VIVIAN Zapanta with VZPSGM Kenneth Colubio — VIVIAN Zapanta with VZPS GM Kenneth Colubio

Your body is a reflection of your thoughts. Just thinking about moving better can actually make you become more limber. And the fastest way to change your body is to change your mind, or the way you use your brain when doing movements.

Throughout your life your brain will be constantly remodeling itself based on how you think, behave and feel. That means your brain has the power to restore lost function, such as flexibility, through dynamic imagery. This body-mind continuum is called the Franklin Method.

Founded and developed by dancer Eric Franklin in 1994, the Franklin Method was borne out of Franklin’s necessity. As a dancer, he had sustained injuries in the back and knee. This led him to seek answers on how to use the body in a functional, anatomical way.

“With the Franklin Method, you’ll see an immediate change. In three minutes your body will change,” said Vivian Zapanta, instructor and co-owner of the Vivian Zapanta Pilates Studio.

Zapanta, who launched last week a new cardio workout she developed, “Pilates & Beyond,” incorporated the Franklin Method into the routine. Students with tight muscles experienced instant results using Franklin Method’s dynamic imagery.

Metaphors

Dynamic imagery, she said, is an effective method of using the brain to affect movement and function. Zapanta uses metaphors to address tight spots, such as creating an image of slippery bars of soap to correct tight shoulders, or using sponging, a mental visualization of pain being squeezed out from the body as one would with a wet sponge. Muscle pain disappears after just one set of reps, she said.

“PILATES & Beyond” is an intense, one-and-a-half hour workout that combines Pilates and Franklin Method. Want to watch how it’s done? INQSnap this page for videos!

“I call the brain a genie in a bottle. It affects your body in ways you’re not even aware of. If you know how to tap its potential, you can make it work in your favor. The thoughts you think while you’re exercising affect the way you move. That’s why with the Franklin Method, you get instant results,” she said.

Before you even feel it in your body, you have already changed it in your mind, she said. If you change your method of thinking, you can change your body.

“Pilates & Beyond” is a combination of cardio Pilates and the Franklin Method. Zapanta, who once was called the “Aerobics Queen” in the 1980s, confessed she missed teaching energetic, heart-pumping cardiovascular exercises. (That may be the reason her class moves to the beat of ’80s music.)

STUDENTS learn the power of dynamic imagery.

“I needed to work out my body. It felt old. I needed to sweat, to move and to nourish it,” the 61-year-old fitness icon said.

Zapanta has been teaching Pilates for 11 years, and has quietly been developing a cardio version of Pilates along the way. It was only after designing the Pilates part that she began working on combining it with the Franklin Method.

The class is an hour-and-a-half long, and is a combination, she said, of all the things she has learned for the past several decades. She first asked friends to join her private class in her home, and then her friends started bringing their friends, until one day she decided to launch it in her studio.

Killer workout

“It’s a killer workout. But after that, we will rescue the physically stressed-out body with the Franklin Method,” she said.

FRANKLIN Smooth Balls under the feet release tension and stress around the area, especially after a day of walking in heels.

The Franklin Method, in this class, serves like a long, cool-down session. Zapanta makes her students use the Franklin smooth balls, about the size of tennis balls, designed to massage and loosen up tight muscles. The smooth surface, she said, provides deep muscle penetration without damaging the soft tissues.

There’s also ball tapping, when students tap the ball against their thighs to release tension and stretch, for instance, the hamstrings.

“They go home feeling brand-new. I’ve never had an exercise where I get results with just one rep. The Franklin Method does that. It makes you more centered, like you just finished an hour of meditation. Perfections of the spirit require discipline in the mind and body. This is a step toward intertwining the mind, body and spirit,” she said.

The Franklin Method also helps align the body to its proper posture. Zapanta said poor posture, when left uncorrected, will progress into even worse posture as one ages. This will one day lead to injuries and other bodily aches, she added.

“We need to learn how our bodies are designed to function, how the bones, muscles and organs work together to function efficiently. Most especially, we need to know the mind’s role in all of these functions,” she said.

It’s all about paying long overdue attention to your body—when it’s training, sitting, walking. It makes you aware of the coordinated movements of the bones, muscles and organs.

“PILATES & Beyond” is a total body workout that promises to loosen up tight muscles and release body pains. PHOTOS BY JILSON SECKLER TIU

“Before I studied the Franklin Method, I didn’t know the bone moves in spirals, or how the muscles hold the bone,” Zapanta said.

Zapanta earned her Level 2 Franklin Method certificate this year, and is currently studying Level 3. She is the only Franklin Method educator in the country.

She will be teaching all “Pilates & Beyond” classes at the Vivian Zapanta Pilates Studio-BGC at 15/F EcoTower building, 32nd St. cor. 9th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City; tel. 8150045 and 0917-8676787.

It also has branches at G/F Tiffany Place, 156 LP Leviste St., Salcedo Village, Makati City, tel. 8867744 or 0917-8440945; and 788 Banawe Ave., QC., tel. 7110427 or 0917-5989225.