Download 2012 Workshops brochure and registration here
Franklin Method® – Pelvic Power
Mind/body exercises for strength, flexibility, posture and balance. Experience the benefits of the mind/body connection through imagery, movement and touch. Franklin Method® imagery provides the brain with the feedback it needs to create improved ease of movement, flexibility and strength. In this workshop we discover how specific movements of the pelvis make abdominal and pelvic stability a whole new training field. Discover this new approach to pelvic dynamics and open the door to the wonderful world of imagination!
Franklin Method® – Psoas Conditioning
Imagery exercises for deep muscular support of the spine, pelvis and hips.
Experience balance and harmony within the psoas complex in this workshop where, using imagery we will explore and embody the theories of sliding filaments, muscle currents, slow eccentric action and diaphragm integration. The depth of the psoas complex in the body can make it difficult to understand the importance of its function, which is why clear information and imagery help to bridge this gap. This is one of the most popular workshops within the Franklin Method coursework. Feel spinal stabilisation and pelvis rebalancing like never before!
Franklin Method® – Ultimate Abdominals
What is the ultimate way to use our abdominals? Why are the abdominal muscles arranged the way they are? What is the most effective combination of breath and movement? Feel the burn! Work it! Draw your belly in! Tighten those Abs!It’s amazing the impact a clear image can have on movement, and equally how some images can be very misleading. This workshop explores the elements of complete abdominal use for spinal support to find the essential link between your upper and lower body.
Working with anatomical and metaphorical imagery, discover the full potential of your spinal strength and mobility through understanding muscular connections and activations for improved movement quality. After all, what’s the point in doing loaded versions of poor movements? And you will feel the burn….. but with your new set of Ultimate Abdominals!
Franklin Method® – Fabulous Feet
Our feet carry us throughout our life – yet most of us are unaware of the amazing design that makes this possible. A myriad of bones, joints and muscles interacting in complex fashion allow the foot to propel us forward, adapt to terrain, and serve as a foundation and sensory organ. This workshop will elaborate on the complex function of the foot in an experiential manner, allowing us to improve the agility and well being of our feet in all situations, including walking, running, jumping and dancing. In dance as in life, the strength and agility of the feet are key. Without strong and well aligned feet, good posture cannot be attained, and safe jumping is all but impossible.
The workshop will help develop a deeper insight into the functional anatomy of the foot. Imagery and self-touch exercises, as well as the use of the Thera-band will strengthen the muscles of the foot and ankle improving the efficiency of the bones, tendons, muscles and joints for walking and jumping.
Franklin Method® – Imagery for a Healthy Spine
The spine is a masterpiece of design containing over one hundred joints and associated muscles and ligaments. How, then, is it possible that so many people suffer from debilitating pain associated with the spine? Complex design requires conscious maintenance. Why do we have a spine in the first place? Why is it shaped the way it is? This workshop will explain structure and function using imagery and simple movement. A new embodied understanding of the spine will allow for all daily movement and exercise to benefit spinal health.
Learn how the spine converts compression into elasticity, how the spinal joints manoeuvre to create ease of motion and stability and what imagery is most useful when exercising the spine. Transform your body image to create a healthier spine by training the Iliopsoas muscle to relieve lower back pain and learn more effective standing, walking and sitting to benefit the spine. A must-attend workshop if you have an interest in improved movement of the spine.
Franklin Method® – Psoas Conditioning for the Pilates Mat
With the understanding from imagery and movement of the Franklin Method®, we take an even closer look at the Pilates Mat repertoire and discover how to move through this timeless series with a new sense of ease. Even if you have not yet experienced the previous Franklin Method® ‘Psoas Conditioning’ workshop, you will find this session helps to deepen your awareness of the psoas complex, improve your alignment, and have you centering in a whole new way. You will come away from the session with an improved shape in the front (and back!) of your hips, feel the benefits of gravity falling through your pelvis and spine, a deeper breath and a longer spine – all while performing the series of challenging movements.
Franklin Method® – Pelvic Power for the Pilates Reformer
Be inspired with this topic – a progression of the ever-popular Franklin Method® ‘Pelvic Power’ workshop. This session explores more vividly the familiar Pilates Reformer repertoire and gives an insight into how the function of the pelvis can be best applied to improve your results on the Reformer. Throughout the session you will translate your understanding of footwork, working with the straps, working with standing, lying, sitting, and even inverted movements that will leave you rushing to your next class to put it all into practice. Even without having attended the preceding ‘Pelvic Power’ workshop, you will find the imagery and embodiment you take from this session leaves you with a new understanding and trust in how pivotal your pelvic dynamics are to any workout.
Franklin Method® – Walking Wisdom, Running Rhythm
Through this thought-provoking session you will tap into your innate body wisdom and the potential of your neuromuscular system to maximize your enjoyment of one of life’s daily pleasures that so often passes us by. Walking with wisdom, progressing to running with rhythm requires visiting all the major ‘links in the chain’ of your gait, understanding the structure and function of each and then flooding them with the wonderful power of imagery. You will learn the complex step-by-step process so it becomes surprisingly easy to take away and apply. Most importantly you will become empowered to tap into this potential, motivating you to move with an even greater in-depth understanding of your body – every day!
Franklin Method® – Jump for your Life
Using the imagery and movement principles of the Franklin Method® this session explores the spring mechanisms within your body, and how each part can be organised to best contribution to the shock absorption and power generation of jumping. You will understand how the foot and ankle, knee, hips and pelvis and spine all play their role in an effective jump. Using the exercises learnt in the session will help your everyday activities by reducing the impact through your body, allowing greater ease in all your movements and enhancing your physical awareness and whole body fitness. Imagery used throughout the session will continue to help you create the links to harness your brain’s power for change – so you are left with not only an efficient jump, but a spring in your step!
Franklin Method® – The Right Rotations
The Franklin Method® stimulates an ongoing dialogue between your mind and your body, and applied to rotational movements helps restore one of the most common limitations in a restricted spine. With the architecture of the spine providing the basis of rotation, this session will guide you to explore other contributing factors to the ease and release required for effective rotation. Theraband exercises used will give an immediate sense of strength, stamina and flexibility for your rotation and the Franklin balls will help facilitate movement in otherwise difficult regions of your body to access. This is an enlightening workshop on the uplifting effect of released, connected and powerful rotational movement that will have both your body thinking and your mind spinning!
Franklin Method® – Relax your neck, Liberate your shoulders
The ultimate exercise program for tension relief Learn imagery exercises to melt away shoulder and neck tension by understanding the evolutionary background of shoulder girdle anatomy. Release holding patterns in the upper body, learn the experiential anatomy of the shoulder girdle, and benefit from an increased awareness of the function and interaction of joints and muscles. Exercises with the Franklin Balls increase circulation, which coupled with tactile feedback serves as a wholesome foundation for a liberated shoulder girdle and a relaxed, mobile neck.
Franklin Method® – Alignment and Rotation with Organs
How often do you consider visceral alignment in your movement teaching? Do you ever feel the changes you make with clients are only short-term? Do clients seem to keep coming back with the same structural issues time and time again? Working with the visceral system can change the way you view the skeletal and muscular systems in the body. Using touch and imagery, this workshop will give you skills to improve your sense of how our organs affect our movements. We will explore how connective tissue links muscles and viscera, and the impact on structural support and movement. Develop a new awareness of movement potential and ease with this enlightening workshop.
Franklin Method® – Diaphragms of the Body
If you want to find the key to muscle release and postural changes through simple imagery training, then this is the workshop for you!
This workshop delves beyond the most obviously function of our breathing diaphragm in helping supply us with oxygen to contribute to movement efficiency. We will explore deeper into the body to look more closely at other diaphragm-like structures that influence our alignment and movement connections. We will work with imagery to aid explanation of breathing mechanism, including movement of the ribs, costo-vertebral joints and the crura. We will explore links between the breathing diaphragm and the pelvic floor, knee joint and the sole of the foot in understanding strength and alignment for all forms of movement and exercise potential.
Franklin Method® – Muscles and Imagery
In this workshop we explore some of the main influences on optimum muscle function, including embodiment of muscle filaments, muscle spindles, and connective tissue. We discuss the evolutionary development of muscles, and how imagery and clear structural information can have a significant impact on our understanding of muscles. With a great mix of theraband exercises to integrate the movement explorations of the session, you will leave this workshop with a new insight into the relationship of muscles in movement of your body. You will never look at strength and flexibility training the same after experiencing the impact of this Muscles and Imagery workshop.
Franklin Method® – Conditioning for Dance
Incorporating the Principles of the Franklin Method ( Conditioning for Dance, Dynamic Alignment through Imagery , by Eric Franklin), this workshop covers elements of dance that can be optimised by effective muscle function, clear imagery and how clear structural information can have a significant impact on our understanding of core stability. The session will introduce imagery for the psoas complex, deep rotators, spinal alignment, and shoulder and neck release – all in aid of improving the feel and quality of your plies, jumps and turns. Discover this new approach to core stability for dance by opening the door to the wonderful world of imagination!
