Modern Body: Pilates & Movement for Life

Nervous system regulation is a social media buzz phrase, but a sixty-second clip can’t explain how it works. Aly sits down with Alina Klein, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in trauma-informed, nervous system-based therapy, to sort out what’s real. Alina uses polyvagal theory as a map and divides the body’s states into three color zones: red for fight-or-flight, blue for shutdown, and green for calm and connected. Her central point is that a healthy nervous system doesn’t stay calm all day. It bounces back, the way a heart rate recovers after a hard interval. Alina shares tools that work in both directions: to settle down and to get going. Aly ties these ideas to her own teaching, including breath-led Pilates, balance work, and tempo changes. The conversation invites listeners to build stress tolerance in small doses and to start by making your own body a safe place to be.

Connect with Alina: https://www.alinaklein.com/, @alinakleintherapy

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Pausing is not failing. Adapting is not quitting. Being real about where you are in life and how to make movement fit in is one of the most important things you can do for your health. That honesty sets up the theme of this week’s episode: naming the truths of the current season of life, rather than measuring up against someone else’s routine or a past version of oneself. Two years into motherhood, Aly reveals the three demands that reshaped her movement practice to work with the real demands of being a mother to an active toddler. She breaks down how she bends her movement practice around demands on her time, energy, and physical needs. Aly maps out the path to letting movement fit the life you are leading right now, not the other way around.

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Reaching for a mug, buckling a seatbelt, clipping a baby carrier behind your back: each of these tasks relies on four small muscles tucked deep inside the shoulder. She explains why a joint this mobile needs steady support, how phones, laptops, and one-armed baby holding pull the upper arm into internal rotation, and why that pattern travels up into the neck and upper back.

Then she gets practical. These muscles run on endurance fibers, so they respond to body weight, bands, and dumbbells no heavier than 3 or 4 pounds. Heavier loads hand the job to bigger movers like the deltoid. Aly shares the positions she relies on during her own postpartum season, including side-lying work with a light weight, seated band series, and hands-and-knees exercises. She also shows lifters how to slot rotator cuff work into a warm-up or mobility day.

about trading the anti-aging chase for a face that feels as good as it looks.

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Tina Scholl, former physical therapist and creator of The Balanced Facewalks Aly through the habits that shape how a face ages and the simple tools that can redirect them. This isn’t your typical facial care discussion that centers on med-spa treatments or the elaborate application of topical cleansers, serums, and moisturizers. Instead, Tina advocates for small, doable habits added into your normal routine that focus on enhancing beauty that shines from within. She explains how facial muscles differ from our other muscles and how she treats the face as part of the whole body. Tina coaches Aly in real time: she leads her through a face hug and demonstrates a knuckle release where the neck meets the skull, Listeners are challenged to claim a few minutes of every day for themselves without guilt. It’s a conversation about trading the anti-aging chase for a face that feels as good as it looks.

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

Follow Tina and learn more about The Balanced Face Method: https://www.tinascholl.com

Follow Tina on Instagram @tina_scholl

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Hypermobility isn’t a problem if you know how to work with it. This week, Aly brings back a segment from an earlier episode to share how she would coach clients with hypermobile joints. Aly also points out what you should avoid if you have a hypermobile body. Even if you don't have this trait, Aly's advice will still be helpful in helping you build stability and mobility. Hypermobility never goes away but you can learn to support your bodies with the tips and techniques Aly shares.

Listen to the original full episode: Ep. 55: Hypermobility Explained: Strategies to Support Your Joints in your Movement & Mobility Training

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Hip flexors can give us a lot of discomfort but in this monthly mini episode, Aly argues they're just responding to how we live: hours at a desk, miles of running, long flights, and core classes that park the legs in tabletop. She revisits an early episode where she explains what hip flexors really are and why tightness can signal muscles that are overworked, underworked, or overstretched. Aly shares 4 strategies you can do during Pilates sessions to bring relief to the tension, grippiness, and stress your hip flexors may experience, and she spotlights specific classes inside the Modern Body Studio that you can start taking today to begin.

Listen to the original full episode: Ep 19: Only feeling your hip flexors working during core work? Get to the root of your Hip Flexor pain

Check out the classes Aly mentions: Hip Flexor Offload : Glute Awakening : Coffee Pilates No. 3, Hip Fika

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Rib flare. It's the subtle shift in rib cage position that can surface during pregnancy, postpartum recovery, or while your body compensates for an old back injury or ongoing stress. In this replay episode, Aly separates the two distinct types of rib flare: positional and angular. She flags the everyday clues to watch for like a bra band that suddenly rides up, a shallow exhale, or tight shoulders that won't ease. Rather than treating rib flare as permanent, Aly maps out the breathwork, alignment cues, and specific Modern Body classes that start shifting things in weeks, not months. Catch your ribs jutting forward in the mirror? This episode explains why, and what to do about it.

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

If you aren't already a member of the Modern Body Online Studio , you can experience that too with a free 7-day trial. Explore the full catalog of classes for free for the first 7 days.

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Endless crunches and planks rarely build the strong core people are chasing and in this episode, Aly explains why. The real bottleneck is pressure management: how the diaphragm, pelvic floor, and transverse abdominis coordinate as a system, not isolated parts. She walks through the sequencing that gets these muscles firing in the right order, and explains why alignment between ribcage and pelvis matters more than how hard you're working. And an added benefit is a quieter nervous system. Pulled from a fan-favorite segment on abdominal coning and doming, this episode hands you a five-minute reset you can run through anywhere, whether that's flat on the floor, hands and knees, or standing at the kitchen counter. Anyone stuck cycling through core work without relief, especially those dealing with lower back pain or pelvic floor dysfunction.

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Check out the full episode from this week's compilation here:

Ep. 62: Abdominal Coning and Doming: What's Really Going on in Your Core and What To Do About It

Other referenced episode here:

Ep. 45: The 3 Step Cycle to Better Breathing

Want help with production of your podcast? Contact Michelle Sanchez [[email protected]]

Aly digs back through the Modern Body archives to pull three segments that paint a complete picture of how Pilates reshapes posture over time. In this compilation episode, she breaks down what posture actually is, why gravity and daily habits gradually impact how you stand and move, and why Pilates works from the inside out to help build a more supportive posture. The segments selected feature the pelvis, unpacking neutral versus imprint and why chasing one "correct" position misses the point entirely. Change happens through repetition and awareness, not through overnight fixes or rigid rules, and knowing your own patterns is the real starting point for lasting change.

Check out the full episodes from this week's compilation here:

Ep 2: Pilates Approach to Better Posture

Ep. 47: Can Pilates Change Your Posture? The Science of Postural Theory and Muscle Balance

Ep. 98: Movement Habits & Patterns and How They Affect Your Posture

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Aly sits down with fascia movement educator Kath Pent to explore the underestimated importance of facial health. Kath shares what current research reveals about fascia as a body-wide sensory network, why force travels between structures far from where discomfort actually shows up, and why the field keeps outpacing anyone's ability to master it fully. She and Aly dig into where fascia work diverges from muscle-focused practices like Pilates, touching on slings, elasticity, and the gap between training strength and training glide. Kath shares practical, low-lift ways to weave fascia care into everyday movement, including a simple expand-then-soften technique built on what she calls the sponge principle. Small shifts in attention and approach can unlock changes that muscle-focused training alone tends to miss.

Stay connected with Aly DiRoma and the Modern Body community: https://link.me/alydiroma

https://modernmoversguide.com/guide

Connect with Kath Pent: https://www.kathpent.com/