If you are having technical difficulties accessing the online training centre please contact us ASAP so we can help you with that.

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Brent Merritt
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1 Studio Pilates International Matwork Study Guide Please use this step-by-step study guide and checklist to ensure that you have covered off all that you need to learn by the time you come in for the face-to-face component of the Matwork Course. The more that you study the course material, the easier you will find instructing at the course. There is a lot of information to learn, and it is all laid out very clearly in both manual and online video formats to make it easier for you, so please utilise both effectively. If you follow the instructions, spend the time learning your course material and practice, practice, practice, you will have no problems at all passing the theory and practical exams after the course. If you do find that you don t pass, you can re-sit the course again for $299. Of course the idea is to pass the first time, and as long as you are practicing and covering off learning the information in the steps below prior to the course you will be well prepared for the course and should be great! And don t forget that we are here to help you anytime leading up to the course and throughout the course as well we want you to be the best instructor you can possibly be by the end of the course. Yes that s right - we are here to help you! So if at any stage you feel you need some guidance or help to understand something, please contact us either by at education@studiopilates.com or phone or at If you are having technical difficulties accessing the online training centre please contact us ASAP so we can help you with that. Good luck and happy studying, now is the time to start your first step to becoming a great Pilates Instructor! STEP 1 Obtaining the manuals and workout DVD If you have paid for and ordered the Manuals and workout DVD, they should arrive in the post shortly. In the meantime you can also download them from the website so you can start studying. If you opted to simply download the online manuals the Body Essentials Manual is found in the Body Essentials Module where it can be downloaded from there, and the Matwork Manual can be downloaded from the main page of the online training centre. Note that you will need to bring along the manuals to the face to face component of the course, so if you have ordered them - great you will receive them soon, if you opted to download them you can either print them out to bring them along or have them at the course in the computer version on an Ipad or something similar. The workout DVD can be downloaded at When it asks you for the discount coupon code, enter the word matwork and it will allow you to download the workout for free.

2 STEP 2 Start practicing the workout DVD /download as many times as possible (minimum of 20 times) in order to start learning the exercises and listen to how the exercises are explained, the words used, tone of voice and rhythm of instructing. (Estimated time to complete: 10 hours) STEP 3 Start to Study the Body Essentials Manual and watch the online videos as follows: Body Essentials Manual ( Posture, Core stability, Pilates Basics and Verbal Cueing For each of the areas to study below, please make sure you not only read over the recommended pages in the manual, but also watch the corresponding online video as this really helps you to grasp a full understanding of it and also look at it practically. o Learn the principles of Pilates (p6-9 o Learn each of the posture types: flatback, lordosis, kyphosis, swayback, scoliosis and hypermobility. Understand which muscles are tight and weak for each posture. Be able to look at your friends and family and tell which posture types they have. (p10-17 o Learn the stabilising muscles of the body where they are situated and their function, and how to find them on yourself and someone else. The muscles to look at are Pelvic Floor, Transversus Abdominus, Obliques, Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Medius, Gluteus Minimus, Deep Hip Rotators, Iliacus, Lower Trapezius, Serratus Anterior and Deep Neck flexors (p18-24 o Learn how to assess the function of each of the core stability muscles, what good and bad stability looks like and the ways people will cheat and compensate for each test. (p29-35 o Look at the whole assessment procedure, and preform an assessment on a family member of friend. (p36 o Learn about and practice teaching the Pilates Basics Neutral and Imprinted Spine, Ribcage position and breathing, Scapula position, neck position, t-zone, oblique activation with the breathing. Watch the Basics Chapter of the workout DVD or download and listen to the basics being explained and try to mimic this. Watch the online videos of the Pilates Basics and practice and try to explain the basics to a friend or family member until you sound clear and concise. (p37-46 o Understand the difference between neutral and imprinted spine, and the rules for when you use neutral vs. imprinted spine (p37-38 o Understand the breathing rules and when we should breath in or out and why. If you learn these breathing rules you won t have to necessarily learn the breathing patterns for each exercise, you should be able to work them out if you understand the rules. (p45-46 o Understand the 3 different learning styles of clients and how to tailor your instructing to suit all 3 (p47-49 o Learn the Cueing Formula *** this is one of the most important things to learn as it makes it so much easier to instruct if you follow the cueing formula. Watch the online video on this section and also listen out for the cueing formula as it is used to instruct the exercises in the workout DVD or download. Notice the flow and rhythm of the cues, the way the voice

3 changes up and down in tone and the more you listen to the cueing the easier it is to copy and do later on. (p50-53 o Learn the things you will need to look out for in terms of the safety of both yourself and clients. (P54 o Read over in the manual and listen to the Mat Class Preamble many times over, get to know what must be said in there and more importantly practice saying it yourself. You don t have to repeat it word for word but do need to cover off all of the important points. You can say it to a friend or family member, or record yourself on your Iphone and play it back. Make sure you cover off all of the points and sound clear and concise, and can cover off all of the points in around 5-6 minutes. (p55 STEP 4 Filling out the Body Essentials Workbook o Fill out the answers to questions 1-9 in the Body Essentials workbook which you can download from the online training centre or found in the back of your Body Essentials Manual. o Save it somewhere safe as you will need to it to us once the rest of the questions are completed. (Estimated time to complete: 30 minutes) STEP 5 Start to learn the actual exercises in the Matwork Manual (MM) For each exercise you will need to know: Name of exercise Where it works Start position Neutral or imprinted spine Breathing pattern Movement pattern Specific body position needed for each body part Common things people may do wrong and things to look out for to correct How to make the exercise easier or harder and how to adjust for injury How to perform the exercise yourself How to teach the exercise/the verbal cueing to use In order to learn this, you will need to use a combination of reading over the Matwork manual, watching the online video tutorials for each exercise, physically practicing doing the exercise with

4 the video tutorials and also with the workout DVD/download and then practice cueing and talking yourself or a family member through the exercise to work out the words to say. It is best to work in sections, master one section of exercises before moving on to the next. If you can t physically perform the exercises yourself due to injury or weakness that is fine, you will just need to watch the online video a lot more and practice teaching it rather than doing it. Exercises to cover and the recommended order to learn them in: o Supine Abdominal Series (p MM) o Side Lying Series (p72-95) o Supine Buttock Series (p MM) o Kneeling Series (p MM) o Prone Lying Series (p MM) o Plank Series (p MM) o Stretches (p8-29 MM) You may also wish to order or download more workout DVDs to practice the exercises and also work on your own body a lot of course participants find this particularly helpful, and the people who do the DVDs the most always perform the best in the course. You can buy and download more workouts for $9.95 at or buy a DVD which will be sent out to you for $24.95 at (Estimated time to complete: 8 hours) STEP 6 Learn about Programming o Read over the programming principles and take a look at the sample programs given and watch the corresponding online video (p MM) o Have a practice at making up your own workout program, physically do the workout and see how it feels o Do the workout DVD/download and purchase other DVD/downloads (see above on how to do this) to get ideas on programming, and become used to how to sequence exercises to get the most out of the workouts (Estimated time to complete: 1 hour) STEP 7 Learn about the common spinal Injuries and Pregnancy and how to program for this

5 Read over the injuries and pregnancy section of the Bod Essentials Manual and watch the corresponding online video tutorials (which are housed in the Body Essentials section of the online training centre videos) to learn the following: o What is osteoarthritis, symptoms of osteoarthritis, and exercise you may need to avoid or watch out for (p57 o What is pelvic instability, the symptoms of instability, and think about which exercises may need to be avoided or be careful with for someone with instability? (p58 o Why postural neck problems occur, the muscles which are tight that usually need stretching and the muscles which are weak and usually need strengthening. Think about which exercises may need to be modified, and what abdominal exercises you can do with the head down. (P58 o What is a wry neck and what do you do with someone who presents with a wry neck to your class? (p59 o What do you need to avoid for someone with a muscle strain and what can they do? (p59 o Disc problems learn the difference between a disc bulge, rupture and degenerative disc. Learn which movements generally are unsafe for someone with a disc bulge and go through the contents page of the Matwork Manual and look at each exercise to determine whether or not it would be safe for disc problems based on the movements needed to be avoided. (p60-61 and Contents page MM) o Sciatica what is sciatica, what are the causes, what is the neural tension position? Learn which movements generally are unsafe for someone with a disc bulge and go through the contents page of the Matwork Manual and look at each exercise to determine whether or not it would be safe for sciatica based on the neural tension position that needs to be avoided. (p62 and Contents page MM) o SIJ Problems what is the SIJ? What symptoms are usually present with SIJ problems? What exercises or movements may need to be avoided or used with care with SIJ problems? (p63 o What is osteoporosis, what may happen to someone if they have osteoporosis, what are the contributing factors to getting osteoporosis? How does exercise and Pilates help Osteoporosis? (p64) o What exercises are safe to do and which exercises need to be avoided in the 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd trimesters of pregnancy? When do pregnant women need to stop lying on their back? (p67 o How many weeks after giving birth can a woman recommence Pilates for both a vaginal and caesarean delivery? (p68 o What is a pelvic floor prolapse and what are the rules for the intensity of exercise after a prolapse or any pelvic floor problem? What exercises would be good to start off with, which ones are likely to be too difficult? How can doing incorrect abdominal exercises make a pelvic floor problem worse? (p68 o What is a rectus diastasis? How do you test for a rectus diastasis? What are the rules for the abdominal exercises for someone with a rectus diastasis? What exercises would be good to start off with, which ones are likely to be too difficult? How can doing incorrect abdominal exercises make a rectus diastasis worse? (p69

6 (Estimated time to complete: 1 hour) STEP 8 Fill out the remainder of the Body Essentials Workbook and either to education@studiopilates.com or fax to or post to Studio Pilates, PO Box 802 Bulimba 4171 (Estimated time to complete: 20 minutes) STEP 9 Attend the 3 day face to face component of the course Once you have completed all of the above, you are well and truly ready to come along to the course and practice your instructing and consolidate your knowledge and receive help and support along the way. You will receive an a few days out to confirm the start and finish times and course venue. Remember to bring your manuals along to the course (or the manual on a tablet or Ipad), wear some comfortable exercise gear and bring along a Pilates mat if you have one. You can purchase a Studio Pilates Mat at There will be a practical exam to determine the competency of your instructing at the course. The more you prepare for the course by following the steps above, the easier you will find it and the better you will be. STEP 10 Complete the online exam After you have attended the Matwork Course, you will need to complete the online exam in order to pass and gain your certification and CEC letter. You can do this at your leisure so if you feel you need more time to study prior to taking the exam that is absolutely fine. The online exam can be found in the online training centre, or follow this link (Estimated time to complete: 1 hour)

PLATINUM COURSE STUDY GUIDE & CHECKLIST. Studio Pilates International 1

PLATINUM COURSE STUDY GUIDE & CHECKLIST Studio Pilates International 1 Platinum Course Study Guide Please use this step-by-step study guide and checklist to ensure that you have covered off all that you