The Power of Movement & Self-Expression | Kira Lamb on ANEW Body Insight Podcast Ep 60

Welcome back to ANEW Body Insight Podcast! In this episode, Dr. Supatra Tovar and Chantal Donnelly continue their insightful conversation with Kira Lamb, a certified Pilates instructor, former professional dancer, and former licensed massage therapist. If you loved Part 1, you're going to be even more inspired by Part 2!

✨ In this episode, we dive deep into the transformative power of movement, self-expression, and how Pilates enhances mental and emotional well-being.

Kira shares her unique approach to combining Pilates with journaling, helping clients gain a deeper connection to their bodies, emotions, and personal growth. She explains how Pilates regulates the nervous system, builds resilience, and unlocks hidden potential—making people feel stronger and more empowered, both physically and mentally.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ How Pilates improves mental and emotional well-being through breathwork and movement
 ✔️ The connection between spinal mobility and nervous system regulation
 ✔️ Why self-expression and movement go hand-in-hand for holistic health
 ✔️ How journaling after movement enhances clarity, self-awareness, and emotional release
 ✔️ The importance of community in the Pilates world and how Kira built an online Pilates challenge
 ✔️ How Pilates helps people feel powerful, confident, and capable of more than they thought possible
 ✔️ The history and significance of Joseph Pilates’ original studio at Jacob’s Pillow

Why You Should Listen:

Movement isn't just about exercise—it’s about how we move through life. Whether you're a Pilates enthusiast, someone on a journey of self-discovery, or just looking for new ways to improve your physical and mental health, this episode will leave you feeling motivated and ready to take action.

Kira’s passion for empowering people through movement shines through as she discusses how Pilates can make anyone feel like a superhero—by proving that what once seemed impossible is actually within reach.

If you've ever struggled with self-doubt, injury recovery, or simply wanted to feel stronger, this conversation is for you.

To get to know more about  Kira Lamb here is her social media channels https://kiralamb.com/,  https://www.instagram.com/kiraslamb/,  https://pilatesology.com/instructor/kira-lamb/,  https://www.pilatesanytime.com/instructor-bio/256/Kira-Lamb-Pilates-Teacher 

🎧 Listen now—link in bio!

💡 Ready to break free from diet culture and build a healthy relationship with food? Take the Deprogram Diet Culture course at anew-insight.c

Thank you for joining us on this journey to wellness. Remember, the insights and advice shared on the ANEW Body Insight Podcast are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making any changes to your health routine. To learn more about the podcast and stay updated on new episodes, visit ANEW Body Insight Podcast at anew-insight.com. To watch this episode on YouTube, visit @my.anew.insight. Follow us on social media at @my.anew.insight on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Threads for more updates and insights. Thank you for tuning in! Stay connected with us for more empowering stories and expert guidance. Until next time, stay well and keep evolving with ANEW Body Insight!

Transcript

Kira Lamb: 0:01

Well, Joseph Pilates said that his work elevates the spirit. So I feel like anytime you move, quite honestly, whether it's Pilates or any form of movement, those feel good hormones start rushing through. And so it's impossible to leave a workout, I think, and feel worse than when you first arrive. And so one of the things that I always ask my clients at the end of the workout is how do you feel? And it's not just a physical thing. Most people respond like, I feel good, or I feel really energized. I know I usually leave feeling super productive. And that's what I always want people to remember because for me, that's the incentive to return. I really want people to focus on how they feel versus how they look. It's about having six pack abs or toned arms. If you get that, that's like a bonus, but it's really about how you function and how you feel in your body.

Chantal Donnelly: 0:02

Yeah, no, I was just gonna say that, you know, with Pilates, one thing I have found that really helps people, and I don't even think that we as Pilates people even consider this, but a lot of the exercise that people do is so sagittal. It's, you I wrote a book and in my book I talk about how the sympathetic nervous system lives in your thoracic spine. So your fight or flight nervous system lives in your thoracic spine, your mid back, and so if you can move that, you can dissipate some of that fight or flight energy, kind of get it out of the body, if you

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:04

Well, you, uh, you know, coming from the dance world, I think that you create, and, and I I can say this, having worked next to you, you create programs for your clients that are really creative. And I think that that's informed by your dance, background. You're incorporating all of this self-expression. I keep them separate. So once you do Pilates, like I would set up a workout that was guided by a specific intention or a theme, like I feel grounded. And so then we would do the workout. We would focus on like, how do I feel grounded in my center? How do I feel grounded in my feet in this workout? And then at the end, there'll be a journaling prompt such as I feel most grounded when. So I have been a journaler like since the early nineties when I first read the Artist's Way. And so I used to wake up every single morning and do my morning pages. And while I'm not as structured with that now, journaling is such an important part of my self-expression. because I mean, there's so much more to us than just like our movement. No. We have to express our emotions. We have to get, have a way to get like our deepest thoughts out. Sometimes the ones that we don't feel comfortable sharing with others, um, sometimes we put our thoughts on paper and they surprise us. You know, they, you know, they surprise ourselves. So I just think it's important to be able to express who you truly are authentically, and sometimes it's easiest to do on the page. So that's how I would combine Pilates with self-expression. I don't necessarily mix the two, like I never mixed Pilates and massage therapy. They're separate. But I do like to encourage people to do both because you're a whole human being and you need more than just a movement. I keep them separate. So once you do Pilates, like I would set up a workout that was guided by a specific intention or a theme, like I feel grounded. And so then we would do the workout. We would focus on like, how do I feel grounded in my center? How do I feel grounded in my feet in this workout? And then at the end, there'll be a journaling prompt such as I feel most grounded when. So I have been a journaler like since the early nineties when I first read the Artist's Way. And so I used to wake up every single morning and do my morning pages. And while I'm not as structured with that now, journaling is such an important part of my self-expression. because I mean, there's so much more to us than just like our movement. No. We have to express our emotions. We have to get, have a way to get like our deepest thoughts out. Sometimes the ones that we don't feel comfortable sharing with others, um, sometimes we put our thoughts on paper and they surprise us. You know, they, you know, they surprise ourselves. So I just think it's important to be able to express who you truly are authentically, and sometimes it's easiest to do on the page. So that's how I would combine Pilates with self-expression. I don't necessarily mix the two, like I never mixed Pilates and massage therapy. They're separate. But I do like to encourage people to do both because you're a whole human being and you need more than just a movement.

Kira Lamb: 0:07

It just feels raw, like you can just kind of just purge on the page. And I really encourage stream of consciousness writing, so it's not like you're writing an essay for school where you're trying to formulate a sentence. I just kind of like put my pen on the paper and just let words come out. You know, I allow the prompt to guide me, and then sometimes it's, it's amazing the things that come out on the page. You're like, I really think that way. I really feel that way about myself. know, I'm really upset

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:08

are just as relaxed as you can be, and I mean, you're right after Pilates, there's no way you can feel more tense than when you started. You're always feeling just better and more open. You go straight to journaling, something like that.

Kira Lamb: 0:09

Yeah, as a dancer, it's interesting because I, I'm used to expressing my emotions through movement, but when you can put words to those emotions. There's so much more clarity to what you're feeling and that's what like the insight that you're talking about the intuition that you get actually putting into words and putting it on paper, that's really, really powerful. Okay, well first I've always wanted to be a superhero. That's just like, it's just like literally, and since I was a kid, I thought I could fly, like I was that kid. I was like, if I take three giant steps and somehow get my body parallel to the ground and just start flapping my arms, I thought I could fly. So it's no surprise that I became an aerial artist. just believe that we all have. I mean, not really real superpowers, but I think that we are far more capable than we are willing to admit at first. I just want people to experience Pilates so they can also experience what their bodies are capable of. It's like some people don't think, like, you know, when you first start Pilates and the rollup is impossible, and you're like, I'll never be able to do the rollup, and then you give yourself like some weeks, or maybe it takes months and all of a sudden you do the rollup. That is so empowering, you know, and I don't know, I, I still get that too. Like I can't always do a good roll up, you know, and then, you know, my body might feel specifically or tight on a specific day, and then the next day when I can do it. Like it just feels good. It feels good when you discover what your body is capable of. And as you continue to do Pilates, like, like I said, everyone starts off as a beginner, you're not gonna be stuck at the beginner level the whole time because your teacher's gonna progress you and give you more challenging exercises where you have to be able to do multiple different movement patterns at the same time. And when you can do that, when you can get into the intermediate work and maybe even the advanced work, you start to feel a little bit like a superhero. 'cause you never even believed you could do that stuff in the first place. You thought you were stuck just doing a footwork series and leg circles and frogs, you know, for 10 years. But it's amazing how those foundational exercises will progress you into, say, doing airplane on the Cadillac. I know some people don't know what I'm talking about, but it's a beginner exercise versus an advanced exercise.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:12

safely

Kira Lamb: 0:13

And the, and Pilates also teaches you to try different approaches to the same goal. So it's like, okay, so I'm really struggling with the roll up on the mat. Well, what happens if you're on a traditional mat and you can put your feet under the straps and you understand how to like anchor your legs and how to create opposition, between your legs and your powerhouse. Or what if you do the rollbacks where you have spring assistance, it's supporting you while you discover that spine articulation or what if you go to the wounded chair and do the push down and find that spine, like there's so many ways that you can figure out how can I articulate my spine? And then eventually you take those new habits and put it back on the mat and you can do the roll up. Same exercise you always wanted to do. You tried all these different approaches, they give you more information and suddenly you're able to do something you thought you wouldn't be able to do. That's what I think is so genius about the entire, if you use the whole method, instead of just doing like one piece of apparatus, that's one of the benefits is that you do have options to help you learn. about Contrology Freak Challenge. Um, it's not necessarily community, um, but The Contrology Freak Challenge is an annual event that I host on, um, Instagram. And it is a way to bring what I call Contrology Freaks or Pilates lovers from around the world to kind of converge onto this platform and just kind of demonstrate to the world what Contrology is in the first place. Like, what is this system that I've been talking about and how is all the apparatus that we work on and how are all the, in the exercises that we teach fully integrated? And so what I will do is I will choose a total of seven exercises let's say I do, um, we'll just take the roll up again. So let's say, I'm gonna show you the roll up in your Instagram post. Meaning we use all the apparatus, the reformer, the chairs, the Cadillacs, and so on and so forth. So you could have the roll up if someone can't do a roll up. You teach them the half rollback, your knees are bent, you have the support of your hands, and they start to move their spine. A progression of that or like also a basic version of that would be the rollback on the Cadillac. Now, how would I progress the roll up even further? Maybe the push down on the one to chair. Maybe when I'm doing standing squats, when I do a squat at the Cadillac, reach my arms forward, I roll down against that spring resistance roll up. So the goal is every single day there's a party theme, because we're, oh, I didn't tell you. It's, we're celebrating Joseph Pilate's birthday, which is December 9th. That's when it launches. It's a seven day challenge. It starts on Joe's birthday. So let's say day one, the party theme is the rollup. And so people post the rollup, but also progression set exercises or exercise regression, set exercise on all apparatus. Next day, new theme. It could be pulling straps on the long box on the reformer. I. Where else do you get that thoracic extension, for example, or that arm, the movement of your arms on other pieces of apparatus? So we have seven days, seven party themes, and I have seven sponsors and they offer three gifts, birthday presents. who are drawn out of a raffle. So Gratz, for example, um, like a month. Pilatesology donates a month. The Pilates Source will do like archival posters and classes. Chris Robinson donates. Kathy Stratton donates her books 'cause she's written the biography about Joseph Pilates and one about, um, Romana Kryzanowska um, Pilates Lineage, an apparatus manufacturer. They donated stuff. I don't wanna forget anybody, but you get the point. So we get seven winners who are drawn out of a raffle and they get these prizes, and it's all to honor Joe's work, but also to educate consumers. What is this Contrology thing all about? What is traditional Pilates And so that cabin, full of archival apparatus was just sitting there and it was getting damaged, you know, from water and just like age. And so Sean and Elaine and the team of volunteers started to like pull all the apparatus out. They basically rebuilt that gym from flooring to walls, to windows, to roof. Then they started, all the apparatus. Sometimes it meant putting like new vinyl on finding missing parts that you couldn't find or having springs replicated and now it is a functioning gym with his archival equipment. It's just, it's also just surreal to be in a space that holds so much history. It's, it's really fascinating. And then to be on Jacob's Pillow in the space where he taught. So some people, even if they don't do Pilates, or probably only Pilates people would look at this, but like old videos of Joseph Pilates teaching dancers at the Tea Garden, you know, they're outdoors on that wooden stage and you see them like jumping up and down and doing this or doing the teasers. If you think of like, um, I dunno, like Martha Graham, like preserving her work it's fascinating. We always need people to preserve the original, even if other people expand upon it, which is like kind of inevitable. But I think it's really valuable to hold onto history and to preserve it it's such a great educational tool as well.

Chantal Donnelly: 0:21

Good stuff. And you said you had another community just on your Instagram page, is that right?

Kira Lamb: 0:22

Well, I'll get back on the hoop. ASAP, so there's that. What else? I envision myself one day moving internationally. And that's one of the reasons why I am building up my, online platform I like the idea of being mobile, you know, mama's getting older, I just wanna continue thinking about what do I want my life to feel like and what do I want my business to feel like in the next five, 10 years. It's important to think about. So I don't all of a sudden hit 70 and be like, oh my God, I'm still like teaching X number, you know, X hours a week and I have no time for rest, and I just wanna be a little strategic. I absolutely love what I do, so I have no plans of actually stopping ever. But I wanna make it manageable, you know, whatever I do, I wanna keep it enjoyable and keep it fresh and interesting for my, for myself, and keep attracting the same type of students that I'm attracting because. I feel super lucky that I've been getting the people that I get because they are true students of the work. They, they're fascinated by it.

Dr. Supatra Tovar: 0:23

in Italy.

Kira Lamb: 0:24

for me. And even travel and teach, you know, in studios across the world would be a lot of fun for me. So, I have to say it was wonderful to see Kim on your podcast too, because she was at the studio when I was there too, and I always thought she was a fantastic teacher. And I love watching her work on Instagram. I love, love, love it. Um it's phenomenal It's phenomenal., And I love that it's still open. I love that it's still open and just to see the way Tracey has grown her, I always knew that she was a rock star. She's such an inspiration.