Episode 57 - The Core Question: Research, Breathing, Bracing, and What We Might Be Missing

In this episode of Three Questions, I break down one of the most debated topics in movement right now: core activation, bracing, and breathing.  Instead of choosing sides, I walk you through how to think critically about the studies, question your own cues, and focus on what actually matters: your client’s outcome.

We’ll explore why defining your intention matters more than the cue itself, how sensory input might be more powerful than motor inputs, and why what works in the studio doesn’t always transfer to real life. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about being “right…” It’s about being effective.

In This Episode You’ll Hear:
• Why “cueing the core” might be solving the wrong problem
• How sensory input (not just muscle cues) drives better movement outcomes
• Why research should guide your thinking, not replace it

So before you cue the core one more time, take a second to ask yourself what you actually mean and what you’re hoping it’s going to do.

Links & Resources For This Episode:
Episode 54 - Assessments That Support, Not Stress — Three Guiding Questions
Find a Neuro Studio Teacher Near You
Connect with me on Instagram
Connect with me on Threads

Transcript

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions, where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and the research I'm gonna share is only here to support your learning and deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host, Meghann, and I'm so excited that you clicked on Three Questions today, so we can talk about the core. What is it?

Should we cue it? Should we brace it? And how do we navigate all the research surrounding it? So recently, there was a study that came out that was talking about Pilates specifically, and whether there was a better, um, result for people with low back pain if you cued the core or core bracing, or if you cued the core to relax.

And I've been seeing a lot of people breaking down the research, and oftentimes it's kinda that same old, same old conversation, and rather than me just giving you my opinion on this, which I will interject here and there, I want you to critically think, and I want you to think where this research, where these findings fit in with what you do.

Because at the end of the day, we can have all this research and information, but if we don't know what to do with it or how it fits into what we do, it just becomes more noise. And I don't know about you, I am so sick of all the noise. So before we get into question one and the research, I wanna start somewhere that I don't think is talked about enough in almost every conversation, and it's the fact that we cannot even agree on what we're talking about when we mean the core, core bracing, or core activation.

So I wanna ask you a question first. When you cue the core, the abs, the transverse abdominis, or talk about bracing with your clients, how do you personally define what you are asking them to do? Let's start there. I want you to think about what do you actually mean, because you know what's kind of crazy?

At the end of the day, the more people I talk to, the more we all are saying the same things with just different words and different meanings for different words. And it's not like we're making up words. I used this example yesterday in a lecture. A lot of people say that Pilates works on precision, and they use precision a lot with Pilates, but that's actually not true.

If we define accuracy and precision, Pilates actually works on accuracy, not precision. Let me explain. Now, these are based off the true definitions. If you're watching me on YouTube, you can see air quotes. You know, 'cause- Somebody just decided that's what these words mean, and because it's an accepted definition, I wanna share it with you guys.

So I'll use a bullseye, for example, or, or say my n- my face is a bullseye. If I hit my nose versus my mouth, so if my nose was the center of the bullseye, if I hit my nose, that's more accurate than hitting my mouth. Hitting my mouth is more accurate than hitting my ear. So Pilates actually works on improving the accuracy of joint movement and joint differentiation based off some areas stabilizing.

Usually, we're looking at spinal stability and mobilizing the limbs, or we're looking at stabilizing the limbs and mobilizing the spine. So we're always trying to improve our client's accuracy. Now, precision is a little different, guys. Precision is not hitting the bullseye. It's hitting the same mark repeated.

So say I hit my mouth, but then I hit my mouth again ten times in a row, that's precision. That's being precise. Me hitting my mouth, then getting closer to my nose in each shot is not precision at all. It's actually the opposite of precise. But by starting at my mouth and moving towards my nose, I was working on my accuracy, and neither of these things are good and bad.

It depends what you're working on. So when we say and use the word precision in our terminology for Pilates, it's not technically correct based off a definition, but I will... I kind of will die on this hill, and I'm gonna defend everybody who's doing something that annoys me. I don't think they knew that about precision and accuracy, and you wanna know how I know that?

I didn't know that until I knew it. I think a lot of people using the word precision thinks it means they're being more accurate because the word, "Oh, I wanna be precise," they think that means they've gotta be more perfect. Being more precise means that it's replicatable, that you can do it again. So we use precision-based focus at the Neuro Studio because we're all about neuroplasticity and creating new patterns, and if you wanna build new patterns, you've gotta learn how to measure and be precise.

So just based off that dialogue, some people define the core as the deep spinal muscles and the abs, the transverse abdominis, the obliques. We could even include the lats. We could include the fascia. There, there's a lot of different ways you can describe the core. You might be just also thinking, "Hey, I want better spinal stability," which is not TVA.

Those are your deep spinal muscles. The TVA can act as an additional muscle protecting to help with spinal stabilization. But just using your TVA or your transverse abdominis without deep spinal stabilizers that is another thing where people go wrong. That's not true spinal stability. That's tricking your brain to thinking the spine is stabilizing by using other muscles.

And sometimes we need to trick our brain or do something in the short term to achieve a goal, and this is why bracing gets a bad rap or hollowing your core. Now, I could pick out ten research studies, and I did a deep dive. There's a lot of research to support bracing, especially when you're lifting heavy loads.

Now, in the gym, lifting heavy loads, that's not real life. So our brain will need more sensory feedback and more support to move that load. But in the real world, walking and moving around, which is when most people's low back really hurts, is that re-reflexive response or spinal stability, that should be not so choreographed.

It should be automatic. So there is an argument for both, and what I don't wanna do in this podcast is go tit for tat. And if you're thinking right now, "No, no, no, Meghann's wrong. You should never cue the core," or, "You should always cue the core," or, "You should always do bracing," or, "You should never..." Guys, you're missing the point.

We're all a little right, and we're all a little wrong. I would love you to focus more on why are you cueing bracing, core activation, core relaxation, spinal activation, spinal mobility? I want you to think about why you're cueing what you're doing. Because you know what? There's a million ways to get to a destination.

If you live in the New York Tri-State Area, there's a million ways to get from New Jersey to Brooklyn. I had to go the other day. I, and I... My dad called. "What are you doing, Meg?" "Ugh, I'm stuck in the Holland Tunnel. You would think these people knew how to merge after all these years." And my dad said, "Ugh, nobody knows how to merge.

It's a zipper, Meghann, a zipper." So we're laughing about it, but then he goes, "Why are you in the Holland, Holland Tunnel? I thought you were in Brooklyn." And I said, "Yeah, but to go through Staten Island, that would've taken me two and a half hours. It's only gonna take me an hour and a half going through the Holland Tunnel today."

My dad says, "Oh. You know, you could've also gone north and take the GW Bridge and come back down." I said, "I know. I looked into that, Dad, but the Cross Bronx is a mess today." Now, my dad's a New Yorker, so he knows all these. Why I'm sharing you that is there is not a correct way to get from New Jersey to Brooklyn.

There is only a way based off the facts I have right now and the current situation. So based off that accident, there's... Or there's never an accident on the Cross Bronx. New Yorkers, am I right? But based off the traffic, I had to make a decision. Thank God for a GPS. I mean, what did we do before that? My God, do you remember when we have to, we used to have to print out, like, MapQuest directions to get to a place?

Anyway, I digress. Back to it. So yeah You could cue your client to engage their core and get a great result. But please recognize that was a result in real time with that situation. What happens when they go to bend over or pick up a pencil or to lift their kid up or lift weights up? The biggest mistake I think we all make in exercise is we think what happens in our studio is gonna really translate to what happens in the real world.

That's my o-- my obsession, transfer of learning. So I think if we just think about that, I want you to answer your own question, and that should dictate what you do. And if you're against bracing, I challenge you to go take a course on core bracing. I want you to learn about it. I want you to learn about why they're doing it.

I want you to learn about the limitations and when it works, and then I want you to come to your own decision. And all my people who constantly cue the core, the TVA, the pelvic floor, or bracing, I challenge you to take a course where they talk about not doing that and the benefits of that. I think the more information you have, the more you'll get.

I'm gonna get on... Let me hop on my soapbox for a sec. Hold on. Let me sit up on it. We all do this. We all look for the gotcha moment or someone to say something wrong, and you might be doing this right now in my podcast. It's all right. We've all done it. But until we understand the other side's argument and what they're doing what they're doing, we can't really make an educated guess or a decision.

I get annoyed when students make assumptions based off my work that they've heard third, like, um... what is it? Like, not third class, like, um, the third time down the road. They're, "Well, my teacher studied with Meghann," and then their teacher did, and then they said, "Meghann said this." Well, luckily you can ask me.

That's another reason why I do this podcast, to protect my intellectual property and to make sure the words come out of my mouth. But if you ever, ever have a question or wanna know my intention behind a comment, please know those questions are always welcome. I do not frown upon questions. And I changed my mind today based off something I read, and I'm not gonna lie.

I looked at the post. It kind of annoyed me at first because I'm allowed to have a bad reaction. I'm a human. And then I thought about it, and I was like, "Ah, she does have a really good point there." I'm gonna think about that next time I teach that concept. I don't agree with her fully, but she does have a point.

So just based off question one, I'm just gonna give you a little deets, okay? The details. Now, I made myself notes, so I wouldn't screw this up. When I'm looking at research, I don't just read the results, and no shame if that's what you're doing Hello, we're all busy. I look at how many people are in the study, and this most recent study had a big group.

I liked that. But then I looked, and I also liked that they didn't teach random Pilates exercises. They listed out the specific exercises. I think it was eight of them. Okay? Now, we could argue which exercises they chose. I don't want to argue about that. My biggest concern is how were they cueing the core?

How were they cueing the relaxation? And they were not specific about that. Not because I think they were being devious, but because that is not an established precedent. Some people will cue an inhale and exhale, the breath. Some people will be cueing pulling in the abs. Some people might cue specific actions like pretending you're having to stop peeing, or there's a million cues I can't think of them all right now, or hollowing out, or bracing.

Now, my problem with all that is less about how you're cueing something, because you could say the stupidest shit and get to the right place, right? Just like getting to Brooklyn. However, they're all cues focusing on a motor output. And listen, I come from the neuro world, and sensory drives motor. So while we're wasting so much time cueing a motor output, I think we could get a better benefit by changing the sensory environment and seeing how the body reacts.

So in the study, the patients were instructed about the performance of exercises based off specific activation of the following muscles, transverse abdominis, diaphragm, obliques, multifidi, and pelvic floor. The researchers explicitly called this the contraction of the center of strength, core or powerhouse.

Okay? I love that they gave it a term, conceptualized by stabilization depth and activation of abdominal bracing. Verbal commands were continually reinforced through every exercise so that muscle contraction was maintained for the entire protocol. So translation, they are talking about the classic powerhouse, activating everything and holding it throughout and be reminded to do so.

Now, guys, we all know this. Have you ever had to fart and sneeze at the same time? If you've had this experience, if you try to hold in the fart, we can all imagine what happens. You're going to have to change your pants. And why I bring this disgusting example up is why would we want to keep our abdominals contracted through an entire exercise?

Now, a lot of the exercises in the group were where there's actually spinal mobility. So why would you want to brace or activate your TVA when you're trying to mobilize? Okay, just think about it. And when you brace your core, you cannot actively move your diaphragm, diaphragm, your diaphragm efficiently.

Now, what people kind of forget is that the brain and body is always responding to what's happening in real-time. So as I said, there is... Bracing often works for like a heavy deadlift or a push or a pull, something big, 'cause it's one rep, you take a breath again. Now, I am not so naive. I doubt these teachers were telling people to hold their breath the whole time.

It tells me right here they were cueing the diaphragm. So first of all, Pilates world, I'd love to see this study. Let's do some motor key-- output cues on breath and core and sensory. Let's measure the difference of that. Let's measure the difference on our intention rather than just saying, "What were the instructions?"

So they told people to engage their transverse abdominis. You can't just tell people to engage their multifidi. The multifidi work in rotation, stabilization, extension of the spine. You think our clients are moving intersegmentally where the multifidi... And what about the rotatories? Okay? So I'm no mean to pick apart this study.

I think they were-- this was the clearest I've seen in a while. So awesome job, guys. And as someone who knows how hard it is to do research, like thank you for doing the work because this is a great starting point. But I do really think this next section should be of interest. The relaxed group, my friends.

The patients were instructed to perform an exercise in a relaxed and smooth way. First of all, does anybody... Just relax and then lift your leg. What does that mean? And they were told to keep breathing and concentrate during execution. At no point were participants instructed to perform abdominal muscle contractions or activations of the center of strength.

Okay? So basically, the relaxed group was just told to breathe and not overthink. Now, just right then and there, I don't think we're apples to apples here because guys, you just said in the core group you were cueing diaphragm, but now that's in the relaxed group. Which is it? Is it both? I think the big difference here, guys, and if the researchers are listening, again, love what you guys did.

What if we-- this-- What if your follow-up study looks at instead of activated or relaxed, I feel like this relaxed group, you guys were letting the cerebellum get involved a little more. It sounds like to me you were just telling them to breathe and do the movement. Okay? So that kind of falls into letting the core Automatically do what it needs to do.

So there's another variable in here, guys. The first group was kind of being dictated how to contract muscles, and do you think people know how to contract those muscles? And they asked if people had Pilates experience, which I loved. So a lot of people got kicked out of the study, but they might have had experience in different workouts, or they might have heard something somewhere.

Or guess what? Tell me this is not true. When we feel sensation in our abdomen, our midsection, our abs, I mean, everybody thinks that's a positive thing. I joke that nobody wants to look worse naked, which is the truth. So we sometimes confuse sensation with something being good versus bad. So let's go back to question one.

What is your intention? What do you need your client to do? Okay. If you realize if they've got low back pain, all right, what's moving too much? What isn't moving? Are they able to differentiate their hips from their lower back and their SI joint? What's going on in the rest of their body? That's why I love Pilates.

It's looking at the whole elephant, not just looking up the elephant's butt. Okay. But I think if we dig into more our intentions of each cue, I'll say to my teachers, "Why did you cue that?" "Um, I don't know." "Yes, you do, you do. What was it that you saw?" "I don't know. They were moving their spine, and I didn't want them to."

"Okay, so their spine isn't stabilizing when you want it to. How can we change the environment or give a different cue that'll bring awareness to that movement error?" So you don't have to cue abs in. "Ah, I don't know, Meg." Let's get into it. Let's use a proprioceptive cue. Let's look at a visual cue. So I'd love us to have this dialogue versus finger-pointing at who's correct and who's not.

Because, guys, remember, anybody who's giving an opinion, we all have an agenda. Okay. For me...

Sorry about that. My sister just called. Joe, my darling, um, editor, will hopefully edit out that phone ring. But what I wanted to share, um, it's funny, I was just talking to my sister about this yesterday 'cause her back was bothering her. I'd like us to stop finger-pointing because we all have an agenda. I have an agenda, too.

My agenda is I really want more critical thinking, and I think if we use more backwards design and a neurological approach, it fosters more critical thinking. So my agenda in this podcast is to maybe get you to stop looking at all the finger-pointing and getting to a place where you can, you know, come up with your own ideas.

And I feel like the neuro is the avenue. So now you're f-familiar with my agenda, we can go from there. All right. So number one What I wanna talk about to finish up question one. I said number one. I am dying laughing because my dad just called. It's like Grand Central here at, uh, my house. So, um, hopefully, Joe, there wasn't background noise, but, uh, hopefully he can edit that out.

So let me just summarize question one, and I'm sorry about all those distractions. I don't edit out my errors in this podcast because this shit is real life. So my agenda is looking at a neuro approach. Keep that in mind. I'd rather us ask the question, what our intentions are the cues, and is the cue we're giving going to help us determine if that cue actually worked?

Which leads me to question two. Beyond you feeling like it's working 'cause your client's happy because something changed in their body, what is your actual assessment process looking at, like how are you assessing if your cue really worked? Now, this is a hard question to answer, and this is something I work with my advanced students all the time.

We differentiate observations from assessments and looking at how do we assess if our cue really worked. Well, number one, we need researchers to help. So we need researchers to help us determine if we can take more of a sensory approach. Does that change the motor output of getting the spine to mobilize better without pain or stabilize when needed, so they aren't experiencing pain?

Creating new movement patterns because when the brain has other options, it's less likely to use that movement pattern that causes pain. And don't even get me started on pain science. There's so much great research there that pain is so multifactorial that there's a lot of other factors. What did they eat that day?

Are they bloated? Are they upset? What kind of mood they're in? So many factors come in play. So I want you to ask yourself after you go, "Why am I giving this cue? How can I assess if this is working? What am I gonna do?" Now, I don't wanna leave you hanging. And in our studios, I don't have electrodes on my clients to make sure the proper muscle firing pattern is happening, which is why I never make assumptions.

I look for changes in motor output. So based off my cue, if my goal was to get them to differentiate their hip from their lower back, my assessment is where-- what-- what were they pairing first? Are they no longer pairing those, and has it changed the motor output? So in layman's terms, say they're moving their lumbar spine when they're flexing their hip.

How do we know? We can't just eyeball it, even my people with great eyes. I've gotta touch it or give my client specific sensory feedback at that spot. Then I'm going to give them a specific cue, whether I'm using a visual-based cue to bring awareness or a proprioceptive-based cue I might tell my client to touch two bones on their body, two bones that are on either side of the joint.

So if those bones move, that means the joint moved. So if somebody's touching their pubic bone in relation to their ASIS, so touching the bone kind of right above your crotch or the side of your pelvis or the side of your pelvis and one of your ribs, the pubic bone and the pelvis will help you differentiate hip movement.

The pelvis and the rib is gonna help your brain differentiate lumbar spine movement. So if I give one of those cues and the motor output changes, it's clean, reflexive, then we know we're onto something. I also look for sensory integration. What are their eyes doing? What is their head doing? What is their body language doing?

And based off that information, I might use that sensory cue for, guess what? Circling back, precision, so that we can replicate it. You might be like, "Meg, that was gibberish to me. I have no clue what you're talking about." So where are you? What do you like to do? What kind of movement teacher are you? What's the problem?

Identify the problem. Now, think a problem is often the result of other problems. It doesn't just happen overnight. So if their back's hurting, ask people to touch where it hurts. If it's ap-appropriate, and you ask permission, put your hands on people and touch. Is what hurts moving a lot or moving a little?

If it's moving a lot, maybe give them a cue and see if it stabilizes or doesn't move. Or if it wasn't moving at all, maybe it's moving in a better way. We don't have to be so scientific. Excuse me. And I'll tell you why. People come to us as movement professionals. They want to feel better. They don't care how much TVA activation is happening in their body.

They want results. They wanna be pain-free. What I'm challenging you guys is it's, uh, it's great to get them pain-free in an exercise, but how can we transfer that outside where they can replicate it? That's where I wanna challenge you. But you can say, "Not interested in your challenge, Meghann," and I will completely accept that.

So question two is a hard one, and some of you might say, "I don't know what to do with question two," and I love that. I did an previous episode on assessments and observations. Give that a listen. One of my level three neuro studio teachers, who I love, said to me... We did a group, one of their group lessons, group meetings, and she said in our private, "Meg, I suck at observations."

No, that's not what she said at all. She said, "I suck at assessments." And I just listened. She goes, "I don't like doing things I'm not good at." And I'm smiling 'cause I'm thinking, "Me neither. Who does?" But she's like, "But this is why I did this mentorship. I wanna get better, and I believe I can." I said, "Good, so let's reframe that.

You don't suck at assessments. You're not great assess- at assessments yet." She said, "Okay." And I said, "Now, that's my job and your job to fix that. So if you wanna get better at assessments, reach out. If you don't care, don't worry about it. Focus on question one and be curious, and I promise you will have much more enjoy...

you will enjoy your job much more." I was gonna say enjoyability. I don't think that's a word. And listen, if somebody tells you your cue is wrong, you can go like this, "Okay." You don't have to defend yourself to anybody. You don't have to defend yourself on social media. If it worked for your client, F those people.

Who do you gotta prove to? The only people you have to prove yourself to, and you don't have to prove yourself, is your clients, and maybe whatever god you pray to, right? My clients don't care. They want results. That's why they come see me. So please don't let this episode make you feel less than as a teacher.

It's based off how you wanna be as a movement teacher. So let's go to question three. So new research comes out all the time, and this research study i-in particular excited the community. But I just wanna remind you, this is one research study. There are so many studies supporting bracing and supporting other techniques to get the core to activate efficiently.

There are studies that say Pilates is bullshit for low back pain, which is crazy to me because it's kinda my bread and butter. I've been doing it for twenty-five years. Now, could some Pilates exercises aggravate your low back pain? Yeah, but so can coughing, and bending over to tie your shoe, and doing CrossFit, and doing, um, I don't know, any other mode of exercise, kettlebells.

So when people poo-poo Pilates or Lagree or kettlebells or CrossFit, get, get, get out of there. You can hurt yourself in CrossFit just as much as you can hurt yourself walking across the street, okay? So don't let one research study undo everything you learned or your belief system, but you should always be cl-- um, questioning your belief system.

Always. Because if we think we have the answer, we get into this mode that's isolating. Always be curious. It's so much more fun to be curious, I'm telling you. And if you're working with a teacher that says that's black and white with these things, find another teacher. That's not a teacher. That is somebody who's trying to start a cult.

Happens a lot in this industry. It's kind of crazy. And if you only come to me for your answers, I'm gonna challenge you to go listen to other people. I don't have all the answers. I have a distinct point of view because I've been doing this for twenty-five years, and I'm gonna I'm gonna take a shot. A lot of these teachers who are the well-known Pilates educators, when was the last time they took a course?

When was the last time they studied with somebody else? I'm not seeing it. It doesn't have to be within Pilates. Don't laugh. I've been studying plumbing in my spare time. I thought it was cool I could change a toilet. I was talking to my plumber, and I said to him, "We do the same thing." He's like, "What?" I'm like, "Yeah, 'cause if there's a clog in the toilet, it's usually not...

there's, there's a deeper problem, isn't there?" He's like, "Always." It's kind of like what we do. I'm getting my doctorate in education 'cause you know what, guys? There's too many methods, too many ways to do things, and not enough good teachers, right? I worry that sometimes I sound too preachy, and I probably do, but I'm allowed to give my point of view.

So I want you to not be blinded by research. I want you to be excited by it and think every time you read a study, what's the next step? So this, this group of researchers, you are amazing and have started us on a new journey, okay? Let me just... I am so bad with pronunciations. So Cimcina twenty twenty-two, Core Stabilization Improves Outcomes in Low Back Pain.

It was in the Intern-International, uh, Journal of Sports Physiotherapy. Park et al. twenty twenty-three, Adding Bracing Improves Strength, Pain, and Function. Okay, that was a pilot study. The first was a systematic review. They're very different. Um, Sembra twenty twenty-three in, um, BMC Sports Science Med.

This was a cross-sectional study. Bracing generates internal abdominal pressure during lifty-lifting, and it can affect breathing, both positively and negatively. Okay? I could go off this list. There's so many. Also, this new study by Lunks in twenty twenty-six, Relaxed Abdomen During Pilates Slightly, and this is what I want you guys to hear.

Everybody's getting so excited about this study, which we should, but slightly. We did a research study about using our four-quadrant balance, and yeah, the four-quadrant group had better balance at the end, but it wasn't significant enough. But in the results, it said we are allowed to say significant, and I just feel it's not good enough.

So I want you to take all these studies with a grain of salt, but these people are doing work to help us, not hinder us. So what are you gonna do with all this research? That's my next question. Here's my thoughts. I'd like you to read the research in its entirety. I know that's boring. Use AI to summarize it for you.

Ask MI, uh, MI... AI, this is my bias. Can you make sure I'm not confirming my bias? Is there any nuance? What cues did they use? What exercises? Ask more questions. And if you're against AI, well, don't use it. Ask me questions. Ask someone else. Just keep asking questions. Reset... Reach out to the researchers. I remember one of the first big MS conferences I went to, it was a woman who did research on Pilates, and it didn't show that Pilates made much of a difference, and it upset me 'cause I know it does, and she knew it did.

And I raised my hand. The confidence of a twenty-six-year-old. I said, "With no disrespect to this research, all these exercises that you used in this study were supine. Not all Pilates exercises are supine. And if the other group was doing physical therapy, which wasn't supine and seated and standing in different positions, couldn't we-- Isn't that another variable?

And I don't think it's a fair representation of Pilates." And the head researcher stands, comes to the front, and she says, "Thank you so much for bringing that up, and that's what we're gonna be looking at going forward. We needed a place to start, and there's so many different versions of Pilates. I wanted to stick to classical, and I figured, let me stick to supine and see what happens."

So here I am at twenty-six, being so arrogant, taking this woman's life work apart, but I tried to do it with a little bit of compassion and kindness, and she was like, "I get it. I know, but we have to start somewhere." And I have taken that. I'm not great at math, so what... Well, if... What am I, forty? I'm gonna be forty-four in a week or so.

I always think about it. It's just a place to start. So when you re-read these studies and you think, "There's a gap in this study. I wanna fill that gap," be that person. You can do it. Reach out to me. Doing a ton of research right now. Always looking for help. Of looking at different ways where we can actually not just really define Pilates, 'cause that doesn't help us be better teachers, but define the nuances of communication and what the goals of the cues are.

Is that really happening? Are we able to assess if the cue is actually happening? Because this is where we go in a positive direction. I think Joseph Pilates created a framework, and I'm big on mastery. People will study my work for an hour and be like, "Eh," because they're not good at it yet. All right. So you gave it an hour and thinks it's, thinks, think it's bullshit 'cause you can't do it yet?

How arrogant. That's the same thing about Pilates. The beauty of the movements, just like in yoga, you practice them to get better. But I could also say, "Yes, that's wonderful, but I've got clients that need to walk and need sensory integration, and I like to use different exercises somewhere to get there.

But I love the equipment Joseph created. I love that we can fill sensory gaps with springs and equipment, and I can be hands-on when appropriate." So there's so many beautiful things here, and I think while w-- when I say we all, I feel like the people listening to this, to this aren't the people who are fighting.

You want solutions. Rather than having an argument of who right-- who is right and who is wrong, why don't we stay focused on clients? Because they are who really matters, and they are who needs our help. So when we can put the effort in and we can, number one, ask ourselves, "What is my goal here? What am I even trying to say?

Can I assess if what I'm trying to say is actually happening?" And number three, how can I break down research in a way that's meaningful to me? Well, we can do this by asking questions, keep learning, and always being curious. I hope this helped you break down some of this information, and if you have any further questions or wanna talk about this in more detail, please always reach out.

I am here for you. I want to talk about all the nuances. I'd like to discuss better ways to do bracing and better ways to get the core and the spine to reflexively respond, 'cause reflexive stability and reflexive response is where it's at, people. However, we need better tools to figure out how to get our clients to do that.

'Cause if nothing else, we're just yelling at each other on Instagram. So enough yelling and listening. Let's get back to our clients and do the thing. Thanks, guys.