Working With Multiple Sclerosis on the Pilates Reformer

A great article about MS and Pilates. I have a client who has MS and she really loves the way pilates makes her feel. I'm looking forward to sharing this with her, but I also wanted to share it with other teachers who might've missed this post on Pilates-Pro.com


Working With Multiple Sclerosis on the Pilates Reformer:

by Mary Kay Hausladen Foley, PT, GCFP

Foley (r.) with a patientPilates instructors know well that the Reformer is an excellent tool to work on strength, flexibility, motor control and balance. For these reasons, the Reformer is also an extremely useful tool for working with people with multiple sclerosis. I have worked with a wide variety of MS patients over the last 23 years, as a physical therapist and as a Pilates Reformer instructor, in association with The Heuga Center for Multiple Sclerosis (the very mission of which is to empower MS patients; its motto is “Can Do”). Some patients have such mild symptoms that an outsider would never guess that they have the disease, while others can be quite debilitated it. For the MS population, the Reformer can be invaluable for work on functional changes in areas where motor control or muscle function is compromised.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. It is a chronic and usually progressive disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin—the layer of insulation around nerve fibers—in the brain and spinal cord. This leads to a decrease in nerve function, which causes symptoms that vary from patient to patient and in severity, such as weakness, fatigue, spasticity (a condition we’ll discuss later on in this article), bladder dysfunction, pain, vertigo, decreased balance, cognitive deficits and speech and swallowing difficulties. Because multiple sclerosis affects motor control, the majority of people diagnosed with the disease experience walking difficulty at some point. Research indicates that number is somewhere between 64 and 85 percent. In fact, 70 percent of MS patients report that walking is the most challenging aspect of their disease. Within 15 years of diagnosis, 50 percent of multiple sclerosis patients require assistance walking and, in later stages, up to a third of patients are completely unable to walk. More than 400,000 Americans have multliple sclerosis: most are between the ages of 20 and 50, and women are twice to three times as likely to be affected than men. Worldwide, MS may affect 2.5 million individuals.

Though Pilates exercise will not change the disease process, it can help people maintain strength and function longer than would otherwise be possible. There are, however, special considerations that a Pilates instructor should be aware of when working with someone with MS."

Pilates Teacher Video Series

I haven't done a video for a few weeks now. Mostly because I don't think quantity indicates quality! The same goes for teaching pilates. I try to get my clients out of the habit of counting their reps. I'm not there to count their repetitions...

Still people like to know how many more they have to do, so they can pace themselves.
So, I'm also trying to count when I know it matters to them and their bodies.

Here's the most recent video I did for my Teaching Pilates video series. I'm working on another video right now, so stay tuned. Enjoy this and let me know what you think!



I'm always trying to find new ways to improve myself as a pilates instructor -- from the classes I put together, obtaining new knowledge, or trying out a new business tactic to grow my business.

What is one thing you do to improve yourself or your business as a pilates instructor?

Again, don't forget to check out this pilates teaching video!

Also, check out my new website - which is mostly for my pilates clients, but you might find interesting! I like to focus on different aspects pilates and combining it with other fitness programs.

Have a great day!

Get More Traffic To Your Pilates Websites

Where do you get most of your clients or students for your group classes?

Maybe some of them are referrals - hopefully they are! And if they aren't, you should start asking your current clients to tell their friends about pilates and offer to let them come in for free!

The main method I use to find new clients or even potential clients is online.

You might have a website, maybe a blog, maybe 2 blogs...but are you getting anyone to come to these sites? Well, here are two ways to get my traffic to your site. Building backlinks that point to your site and submitting your site to web directories.

Now, I'll tell you a secret. I still don't have a proper website or sales page and I'm still getting people contacting me for sessions. I'm working on it - don't judge LOL. How? Well, with all my various free blogs, main website (which truthfully is not what it should be at all!), I have a very specific secret weapon which helps me build backlinks to my sites and also gets me listed in many web directories automatically. Now, I could do this by hand and search for the directories ... and I do some of that yes because it's great to be listed in relevant pilates directories.

The bulk of my submissions are through a tool called Traffic Bug.

Here's what it does - this is directly from their inner members area.

"Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking is an extremely effective technique for getting new sites indexed faster by Google. Not only that but the links from social bookmarking sites can generate a nice increase in your sites rankings as well. To top it all off social bookmarking can be extremely effective at raising your sites natural traffic volumes.

Directory Submission. Directory Submissions is a technique that has been around for quite some time. Directory Submissions is a great way to build a large volume of back links back to your site. A very large portion to SEO is how many back links you have pointing to your site. Traffic-Bug is one of the very few software's if not the only one that completely automates Directory Submissions. There are other software's out there that can do directory submissions but not like Traffic-Bug. With Traffic-Bug you can simply set and forget and it will go on and on building you backlinks and even solving the CAPTCHA for you!

RSS distribution. This is another greatly powerful method to raising your sites rankings and helping get a site indexed as well as slightly improving natural traffic. RSS aggregators take your RSS URL and display them on their sites. Not only will this allow a chance for real visitors to follow your link back to your site but it provides link juice and can help with rankings.

Search Engine Submissions. There are hundreds of search engines on the web and Traffic-Bug ensures that you will be listed on all of them. Currently the software already does 139 Search Engine submissions. Even if some search engines aren't that popular it could still provide you some traffic you might not have received otherwise." Traffic Bug Website

Give Traffic Bug a look and see if you might be able to use it to promote and grow your pilates business. It has seriously increased the number of backlinks to my site!

Check Out Traffic Bug today: http://bit.ly/15Lz9V

Teaching Pilates Day 16 More About Finding Your Niche

I'm learning how to use Powerpoint to create simple presentations...so I decided I'd make a few videos using it. Sadly, I will say that PPT on the mac kinda sucks or maybe I just don't have the latest version. I will definitely be getting Keynote in the next week or so that these will look better.

Check today's video out which gives you more information on why you need a niche and how to find the right one for you!



As always, thank you for watching.

Teaching Pilates Video Series

If you are keeping up with my Video Series providing simple Pilates Teaching Tips than you know I haven't posted a video in a few days. I have shot them, but I started working on a new way to bring you the information and am close to uploading the first one today.

I decided to take more time with the Niche-Building and I will upload the first of the series today.

In the meantime, check out one of my first videos I did about getting prepared for certification.

After you watch the video, let me know if you want to receive the report and audio course I also created to expand that video!



Ok, now that you've watched the video, email me to receive the free audio course and ebook I created to share more information about getting prepared for your pilates teacher training.

How To Improve Your Pilates Business - Finding Your Niche

Day 13 was all about finding your pilates niche.

I wanted to expand a little bit on this idea.

My own search for the right niche/market was a tough one. For a long time, I felt like I would actually limit my business by defining a small group of people to target. I was so wrong! Once I realized who my specific market should be, I focused all of my attention on how to reach those people. Suddenly, I wasn't wasting my time by casting a large net over the pilates-saturated Los Angeles area!

Defining your market in a metropolitan area is even more crucial than if you live in a small town. There is so much competition for pilates in many areas like Los Angeles -- studios are cropping up everywhere and are offering unlimited pilates memberships and a wide variety of classes in their schedules.

How can a new mom like myself who has limited hours to teach compete with that? The answer is that you really can't.

That's why focusing on a group of people and giving them personal, positive attention and value is the way to go.


Ok - so, you picked a market but you still don't have any pilates clients...what now...

The short answer is that you can't just pick your market and be successful...what if your market doesn't even exist where you live? You need to find out what type of people do live and work in your area? You need to do a lot of research and really understand these people. See where people are shopping, eating, working out...and then...you need to do some searching on line.

Start with local city searches like yelp.com, citysearch.com, and then google/yahoo local business listings. Get yourself listed in these directories if nowhere else. Imagine how many people are looking up: pilates.

Do you need help figuring out your pilates market? Do you want help defining what and how many people are searching for pilates in your specific area? I can help you using the same amazing tool that I use on a daily basis to help me determine if people are even doing a search for what I offer - and specific to my local area.

Send me an email and I'd be glad to help you build your pilates business.

Teaching Pilates Day 13

Finally, Day 13 of my pilates teaching tips series is up and ready to watch. I used a different camera and it is worse quality than my webcam, so I won't be using it again!

I'm looking for the right aperture settings to get better quality....any advice out there?