The Beauty Of Pilates With Shane K. Rhoads

Pilates is the path forward for many people who have been active and are experiencing back and shoulder issues. Shane Rhoads of Movement Med talks to us about his journey and how he became interested in the field of Pilates. This interest fueled his desire to start a business encompassing Pilates and other forms of self-care that help people to “grow older with gusto!” Tune in as he also explores the importance of finding qualified instructors to maximize the benefits of Pilates, especially if you are already a senior.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

The Beauty Of Pilates With Shane K. Rhoads

Welcome to Growing Older with Gusto. We have another exciting guest who’s growing older with Gusto and helping others to do that too. My personal experience as I’m growing older is the need for Pilates to keep my back in tip-top shape so I can enjoy doing some of the activities I love, like biking, swimming, and playing golf.

Our guest is Shane Keith Rhoads. He’s a professional trainer who turned his background in education into a Pilates, rehab, and medical exercise studio and a business, which he calls Med Movement. The business that he started in 2017 is unique in that he has created an environment for people to experience Pilates and other types of rehab exercises. He has a lot to share about his evolution, so let’s bring him on. Welcome to the show, Shane.

Thanks for having me.

Getting Into Pilates

My pleasure. In talking to you, I know you started in a way that is probably a little bit more unconventional than somebody starting a Pilates studio. Could you talk about how you got into the business of integrating body and mind?

I’ll go backward to tell you where the first light-up moment is. I’ve been in fitness for probably over 30 years. I started when I was a sophomore in college at Goodyear Fitness Center and Corporate Fitness. My major was Exercise Physiology and then Sports Medicine, working with athletes. I was an athlete at the time, so I was enamored with working with athletes. In grad school, I was a strength and conditioning coach for college sports teams and an athletic trainer, the guys who take care of injuries and tape ankles.

I had to put a lot of hours in and I had very limited time. I asked them, “Can I count my weight room strength coach hours as sports medicine hours?” They’re like, “No, but if you become the last-phase rehab guy in the weight room, we’ll count those hours.” I fell in love with working with people in that last transition from injury to full health again. That kept me still in sports. I went into professional baseball after that and had a private business after that. I also did some other things. At some point, I remember reading an article about Pilates.

What year was that, would you say?

1989, I was in school.

The reason I asked is that I’m hooked on Pilates. I know from talking to people that Pilates has evolved from when Joseph Pilates introduced it to the world, from being classical and helping dancers to being part of a rehab program. I was curious.

1996, 1997, I was looking for some new avenue and I came across an article. As I was saying, Pilates was starting to be in the public eye, but more from celebrities doing it, and it was on TV. I saw this article on rehabilitation in the Pilates setting, Brent Anderson and Polestar Pilates. It clicked. It’s like this system and equipment can allow me to do almost everything with someone. It’s a long-term longevity-type exercise routine.

It’s non-impactful. It works on all the mobility and stability you need, and there’s a lot of variety. It’s something you can do for a lifetime. That appealed to me because I can help rehab people, or help them with their medical conditions and get fit. I can keep doing it until they’re 100 years old. We have a client here who’s 96.

When did that client start doing Pilates?

I never asked her. She works with one of the other instructors. It appealed to me in that way. I decided to go full into Pilates and got trained, and I worked at a number of Pilates studios over the years until I started my own business, which you know now as Movement Med.

Body And Mind

You’ve talked to me a little bit in our conversations about the integration of people trying to take care of their bodies but also their minds. Can you talk to us a little bit about that?

One of the appealing parts of the Pilates environment is there’s a focus on mindfulness and breathwork while you’re learning to move more efficiently and while you’re either strengthening the right muscles or trying to get more mobile. Other forms like yoga do the same thing, but putting it all together is more appealing and more effective.

I’ve been a longtime fan of yoga and I started Pilates a few years back, and it is very different. The breathing is very different because you’re breathing when you’re doing the exercises in Pilates, whereas in yoga, usually, you start out with the breathing exercises and then proceed to do the physical part of yoga.

There are a number of things, but the breathwork will help you learn to calm yourself while you’re stressing yourself if that makes sense.

Breathwork will help you learn to calm yourself while stressing yourself.

It does. It’s a challenge.

You learn properly, so part of the appeal for it is you’re learning how to move more efficiently besides getting stronger. It takes slowing down in your mind to help your brain pick up that, like when you’re learning a dance routine.

That’s interesting.

There are a lot of health benefits to good breathwork as well. Joe Pilates, from the very beginning, one of his first core principles was breath. His statement was that it’s the first and last act of life, so you better get it right.

Classic To Rehab

I like that. It’s a good quote. What about this movement from classic to more rehab? When did that take place? Was that in the past 5 to 10 years?

It’s longer than that. I don’t know if your audience is familiar with Joe. I can tell a little quick story about Joe.

That’d be great.

Joe Pilates was a sickly child with asthma. He became interested in physical culture or exercise at the time to improve himself. He did run away with the circus. At one point, he was in England. This was right when the war broke out. In 1914, he was teaching self-defense to Scotland Yard detectives and went to an internment camp on the Isle of Man. While he was in the internment camp, he decided to teach exercise to all the other prisoners of war, and then he started working in the hospital to help patients, 

Whether it’s true or not, that’s where he got the idea of using the springs because he would use the springs to attach to their limbs and help them start moving sooner, which was way ahead of its time. We used to cast people and leave them there. He came out after the war and went back to Germany where he continued to cultivate his perfect mat routine.

Classical Pilates is very familiar with the Joe Pilates mat routine, which is a full-encompassing routine that covers your whole body. It teaches you fitness, wellness, mobility, and strength. All those exercises in a sequence are supposed to be the perfect routine. The machines, which he got the initial idea for from his time in the camp, were supposed to help you do the mat routine better.

Not to get off our topic, the machines are where the rehab professionals started playing around with because I always tell people that no one can come through my door without having a positive movement experience. We have spinal cord-injured clients from 95-year-old clients to healthy people. You can use this environment or these machines to set up situations where you can have success. You can’t always have that on a floor routine at first. It made a lot of sense.

That happened to me because I started out on the floor. Depending on who was teaching, I either liked it or didn’t like it. I had a love-hate relationship with mat Pilates. When I got onto the machines, I fell in love with Pilates. In the past year or so, I’ve used it as a rehab form of exercise.

It helped you have success in your body. Sometimes when you’re a little challenged on something, you can’t have that positive experience. It’s harder to like. The right instructor is going to bring you along with the machines to get you to a point where you can do those other things and it feels good.

Benefits Of Pilates

Tell our audience a little bit about why Pilates is the best. To me, it’s a good long-term health approach as we grow older with gusto.

It’s low impact. That’s first and foremost. It’s a focus on all the elements of health, strength, mobility, flexibility, mindfulness, and breathwork that we spoke of. There’s probably not a large cardiovascular element, but I always tell people that what we do here is going to enable you to do what you do out there more efficiently and without pain. You can take up a dance class. It helps you add that into your life if that makes sense.

It does. I know that I’ve experienced building up the heat when I’m doing Pilates. What is that all about? It’s not cardiovascular.

Sometimes you focus hard. It makes everything to start working harder.

Growing Old With Fitness

There’s so much information out there on how to grow older both physically and mentally these days. How do you recommend to our audience to navigate the fitness