Welcome to my new website. Initially the purpose of this site is to introduce myself, some of my ideas, and some of my colleagues and friends to the Pilates and outdoor sports communities. My bio here tells a condensed version of my story, I also encourage you to pick up and read the November/December issue of Pilates Style magazine where a more in depth article about my experiences can be found in the “Success Story” column. Also, starting November 15 you can look for me blogging on the Pilates Style website. Any time you have a question for me, or just want to say hi, feel free to contact me through this site.
I’ve been passionate about outdoor sports for all of my life. Not so much the big team sports, but more individual activities where I am alone, or competing or partnering with one or two others to achieve a goal. I’ve been a skier, cyclist, hiker and an archer, but the sport which took over the moment I discovered it was climbing. For me climbing has it all: it’s daring and adventurous, it requires skill, technique and great strength of both body and mind, the movement can be dancelike and beautiful, and sometimes the experience is transcendental. On top of all that, climbing takes one to the most beautiful places, the mountains, deserts and canyons.
It was almost five years ago that I discovered Pilates, and just in the nick of time too. I had reached a transitional stage in my life. For the first time I was having difficulty recovering from an injury. I had torn my right shoulder apart in a serious way. Dr. Neal El’Attrache at the Kerlan Jobe center put it all back together and told me I could expect a good result if I was diligent with the therapy. Following therapy Pilates enabled me to regain strength and at the same time learn a whole new way of moving. All movement comes from the center of the body. Not “some,” but all.
I got back to climbing, and kept up the Pilates which I was hooked on. I wanted to take it to the next level, to become trained and certified as a teacher. I convinced the deciders at Core Conditioning here in L.A. that a fifty year old guy could be serious about this, and began teacher training in the fall of 2006. At first I wasn’t sure I was in the right place. The people there are wonderful and the facilities are excellent, but the focus seemed to be on physical therapy while my interest was in training athletes. It didn’t take me long to figure out what a really special opportunity this was though, as everyone – even elite athletes – have to deal with injuries, just as I recently did. The program was tough. The size of our class dropped. I remember waking up the morning after a three day intensive and just lying there. I felt like I was suspended in space, unwilling to try to move. This was different than the thrashed beat down kind of exhaustion I was used to feeling after a big climb. This was tired to the core in a beautiful kind of way.
When I was partway through the program, having passed the written exam, I was asked to join the staff at Core Conditioning as a physical therapy aide. This job is a little of everything that needs to be done to keep the place on its rails. Charting. Filing. Paperwork. New sheets in the treatment rooms. But also I was trained to do treatment modalities like electric muscle stimulation, ultrasound, laser treatments and traction. I was called on to do lumbar/pelvic stretching routines with patients prior to their therapy sessions, and specifically designed exercise routines with them after treatment. This experience, working at the direction of some top notch therapists, was incredibly valuable for me.
As this website develops I plan to grow it in several ways. There will be a member’s only area where we can chat, exchange ideas and experiences, maybe even share photos and stuff. I also will be selling a book and some other materials. And I am going to bring in other trainers, specialists in different sports who understand my ideas about building a base with Pilates but who can do the direct training in a sport to help an athlete really use the base to improve. We’ll put together training packages which could, for example for a cyclist begin with four months of Pilates over the winter and then move on to long distance rides at increasing elevations with a pro.
The “Kristian in Action” area will grow steadily. As time allows, I will be adding trip reports and stories about many past adventures and also ones yet to be, since I plan to be in action for a while yet…
The “Training Tips” area will kept updated regularly, sometimes with my own material but also I will solicit insights and ideas from other experts, trainers and athletes alike.
So please view this site, in its infancy, as a work in progress. And keep checking back in because there will be more content here all the time.
If you like the look and design of this site that is a credit to Randy Wenzel, whose amazing photography and design work you should see at www.randywenzel.com