Aside from regular practice, there are few greater favors a Pilates practitioner can give themselves than to go to a really great Pilates conference. That idea was thoroughly reinforced in me recently when I attended the 5 Lineages Conference in Boulder, CO.

The Pilates lineages start with the Pilates Elders who are the people who studied directly with Joseph Pilates and then went on to teach Pilates and train teachers themselves. There are more than 5 Elders, but at the 2012  conference the focus was on the work of 5 Elders as related to us by people who were their close students.

The lineup over the course of 5 days -- an Elder a day: Eve Gentry, via Deborah Kolway; Ron Fletcher via Jonathan Oldham; Kathy Grant via Kara Reeser; Carola Trier via Jillian Hessel (pictured teaching); and Romana Kryzanowska via her students Rachel Segel and Amy Taylor Alpers who hosted the event at their studio and teacher training facility, The Pilates Center of Boulder.

The conference was full of fascinating information about who the Elders were as people and teachers and how they influenced the development of Pilates, as well as  wonderful explorations of Pilates exercises and principles of movement as they taught them.  It was well attended and there was a sense of group camaraderie in learning and appreciating the variety of experience offered that was very special. By midday on the last day, however, I was completely overwhelmed. Not by the information or the exercises,  but by the many layers  insight and perspectives that made for such a rich experience.

A wave of anxiety hit me because I wanted to bring every one of you into the workshop with me and I felt a tremendous responsibility to somehow do the totality of the experience justice in my report to you. But I am a mover, and a bit of a philosopher, and not much a historian. Though I tried, I could not get such a multifaceted experience into a linear form, especially since I'm not quite ready to write a book (and not sure you want to read one like that online).

Finally, I decided that the best approach would be to let different aspects of the conference come through in a series of blogs and articles. Ideally, you will be inspired to seek out learning from the Elders and their direct students yourself, but we will have some bits and pieces here that are valuable.

I chose to start with a reflection on the dynamics of how it came to be that we have multiple lineages that form the Pilates legacy. This was one of the many potent themes of the conference and it's more thought provoking than it sounds. My article is particularly inspired by insights Rachel Segel and Amy Alpers shared on the last day (the one that put me over the edge for  a little while!). Please read: The Pilates Method, a Living Legacy

_{photo: (c)2012, Marguerite Ogle}

I don't get to influence anything, but I do get to see which products have been nominated in the Pilates categories for the About.com Readers' Choice Awards. And I have to tell you, so far our Pilates nominations are looking a little skewed. Some categories have lots of nominations and some that one would think would be full are still wide open.

Let me tell you why I think the awards are important. For one thing, they give a lot of products exposure and that is a great way to support the industry, and not just the big companies, though it's good to support them too. For example, this year we have 2 categories of Pilates books to nominate in, and 3 categories of Pilates DVDs. Those nominations really help the authors and teachers who create those offerings for us get recognition for their work.

Then, on the other side of things, the awards help those of us who are Pilates consumers. We need to know where to spend our hard-earned money. It's a huge help to know what other people have found to be a good product.

So, my Pilates friends, if you have not participated in the nominations yet, please do!  We only have one week of nominations left. Here are the categories you can nominate products for:

Best Pilates Chair - Is the Malibu Pilates Chair really the best? What about Gratz, Stott, Peak Pilates, Balanced Body and other Pilates companies' chairs?

Best Pilates Reformer for Home Workouts - Do you have a reformer at home? Do you love it? Let us know. We don't want to buy one that's just going to collect dust bunnies under a bed or in the garage.

Best Pilates Books (not written by Joe) - What are your go-to books, the ones you recommend to others?

Best Pilates DVDs - We have beg. int. and adv. categories and people really want to know what to get.

And just for fun, Best Pilates Ab Exercise -- because we love them.

You can nominate in one category or all, and you can nominate once per day. Only the products that get the most nominations go on to the final voting and get the publicity that goes with that.

Thanks for being an active member of the Pilates community. Your opinion counts!

The news of the week is that About.com surprised me by going out and having some videos made for Pilates at About.com. They are all fairly easy sequences that I think might appeal to beginners and be encouraging for those getting back into their bodies after a break from exercise.

We will be rolling these videos out for you over the next week or two, but we have the first now, 5 Stretches for Flexibility.

Want to learn more about flexibility? Read: Exercise to Increase Flexibility
Also see Pilates Stretches

Have the Exercise of the Week along with more great Pilates info sent directly to you each week in the Free Pilates Newsletter.

_{image (c)About.com}

I got a frustrated letter from a reader last week. Her issue is one that I think a lot of beginners run into in Pilates and fitness classes in general, so I decided to share it here. Lisa wrote to me saying that she started doing Pilates but her belly was getting bigger, not smaller. Not only that, but when she stops working out her belly shrinks and when she works out regularly it gets big again.

That is just plain aggravating and not at all in line with Pilates reputation for helping people get nice flat abs! So what's going on? Read More...