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Trina Altman

Trina Altman

Pilates Deconstructed® & Yoga Deconstructed® Embodied Anatomy Biomechanics

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My Story

Before I started on a career helping others get out of pain, I needed to help myself. But it didn’t happen overnight. It took me seventeen years as a fashion designer and an investment banker in NYC—running on the hamster wheel in high heels—to realize that I could no longer live with bunions, back pain and stress. It was risky to leave my corporate career, and I was terrified, but I knew I had to find a new path.

When it finally came to a toss-up between what was, for me, the slow death of my soul, or a journey towards improving my health and well-being, I chose well-being. And I pursued it. I spent every minute away from the rat race studying yoga and Pilates, searching for a better sense of myself from the inside out instead of from the outside in.

Today, I am a teacher. I help anyone who wants to feel better in their body. From international conferences to private sessions, I help people understand why they have pain and show them what they need to do to get out of it. Believe it or not, there is so much joy in unearthing your "body blind spots," those places where movement, posture, and position contribute to patterns of pain. I’ll teach you to find, nurture, and heal your own body blind spots. My fitness expertise will help you unearth your passion for moving better and bring you to the best version of yourself.

Breaking Free: Out of the Cubicle and Onto the Mat!

I’m just a perfectly imperfect gal who enjoys eating lots of dark chocolate, being a goofball with my husband, and singing karaoke off tune. Like most people, my relationship with my body has changed over time.

As a child, I was in love with movement. I clambered over the jungle gym, pretended to be Wonder Woman, and dangled upside down from any bar I could get my knee pits around. As a teenager, my daredevil energy was channeled into gymnastics, where I tumbled, jumped, and did back-flips. Those playful years eventually gave way to the rigorous and structured demands of Brown University.

I dove headfirst into Being a Career Woman as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in NYC, working 80 hours a week. What can I say? I was desperate to prove myself. But since the only minutes of my day I actually enjoyed came at 6:30am at the gym, it soon became clear that banking wasn’t for me.

Switching gears, I became a fashion designer, and then a jewelry designer, successfully selling my pieces to fancy stores like Barneys and Onward Kashiyama. But now, in my late 20s, I was isolated in an East Village apartment and completely ignoring my body. Depression reared its head. Fortunately, a friend dragged me to a Bikram yoga class. There, I moved, stretched, sweated, and remembered how fun movement could be. And I began to feel better.

That’s how I started to explore many different styles of yoga. I found Pilates, too, while visiting my mom in Oklahoma. Slowly but surely, movement became a constant thread in my life, a source of peace and an escape from my day job. Finally, I knew what made me happy. Thanks to the support and encouragement of my husband, Farzad, my career transitioned from the office to the mat.

Becoming a Teacher

Once I start something, I tend to go all in. Now that I was no longer deskbound, I completed my 500-hour teacher training in. I loved it and I knew I was coming home to myself through yoga. I began sharing what I was learning and embodying with others, and they were responding with gratitude.

I was very good at the yoga poses. Almost all of them came naturally to me. My hypermobile joints and lax ligaments allowed me to express almost any shape with little effort. The more I practiced yoga, the better I felt... At least—until I didn’t.

We moved to Iowa City for Farzad’s new job. There I took Pilates reformer classes and enrolled in the STOTT PILATES® teacher training. But as I began to teach and practice regularly, my joints started to pay the price. I was doing too many of the same kinds of movements and stretching way too much. Through Pilates, I was developing strength, but it wasn’t enough to cancel out the wear and tear I’d begun to feel during my yoga practice.

While studying for my Pilates exam, I realized how little I knew about anatomy. How could I truly engage with my body and others’ if I didn’t know what was going on under the skin? Traditional yoga and Pilates had taught me to execute poses and exercises, and I in turn was teaching them to others, but it became clear to me that even with modifications, not all exercises and poses were appropriate for all people.

That was a hard, but crucial, lesson: Just because you can do the pose doesn’t mean you should do the pose. More is not always more.

After hundreds of hours of teacher training, multiple certifications, and success as a teacher, I now began a new phase in my career. I began to ask, Why? Why are we doing this pose? How does it affect the body’s tissues? What daily life activities will it help me with? My Pilates manual addressed some of these issues, but I needed to know more. And the biggest question still loomed large: Why was a healing practice like yoga hurting me?

Paying it forward

After over a decade of studying movement and exercise science, and educating hundreds of teachers, I’ve discovered that there is no single best or right way to move. Rather, it is more beneficial to teach to the individual in front of you.

This is only possible when you have an understanding of human movement, a toolbox of exercises, and the critical thinking skills to apply them appropriately. Realizing this is what inspired me to create Yoga Deconstructed® and Pilates Deconstructed®.

Both Yoga Deconstructed® and Pilates Deconstructed® take an interdisciplinary approach to foster an embodied understanding of yoga and Pilates and their relationship to modern movement science.
In my classes, workshops, and weekend immersions, you will learn exercises and techniques to help you and your students strengthen their weak links, so you can become a more embodied mover, while reducing the risk of injury.

Ready to Learn?

Take a live workshop Learn online

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LEARN ONLINE

  • Yoga Deconstructed®
  • Break it Down: Regress to Progress
  • UnWreck Your Neck
  • Pilates Deconstructed®
  • Movement Logic
  • Yoga Anytime

TAKE A LIVE WORKSHOP

Trina teaches fitness industry professionals throughout the world. Find a workshop near you to experience a unique in-person training experience.

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trinaaltman

Here’s one of the many reasons why we lift heavy Here’s one of the many reasons why we lift heavy things:-). 

Repost @drbrenocastrofisio with @use.repost
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A importância da FISIOTERAPIA e do EXERCÍCIO FÍSICO para as Atividades de Vida Diária dos Idosos. 👵🏼👴🏽

SEJA FUNCIONAL 💪🏽
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@arieboomsmainstagram
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#fisioterapia #fisio #physiotherapist #physio #geriatria #gerontologia #geronto #treinamentofuncional #treinamento #nfl #movimentocura #treinamentopersonalizado #exerciciofisico #reabilitação #saúde #saudemental #atividadefisica #atividade #avd #atividadesdevidadiária  #idosos
Once I learn something new, my brain immediately w Once I learn something new, my brain immediately wants to integrate it and relate it to something else I already know. 

For example, when I learned these arm swings from my adult beginner, modern dance teacher @sofiesnow back in 2016, I immediately thought of how they could help my students learn more about the relationship between their shoulders and their spines. 

So much of the movement we do in yoga, Pilates, barre, strength training etc. can be extremely controlled and precise. And there’s nothing wrong with controlled and precise, but sometimes it’s nice to add a little variability into your movement diet. 

This variability often provides the missing links that help you make connections between your brain and your body that you may not have previously observed. 

Obviously, this is what lights me up, so I’m always looking for connecting “puzzle piece” type movements that I can include in my yoga classes that will facilitate those aha lightbulb 💡 moments of awareness and joy in my students. 

While it might seem here on social media, that I favor certain movement modalities over others, it’s not the case. 

I am always linking each modality to another, because that’s how my brain works, but also because it’s fun! 

Where do you get your teaching ideas and movement inspiration from? 

I’d love to hear in the comments.

Sound on for Sofia’s brilliant verbal and tactile cues 🔥
I had to try this filter after going down a TikTok I had to try this filter after going down a TikTok rabbit hole thanks to my new friend @gannefromga . I love how there’s one random brown hair creeping around my neck that it forgot to turn platinum 🤣. There were a few times my high school friends and I should have been kicked out of a bar or 2 back in the day. And my hair was close to platinum because it was 1989ish so there’s that 🤷‍♀️
I try to be a beginner on a regular basis because I try to be a beginner on a regular basis because it makes me a better teacher. 

When you’re a beginner, it brings you back in time to a place of “newness”. 

It’s exciting and sometimes overwhelming, but I want to remind myself what it feels like to learn something new and NOT be good at it. 

Being a beginner is a potent challenge for my brain, and injects empathy into how I teach my own classes.

Learning new things can be scary, so I challenge myself to deconstruct when I teach. I break down complicated movements into smaller “pieces”, which is exactly what @arthurcrenshaw does when he teaches his hip-hop class at Equinox . 

If you get the chance, to learn from Arthur you should grab it!! 

He teaches all over LA…this class is on Thursday nights at 7 PM at the @equinox Southbay. 

When’s the last time you were a beginner? 

I love to hear about it below in the comments. ⬇️
#Repost @ashleyfranceshoffman ・・・ Thank you #Repost @ashleyfranceshoffman
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Thank you to @jaggasaurus & @jaggedvdf for such a fun class today 🪐💫 AND thank you to my weightlifting trainer @trinaaltman Training with her since September is the reason I was finally able to return to aerial class pain free with my new upper body strength to support my hyper mobile shoulders 💪 
…………………………………………….

When @ashleyfrancishoffman started working with me back in September of 2022, one of her goals was to eliminate the pain in her left shoulder so she could get back to living her life AND return to her Sunday aerial class at @jaggedvdf .

For her strength training program, I included lifts for all six of the basic movement patterns just as I do for every client: squat, hinge, vertical push, vertical pull, horizontal push and horizontal pull. 

Chest press (horizontal push) was the most challenging for her so we started with the appropriate load, which at the time was 18 pounds for her right side and 10 pounds for the left side.  For awhile in the beginning, I decreased the range of motion by having her do the chest press on the floor rather than on an elevated surface like the bench. 

The cool thing about strength training is that there’s always a place from which you can start to build things up from, aaaand, if you stay consistent you’ll become more robust and resilient. 

It’s not magic. 

It’s just graded exposure and progressive overload;). 

We will be learning all the ins and outs of graded exposure and progressive overload in my Creativity Meets Science immersion in St. Louis July 15-16 at @brickcityyogastl . 

Once you understand these principles, you can apply them to every method of movement… yoga, Pilates strength training etc. 

Click the Live Events link in my bio for all the details ⬆️
One of my favorite things about being consistent w One of my favorite things about being consistent with my weightlifting + plyometric training is that it means I can take group classes (cardio dance, vinyasa yoga, and equipment based Pilates) and remain pain free. 🎉

My 50 year old tendons have become “springy” enough to dance on hardwood floors for 60 minutes straight with no negative after effects. 

I used to get all kinds of weird aches and pains when I would take a cardio dance class because I wasn’t lifting weights regularly or training plyometric skills. I’m so happy that’s no longer the case and endlessly grateful for my weekly Cardio Dance class with @jaciescott @equinox South Bay! 

It’s pure JOY learning the choreography and progressing each week. 

What’s lighting you up lately? 

Are you learning anything new? 

I’m not naturally good at dancing so I’m enjoying all the struggles and milestones of doing something slightly out of my comfort zone. 
 
Thank you Jacie for being straight up AWESOME 🤩!!! And thank you @kkatsz for being my Sunday morning dance buddy ❤️🤗

If you live in LA and want to come sometime just send me a DM 😉
Did you have every intention of purchasing during Did you have every intention of purchasing during the New Year Sale? Dealing with some serious regrets because you missed out?

I get it. FOMO is real. So here’s your giving you second chance!

Click the link in my bio and use the code WELOVEFLEXIA to save $500 on your Flexia reformer! 

Here’s why I love my Flexia Reformer:

🧡 Studio grade quality and beautiful design
🧡 Simple to set-up and use
🧡 Easily stores upright, making it ideal for in-home use (includes wheels for ease of transport)
🧡 Fits most body types between 5’0” and 6’6” tall, so the whole family can enjoy
🧡 Comes with AI-powered workouts giving you personalized feedback and class recommendations

The sale ends 11:59 pm PST February 24, 2023.

P.S. Wondering how our reformer stacks up against others or have questions about our tech? 

Send me a DM and I will help you set up a virtual demo:)
This is what the exercise is “supposed to look l This is what the exercise is “supposed to look like”

And this is what my hypermobile body wants to do 😆

And that’s ok!!!

Why? Because you need 
to have some ugly reps!!

Ugly reps are part of the learning process! 

We learn through trial and error. 

You have to do things in different ways in order to figure out the way you want to do it .

Also, there isn’t really one correct way. There are just different ways of achieving different goals. 

Are you trying to improve stability & precision in your curtsy lunges?

Or are you trying to add perturbation for an extra balance challenge? 

I’m using a red pull up band attached to the bottom of my rig. 

I’m standing on a step with 4 risers.

You can regress the exercise by using a lighter band and less (or no) risers. 

I love how this exercise challenges your obliques, hip adductors, lats and more! 

It’s a side core extravaganza 💪🏼🎉

If you try these lmk how it goes!
This made me smile so big so I must share. Happy This made me smile so big so I must share. 

Happy Friday ya’ll! 

And don’t forget to tell anyone who judges you for being YOU for f&ck off! 

#Repost @agirlhasnopresident with @use.repost
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Feelin this today 

Posted @withregram • @themidult STOP IT 

❤️ @elliejanetaylor
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