Pilates

Really strong Pilates class today despite SI joint tightness.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Flexibility
• Date: 04/03/2008
• Time: 18:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Logbook Activity

• Type: Strength Training
• Date: 02/21/2008
• Time: 18:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Pilates was funny today - perhpas a result of cold/sleeping meds - I couldn’t come up for teaser (this guy does a different arm motion than I’m used to) to save my life. I’d get a few inches up and just get stuck - shake - try - bring in my knees a bit - shake - try. ERGH! I finally managed to drag myself up into position but only by completely forsaking my form with my shoulders up around my ears, my knees in, and my face scrunched like a deflated exercise ball. Not pretty.

After class my instructor said something to me that people have been telling me for as long as I can remember: “Don’t be so hard on yourself, you get in your own way. Just relax and it will come”.

See, I don’t understand this. I mean, I totally understand what she’s saying - I am SUPER hard on myself. That’s the only reason this strange only child with average intelligence and adequate social skills has gotten  anywhere in life - by working harder than everyone else. I try -hard - at everything. Yes, I’m a ball of tension. Yes, I take EVERYTHING too seriously.  That’s how I get stuff done.

I kind of have two speeds - superwoman and collapsed. I go and go and go and try and try until I can’t anymore than I collapse. I rest for a bit then go at it again.

Other people put in half the effort at things that I do and do twice as well. This pisses me off.

So I should learn to “try less hard” to “relax” right?

This also happens in tennis. I’m focused on trying to do so many different things, bend my knees, swing my raquet from low to high, make contact with the ball out in front, finish my shot, not open my raquet face, etc. I get totally wound up, tense, and have no flow to my shots. I know I would do better if I relaxed more and just swung.

Clearly this is also true with life in general as I get told this repeatedly.

This is lovely feedback and I appreciate that people care enough about me to tell me ways they think I can improve. Now perhaps they can begin telling me exactly how I do that. Ideally I’d go live in a Japanese monastery for a few months and they’d teach me to sweep the floor or some such.

Logbook Activity

• Type: Other
• Date: 10/05/2007
• Time: 06:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

Super class today with some springs work on the Cadillac (yay!). My hamstrings are getting stronger each week and I’m much more able to do long spine than I was a month ago. My wrist and upper arm weakness from this winter’s injury still makes long stretch quite challenging but it’s getting better each session.   

Logbook Activity

• Type: Other
• Date: 10/03/2007
• Time: 06:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00

One 55 minute session reminded me today of exactly why I LOVE Pilates and, given unlimited funds and time, would do it pretty much every day for the rest of my life. I’m pretty sure if that were the case I could build a body like Madonna’s or _insert other human with amazing body here_. Many thanks to my dear husband for returning to the world of paid employment so that I can spend money on health & fitness (is there ANY better way to spend?) and return to work on Pilates apparatus. I began Pilates training when we lived in Atlanta with the fantastic, amazing, and inspirational Sara Marek (yep - that’s her in the incredible poses) and found it to have the most incredible results on my body…long, lean, strong  - and my core! Oh MY! I picked up an incredible amountof power on my serve and matrix-move-like ability to stabilize my body. Running across the court one afternoon I caught my toe and began to trip forward, when I was about halfway down my core kicked in and I hinged back upright in the blink of an eye. Kelly, my doubles partner at the time, gasped - said she had never seen a move like that outside of the movies. She said my torso just flew back upright as though I was on film running in reverse. Mad core strength. So I’m super stoked to get back into it and hopefully stop feeling as though I’m getting wider, shorter, and stiffer with each activity I do. Yes, I love my powerful quads but holy heck women’s pants are NOT designed for powerful quads. sheesh. Thanks to tons of computer work and poor posture my shoulders are so inwardly rotated thatI’m getting a rocking start on my dowager’s hump. It’s gotten so bad that after my session today I left feeling a little “buzzed” due to my chest being much more open and stretched than it has been in years. Nice! Now all I have to do is try to remember to correct throughout the day to try to maintain!

Logbook Activity

• Type: Other
• Date: 08/24/2007
• Time: 07:00:00
• Total Time: 1:00:00.00