Why Habits Matter?
As a Pilates teacher, you're passionate about helping your students to achieve their health and fitness goals. But true transformation goes beyond mastering technique in the studio. It's about fostering habits, those automated behaviors that become ingrained in our daily activities. Imagine starting a day with gentle stretches automatically, with no internal struggle or negotiation. That's the power of good habits! They become the silent drivers of positive change for your students, influencing their well-being long after they leave the studio.
This blog post, leveraging the science of habit formation, explores practical strategies you can use to empower your students to build healthy habits that stick. By equipping them with the tools to automate behaviors, you'll be helping them create a lasting impact on their health and well-being, not just within the walls of your Pilates studio, but throughout their everyday lives.
Understanding the Habit Loop: Your Key to Empowering Students
Just like mastering any Pilates move, building good habits takes a bit of understanding. Here, we'll explore Charles Duhigg's concept of the habit loop, a simple model that breaks down how habits form:
The Habit Loop - 3 Key Stages:
- Cue: This is the trigger that sets the habit in motion. It can be anything from seeing your workout clothes to hearing a specific song.
- Routine: This is the actual behavior itself, like performing a series of Pilates exercises.
- Reward: This is the positive reinforcement that strengthens the link between the cue and the routine. It's the good feeling you get after doing the behavior that makes you want to repeat it.
Why is this important for Pilates teachers?
By understanding the habit loop, you can help your students design their own routines and identify their personal rewards. This makes it more likely that the positive behaviors learned in Pilates will stick with them outside the studio.
Applying the Habit Loop in Your Pilates Teaching:
- Help students find their cues. Maybe it's setting a specific reminder on their phone or placing their yoga mat in a visible spot.
- Focus on small, achievable routines. It's better to start with 2 minutes of daily stretches than aiming for an hour-long workout that never takes place
- Plan for the reward! Encourage students to identify what feels good after practicing Pilates - a little victory dance, a smile, or maybe playing their favorite music. It doesn't have to be big, but it should be something truly enjoyable to reinforce the positive association with the routine.
Remember: Consistency is key! The more your students repeat the loop (cue, routine, reward), the stronger the habit becomes.
Strategies for Building Lasting Habits:
1. Find the "Why" Behind the Practice:
Every journey starts with a reason. Help your students uncover their personal motivations for practicing Pilates. Do they want to improve flexibility for easier gardening? Are they looking to build strength to keep up with their energetic grandkids? The key is to ask open-ended questions that encourage them to visualize the benefits and positive feelings that come with achieving their goals.
Here's how to apply this in your teaching:
- Instead of telling: "Practice your core exercises at home,"
- Ask: "Do you ever feel back pain after a long day? Strengthening your core can help improve posture and reduce discomfort. How would that make you feel?"
By connecting Pilates practice to their personal "why", you'll ignite intrinsic motivation, the kind that comes from within and fuels long-term commitment to their Pilates routine.
2. Create a System, Not Just Reliance on Willpower:
We all know willpower can be a fickle friend.That's why creating a system, a structured approach, is key for building lasting habits. Here's how you can help your students establish one for their Pilates practice:
The Power of Systems:
A system considers all the factors that can influence whether your students stick to their practice. These factors can be positive (motivation, convenience) or negative (lack of time, distractions). By creating a system that mitigates the negative and leverages the positive, you'll increase the chances of success.
Examples:
- Scheduling: Encourage students to schedule their home Pilates practice just like they would a doctor's appointment or important meeting. Treat it as a non-negotiable commitment.
- Reduce Friction: Help them remove any obstacles that might prevent practice. For example, suggest they lay out their workout clothes the night before or pack their yoga mat for their lunch break.
- Stack Habits: This involves "piggybacking" a new habit onto an existing routine. Suggest practicing some stretches after brushing their teeth or doing a few core exercises while waiting for the kettle to boil. By linking a new behavior to a familiar one, it becomes easier to integrate into their daily life.
3. Start Small and Celebrate Wins:
Building momentum is crucial for lasting habit formation. Think of it like rolling a snowball downhill. The bigger it gets, the easier it is to keep rolling. That's why starting with small, achievable goals is so important.
Here's why:
- Confidence Boost: When students successfully complete a manageable task, they experience aconfidence boost. This fuels motivation and makes them more likely to continue.
- Less Overwhelming: Big, ambitious goals can feel daunting and lead to discouragement. Starting small makes the habit feel manageable and less likely to be abandoned.
How to Apply It:
- Break Down Goals: Encourage students to break down their larger goals into smaller, daily-achievable steps.
- Celebrate Every Win: Acknowledge and celebrate even small victories, like completing a 5-minute exercise routine or simply remembering to pack their mat. This reinforces the positive association with the behavior.
4. Positive Reinforcement and Celebration:
Remember the habit loop? The reward is a crucial element that strengthens the association between the cue and the routine. Positive reinforcement, acknowledging progress and celebrating successes, plays a key role in making a habit stick.
Why It's Helpful:
- Motivational Tool: Positive reinforcement triggers the release of dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter that motivates us to repeat the desired behavior.
- Sense of Accomplishment: Acknowledging progress, even small wins, fosters a sense of accomplishment and keeps students engaged in the long run.
Sharing with Classmates: Create a safe space for students to share their accomplishments with classmates. This fosters a sense of community and collective motivation.
Be Their Champion, Not Just Their Pilates Teacher:
As a Pilates teacher, you have the unique opportunity to become more than an instructor – you can be a supportive coach who empowers students to create lasting changes. By helping them identify their triggers, the cues that can derail their good intentions, and develop strategies to overcome them, you'll strengthen their commitment to positive changes.
Empowering your students to build a consistent Pilates practice, fueled by good habits, leads to a more impactful and fulfilling teaching experience for you. Ultimately, it empowers them to achieve their health and wellness goals, creating a ripple effect of positive change that extends far beyond the studio.
Written by Margot Hiller, Certified Coach specializing in lasting health and wellness transformations, collaborating with IVA Pilates.
Recommended readings and resources:
- James Clear's "Atomic Habits”
- BJ Fogg's "Tiny Habits"
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