Mind, Body, and Cell

At Optimize, we teach to the whole person.

The most effective lessons don’t just address your body. Of course Pilates is about bones, muscles and joints. We use the classical Pilates method to align the bones, strengthen the muscles that are weak, stretch the muscles that are tight, and bring balance to the musculoskeletal system.

However, that system is only one part of you. Ultimately, it is your nervous system that controls your body. So lessons that only teach to the body will be limited. You need lessons that also address the nervous system—how it functions to control movement, how it learns, strengthening areas of the brain that need attention (like the vestibular system for balance), addressing your attitdues and mindset, bringing regulation and balance to your autonomic nervous system.

And we can’t just address the nervous system in exercise. In order for rest, repair, and rejuvination to occur, we must also support the vagus nerve and spending more time in a parasympathetic nervous system state. Exercise breaks down the tissues. It’s your ability to rest and repair that actually determines if that workout makes you stronger. That’s why all Pilates lessons at Optimize will end with 15-minutes of nervous system regulation, helping you drop into a parasympathetic nervous system state and teach you how to do it more often on your own for maximum benefit. Carola Trier, who studied with Joseph Pilates and was the first woman to open a Pilates studio (in her home!), also insisted on a rest period after lessons, requiring clients to sit in chairs for a period of time after their workouts before they re-entered busy New York City life.

In addition to your musculoskeletal and nervous systems, you also have a variety of other systems in your body that need support too—lymphatic, cardiovascular, digestive, urinary, even your skin is a super important system. Optimize gives you tools to address them all. We can approach systems in isolation, like body brushing for the skin or lymphatic system. But for maximum potency, I will teach you how to support your cells. Every system is made up of tissues that are made up of cells. If you want improvements across the board, rather than addressing each tissue in isolation (the model of Western medicine), you can improve the functioning of the 37 trillion cells across your whole body.

Through lifestyle coaching, you’ll learn how your environment and day to day choices impact your cells. You’ll learn that the mitochondria inside your cells produce the energy that powers every process in your body and if you do things to support mitochondrial function, you’ll improve how all your cells work. You’ll learn that mitochondria come from bacteria we actually decided to co-evolve with millions of years ago and they’re stuck inside cells with no information about what’s happening outside. They need your help to give them the right inputs so that they understand your environment and how to best function in it. You’ll learn that hydration doesn’t just come from the water you drink, but from the water your cells make with the right resources. You’ll learn that sleep does so much more than you thought it did and how do maximize it for your best rejuvenation, allowing you to feel more vibrance and vitality every day. You’ll learn why the voltage of your cells matters, not just the neurotransmitters or chemicals is uses, and how to improve it.

Once your cells function better, you function better. Addressing the root cause of their poor inputs and improving them gives your body the possibility to reach its full potential. This is how we squelch diseases before they can even begin—at the cellular and sub-cellular level, with the right mindset.

The tools I teach are not complicated. The best solutions are simple. We evolved with nature and when nature is respected and utilized to your advantage, your cells flourish. The beauty of this is that its accessible and free/low cost to everyone. I am not going to try to sell you an expensive red light panel or sauna. We’re going to return to nature to help us return to life. I’m here to teach you, educate you, motivate you, support you. But once you have the tools, YOU have the power to support your own health. You do not need the right supplement, medication, doctor, trainer or therapist to fix your life. After you learn the foundational knowledge and tools, with occasional additional supports as needed, you are in complete control. The ultimate Contrology.

I believe that this new model of teaching at Optimize will create the best results for you. Join me so we can optimize your mind, body, and all your cells.