But here’s the problem. I don’t feel like I’m in better shape. Last week when we got the back-to-back heavy and icy snow, I felt really weak. Shoveling felt like a chore for the first time all winter. I had hoped to feel stronger, and like I was getting in better shape, but I just felt exhausted.
Now, on the one hand, I’m grateful to pilates. I’m convinced that one of the reasons I don’t have an injury from all this shoveling is because pilates has made me truly strong, from the inside out, as we like to say. I’m not injured; that should be a positive note. And perhaps, in the cold and the ice, I wasn’t seeing clearly. I was missing the positive.
I often have people who take my classes ask, “When does pilates get easier?” I have a stock answer. I tell them that pilates never gets easier because you are always getting stronger. As you get stronger, you learn more challenging moves and without knowing it you work yourself harder, putting your body in better form and challenging different muscles in different ways. It’s a stock answer, but I really believe it is true.
If I look at shoveling that way maybe I’ll feel better. The snow has gotten heavier—that’s like adding weight to a workout. And the piles I have to toss it over have gotten higher—that means all my muscles have to work harder. Maybe I am getting stronger, but my shoveling workouts are just getting harder so I haven’t really noticed my strength. And maybe, just maybe, my shoveling form has improved.
It IS snowing because of me! Mother Nature is my pilates instructor and she keeps adjusting the workout based on my skill level.
How nice it is to have an utterly egotistical moment of delusion.
