The media has responded quickly and positively to PhysicalMind’s SmartSeat™ product. Is it because they read the pitch at work seated at a computer knowing that “Sitting is the New Smoking!” Or did they see that this is really unique and patent-worthy? However, what they don’t know is the history and the personal experiences that Institute founder and inventor Joan Breibart required to solve the sitting issue.
PhysicalMind Institute began in 1991 as the Institute for the Pilates Method in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Joan Breibart, the co-founder, was an early student of Pilates in the 60s in New York. Fast forward to 1988 and she has moved to Santa Fe and fears she would never see a Reformer again. It’s a small town but it took three years for her to find Eve Gentry who trained with Joe in the 1940s and later became his first studio teacher. Joan convinced Eve to join together and start the first professional Pilates teachers organization and create the first certification program. They did and then Pilates went public with the help of the media who published close to 1000 stories about the benefits and all the celebrities who had been secret Pilates fans for years. Once the public experienced the Pilates Method they added awareness of alignment, posture, balance and stability to the typical muscle building and “calorie burning” routines.
After Pilates became mainstream in the early 2000s, PhysicalMind founder Joan Breibart started to address life outside of the studio where toning and lengthening the body was paramount. She saw the need to provide the consumer with tools to continue the lessons after stepping off the Reformer and moving to the workplace at home.
With 55 years of experience working in many industries besides Pilates—including the beauty business of hair and skin services and products—Joan Breibart had the “eye” to see bodies. She understood smart exercise and knew this information needed to be extended at work. She was able to design innovative products using her experience and her exchanges with thousands of Pilates teachers trained by the Institute. Besides Pilates, Joan Breibart has also studied the Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander Technique. Inventing unique products requires vast experience, a knowledge of many body therapies and close observation of the culture.
Of course, Clinical Advisor Marika Molnar PT, Lac who is known as the Mother of Dance Medicine, provided the most insight.
Working at a computer and leaning forward into the screen leads to a forward head posture. This poor posture is reinforced when we look down at our smart phones. Over time, because muscles have memory, it becomes hard to change these poor postures. For example, though other companies are working on products for sitting only, Marika Molnar PT, Institute Clinical Advisor, recognized that the crossed leg position was doing the most harm. Telling yourself to sit better—with legs uncrossed—is not easy when you have sat incorrectly for years. Clearly, there was a need for products to assist in the change.
Joan Breibart set out to invent a product that the market didn’t know It needed, SmartSeat™. This product not only discourages crossed legs but improves the postural position of the low back. The special slope of the seat means that the sitter can comfortably sit for long periods in pelvic neutral, or even anteverted (tilt forward) or rock the pelvis for more flexibility. This seating posture helps relieve lower back and sciatica pain as it takes the act of sitting from a negative to neutral by enabling better weight distribution of the upper and lower body, giving a feeling of lightness. Also, there are specially designed WEDGES that weigh less than an ounce each and can fit into your bag. These are used to fill in open spaces in the spine or rest under the seat or thighs so you are more comfortable and supported.
SmartSeat™ fits in with the PhysicalMind® product family in the sense that it is lightweight, durable and can be used anywhere. It is made of smooth black foam-like material with a sleek silhouette that matches LEAN™ and MINIS™, two PhysicalMind® products that work together. The MINIS™ were designed with ballet dancers in mind; PhysicalMind Institute’s Clinical Advisor Marika Molnar PT, Lac is the Physical Therapist to the celebrated New York City Ballet with 96 of the world’s best dancers. The prototypes were tested in her facility by these dancers. MINIS™ alleviate foot pain for dancers and non-dancers alike so soon runners and others were buying them. This led to LEAN™—a warming neoprene holster device that holds the MINIS™ and attaches to any chair so that even in a sitting position one can use them to release tightness.
Another area where Breibart pioneered with the help of Marika Molnar PT Lac was to address cortisol overload which is implicated in the current obesity epidemic with the Parasetter®—a 40 inch long MINIs™ device with a Head Rest and a Rib Wrap. When a person lies on this unusual roller and does the rib breathing the spine elongates and enables better respiration which is lowers cortisol levels.
All of the PhysicalMind products have videos and written material to enable the users to get the most benefit and pleasure. See www.physicalmindinstitute.com.
