From the Ground Up

While recovering from a hip replacement, Pilates teacher Jeff Woodman experienced a newfound disconnect between his feet and the ground. Here’s how he was able to reestablish a sense of groundedness, honing precision and flow along the way, to return to health and vitality.

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FOLLOWING MY SECOND HIP REPLACEMENT IN 2015, I WAS STRUGGLING TO REGAIN HIP FUNCTION AND CONNECTION THROUGH MY FEET TO THE GROUND. Through a suggestion from my friend and colleague, Gary Calderone—author of The Pilates Path to Health: Body, Mind, and Spirit, who also studied Wendy LeBlanc Arbuckle’s 3Core Connections: Embodied Perspective in-depth—Gary and I began working together.

I discovered that the relationships from my shoulder blades to my pelvis to the tripod of my feet were seriously compromised. Through Gary’s experiential work, I was able to get grounded and free my body in order to regain the vitality I was seeking.

During my years of teaching Pilates, I have found that, although breathing is the foundation of the work, it can also be the most difficult aspect to master. Through the use of mudras (hand positions), lung capacity is increased normally and naturally, providing a template for powerful, traditional Pilates breathing, which is a prerequisite for achieving whole-body movement.

These exercises on the Low Chair, which I’ve chosen because of its small surface area, require grounded dynamic stability. The goal is to attain flowing movement, precision, and control through grounding and breath.

And in case you were wondering, yes, both of my hips have been completely rehabbed, something I credit to doing Pilates in this way.

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MUDRA BREATHING

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