The Body & Movement

Kids & Movement

Joe Pilates drew a lot of his ideas about movement and exercise by watching animals and infants move. In knowing that, I often watch my friends’ kids to see how they move. What do they do when they are first learning to crawl? How do they hold their head up? Why do they walk on their toes when they first learn to walk? How does their spine move? These are all things I look for to see what kids do naturally.

Kids also have a freedom to movement that I think we lose as we age. It’s mostly societal. An adult can’t get away with throwing their arms up in the air, spinning in circles or just jumping up and down on the middle of a sidewalk the way a kid can. Kids have more freedom to be silly.

And so when we had friends staying with us a few weekends ago and their 3-year old daughter started moving around in ways that made me chuckle (okay, I was laughing hard), I tried to catch it on camera. This was especially something I wanted to catch after I asked her what she was doing and she responded, […]

Kids & MovementMaggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:42-04:00

Pilates is Easy

Think Pilates is easy? You probably aren’t doing it right. Every time I take a pilates class I’m surprised at how difficult it is, and I like a tough, challenging workout. There are exercises that I didn’t find difficult at first, but once I understood them better (from years of practice) I found them to be my most challenging. Many of the beginner exercises are actually the most difficult. And when I’m not doing an advanced exercise as well as I should, it’s usually going back to one of the beginner exercises that will make me realize how I should be moving my body in order to do the more challenging exercise properly.

Even an exercise like ab prep–it seems easy, but it’s not at all. You are basically lifting your head and shoulders off the floor. Many people mistake it for an abdominal crunch, but the exercise is so much more, and once you discover all the intricacies, you can find what may seem like the simplest exercise extremely rewarding.

It may not happen right […]

Pilates is EasyMaggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:55-04:00

Are You Good At Pilates?

A couple times in classes last week people mentioned how well I do pilates. It is and isn’t true. Sure, I’m good at pilates and can do advanced exercises. I’d be somewhat delusional if I said otherwise, but let’s be realistic too, I chose this for my career. I hope I’m reasonably good at it.

(In this picture it looks like I could lift up from my bottom ribs some more, and I probably should knit my ribs because I’m popping my chest out too far.)

Now, here is something else to think about: Just like everyone else, I do the exercises in my own body. I often go to class and see some of my students, especially the ones who have been doing the exercises for years perform certain exercises better than I do. Sometimes our bodies are just made for a certain exercise. Take teaser for example. That is supposed to be one of the hardest exercises […]

Are You Good At Pilates?Maggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:55-04:00

Good Days

And somedays it all seems to come easily…

Monday, December 06, 2010

Feel great! Up again at 4:30ish, which I’m not thrilled about, but feel like I got a decent sleep. It helps that I took a nice hot bath and popped a melatonin before getting into bed, but I don’t know if the melatonin actually helped me much last night because I actually woke up a few times.

A hot bath is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle for me. Feels good on my body and mind and the relaxation is a must if I have any chance of maintaining my sanity.

This morning I did an hour pilates ball workout for myself—not too hard, but felt good. Tried working on a lot of different exercises I’d like to add to some classes. Then did a 20-min basic Tae Bo. Feel fabulous. I love workouts on days like this. I wish I knew what made my body feel so good.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Walked at the gym for 30 minutes […]

Good DaysMaggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:56-04:00

Gyrokinesis

About a week ago the Personal Euphoria team got together to take a class. About four times a year we try to get together and take a different class or workshop together–something that isn’t Pilates.

We all love movement so we are open to trying new things, but what I like best about our little adventurous outings is that it always reminds me how someone completely new to Pilates feels in my class. Half the time I had not idea what I was doing. I was constantly questioning the movement and wondering if I was doing everything right. You always have to try and let go and know that you’re not going to do everything right your first time out. It takes practice. At some points during the class I’d hear one (or more) of us chuckle because we didn’t know what we doing. But that’s okay. That’s half the fun.

This time we took a Gyrokinesis class will Melanie Johnson, owner of Powerflow Studio in New Haven. None of us really knew what we were getting into. […]

GyrokinesisMaggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:56-04:00