This Mat & Chat was hosted on on Instagram Live on Saturday, August 15th. The chat followed a 25 minute mat workout.
Victoria: For those of you just tuning in, this is Jamie Isaac. At the very beginning of class, he said his accent is British, although it’s not that strong anymore- sorry.
Jamie: No, it’s not. People rub me when I get home because they think I sound American, which I certainly don’t-
Victoria: I think you sound Australian!
Jamie: Is that so?
Victoria: Yeah, you said: “I certainly doint”- and the way you said: “don’t” sounds more Australian to me than British.
Jamie: Ah, that’s because of where I’m actually from is a small island just off the south of England, and it’s real farming community. So if I talk in my real accent from where I’m from we talk like this *mimics accent.* It kind of blends with the southern England accent, it becomes this weird, strange sort of Australian accent. Just lost and confused, that’s all.
Victoria: So Jamie started Pilates in his home country of England. How long ago did you start your original certification? How many moons ago was that?
Jamie: Probably going back around 14 years, so not long enough. You know how you go: “Man, I should have really done this my whole life?”
Victoria: Yeah, totally.
Jamie: It was always coming from a movement background, which is how I stumbled upon it. Someone suggested it to me, because I did a Sports Science degree and I’ve always sort of been in human movement and coaching. Someone said: “You should get into this Pilates stuff and go and try a class.” I remember walking out of my first class and going: “I’m never doing that again- that was rubbish.” You know? And here we are!
Victoria: What kind of Pilates was it? Was it the Pilates you know now? Or was it some kind of hybrid?
Jamie: No, it was rubbish. It was like going to your local gym, and there’s 50 people in a room and you look around and you’re like: “What is going on?” This is the thing: at the time when I started Pilates in the UK- and it’s developed a lot, there is access to the classical world now and there’s some really wonderful studios- but back then, it was really driven by what the government said it should be. Which is a very strange way to look at it.
Victoria: What? The government?
Jamie: Yeah, well they would just have these governing bodies that would say basically: “This is it.” So it was really related to the whole fitness industry. Unless you were fortunate enough to find the right people, which I wasn’t. So it didn’t really sort of set my world on fire in that moment. But later on, down the line, it certainly did. It was all just this slow movement, rehabilitative kind of concept and approach. It certainly interested me and that set me on this journey.
Victoria: Yes! I always say: “Take us on a journey” because everybody’s story is always so complicated, and you go down these windy roads. One of the women I had on my Mat & Chat- Carmen Lanteigne- said: “And those are the crumbs,” you know, like Hansel & Gretel who leave the crumbs down the path. After she told her story she said: “Those were my crumbs.” That was her journey through the forest of Pilates.
So when you first started and certified, you started in a more contemporary school of thought, right?
Jamie: Yes, completely.
Victoria: Did you know there was a difference at that time?
Jamie: No, not at all, actually. When I started out it was like: “This is it. This is what Pilates is.” In my first certification, there was no mention of Joe. Yeah, to go into this world of rehab and physiotherapy- it’s great, and it has a huge place there, but to not even know where it came from is absurd really.
Victoria: Yeah, he’s the man! So you told me yesterday- I mean, obviously I introduced you today as living right outside of San Diego. So at some point you made the transition from Europe to the United States. Were you teaching Pilates when you moved to the states?
Jamie: Yeah, I was. I had moved over to Spain first, and we lived in Spain for 8 years, and I was teaching there. I moved to Spain to surf. I moved to this small rock off of the west coast Africa actually, which was a Spanish-governed island. And yes, Pilates was just a natural thing for the surfers- the kite surfers, the wind surfers there. So from Europe, I was teaching in Spain a fair bit, and then my wife is from New Mexico. So we would be visiting her home quite often and I was just blown away by how much Pilates there was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, it was just incredible. Such a hotbed, with Eve Gentry having left her lineage there, and Michele Larsson. So connecting with people there- and when we finally moved to the states, that’s where we started our time in America, in Santa Fe.
Victoria: So when you went to do Pilates, with Michele Larsson or the Eve Gentry’s of Santa Fe- did you feel like that was different Pilates you had learned in England?
Jamie: Yeah, but it was a very natural step. A lot of that was really rehab-focused, and sort of working on the fundamentals of pre-Pilates stuff. So it felt like a natural step, and it was fascinating. The other thing that they have there, which really just resonated and still resonates with me- Michele was just a huge part in creating that community in Santa Fe. They would have a weekly session where teachers- it didn’t matter who trained you or where you came from- would come together and do a session together every Wednesday. It’s just such a beautiful way to approach it. It doesn’t have to be that we’re all compartmentalized, we can all come together and celebrate, and that was great.
Fortunately, there was another lady there, Celia Holton, who is actually a fellow Brit, and she was also someone who studied with Eve. She was a huge source of information as well. I learned so much there and it was a beautiful time for sure.
Victoria: So how did you then find your connection to Lolita?
Jamie: Yeah, so from there we moved to the west coast, even though Lolita is on the east coast. I just wanted to further the journey, and study with people who had studied with Joe. You start to realize that there’s so much there to learn- like you said, the breadcrumbs. For some reason, I saw that Lolita was offering these opportunities to study. So I spent a couple of years going over to join Lolita in Florida and study with her there, which was another step. Once again, Lolita’s not of this classical, authentic Pilates- I mean she is, she’s totally authentic. She studied with and certified with Joe, actually, but she has this real contemporary feel. It was great, I learned so much from her, but what it did was light a fire that I had to go deeper and had to follow this through.
I was fortunate enough that while studying with Lolita there- she has this beautiful studio full of all of this modern Balanced Body apparatus- and then in the back corner she had these three, dusty Gratz reformers. I’d be like: “I’m using these- this is where I can feel it” and she’d be like: “Jamie, no! Stop using that. Come and use this one! You’re a big guy! Just come and use this piece of apparatus.” But I’d be like: “No, I’m really having a good time here!” And that’s where I met Zoe Trap, who’s the team leader at Peak. She was like: “Jamie, you just have to come over to Peak and come join us and explore this classical thing a bit further.”
Victoria: You had all of these classical guardian angels.
Jamie: Yeah, totally!
Victoria: From Florida, to New Mexico, they all followed you. Until you got to Lolita’s studio, had you ever worked out on Gratz before?
Jamie: Yes, I definitely had, but not really understanding in that stage that there was a difference between apparatus.
Victoria: What do you think the differences are?
Jamie: Wow, I mean- how long do we have? *laughs*. I love this, right. So I want to go back to my time in Santa Fe, briefly, if I may. You walk into Michele Larsson’s studio, and what I loved about her was that it wasn’t like: “I have just this one piece of apparatus.” She had different brands of everything. It felt like she was adamant that you should experience it all. When I jumped on to Gratz and did the classical work- it doesn’t have to be Gratz nowadays, there are a lot of manufacturers making really good quality classical gear- you feel the work. You feel the physicality of the work. You have to show up and do the work. You don’t just glide through the workout. They’re not even called machines, they’re called apparatus!
Victoria: Totally, it’s so true. That’s one of the first things we’re taught in teacher training: they’re not called machines, they’re called apparatus. I always correct myself. Of course when you’re in and around Pilates people, it’s easy to say “apparatus”, but sometimes I’m around laypeople, to say “apparatus” is funny. They’ll be like: “Oh you brought all of the Pilates machines out to Montauk?” And I’ll be like: “Yeah.” When I say “Pilates elders”, my boyfriend is like: “You are in a cult.” Pilates elders, Pilates apparatus. But we have standards to uphold in our language! But it is such an interesting differentiation between apparatus and machine- because I do consider Peak , Gratz, as an apparatus versus, like you said, a machine that does the work for you, because it’s bigger, because they’ve changed dimensions.
Jamie: No, totally and it feels completely different. And it’s not that you can’t find the work using other apparatus, but you have to really go digging for it. That’s the thing- that was the one thing, it felt like it kicked my ass and I liked it. This is the work I’m sweating, I’m working, I’m connected, and I’m completely present in this workout. For me as well, that was the other discovery. It’s not just all this movement and entertainment, all of a sudden you’re doing work- you’re here to work out, and everything else is just that added bonus to it. You’re here to sweat, and you’re here to work.
Victoria: Right. So I didn’t ask you this yesterday, but I love having men on the Mat & Chat. I feel like a lot of men think that Pilates is for women, or they’re not drawn to it from the get-go. I always make a joke that there are three ways that men come to Pilates: their wives sent them, their doctor sent them, or they were a ballerina. It’s not always one of those three, but it seems to be the funnel into Pilates. So, as a male who is a professional in this world, whose wife didn’t send you, whose doctor didn’t send you, and you were not a ballerina- do you teach equally to men and women? Is it mostly females? How do you approach differences in teaching men versus women in your studio?
Jamie: Yeah, so it’s just this whole concept of “teach the body that’s in front of you.” So there’s that, but there’s also: “Teach the mind that’s in front of you,” right? So you find that there are actual physiological differences between the male brain and the female brain. Women have a much greater capacity to multitask, for example. It’s like they have a super freeway going through, so they have the capacity to do that. For men, it’s like this meandering country road between the two. So, automatically, we already have to cue differently. More simple cues, more direct. There are differences, but also with guys- you asked how do guys come to Pilates? They do have this misconception of what it is, generally, but when you show them how it’s going to impact on their life and that side of their life- their sport performance, getting pain free, or just improving their longevity, they’re like: “I’m in.” If you can show them how it relates to what they do or what they want to do, you’re going to have clients for life.
Victoria: Totally. And speaking of that, I know you have clients who are surfers! You mentioned that you did that a lot in Spain, because you lived on a rock off of Africa, and then now you’re north of San Diego. So how do you approach Pilates for people who surf? How is that different from how you approach Pilates for people who don’t?
Jamie: Okay, so, I mean ultimately it’s sort of the fun joke as well- Pilates for Surfers, Pilates for Golfers- it’s fundamentally Pilates but there are tweaks and differences they make. But with the surfers, it depends on how often they are surfing and what level they’re surfing at. What are their goals? It’s what you would do with any other student. If you have someone who is a “weekend warrior” and they’re in the office most of the week, we’re looking to develop patterns, strength, and stamina- all of these things that will help them so that they can maximize when they get to the water. When you’re working with someone who’s surfing every day, or twice a day, they’ve got all of these other workout regimes around within their program. Sometimes we’re actually working on dialing back- we don’t’ have to push them. Maybe it’s something more subtle that we’re looking to bring some balance into the body from the imbalances from the activity that they’re doing. It depends on who we’re working with and what their goals are.
Victoria: Do you find that you have a lot more men in the studio because you have that offering?
Jamie: I think originally, yeah. Less-so now. I’m still close to the coast, but where I am is a little bit more rural. I did dip down (pre-Covid) into some of these surf communities, and you would get a lot of guys- more guys than ladies actually- who would come to these “Pilates for Surfers” workshops. We actually did a workshop in Puerto Rico, last year. There’s amazing surfing in Puerto Rico. There were equal guys to ladies in that- they just get it. In fact, the surfers in Puerto Rico love their Pilates- it’s huge.
Victoria: That’s great! I need to go down to Puerto Rico and do some Pilates there!
Jamie: You do! There are so many great teachers down there.
Victoria: Someone just asked: “Where is your studio exactly?”
Jamie: Okay, so if you’re in southern California, if you go north of San Diego you’ll find Oceanside and Carlsbad, and I’m just ten miles inland from there, in a place called Vista.
Victoria: Well it sounds like there’s a good view! “Vista!”
Jamie: Yes! I can actually look out and see the ocean from my studio. It was originally meant to be for retreats. We did this in Spain, and we still do- we run a yoga and Pilates retreat, and then we moved out west and said: “Let’s just do the same here,” but it didn’t happen. We did a few, and then we had a second kid and all of a sudden realized that we had no time left!
Victoria: Jen says there’s lot of oranges there.
Jamie: Yeah! Although I can’t grow them. As good as I am with technology, I’m the same in the garden. I’ll kill anything.
Victoria: You don’t have a green thumb? You don’t have an orange thumb!
Jamie: Not at all.
Jamie’s Speed Round
City or beach
Sweet or savory?
Cat or dog?
Adventure or comfort?
Books or movies?
Nights in or nights out?
Summer or winter?
Tea or coffee?
Early bird or night owl?
Pizza or pasta?
Europe or Asia?
Spring or fall?
Breakfast or dinner?