"Happiness means quiet nerves."

-- W.C. Fields

Hello Pilates People!!!!

To all those who observe - Happy Passover and Happy Easter! And for those who don't - HAPPY SUNDAY!!! Thank you for being here with us!

A big shout out to everyone who joined us for our donation class last week!! We raised $400 for The Family Center and are so excited to keep sharing our resources where they're needed!

We are at over $1200 donations in 2021 already and want to keep the momentum going!

Our next donation class is all set for Sunday, May 9th - Mother's Day - and we will be donating to Covenant House! We'll be focusing specifically on their Honduras locations and will give you more information on the why and how of that as we get closer, but please...
SAVE THE DATE, TELL YOUR MOM and SIGN UP BY CLICKING HERE - you can use your previously purchased class package OR choose a "Covenant House Donation class" in the amount you'd like to donate!

*sign ups for this class go live a month before...so set that alarm for April 9th and put yourself in!

If you attended our Spine Workshop back in January, you heard Jenni and me say "spine sisters.," and if you weren't there, do you want the recording? We have it! Let us know :)

Because we're diving deeper into what we started and we're going to talk about the sisters this week and how they're related to/affected by your nerves.

Who are the sisters? Your shoulders and your pelvis, of course!

You know us, so you know we could go on and on and on and on about this. I'm going to try to give you my best Cliffs Notes version (is that still a thing or am I really dating myself here?) on all of this, and I am positive we'll circle back and go even deeper later (that's foreshadowing, friends).

But for now, let's talk some quick spine anatomy. Some important facts as we go into this week:

• Your spine is comprised of 33 vertebrae

• These vertebrae have a hole in the center (think donut style) that allows your spinal chord to run through them

• Your spinal chord is the bundle of nerves that runs through your spine, expanding nerves out into your body and collecting nerves back up into your brain

• There are 31 pairs of nerves that branch out from your spinal chord in your spine - 8 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar

• Our primary focus will be on the cervical and lumbar nerves this week as they are mostly the ones that feed into your shoulders and pelvis (there is one thoracic nerve that passes through your shoulders...because things just can't be perfectly cut and dry when it comes to nerves)

And some quick shoulder/hip anatomy. Here are the important facts you need to know for this week:

• Both your shoulder and hip joints are ball and socket joints which allow circumduction - the circular motion of your arm or leg - which is a unique range of motion found in just these two joints (this is complicated...yes your ankle circles and yes your head does too, but it's different. Trust us, or ask the questions and we'll get there!)

• The bones of your pelvis include your sacrum, cocyx and pelvic bones where your hip socket connects to your femur (and yes, my anatomy nerds, I could get way more specific here, but we'll save that for another day)

• The bones of your shoulder include your scapula, acromion and clavicle. The glenoid cavity on your scapula is where the socket of your ball and socket joint exists for your shoulder, allowing your humerus to connect

• A wild fact about your shoulders - they are not actually connected to your body until you get to your clavicle, which connects to your sternum. This makes your shoulders a VERY unstable joint as they are relying on musculature and posture alone to hold them in the correct place MOST of the time. Good news? WE know that and we are always working to stay two steps ahead of this bodily booby trap by working on our posture AND those supporting muscles - namely your traps, delts, lats, pecs, rotator cuff muscles and serratus, it's a lot, right?

• Your cervical and lumbar nerves travel over, under and through these joints, making it very easy for things to go awry

• Sciatica is an example of one of these potential issues. You've probably heard of it and all its tingly, painful fun that results from some form of alignment disagreement between your pelvis/spine/hips putting pressure on the nerve wreaking havoc on your legs and back - don't worry, we have some thoughts on this!

So what am I getting at here?

Basically, we're planning to spend this week going through the anatomy of these sisters in the context of movement so that you can visualize, feel and know what you're dealing with. We're hoping that will help you identify, explore and feel where, how and why things might happen sometimes. Once we've got that down, we can get down to business with working towards healthy and happy nerves and joints!

And it's important to note that because these two areas are connected by your spine, when one is a little off, it's likely the other will start to act up too - in true sister fashion.

We always love your questions, friends, but this is another week where it would be really helpful to know what you're thinking about/wondering/feeling! If this brings anything up for you, please feel free to share it so we can dive in together and sort it all out!

I think that's all I've got this week, friends. Thank you, always for being here with us. Can't wait to see you in class!

All our love,
Cassandra + Pilates People