Maggie Downie, Author at Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

About Maggie Downie

Thank you for giving your time to stop and read my blog. I hope it encourages you to keep moving. Move and the body will be happier. And when you're moving you can hike, run, swim in Jell-O, race over non-Newtonian fluids, travel the world or build igloos--if that's your thing. If not, you can watch me do it. This is just a spot to try and feel good about life.

Running Goals: Are They Worth the Pain?

The folks who motivate me to keep running.

Last week I went for a run with my iphone, a playlist and some earbuds. That probably doesn’t sound event worthy to most people, except that the last time I had music when running it came from a Walkman.

In college I used to run six miles a day and eight to twelve (usually eight) on the weekends. I preferred running alone and only occasionally ran with others. Running companions were so rare that I remember every time I had a running buddy. Originally, not a lover of running, taking on long distances happened by accident. One day I went for a run with friends, fell behind (I’ve always been slow) and got lost. I figured if I kept running it would all be over sooner. In the end, I’d run six miles. And once I realized that I could, I wanted to do it all the time.

Now, I rarely enjoy running alone. It’s too bad because I think I got a lot of ideas and worked out a number of problems in my head jogging by […]

Running Goals: Are They Worth the Pain?Maggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:49-04:00

Tree Swallow Cruise–Connecticut

The tree swallows in the sky along the CT River.

Some friends and I went on a Tree Swallow Cruise with RiverQuest down the Connecticut River last week and if you can arrange it you have to go. It’s really reasonable ($40 per person) for the time (3-3.5 hours) and what you get to see (half a million to a million tree swallows flying around at dusk).

It was incredible, and if you live in Connecticut it is right here for us. So often when I want to see something naturally cool I feel like you have to travel to see it—Mexico for the butterflies, New Zealand for the glowworms, etc. But this is right here.

You bring your own drinks and snacks and board the boat by the Goodspeed Opera House. It takes about an hour to travel downriver to Old Saybrook while Mindy and Mark, your hosts, point out all different birds and information about the river along the way. Shortly before sunset the birds start to trickle in—a few at a time, then a few more, than hundreds, then they […]

Tree Swallow Cruise–ConnecticutMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:24:29-04:00

Bucket Seats: the bane of my existence

I hate bucket seats. I find it particularly irksome that a bucket-seat office chair would claim to be ergonomic because it goes against everything I’ve read or learned that would be beneficial for back health. So if your office chair or your car seat it a bucket seat (and it probably is) listen up. There is no way to sit in that seat that is beneficial for your butt, back or hip flexors.

If when you sit in a chair your knees are higher than your hips, you can give yourself all the back support you want, but it won’t cut it. Bucket seats have a carved out butt groove (the technical term) that force your hips to sit lower than your knees.

Check out that yellow line going from my hip socket to my knee. Which end looks higher to you?

Ergonomically for the health of your hips and spine, when you sit for an extended period you want your hips higher than your knees. Just imagine sitting on the […]

Bucket Seats: the bane of my existenceMaggie Downie2019-07-17T17:31:53-04:00

My Favorite Ted Talks

If you’ve taken my Pilates classes for a while, you may already know that I have a mild obsession with a good Ted Talk. I discovered them in 2009 as you’ll see by my very first Ted Talk. So these are some of my favorite that I’ve found the most interesting or informative. If they seem interesting to you, check them out:

This is how I got introduced to Ted Talks. Not for everyone, since it does show the somewhat fascinating process of artificially inseminating a pig. You have to stop and wonder in this video about the fine line between bestiality and jobs we get paid to do for the sake of science or food supply.

Then there is Slime Mold, perhaps my most favorite Ted Talk of all time:

Brene Brown’s talks about vulnerability are pretty good…there are two. This was the first I ever saw:

Malcom Gladwell is always good when you want something to think about. And I love this one about whether choices make us happier:

Body Langauge…of course I’m going to like this one:

All of Dan Gilbert’s talks are good. But this one makes you question where happiness comes from:

Want more Personal Euphoria?

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My Favorite Ted TalksMaggie Downie2018-02-14T15:46:33-05:00

What Am I Doing With My Abs in Pilates?

You may have heard a Pilates instructor say “Scoop the Abs” or “Draw the Belly Button to the Spine” or “Zip the Jeans” or “Engage the abs.” There are multiple ways to say it, but only one way to do it. It’s subtle and can be a challenge to figure out how to do properly. And, as if Pilates wasn’t complicated enough we have this thing called imprint vs. neutral, which is totally different.

If you aren’t sure what imprint and neutral are, check out this video to see the difference, but this blog is really about the fact that imprint and scooping the abs are two different things because people often think they are the same. And that misconception could make your back rather unhappy over time.

When you do pelvic tilts or rock from imprint to neutral your pelvis should move. When you zip the jeans, the pelvis shouldn’t move. Sometimes you Zip and Tuck, but you don’t always have to. It’s important to know that you can engage the abdominals without being imprinted. And that you don’t want to strive to be imprinted all day.

This video has some ways to practice the difference between engaging the abs and rocking […]

What Am I Doing With My Abs in Pilates?Maggie Downie2017-10-25T14:17:26-04:00

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