Elaine Morrison of Elaine Wellness On How Pilates Can Improve Your Health and Wellbeing

Pilates was invented around 100 years ago, and it is becoming an increasingly popular form of exercise. What exactly is Pilates? How is it different from other modalities like Yoga or Tai Chi? What are the benefits of Pilates? Who can most benefit from it? In this interview series, we are talking to Pilates professionals & practitioners who can talk about how Pilates can improve your health and wellbeing. As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Elaine Morrison.

Elaine is the founder of Elaine Wellness, a brand that helps women feed their beauty from within. Her journey of reversing two autoimmune disorders showed her the interconnectedness between health and beauty. With no prior experience in the CPG space, she launched her brand selling collagen supplements, having experienced the benefits firsthand. A certified Pilates instructor for the past 16 years, Elaine is passionate about showing others that wellness can be easily achieved through whole food and exercise.

Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

Twenty years ago, I worked as an account executive selling textile designs, predictive services, and Pantone in the garment industry. From the outside looking in, it appeared to be a glamorous job calling on trendy designers and taking yearly trips to Paris. The reality was I was paid 100% commission and was lifting heavy portfolios and hundred-pound suitcases in and out of my car all day long. I started spending a lot of time at the chiropractor to deal with a back that was always in pain. The pressure of sales created an enormous amount of mental and physical stress.

In 2003 while I was working, I received a phone call from my Dad that he was being admitted to the hospital because his doctor suspected he’d had a heart attack. He suffered two massive heart attacks overnight and was rushed for emergency quintuple bypass surgery. I never went back to my sales job in the garment industry. My Dad spent 56 days in the hospital, and I spent the next year unraveling $1M in medical bills and helping my Dad retire from his career.

It set me on a path from a highly stressful career to seeing how critical taking care of your mental and physical health is. I started working out every day, and eventually, I hired a personal trainer and started taking Pilates. I wanted to help people invest in their health, so I went to Pilates school in 2005 and have been teaching ever since.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

My neighbor Gary developed Guillain-Barre syndrome which took him from being totally healthy to being paralyzed almost overnight. I started working with him while he was home lying in bed. Over time the paralysis receded and I worked with him to regain strength and learn to walk again over the course of several years. I really had no formal training on how to rehab someone who had been through paralysis and had to go on instinct and draw on the rehabilitative instruction I had during my Pilates training. I went back to basics working on strengthening the muscles of his feet, his glutes and hamstrings.

Every week I would have him hold on to me and we would walk. His balance was so shaky yet I gave him cues to remind him to use his glutes and inner thighs to help support his gait. Over time he got stronger and his confidence came back.

I’ll never forget the day I let go and he walked on his own. Everyone in the studio cried tears of happiness. It was the best moment of my career to nurture someone back to being able to walk on their own. From there he used our work to be able to travel all over the world and attend events without falling down which was his biggest fear. The foundations of Pilates can be life changing.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

I like to say that I spend my day relating to people with a side of exercise. What has been most instrumental to my success has been meeting people where they are. The two questions I always ask whether I’m teaching a group class or a private session are: How does your body feel? and how has your week been? Knowing the answer to these two questions gives me a lot of information to work with. Is the client feeling sad or stressed? Are they holding it in their body? How is their energy? How is their posture? How is their overall wellbeing? These answers then help me to build our a class or session that is geared to how the client is feeling in this moment.

Empathy is another very important part of my success. All people are always fighting their own internal battle. Compassion and empathy are key to building a trusted relationship. I try to leave my client feeling better at the end of the session than when we started.

The time with my clients is about them and not about me. I lead with curiosity about them and their lives. I love getting to know people on a deep level and so it’s easy for me to ask questions and be curious about the person in front of me. They don’t want to hear about my life’s challenges. It’s their hour and their time to exercise and destress. My goal is always to leave them better off than when they showed up.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that might help people?

In addition to teaching pilates I launched my own brand called Elaine Wellness. I never set out to build a wellness brand but I had an idea that I just couldn’t get out of my mind. The journey that would completely transform my relationship to wellness and beauty began in 2013 when seemingly out of now where my health took a complete nosedive and I was dianosed with a thyroid autoimmune disorder. I was losing my hair and had extrememly dry skin. I discovered collagen as a way to support my beauty from within. I decided to launch my own brand offering high quality bovine collagen.

Changing the narrative for women around beauty and aging is my passion. The diet and beauty industries have shamed women for long enough and I believe there’s a better way to talk about aging. I’ve created a company that sells high-quality products to help women look and feel their best from the inside out. There’s so much opportunity to create community and conversation around beauty, health, wellness, and aging that has a positive, inclusive message. Very few companies are speaking to women 45+ and I’m here to fill that void. I’m building a community of women to have conversations about what it means to age well.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview about Pilates. To begin, can you tell our readers a bit about why you are an authority on the topic of Pilates?

I received my training from Marie-Jose Blum the founder of Long Beach Dance Conditioning. The program encompassed 500 hours on training that included class room instruction which involved anatomy and a deep understanding of the exercises and modifications. The LBDC training involved a tremendous amount of nuance around how to deal with injuries and create modifications. We were also required to observe other instructors teaching clients as well as supervised teaching of our own clients. After my initial certification I have continued to take additional training to deepen my knowledge of the body and expand my repertoire of Pilates exercises.

For six years after I received my certification I continued to take a weekly group reformer class for instructors that was taught my a master trainer. It expanded my knowledge for sequencing and cueing group classes.

For the past 16 years I’ve taught Pilates in gyms, Pilates studios and for 8 years I worked for a private members only club in Los Angeles helping to grow their pilates studio. I became a lead instructor with group classes booked out for months in advance and I believe this is by creating an environment that clients looked forward to being in and for the years spent honing my ability to cue group classes effectively.

Let’s start with a basic definition so that we are all on the same page. What exactly is Pilates?

Pilates is a series of exercises designed for the mat or equipment called the reformer or the Cadillac. These apparatus utilizes different tensions of springs to create resistance. Joseph Pilates initially created the exercises to help balance the mind, body and spirit.

How is Pilates different from other movement modalities that you have practiced?

I like to say that Pilates is a cousin to modalities like yoga and Gyrotonic. Many of the mindbody movements practice elements from each other. I believe that pilates is the best intersection of incorporating breath with movement and resistance training.

On a personal level, what are the biggest benefits that you have gained from regular Pilates practice?

I started doing Pilates on the recommendation of my chiropractor. The biggest benefit is learning how to engage my core muscles so that I don’t hurt myself when I lift weights or go to pick up a heavy item. I love the integration of mind, body and breath to get the body back into flow. I have such a better sense of how to properly recruit the correct muscles for movement in all aspects of my life.

Who do you think can most benefit from Pilates?

I believe anyone who wants to have a deeper understanding of how to recruit and activate their muscles correctly, understand what their core muscles are and to improve their posture while building strength and flexibility can benefit from Pilates.

My clientele have ranged in age from 11–87. I’ve worked with teenagers who are really coming into their body and learning how to move and engage their muscles to support them in sports. I’ve worked with pre and post natal women to prepare them for birth and then to rebuild their pelvic floor and overall strength to support them through the demands of motherhood. I’ve worked with seniors to keep them mobility and strength so they can live a life of vitality. I really believe that Pilates can support people at any age and at any level of strength.

Pilates can sometimes be expensive. Can you share with our readers your perspectives on why Pilates is worth its costs?

An instructor who can support you in meeting your goals and help you live a strong and painfree life is worth it. Once you have a mastery of the basics of pilates you can look for a group class which is a less expensive alternative. I often would transition my private clients to my group classes and it worked out beautifully. Always seek out a quality instructor.

Based on your research or experience, can you please share your “5 Ways Pilates Can Improve Your Health and Wellbeing”?

Pilates strengthens you core muscles which can help to keep you pain free and standing tall. The “core” has become a huge buzzword not only in Pilates but in the world of exercise as whole. I hear trainers and group class teachers yelling out “engage your core”. I think to myself do these students have any idea what exactly the core is? There are 5 areas to consider that work in harmony to create support in the body and are considered the core muscles:

1. Think of the core as a bowl (it’s really your pelvic bowl) and the bottom of it is your pelvic floor. The pelvic floor muscles act as a hammock to support your pelvic organs such as the bladder, uterus and rectum. For women you’ll likely feel these muscles activate when you laugh, cough, sneeze or want to stop the flow of urine. The pelvic floor can be damaged during natural childbirth and end up either too slack or too tight. It’s best to work with a knowledgeable physical therapist is you have concerns about the pelvic floor.
2. The transverse abdominus or deep abdominals act as your own built in corset. It runs horizontally around the waist and is underneath the rectus abdominus muscles often referred to as the six pack. Learning to sychronize the pelvic floor and the transverse abdominus can help to support your spine and alleviate back pain.
3. The psoas acts a deep stabalizing muscle. It attaches the spine to the leg and has multiple attachment points. It often gets too tight from sitting long periods of time. It’s important to keep it both strong and flexible so that it doesn’t inhibit mobility.
4. The multifidus are small stabalizer muscles that run along the length of the spine and help to stabalize the joints of the spine
5. The diaphragm is the primary muscle used in breathing. It’s important to synchronize the breath when engaging the muscles of the pelvic floor and transverse absominus.

Pilates brings awareness to posture. Unfortunately most people spend way too much of their day sitting and much of it hunched over phones and computers. Often times this posture becomes habitual and I see people with rounded shoulders, chin jutting forward in a head sheer and a tucked pelvis. These habits can lead to shallow breathing and lack of deep diaphramatic breaths. Incorporating Pilates can help to stretch and strengthen these muscles and bring about better posture which is the result of strong and flexible muscles.

3. Pilates is a mind body exercise. For so many of us we’re stuck in overthinking and overanalyzing. An exercise like pilates brings you into your body where you have to integrate your mind to move your body. This is great for a nervous system that it stuck in fight or flight. This type of exercise forces the mind to slow down and be present.

4. Pilates can help to repattern the body for more efficient and effective movement. I always encourage my clients to take their Pilates into their everyday lives and incorporate it when they pick up boxes or bags of groceries, lift up small children or work out with weights. Using Pilates functionally and in everyday moment can help you to stay pain free and be able to maintain and active life.

5. Pilates can support you in learning to breath more deeply. I find that so many clients come to Pilates saying they don’t know how to breath correctly during exercise. I’ve learned not to over cue clients or make them wrong for not breathing a certain way. I merely want them to breath during exercise versus holding their breath. I find over time they start to naturally incorporate breath with movement.

In my own Pilates practice, I stress the importance of precision in Pilates. Based on your experiences and research, what are your thoughts about why precision is important in Pilates?

I’ve seen so many clients come to group reformer class and ride around on the springs as I call it. They’re just pushing against the resistance and then letting go. There’s zero muscle control or awareness of what muscles to activate to create the movement. My goal in my teaching is to use very clear cueing to guide my clients in to understanding where the movement originates from so they can create movement in a balanced way. I’ve always said I don’t care how heavy the springs are or how fast they go. I care about the quality of the movement. Precision matters.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

My goal is to change the narrative for women around aging and exercise. There’s this notion that as you age you should only lift very light weights and that there are certain exercises meant for aging. I see a lot of clients who become sedentary because they’ve bought into the narrative that because they’re over 50 they have to take it easy or they’ll injure themselves. The reality is they need to move daily by walking and they need to use resistance training to add muscle.

Muscle is the fountain of youth. As we age and especially as we go through menopause our muscle mass starts to decline. Lean muscle burns more calories at rest and it’s what gives your body shape. As we age it’s what will help you get in and out of a car and up and down out of a chair. It is nearly impossible to become bulkly from lifting weights and there is absolutely no reason to fear heavy weights.

I want all women to take Pilates to learn how to strengthen their core and to help them build muscle and keep their muscles flexible. This is the best recipe for aging well.

What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?

Please follow me on Instagram @elainewellness or visit my website at www.elainewellness.com

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent on this. We wish you only continued success.

About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at [email protected]

Source : https://medium.com/authority-magazine/elaine-morrison-of-elaine-wellness-on-how-pilates-can-improve-your-health-and-wellbeing-b847a8202049