Brand 5 : Mbodies Mid Life & Beyond

Mbodies currently run two modules relating to the Mid Life and beyond.  This teacher training more specifically covers Pilates for osteoporosis and Pilates for menopause.
 
If teaching Pilates with Osteoporosis clients, careful consideration must be given as to what is the best exercise for menopause, and adaptations to make any menopause workout bone safe or neutral, are paramount when teaching Pilates for osteoporosis

Click on the Lozenges to the right of the page for more details on these

Both of the modules are components of the Mbodies Women's Wellness Qualification - you can discover more about this by clicking on 'S1'  in the Specialist Qualifications menu area to the left on this page.

To discover further why we believe that all Pilates Instructors should take these or similar modules with other educators - please carry on reading below. 

Pilates education at REPS level 3 and also in most large Pilates school tends to teach classical Pilates Repertoire geared towards the fit and healthy client.

Much of this is flexion oriented and programming is geared towards total body conditioning.

This was the market of the Pilates Boom in the 1990s and early 21st century.

However, today, the largest proportion of most Pilates Instructor's clients are over 50 and increasingly instructors are seeing more clients over 75 than they see in their 20s and 30s.

Traditionally trained instructors are often not equipped to deal safely with the more senior population, who require special considerations regarding exercise or repertoire choice and programming methodologies.

This area of the Mbodies Special Populations repertoire provides a toolbox for clients in the 50 - 100 year old age range.  

50 years ago society prepared the population to believe that their body would give way to age in its 50s and sixties and this was generally accepted and in some ways self-fulfilling.

However, in these 50 years since, not only has life-expectancy improved dramatically but so also have people's expectations of their body's ability to maintain an active and fulfilling lifestyle.

Whilst Age does not cause strength, mobility, flexibility or balance challenges.  The accumulating effects of Gravity on the body, illnesses and diseases over a lifetime or poor lifestyle choices do place postural and mechanical challenges onto the body.

Likewise, hormone changes in menopause or drug regimes following illness change how the body responds to exercise. 

The modern Instructor therefore must understand the phases of life and the effects on body mechanics, posture, body shape and physiology.

He/she needs to change the focus of exercise to target key areas that will enhance lifestyle choices and target the new body as it reshapes.

He / she must respond to changing mobility and flexibility of clients which may result in traditional exercise on the mat being less appropriate than seated and standing exercises. 

 

Mbodies builds on the work of exercise bone specialists like Rebekah Rotstein, Sherri Betz and Sara Meeks to continue with its mission to get the message to European Pilates and fitness instructors that they can actually do more damage to the bones of clients who are post menopause, post operative or of senior age by choosing to teach traditional exercise repertoire and programming, than if they did not teach them at all!!

Mbodies also integrates this scientific knowledge and other 'Mid-Life' research on the effects of exercise on Peri menopause and post-menopausal women with the anecdotal observations of respected Women's specialist exercise educators like Carolyne Anthony whose programming is geared to a non-European market where awareness of individual osteoporosis status is better known.   

With the worldwide number of post-menopausal women growing fast, because of increasing age expectations - the style of programming exercise for them is as important as the choice of the exercise and target areas.

Mbodies also brings to its customers a movement from traditional floor-based mat Pilates with simple circle, band, ball or hand weight accessories to standing and seated exercise with newly designed accessories which facilitate the senior market to get the full benefits from the workouts.

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Teachers
The following instructor trainers teach Brand 5 : Mbodies Mid Life & Beyond courses