and helping people.

After studying pilates independently and in various studios across the country, I decided to start training through the Physical-mind Institute.  My training is contemporary and ecclectic as I’ve studied with certified instructors in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Arizona and Colorado.  I taught the mat work for several years before starting the training on the apparatus.  This allotted time to learn the principles and benefits of pilates through experience and observation.

From Injury To Exercise

I also started to identify patterns of strength and imbalance in the varied body types.  I was working with in Colorado. It became clear to me that the exercises worked differently depending on a client’s background.  I learned to modify exercises for the less agile and those rehabilitating from injury and challenged hard core athletes with variations to the original work.

I opened my studio in Frisco Colorado in 2004 and sold it in 2010.  Since moving back to the East, my style of teaching has evolved to adapt to my surroundings.  I am so excited to be incorporating release work into my sessions.

Massage and Myofacial Release For Healing and Helping 

Self myofascial release has changed my life and I’m passionate about helping others heal themselves too. My path continues to wind around my ongoing themes of movement and helping others change as I am currently enrolled in massage school.

I’m super excited to offer another modality as means to help others optimize their wellness.

Releasing Stress Through Movement and Fitness

Besides improved health and fitness, what do you hope your students gain from your classes?

I hope it is an opportunity for them to let go of tension from the weak, less stress, improved sense of well-being and better posture

What do you do when you aren’t teaching Gyrotonic?

I’m an avid hiker and one of my favorite spots nearby is the Wissahickon. I also incorporate self massage & myofascial release into her creative and fun movement sessions.

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