09/08/2026
Is this post a response to the fact I’m now 5 weeks into teaching collegiate Anatomy & Physiology? Hell yes. 🤓
But also, as someone who entered into the world of Pilates & Gyrotonic already having my MSc in Exercise Physiology and my BA in Biochemistry and now PhD in Kinesiology, I’ve been SHOOK by some of the s**t that I’ve heard other movement teachers say. Even physical therapists who didn’t have as rigorous of a physiology or biomechanics background. 😱
But here’s the kicker, you don’t know what you don’t know.
If you fell in love with Pilates & decided to become a teacher but you don’t have an academic background in physiology or exercise science, how would you know the difference between cardiac muscle and skeletal muscle?
Let alone be able to adapt what you’re teaching to your client who walks in and has postural orthostatic intolerance?
Or understand how Pilates (or the Gyrotonic Method!) doesn’t provide adequate load to drive strength changes for the lower extremities beyond a certain level (I’m sorry I don’t want to do 50 reps 🫠).
Does that mean clients who have any issues at all should only see medical providers for exercise? Or that only those with degrees in exercise science should be able to teach exercise?
Hell no.
But this is exactly why I teach continuing education courses. Trust me when I tell you that your Pilates, yoga, Gyrotonic, whatever movement training falls short in the physiology arena.
Let’s raise the bar on what we know. Let’s learn more than just choreography to actually do better for our clients.
If you’re not already on the MDL Geek Out email list, be sure to head to the link in my bio.
My next Geek Out will be on skeletal muscle. We’ll dive into the physiology of the tissue, motor control/learning & get into the current theories on strength training. This was the original MDL Geek Out but I’m making ALLLLL sorts of excellent changes to the material to keep it up to date and what you really need to know.
