About The Hive

The Pilates Hive in Holland, MI

Pilates…..and so much more.

 

 

I am a Movement Detective.

 

You know how people watching is so captivating? For me, it almost becomes a little obsessive…..why does this person limp? Why does that one walk with their ribs ahead of their pelvis? Does that hip hike also come with pain? What is your story and how does it manifest itself in your movement?

My own movement story began early, as a weight lifting gym rat. When I discovered that despite my years of fitness training, I could no longer engage my core, I started Pilates training. My lower back was also compromised from a grade 3 spondylolisthesis (my L5 has slipped 75% forward of my S1). Within weeks of Pilates training, my back pain decreased and my core strength increased. I started teaching Pilates, and quickly discovered that many of my clients would have a hard time engaging an area/accessing a movement and no amount of training or cuing would help. There was a missing link.

 

 

Enter NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT). I needed a way to investigate these disconnects in the body and NKT provides that using manual muscle testing and the motor control system. This allows me to take things into account such as scars, tattoos, piercings, broken bones, sprains, etc. We can then test these clues to find out if they are part of the body’s bypass strategy and address it, further integrating efficient movement. This training combines well with my Anatomy Trains background, where the body is assessed globally, with fascial lines providing the connection.

 

 

Learning to view the body globally with 3 dimensional movement, rather than the individual muscles broken out in 1 dimension (as my healthcare background trained me to do), has been a game changer in unraveling the movement mysteries of the body. Anatomy in Motion has provided this paradigm shift in my thinking, and I find myself becoming a Movement Detective now in my approach. It requires collaboration with my clients – exploring their history, formulating theories, testing them and evaluating the results. With an emphasis on the foot and studying how the movements of it’s 33 joints effects the entire kinetic chain of the body including the skull, I have come to a new appreciation of how #everythingisconnected.

 

What does this mean for you?

 

These skills combined allow me to achieve some amazing results with my clients that have eluded them despite their dogged, varied efforts. Plantar fasciitis, back pain, knee pain, neck pain, neuropathy, gait issues etc. have either been eliminated or dramatically decreased. It does not happen overnight, and it does require collaboration between myself and the client (you will not be passive while I “fix” you?). If you are willing to put in the time and the work ( I do give homework), and are open to exploring new territories and solving puzzles, then we will be a great fit.

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What’s with the name?

I am a beekeeper. The more I study these fascinating creatures, the more convinced I become that these insects are like us in many ways, completely opposite us in others and there is much we could learn from this superorganism we call a bee hive. One of the more intriguing things I’ve observed is their perfectly built honeycomb.

The honeycomb in a hive is an amazing feat of engineering. This hexagon marvel is incredibly light weight, using the least amount of wax to build, but has the tensile strength ratio of 1 pound of wax holding approximately 22 pounds of honey. Now that’s a strong core!!! This comb will hang suspended in space at times (they don’t always attach it to all 4 sides of the frame), and still remain remarkably stable. One of the terms beekeepers use for the comb is “foundation”, and the human person is built to have the same strong foundation or core. One could even argue that the muscles of our intrinsic core form a 3-dimensional hexagon of sorts. As I work with both bees and humans, I see what happens when that core tensegrity is compromised. I am not fond of the outcome in either species.

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So come build your core at the Hive!