I must rant about people who think you have to sweat bullets and burn your muscles to the bone just to get a good workout. Have they ever heard of restorative or internal stabilizing exercises to keep their bodies from falling to pieces before they hit the age of 50? It’s these people that pound their bodies early in life to find themselves several years later with herniated disks, unbelievably poor posture, terrible aches and pains and in possible need of joint replacement. And honestly I do not feel sorry for them.
What fools they are to not have an exercise yin to their yang? Life is about balance and the same holds true with your exercise routines.
And even worse are those that think more gentler types of workouts, like Pilates and Yoga, are for the girly girls or people that don’t like “traditional” workouts. The truth is, the strongest people on the planet are those that can hold their own body weight with beautiful inner strength and grace. Take a look at dancers, gymnasts, Cirque du Soleil performers, and yoga and Pilates practitioners. Their bodies are amazing, their lines and posture are impeccable, and they are strong despite our society’s generalizations that lifting heavy weights makes you a dynamo.
Oh contrare. As a Pilates teacher I am faced with daily challenges of dispelling myths about Pilates. Pilates is not about lying around and stretching for an hour. Yes, you will feel lengthened, but you will also feel like you just did something good for your body. You’ll walk taller and more aware of your posture and your abdominals. And best of all, you will save your body from the affects of gravity, and will be limber in your old age, if you are lucky enough to get that far in life. No hunchbacks for the Pilates devotee!
Pilates can be extremely hard. You may not sweat bullets, but you will definitely be working many muscles groups. Usually ones that don’t get attention and are very weak causing muscle and posture imbalances. I always tell my clients that if a Pilates exercise is not challenging, then you are doing something incorrectly. Your form must be perfect on every exercise. Your core must be strong enough before moving on to harder movements. And you must connect with your muscles to truly and fully appreciate what Pilates does for the body.
For those lacking a mind body connection all I can say is slow down. Life is not a race. Being able to connect with your body means that you aren’t just going through the motions; you are connecting with how your body moves and concentrating on each muscle rather than doing a half-ass workout with tons of reps on some machine that isn’t designed properly to begin with. A mind-body connection will yield better results that you will really see in your daily life. It isn’t just about losing weight and building muscle. It is about being healthy, functionally fit, and building REAL strength. You have no idea how many macho guys I’ve seen DIE in simple Pilates workouts because they’ve been working on the wrong muscles for years.
Pilates rights the wrongs of many other exercises and daily activities, like sitting in front a computer, driving in your car or standing all day in high heels. If you have not done Pilates before, please do not judge it on what you’ve “heard”. Take your open mind to a Pilates professional and they will surely whoop your butt and brain into shape. If you can’t find one, come to me and I’ll do it for you.
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