Jasmine's journey to be a Pilates Matwork teacher (week 2)

A new milestone in life - my first Pilates class!

Choreographing the layout of class is just as difficult as I thought. To compensate for my poor memory, I had to practice repeatedly to ensure my body remembers the order of pieces.

It was nerve-wrecking at the start of the class as it has been some time since I’ve taught any class. I thought it was important to make my students understand the purpose of deep breaths, and hence, explained what the diaphragm and other core muscles do when we breathe.

However, they were too shy to make the ‘shh’ sound that comes with the "forced exhalations". As a result, the whole momentum and synchronization went haywire. I have decided to implement more discipline in my next class to ensure each and everyone of them breathes deeply and properly before moving on to any pieces.

Since it is everyone’s first time practicing Pilates, I made it a point to demonstrate each piece before their turn. It might take up a lot more time but I figure it’s better than walking around to correct each confused person. Also, I demonstrated the wrong and better way - the students seem to get it easier and quicker, compared to if I were to show them only the correct form.

As much as I want them to get a good workout, I made them do the simpler versions of each piece so they can last longer. What surprised me is that some still didn’t last as long as I thought they could.

For my next class, I will prepare even more variations for people who aren’t strong enough to perform some of the pieces effectively. This also prevents them from getting discouraged!

So much more to prepare ... I’m really hyped up for the next class!Stay tuned!Click here to read my Week 1 post.Written by Jasmine Lee