Season 4 Wrap Up

Today we're wrapping up Season 4 of Pilates Students' Manual! I look back on some of my favorite episodes of the season, and look forward to what's coming up in 2022! Check out the show notes for this season's stats!

I want to hear from you! Share your thoughts and follow the podcast on Instagram and Facebook @pilatesstudentsmanual. Full show notes, episode transcription, and chapter markers can be found on the podcast website here: https://bit.ly/PilatesStudentsManual. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast for updates, and rate and review wherever you listen!  Episodes now available on YouTube: *https://bit.ly/YouTubePSM*

Email pilatesstudentsmanual@oliviabioni.com with your feedback.

Show Notes:

Stats from this season:

• A total of 6,663 listens to episodes in Season 4
• Most listened to episode: A Closer Look At The Roll Up with 710 listens
• iPhones and Apple Podcasts are the most popular device and podcast app
• Top listening countries are the US, Australia, and the UK, but
• Sydney is the top listening city, followed by Los Angeles and Perth

Thanks for tuning in this season! See you in 2022!

Support the podcast:    

Visit *links.oliviabioni.com/affiliates* and take advantage of some sweet deals on products I use and enjoy with my affiliate links!  

Episode Music:

This episode uses NCS music in compliance with https://ncs.io/usage-policy

Track: Syn Cole - Gizmo [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.
Watch: https://youtu.be/pZzSq8WfsKo
Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/Gizmo

Track: Syn Cole - Feel Good [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.
Watch: https://youtu.be/q1ULJ92aldE
Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/feelgood

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Pilates Students' Manual, a podcast helping you get the most out of your Pilates classes. I'm Olivia and I'll be your host. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on Instagram at @pilatesstudentsmanual. You can support the podcast by visiting buymeacoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts. Let's learn something new.

[00:00:46] Hello, hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. Super excited today to be sharing the end of year review and end of season review for Pilates Students' [00:01:00] Manual. We made it, and that is more for just general life. I feel like the podcast is fine. It's happening, but just in terms of general life, we made it to the end of 2021.

[00:01:13] And, uh, it's New Year's Eve. How exciting. This is a bit of a shorter episode. I'll be looking back at the episodes of the season, which ran from about mid June through the end of the year, and kind of revisiting some of my favorite episodes and talking about them as well as looking forward to 2022 and seeing what's on the menu there. 

[00:01:37] This podcast would not be possible without my supporters at Buy Me A Coffee. I cannot begin to tell you. I mean, I feel like I tell you all the time, but I will reiterate that it is so massively supportive to have your contributions on that Buy Me A Coffee page. It helps with podcast hosting with equipment and all of [00:02:00] the stuff that happens with a podcast, whether it's the promotional stuff that happens on Instagram or the transcripts, but all of that behind the scenes stuff that you don't necessarily just listened to in your ears that's happening behind the scenes and it's happening with your help. So thank you so much for your continued support for this project. It's a load of fun, and I hope that you're getting a lot out of it as well. 

[00:02:23] It is the end of the month, and I know the holidays are super busy, but I did just send out a newsletter with that monthly zoom chat links. So if you'd like to sign up for that 15 minute, just coffee chat to connect, to ask questions, or just say hi, that just came out to all those supporters. So if you'd like to get in on that, it's not too late. Definitely make your way to that Buy Me A Coffee page and join a super cool community of neat and amazing individuals.

[00:02:52] A lot has happened from June to December. Holy moly. A [00:03:00] brief rundown of the topics that we covered in this season of Students' Manual. We talked about class levels. We talked about doing the roll-up and about the shoulder, we talked about getting out of your comfort zone and the shapes that your spine makes in Pilates and life, but Pilates also. We talked about Pilates equipment and I got my reformer. So I shared a bit about the reformer and how that works. We talked about the scope of practice for Pilates teacher, how Pilates and strength training can be one and the same, are one and the same. We talked about inversions and the importance of collaborating with your teacher. It's quite the gamut. We really touched on lots of super cool things. 

[00:03:45] I can tell you some of my favorite episodes are definitely talking about the reformer because I have a reformer now and it's amazing and I love it. I actually just changed rooms in my house, which sounds like there's [00:04:00] a lot of rooms in my house, but there were just two and I changed them so that the reformer can actually live in the studio on the ground. I don't have to lift it up all the time. And so I'm like super thrilled about that. So that's very exciting. So I loved getting my reformer playing around on my reformer and then also sharing about the reformer, because I know, especially in the United States, mat Pilates is huge. I know in other places it's less of a deal. I know in places like Australia, it's really reformer classes and sometimes the studios will only have reformers. And so the whole class is just reformer and maybe long box, but there aren't other pieces of equipment necessarily like chairs or mats or Cadillacs or springboard, tower or whatever. I know that a lot of people in, depending on where you live, you might just do mat Pilates and like may not know that reformer Pilates was an option. So it was really fun to talk about that. 

[00:04:57] I also love inversions, so [00:05:00] that was a really fun episode as well, because I love going upside down. I didn't always love going upside down. It's one of those things, I think planking is like this as well, that it's like, you hate doing it, or I should speak for myself. I hated doing it until like the tumblers clicked into place in a lock or like these connections just like happened. And then I didn't mind it anymore. It was fine. In versions were definitely like that. 

[00:05:29] I know in high school, when I first started playing with going upside down, I mean, I probably had a great time going upside down as a kid, but in recent memory. When I first started going upside down, it was really scary. And so when the jump happened, and I know the jump is different for everyone and maybe the jump doesn't exist for everyone. But when I got to the point where it wasn't scary, it was more interesting. And then it went from being interesting to fun. Um, that was really fun. So it was nice talking about [00:06:00] inversions and ways to make inversions happen if they aren't happening for you, and ways to still explore Pilates exercises if going upside down isn't on the menu. I think that's really awesome. 

[00:06:12] I also really love talking about the roll up because that's another one of those exercises like inversions that can really be frustrating when you're working to get there. And sometimes it's not getting there the way that you want it to be there. And so talking about ways to workshop your roll up and ways to play in the roll up and really kind of be friends with the roll-up. Cause there are definitely exercises in the Pilates repertoire that I know they're coming and like my whole body tenses up when I'm coming to like whatever exercises on the struggle bus with me that. And so the roll-up I know can be there and it's like right out the gate, right after the hundred, it can be a toughie, [00:07:00] but yeah, I really loved breaking it down, breaking it into pieces and also sharing some awesome resources of people who've broken down the roll-up and way cooler and more helpful ways than I have. So definitely check out that episode in those resources, if you haven't, because they were super duper helpful. 

[00:07:17] And I guess I would say the last episode that really stood out as being super cool to me- I mean, they're all super cool as they're happening- but just looking back is the shapes that your spine makes because man, what a game changer, like what a game changer to be able to look at Pilates exercises that, you know, have their own names. It's the sidekick, it's overhead, it's coordination, whatever. Stomach massage on the reformer, but to look at those exercises and really look at your spine and like how your spine makes those shapes in those exercises and how it makes those shapes and every exercise. I think that that was a huge light bulb moment for [00:08:00] me.

[00:08:00] I know when I was learning about Pilates, when I was like, oh, your spine looks different in flexion than extension because different parts of your spine, like the different vertebrae are different things and they're able to do different things. And so it was a light bulb for me as a teacher, looking at people's spines and being like, oh, that is indeed what a spine looks like. I don't need to change it. That's just what spines do. Um, I don't need to tell anyone to change it. It's fine. It's fine as it is. 

[00:08:31] But also in my own body and just knowing, especially in yoga, less in Pilates, but definitely in yoga being, you know, told. I was hyperextending in my back or I needed to make an even shape in my spine, and like spines don't do that actually. So yeah, I really love sharing that as well. 

[00:08:52] Coming up next year and next season and the podcast I'll be sharing new material, definitely, [00:09:00] but also revisiting some past episodes, even in the, you know, year and a half that I've been doing the podcast I've learned new things. And I want to share what I've learned. Maybe some of my opinions have changed, maybe they haven't, but just kind of revisiting some of the topics, maybe diving a little bit deeper, getting a little bit more context into what I had shared because these episodes are short and I want to, you know, keep flushing out these ideas, so to speak in 2022.

[00:09:35] Oh my gosh. I cannot believe it's 2022. But in 2022, as my employment situation is changing and my work schedule is changing and sort of what I'm offering is changing. I am thinking about releasing Pilates Students' Manual a little bit less frequently and doing just one episode a month. Um, [00:10:00] and that's for multiple reasons. One is sort of my time and what I'm able to give to the podcast, but also I really want to make use of those zoom chats that I'm having with my Buy Me A Coffee supporters and really making the episodes that I do reflect their needs and sort of reflect the needs of people who do Pilates and what they want to learn more about and talk more about and kind of dive deeper into.

[00:10:29] So if you haven't already visited that Buy Me A Coffee page and become a supporter, please do, because I would love to talk to you and hear what you're interested in talking about so that this podcast can continue to really be what you need as you take your Pilates classes and do that Pilates thing. What a delightful season. I'm so thrilled to have you along for the ride. Thank you so much for joining. Happy new year, everyone I'll be back in just a couple weeks with [00:11:00] season five. Can you believe it? There's like more than 60 episodes of this podcast. Like this is boggling the mind, but I'm thrilled.

[00:11:08] Thank you so much for coming along for the journey. And I look forward to talking to you again soon. Take care.

[00:11:23] Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Pilates Students' Manual, a podcast helping you get the most out of your Pilates classes. Be sure to check out the podcast Instagram at @pilatesstudentsmanual and subscribe wherever you're listening. Interested in teaching Pilates too? Check out Pilates Teachers' Manual, available everywhere you listen to podcasts.

[00:11:47] I hope to see you next episode. Until next [00:12:00] time.