Bre Dumke Helfrich, MSc, PhD

With all the new faces on here, I figured it was time to reintroduce myself! First, welcome! Im so glad you’re here. As weird as social media can be (seriously, wtf?) my goal in being on this app is getting to connect with other Pilates and Gyrotonic teachers and geeking out on the science of movement with plenty of nuance all while still keeping it fun. Now it’s your turn! I’d love to hear from you! Please say hi in the comments! 👋🏼🤓 And special shout out to @ashleyduffuscreative for making my watercolors geek out vision come to life. 🤗

The truth is, I never planned on being a movement teacher. When I enrolled at Colorado State University, I planned on pursuing a career as a PhD principal investigator in exercise physiology. But life had other plans for me. In June of 2010, while traversing an exposed mountain ridge line in Southern Colorado, the rock I was standing on gave out. I fell 20-30 feet before I hit and then rag dolled for another 40-50 feet. While I’m lucky to be alive, I’m even more grateful for the career that my fall gave me. I would have ever left my academic path to teach movement had it not been for my accident. Seriously, you should have seen the look on my grad school advisor’s face when I told him that my plan was to pursue my Pilates Certification. 😜 But also, could this be any more perfect? My academic training gave me tools and a deep understanding of kinesiology for working with real clients with real bodies beyond any movement certification. Similarly, my accident taught me first hand what it’s like to be in pain and scared to move; it’s been a perspective that I don’t think many 25 year olds and or even 40 year olds can comprehend. This is why I’m so passionate about teaching movement. My teaching is never one size fits all. It’s incredibly personal. We work through the scary bits and find strength in all the hard to reach places. We learn, we challenge, we laugh, we grow - together. If you’ve been looking for a way to move past an old injury or simply want to enjoy moving in your body - send me a DM. Trust me, you’re not just getting old. 😉 I’m booking both in-person and virtual lessons. I’d love to show you the science & ✨magic✨ of this work. #movement #steamboat #gyrotonic® #steamboatsprings #pilates

Having just moved back to Colorado, the question I keep getting asked is, ‘so, what do you do for work?’ Admittedly, I’m still figuring out what to say. 😜 The long winded answer is that I’m a research trained academic who had a bad mountaineering accident. I was told I’d always have chronic pain but I refused to accept that. This lead me to my Pilates and Gyrotonic Certifications and now I teach people how to move. I used to own a large studio in downtown SLC and am currently rebuilding my private practice here in Colorado. While it’s hard to succinctly state what exactly I do (what even is the Pilates method or the Gyrotonic method? 🙃) but the main take home is, I teach people how to move better and can teach you how to do the same. 💪🏼💙🤓 I’d love to hear from you if you need either of the two. #movement #gyrotonic® #steamboatsprings #pilates #steamboatlife #exercisescience

Thank you to everyone who joined me Saturday for my Applied Biomechanics course for movement professionals hosted by @mvmt_sci ! I had the best time geeking out with you on forces, moment arms, and all the ways that biomechanics pertains to Pilates and teaching movement. This material is so critical for understanding movement and is the basis for how you can adapt any movement to any client so that you can truly teach to the client in front of you. And if you have any follow up questions on the course, or would like to stay in the know on all my MDL Geek Out courses, send me a DM. I can’t wait to geek out with you next time! 🔥🤓💪🏼📚

First, no shade. How cool is it to learn more than you already do? And honestly, between learning the equipment and all the exercises and choreography, our trainings are already packed. BUT! As a Doctor of Kinesiology and a certified Pilates & Gyrotonic teacher, trust me when I say it’s important that you don’t stop learning with your Pilates, yoga, Gyrotonic or personal training certification. As a movement teacher, it’s imperative that you learn the basics of biomechanics so that you can best understand movement, analyze movement & be able to adapt movement to any client you teach. If this is you, I hope you’ll be joining me tomorrow and @mvmt_sci for my Applied Biomechanics course for movement professionals. Registration link in my bio. 💪🏼🤓

Curious about how I work strength training principles into my teaching as a Pilates and Gyrotonic teacher? The key here is I always work to support my client’s goals. Some of my clients want/need our sessions to count as a strength training session vs a low load/mobility session. For these clients, I program accordingly. But for all clients, I make sure they have additional strength days outside of the studio so ensure they get the best results possible. Find this helpful? Let me know! Always happy to answer any questions you may have! 🤓💪🏼

Isn’t running/dancing/golfing/mountain biking/skiing/climbing enough? Honestly? No. In this episode of Applied Anatomy, I discuss why strength training is so critical. It’s just under two minutes but I promise it’s worth the watch. I have this conversation all the time with my clients. Yes, all your favorite sports are amazing and yes, you should absolutely keep doing them. But, also, skeletal muscle is expensive. Your body won’t just magically stay strong unless you provide it with adequate and regular input in order to maintain muscle mass. Womp womp. 🫠 So yea, make sure you use it, or you will definitely lose it. 💪🏼🤓🔥 #pilates #gyrotonic® #movementscience #biomechanics #exercisescience

Ooooooooooo, as an exercise physiologist and biomechanist, I always love a good ACSM position stand update. 🤓💪🏼 Here are 5, IMO, of the biggest takeaways from the latest ACSM stand on strength training. With it estimated that less than 30% of all adults (and scarily about 10% of adults over the age of 65…) participating in the recommended 2-3 days of strength training per week this, if you’re a movement professional, this paper is a must read. Which, if you’re not familiar with ACSM, basically they are the world’s largest sports medicine and exercise science organization. It’s a phenomenal organization that continually brings bench science to the people so that we all can better understand how exercise is medicine. What do you think? Did any of this surprise you? And if you found it helpful, be sure to like, save & share! 🤓📚💪🏼 #pilates #strengthtraining #gyrotonic #movementscience

Holy shit. 🤯 It’s crazy what can happen in a year. 12 years ago, my sublease on 244 W 300 N, Suite 103 began as the new owner of En Route Movement in downtown Salt Lake City. I was so excited. Every part of my being knew it was the best choice. But, if I’m being honest, I also knew it wouldn’t be forever. 12 years later, I’m so grateful for the incredible community I found in SLC and for how much I learned in those gorgeous tall, brick walls, but this year was me finally taking action on what I knew all along. One year ago, I hired a commercial real estate agent (thanks Christian! @internetproperties 😉) to find a new tenant for the space I called my movement home for so many years. It was the beginning of the uprooting. Soon, I was moving out. Packing up. Moving muc of my equipment into storage. Selling our home. Buying our new home. And finally landing & growing new roots back again in Colorado. Now as I head into my 13th year as an entrepreneur, I’m so excited. I’m excited for the local business I’ve grown here in our small mountain town but also, for the online community of movement teachers I’m grateful to work alongside & mentor. So thank you. However you’ve found my page here on IG, thanks for coming along for the ride. I’m so glad you’re here. 💙🤓

Sharing another clip from the MDL Geek Out: The Shoulder for episode 2 of Applied Anatomy. 🤗 This is a great example of what I’m talking about when I talk about the importance of movement teachers understanding beyond the basics of anatomy. Our Pilates and Gyrotonic trainings typically don’t include this level of understanding. Basic anatomy = you know the names of a few things like the humerus and the scapula Knowing joint kinematics = you know the shapes of the joints and bones so you understand why something like external rotation of the humerus can be helpful during abduction and flexion Be sure to save this post as a reference for the next time you’re teaching a client with shoulder impingement or to help you better cue the shoulders. 📚🤓💪🏼 #pilates #gyrotonic® #movementscience #mdlappliededucation #biomechanics

Another MDL Geek Out in the books! Over the weekend, I taught the MDL Geek Out on the Shoulders. From anatomical basics, to joint and skeletal muscle kinematics, to common pathologies, we covered it all. This course was exactly the course I wished I could have taken as a young Pilates teacher still dealing with my own shoulder injuries. It’s also a course that instead of teaching 1000 new shoulder exercises, we covered the framework of how our shoulders actually move from an anatomical basis so that you can teach any exercise more clearly, program more effectively, and know how to triage if something doesn’t feel right. I am so thrilled to finally release this into the world. My geeky heart is full. Thank you again to everyone who registered, joined me live, and to those who registered to watch the replay. Your support means the world to me. And I can’t wait to geek out with you next time! 🤓📚💪🏼

So what would you do? Obviously, there’s a time and a place for avoiding an injury or referring out. However, in my 15+ years of teaching the Pilates and Gyrotonic methods, so many shoulder pains and injuries are actually just a whoops moment followed by overprotection. In these moments, it’s critical that we help our clients understand what’s going on and get them moving again. This, IMO, is one of the best ways to make sure a client doesn’t become fearful or develop chronic issues. The problem, however, is that most of us were taught more about when we should point and flex our feet during Pilates work and never taught how our glenohumeral joints move. Or how our acromioclavicular joints pivot. Or even the full range of scapulothoracic motion that is necessary for shoulder movement. 🙈 All this can make you feel like you’re shooting in the dark with cues and guessing as to which exercise could even be beneficial when one of your clients comes in with a bit of shoulder pain. If this is you, I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for the MDL Geek Out on the shoulders. It’ll be 5 (!!!) hours packed full of everything you need to know to finally be confident and smart with how you train your clients’s (and your own!) shoulders. The course will be 10-1 PM for the lecture and 2-4 Pm for the movement course. It’s also worth 5 PMA CECs. And, yes, a replay is available if you can’t make it live. Head to the link in my bio to save your spot! 📚🤓💪🏼