Tag Archives: pilates

LITTLE BLACK DRESS FITNESS CHALLENGE

TYE4® 2016

2016 is going to be an exciting year for TYE4@ wearable resistance system… New classes are popping up all over the world in a variety of locations – from YMCA facilities to elite Dance and Pilates studios to Crossfit gyms. The New York City Ballet trains in TYE4 and this past season, we had a few of the Washington Wizard NBA basketball players using TYE4 to assist with physical therapy and to keep themselves stretched and warm on the sidelines during games. This is so exciting and there is much more to come! Many more instructors are working towards their TYE4 certifications and many people will see life changing benefits from using TYE4! Interested in becoming a TYE4 coach or instructor, visit TheMethod Pilates.com for more info.

It’s so fun to see how diverse this training system is. More people are using TYE4 at home to help them loose weight, build strength, gain flexibility, improve posture, develop better balance & coordination and also rehab their body (specifically ankles, knees and shoulders). It can be worn while doing your regular workout or put it on and clean your house!! Seriously, this is happening!!! Busy moms are now wearing TYE4 while they clean and cook… and they are seeing results!!! When you have it on, the muscles that line and support your spine are engaged, along with your abdominals!!!! It also activates the stabilizer muscles around your ankles, knees, and hips so they are support and strengthened. It’s easy and it’s smart!

Look for the NEW Bone Up™ TYE4 classes coming to the Nashville area in 2016!

Bone Up is a safe and beneficial class designed specifically to those individuals with Osteoporosis, Osteopina, or any condition which limits spinal flexion in exercise.

This class focuses on improving balance, building bone mass, and increasing overall strength, flexibility and endurance with an emphasis on body alignment to ensure safety, regardless of your ability level. read more… Riverbrook Regional YMCA

Purchase TYE4® – $80 BUY NOW

Subscribe to my YOUTUBE channel for TYE4 workouts and ideas.

Join the TYE4 COACHING GROUP for content and support!

• HERE’S TO A STRONG START TO OUR NEW YEAR •

WORKOUT VIDEOS – TYE4® WEEK 1

SKINNY JEANS WORKOUT VIDEO

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The new SKINNY JEANS WORKOUT is now published in the coaching group!! Any of my clients miss the Pilates Side Series??? I thought so. This is a great toning and sculpting workout that builds long, lean muscle. Full video 18 minutes.

Click HERE for full SKINNY JEANS LEG WORKOUT

Join our Online Coaching Group ($10/month) and get more full workout videos, coaching, encouragement and a fun social online space to connect with others in this game to be more healthy and fit! Visit 840west.org for more info!!

TYE4® FIT & INSTRUCTION VIDEO

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Tye4 wearable resistance/assistance system is an incredible tool to add to many different exercise and athletic programs. From Pilates/Dance to Physical Therapy and Sports Training

PURCHASE TYE4 WEARABLE RESISTANCE — SHOP NOW

FULL VIDEO WORKOUT ARE AVALIBLE IN THE 840WEST ONLINE COACHING GROUP!

Questions, email me!

ashley@ashleybensonfitness.com

FITMARK BAGS GUEST POST: TYE4

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[This is from a guest post I wrote for Fitmark September 2013 – see it here. Now, over a year later, I’ve continued using Tye4 personally, with test groups and with my clients. If I had to rewrite this post, I would not change a word. More on Tye4 here ]

There is a new fitness love in my life, and it’s called Tye4®. I attended the Official Tye4 Launch and Training Workshop in New York this summer and am now teaching five Tye4 classes a week and can’t stop talking about it! This new fitness tool has my creative exercise juices flowing and has given me a fresh excitement and hope for the health, strength, and the repair of our bodies.

The Tye4 is a wearable resistance. It’s a harness that can be worn higher or lower on the chest, depending on preference, with easy adjusting straps. It has a bungee that attaches to both feet separately, and one that attaches to both hands.

It was invented by Joan Breibart, Founder and President of the PhysicalMind Institute. She introduced the first Pilates certification program, the first Mat Work Pilates Video in 1991, ‘Working Out The Pilates Way‘ and other books, articles, and inventions that have helped the Pilates Method evolve and benefit our generation.

I teach two different classes: 1. Tye4 Fusion and Tye4 Pilates. The Tye4 Fusion class is a combination of aerobic, barre, strength training, Pilates and stretch. I start with a dynamic warm up that loosens our spine and hips and awakens the body to move. Using Tye4 gives us something to push or reach through (a closed kinetic chain) and enables greater stretch and lengthening. We move from warm up to full on sweaty, aerobic exercise. I give high impact options for some of the moves, but it is optional. The beat of the music is fast and we have fun feeling a full body burn.

Next, the music slows down and relaxes our minds so we can put full focus and concentration into the Barre moves. Here I use the Tye4 to assist in leg lifts and balancing. We don’t over work the hip flexors and because we are able to hold balance so much better and longer with Tye4, we feel a beautiful burn from our glutes all the way down into our calves in the stabilizing leg! I LOVE THAT! Honestly, this is where I start sweating! Hard work.

After Barre, I take my class through a series of strength moves, including pushups and plank. Again, using the Tye4 is changing the game! We use a front cross leg bungee variation when doing a modified pushup. The leg bungee cross “reminds” the body to keep the core engaged during the movement, and the crossed hand bungees provide resistance! I no longer have to nit pick on form. It just happens with Tye4! And modified or “girly pushups” create such a surprising burn!

I wrap up our class with Pilates down on the mat using Tye4 in each exercise. We now can move with more control, stabilize with more awareness, and stretch deeper. As I’ve heard from a few of my clients, “I can really feel my muscles now.”.

I agree with what About.com had to say about the Tye4, “What is so great about the Tye4 is that the lines of resistance feedback to the core of your body. This is very Pilates approach to fitness. It’s an effect we get from much of the larger Pilates equipment like the reformer, but getting that direct feedback with something as portable as the Tye4 is unusual.”.

Tye4 was invented in the Pilates world, but it is a creative, effective tool that can be used with many other types of fitness.

For more information, visit TheMethodPilates.com and ‘Like’ my my FaceBook page Nashville Fitness for the latest updates on classes, workshops, and Tye4 talk.

So far, I’m getting great feedback from every one of my clients who have tried it out. It seems to be quite addicting! If you can’t tell, I’m really excited about Tye4 and I hope you take some time to look into it. Maybe it’s something you can incorporate into your exercise routine or use to bring your clients to a new level of health!

Stay fit,
Ashley Benson
Fitmark Ambassador 2013

1 YEAR AGO – NYC – PILATES STYLE MAG. PHOTO SHOOT

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It was a year ago this week that I was flown out to NYC for the Pilates Style Magazine photo shoot that introduced Tye4® to the Pilates world. This is an experience I’ll never forget. The shoot lasted 5 hours and I was sore in EVERY SINGLE MUSCLE afterwards … so I know exactly what muscles are engaged while using Tye4!!! I now KNOW exactly where my CORE is – I was even sore in my intercostal muscles (the one’s in-between the ribs)! LOL

The atmosphere during the photo shoot was relaxed and it was a lot of fun.
I stayed in the most beautiful room with a view at the Hotel on Rivington.

This was a perfect place to rest, relax and focus on the upcoming shoot.

And of course, I cherished the time with my friend Monica Mendes Bittenbender (also featured in the story), as well as Yuu Fujita-Toews, PhysicalMind Institute Lead Teacher and the most valuable time spent with Joan Breibart – Founder of the PhysicalMind Institute, started the Pilates boom in 1991 and inventor of the Tye4.

Ashley Benson and Joan Breibart

The story was featured in the March/April 2014 edition of Pilates Style Magazine!

View here.

A few months after this, I was back in New York for TheMethod Pilates Tye4 Standing Pilates training – see here.

We are still discovering new ways to use the Tye4 and I am more in love with it today as I was the first time I got my hands on a Tye4 prototype Feb. 2012 – a year and a half before it was even released! See my original 2012 post here.

Thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me. I’m grateful and humbled by this experience, and SO EXCITED for what’s to come!!!

TYE4 CHEST/TRICEP WORKOUT PREVIEW

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We just spent a great week in the cool little German town my parents live in – New Braunfels, Tx. It’s a tourism town and a GREAT place to visit! There are two rivers that run through the town, and I couldn’t help but use both of them as a backdrop for your next workout videos :). First, we filmed behind Bubba’s Big Deck at Gruene River Co., right on the Guadalupe River. It’s a gorgeous location with it’s huge old trees, the river rapids and the interesting wildlife all around. In the summer months, this is an awesome place to tube the river, kayak or just hang at the bar and watch all the river traffic pass.

Continue reading →

HISTORY OF PILATES & MY PILATES BEGINNING

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Check out this fun crash course on the History of Pilates

NOW FOR MY PILATES STORY

I fell in love with Pilates and committed to study it and share it with others after I experienced life-improving results from it 12 years ago.

Out of college, I earned my AFAA Group Fitness Certification and began teaching fast pace, high energy, sweaty group fitness classes at Memorial Hermann Wellness Center in Houston, Tx. I loved it! After some time my boss, Joetta Dickerson [opened the first Pilates studio in Houston] told me she wanted to start training me in Pilates through the PhysicalMind Institute because she was wanting to add Mat and Reformer Pilates to our schedule there at the Wellness Center. I originally thought, “Sure, that will be an easy class to teach.”

First order of business, take a Pilates class. At this point I had NO IDEA what this even was… and I was probably pronouncing it wrong as well! So, first class, I set my mat up in the back of the room and was ready to memorize these exercises. I remember the lights were dimmed and the atmosphere was quiet and calm. I was afraid I would fall asleep… after all, we were laying down… with the lights out… Joetta had us breathe and she led us into the first exercise. WOW… it was really hard! I could’t do a lot of them, and what I could do felt very sloppy, tight and uncoordinated. Ugh, what was happening??? I was an athlete and a group fitness instructor! I thought I was strong before and what I quickly learned was that my strength was extremely imbalanced.

My takeaway… I NEED TO PRACTICE!!! I started practicing Pilates every night just so I could build strength to perform the exercises. I started reading materials that Joetta gave me to study and began observing her sessions. At this point Joetta was working with the Houston Rockets Basketball Team. An impressional moment I will never forget was watching Joetta work with Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon on his Roll-Up. It was CRAZY! This giant man could hardly do it… and his flexibility was not great. At all. This was the moment Pilates got my attention.

Photo credit: Memorial Hermann Wellness Center

Joetta Dickerson and Hakeem Olajuwon

So after a month of daily practice, my hubby started noticing changes in MY body! My shape was changing!!! Now, I didn’t start doing this for my own benefits. This was my job. I wasn’t looking for results but the results found me! I gained flexibility I’d NEVER had before. I felt great. My shape completely changed and I rehabbed my shoulder that I was suppose to have had surgery on 5 years prior and didn’t. This happened during the time I was studying Reformer Pilates. I COULD NOT BEIEVE THIS!

As I studied this Method, I began to identify with Joseph Pilates… being that we were both sick kids and wanted nothing more that to be strong, fit and healthy.

I enjoy and see the benefit in a variety of fitness methods, but Pilates will ALWAYS be a part of what I do and what I teach. This is something that will keep my body young and add value to my life as long as I live.

And now the NEW Tye4® System from Pilates PhysicalMind Institute is the latest in the Pilates evolution. It’s a wearable Reformer that can go anywhere!

More TYE4 videos and workouts on my Youtube Channel:

Ashley Benson Fitness – SUBSCRIBE!!

New classes and programs at St. Thomas Rutherford Hospital Wellness Center, Murfreesboro Tennessee.

Check 840west.org for more info.

MUSCLE INJURY REHAB

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“Hamstring strain injuries are very common in sports. They can become chronic, nagging injuries due to scar tissue formation with up to a 63% chance of re-injury.” Dynamic Physical Therapy & Sports Enhancement

In high school – long, long ago – I injured my hamstring playing sports and have re-injured it many times since. IT’S SO FRUSTURATING.

Five months ago I developed a pinched bursa in my left hip → which led to spasms in my gluteus medius – a TRUE pain in the butt! → and then the problem trickled down into my hamstring… because it will take any opportunity to cause me grief.

theSOLUTION

First, I got K-Laser Therapy from Laser Therapy & Chiropractic Center for my hip. This started helping immediately and paired with icing for a few weeks, inflammation was reduced without any medication. Then I started doing pressure point therapy for my butt muscle – basically I would sit on a tennis ball holding for intervals of 3 minutes while crying from all the pain until the spasm released. Thank you Results Physiotherapy, Murfreesboro Tn for the torturous, yet effective instruction you gave me 🙂 And finally I started using a foam roller and Tye4® to rehab that stubborn hamstring.

My BFF. Her name is Foam Roller

The Tye4 has been HUGE in helping me maintain/regain flexibility and maintain/build strength during this time. Over the past weeks, when my hamstring is being a nerd and causing aches and pains, I have consistently found relieve after using Tye4!

I also kicked my nutrition into high gear by supplementing with a few products that the pros use when they are recovering from injuries. I figure, if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me! I’ve added Advocare BioTools and Post-Workout Recovery Drink to my daily intake. This, along with my basic core nutrition, has done wonders for my recovery.

Here’s one extra tip…

Tennis ball + wall + back tension = much relief!!!

Give it a try!

When dealing with muscle injuries, we need to have patience, proper resources and common sense while recovering. I just thought I’d share what’s been going on with me. It’s easy to get discouraged, but we gotta hang in there and keep going!
There is too much life to live to quit.

Ashley Benson Fitness

fitness for the modern body

Tag Archives: pilates

LITTLE BLACK DRESS FITNESS CHALLENGE

TYE4® 2016

WORKOUT VIDEOS – TYE4® WEEK 1

SKINNY JEANS WORKOUT VIDEO

TYE4® FIT & INSTRUCTION VIDEO

FITMARK BAGS GUEST POST: TYE4

TYE4 CHEST/TRICEP WORKOUT PREVIEW

HISTORY OF PILATES & MY PILATES BEGINNING

Joetta Dickerson and Hakeem Olajuwon

MUSCLE INJURY REHAB

Connect with us and please spread the word :)

The atmosphere during the photo shoot was relaxed and it was a lot of fun. I stayed in the most beautiful room with a view at the Hotel on Rivington.

Joetta Dickerson and Hakeem Olajuwon

Connect with us and please spread the word :)

The atmosphere during the photo shoot was relaxed and it was a lot of fun.
I stayed in the most beautiful room with a view at the Hotel on Rivington.