Intensity, drive and endurance. Faster, further and more.
That’s how exercise and weight loss have traditionally been approached.
But there’s another way, a way in which weight loss serves as the byproduct of exercise, not necessarily the motivation. In this way, mind and body care are addressed together, as one.
Body IQ Life, a Camp Hill-based Pilates and wellness studio, offers such a holistic approach to exercise.
“Movement is thought in motion,” said owner Janine Galati, a certified Romana’s Pilates teacher, exercise physiologist and licensed massage therapist.
Pilates is mindful. Mindfulness involves the awareness of how your body moves when exercising. For example, the typical curl involves little thought and is easily done with a quick flex of the bicep. But attempting to do a bicep curl while engaging the tricep involves a whole different process. One must concentrate, think about the motion.
“We teach people how to use their body,” said Galati. “We don’t teach how to tense muscle. We teach how to leverage the body.”
This takes proprioception, a sense of understanding of where one’s body is in space. Pilates focuses on corrective exercise, learning how to use the body well, preventing injury and staying healthy.
With Her Hands
An injury launched Galati into her present career.
She danced with the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet five days a week, six hours a day, until the age of 25. She left ballet to attend Temple University, where she studied exercise physiology, with the goal of becoming a surgeon. While there, she picked up sculling and injured her back. The injury left her numb to the foot in one leg, limping, and in severe pain.
Doctors advised her to have a lumbosacral laminectomy, but friends had other advice. They told her to seek out Romana Kryzanowska, a first-generation Pilates teacher who had studied directly with Pilates creator Joseph Pilates.
Galati healed her back working with Romana and subsequently developed an interest in the practice. She was enthralled with how Romana used her hands to determine the kind of treatment people needed. She realized that she wanted that type of close relationship with healing, a relationship the surgical profession would not allow.
“I work in a very old way,” she said. “My teacher taught me a tradition with her hands.”
Galati studied with Romana for five years then opened the first Philadelphia-based Pilates studio in the Rittenhouse Square area. At the time, aerobics was in, and Pilates was new.
“People were annoyed that I wanted to help them organize their bodies,” she said.
However, athletes, dancers and actors saw the benefits of Pilates and visited Galati’s Philadelphia studio. Martina Navratilova, Bruce Hurst and Toni Collette, among other notables, have studied with her, she said.
In 2008, Galati joined her soon-to-be husband and moved to Camp Hill. Her studio there resembles a physical therapy office, but is softer and more welcoming. Among the equipment are pieces designed by Joseph Pilates.
One piece, the Cadillac (yes, named for the car) is a padded table with stainless steel poles at each corner, a push bar and arm and leg springs. Gatali stretches new patients on this table where, along with a written evaluation, she determines their needs.
Beside the Cadillac sits the reformer (it sounds more menacing that it is), another pivotal Pilates machine. Its padded center glides, and students push with their feet against a stainless bar at the end or pull with arm straps. These machines use body weight and springs to lengthen and strengthen muscle.
Motions focus on precision and mechanics—quality verses quantity. This precision allows for economy of energy, working smarter not harder. Galati watches and manipulates patients as they use equipment to ensure that they engage the proper muscles.
Personal Attention
Along with physical flexibility and strength, Body IQ Life emphasizes self-care, taking care of the mind, body and spirit.
Galati said that this is necessary because “people’s brains and bodies are at two different speeds.” This self-care includes massage, aromatic herbal footbaths, restorative yoga and meditation, in addition to Pilates.
Students come to Galati for a variety of reasons. Most are women, Baby Boomers, folks who have had orthopedic problems, those investigating nonsurgical options, and those who need some type of correction such as help with poor posture or balance.
People who study with Galati receive individual attention and a personal plan. No two plans are alike because no two people are alike. Participants have different problems, needs and motivations, and their plans will reflect that.
She also teaches a class through the Camp Hill Recreation Department so that folks can participate and receive the benefits of her guidance in more cost effective way.
“I work the ladies hard, but I keep them safe [from injury],” said Galati.
She hopes that exercise will becomes a part of a person’s daily care. Not a chore or cultural expectation, but a genuine desire to be happier and healthier. She wants people to take the time to understand themselves and their bodies better.
“I want to create a collective conversation about health and wellness,” she said.
Body IQ Life is located at 2208 Market St., Camp Hill. For more information, visit www.bodyiqlife.com or call 717-412-4195.
