body – Page 6 – Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

It’s All Connected: The Hip/Ankle Connection

Last week I was taking a private pilates class. I was complaining about how my ankle has been supinating (rolling outward). It wasn’t painful, but I know it’s not ideal and I wanted to work on it. I was doing basic footwork exercises on the reformer and when I had someone to look at me tell me exactly when my ankle was in the right place I could feel not only the work in my ankle, but I felt a change in my body all the way up to my hip flexors.

It was one of those moments that make me so proud I’m a pilates instructor, and I immediately wanted to make all my clients feel what I had just felt in my body. The footwork, which seems like a really simple exercise was suddenly a huge challenge because of what was going on in my body. All I was doing was lying down and bending and straightening my legs, but suddenly my whole entire body was working to help my ankle stay where it was supposed […]

It’s All Connected: The Hip/Ankle ConnectionMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:41-04:00

Grand Canyon Part II: The Challenge

Hiking the Grand Canyon was my 3rd challenge of my 30th year. I didn’t get to do as much hiking as I’d hoped for to prepare, and Irene washed out our regular backpacking trip in the White Mountains. I was nervous about so many things—my knees, having enough water, the temperature, the terrain, heights, falling off into the great abyss. Luckily, I didn’t have a problem with anything I anticipated. The trail was easier than the trails I am used to in the White Mountains, but it was covered for good portions in small rocks that I termed “ankle biters.” It would be so easy to roll or sprain an ankle in the Grand Canyon. We had no ankle sprains and perfect weather—about 80-degrees during the day and we were able to hike in the shade for good portions of our trip.

The hike was not as hard as I’d expected. Down […]

Grand Canyon Part II: The ChallengeMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:41-04:00

Hip Discomfort–Challenge Update

Last week I started having some hip discomfort (I say discomfort over pain because I have some clients who I know are in actual pain in their body that affects their daily tasks. This hasn’t been affecting my daily tasks, but since I’m training for a half marathon and getting ready to hike the Grand Canyon it does concern me.)

My first reaction was to be annoyed. This hip of mine was getting in the way of what Iwanted to be doing. It wasn’t really, I was pushing through it, but I really just wanted it to feel good and not be a nuisance.

Then I decided to change my perspective. Things like this always provide me an opportunity to learn something new about the body. I’m forced to do some very basic exercises if I want it to keep working with me and not against me.

The challenges I set this year are, of course, to get me healthier, but I guess I hope to learn something along the way. And it’s important to realize that when you ask you body to do a lot for you, you need to maintain it.

We all probably […]

Hip Discomfort–Challenge UpdateMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:47-04:00

Try Not to Compare

I know it’s hard not to compare yourself to others in a group class. We see someone else doing something and we want to be able to do it too. I get that. I’m pretty competitive. But the problem is there is more than just our level of strength that may make us need to do an exercise at a different level.

Think of the roll up. If you have short legs and a long torso, you have a lot of weight to lift and not much to help counter balance you. No matter how strong you are, this exercise will always be harder for you that someone with longer legs or someone who is similar in size on the top and the bottom.

When I went to the psoas workshop last week I learned that depending on where the psoas connects to the spine it get affect how you move. The psoas can connect to your vertebra at T12 or L5 (which I knew), but what I didn’t know is that if it is lower […]

Try Not to CompareMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:47-04:00

Who’s Excited About Their Psoas?

The Psoas Vs. Mark Twain

When I worked at The Mark Twain House & Museum people were fascinated with my job. They were interested in what I did; they were interested in Twain; and they were happy to listen to stories of the different people I’d gotten to meet there.

Now that I teach pilates, people are noticeably less interested. In fairness, I think it’s less about pilates and more about Mark Twain. When I taught high school people weren’t overly interested in the day-to-day details about what was going on in the classroom.

Working at the Twain House was a great experience, but I’m happier running my own company and teaching pilates. Now I get to read books about the body instead of books on Twain—both […]

Who’s Excited About Their Psoas?Maggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:48-04:00