Spine
Joseph Pilates was known to say:
“You’re only as young as your spine.”
A Nurturing Thought
When I took the anti-gravity yoga class, I was really impressed by the instructor, Kevin. I like the way he worded his thoughts and I enjoyed one line in particular.
At the beginning of class he asked us to think about something that we’d put a lot of energy in or that had been taking a lot of energy from us that we did not want to continue having in our life. With each exhale we were supposed to blow this item/idea further away from us. Admittedly, the non-meditater in me thought this was a little cheesy, but I was willing to go with it.
Then he asked us to think of a thing or an idea that we wanted in our life. We went through the entire class before he brought it up again. While lying in corpse pose suspended in the hammock, he brought our attention back to the item we wanted in life. With each inhale we were supposed to draw that thing closer to us. Again, a little cheesy for me. But then […]
Fluidity
Last week I went to NYC to visit my sister and try some new types of exercises classes. The first class I tried was Fluidity, which had been recommended to me by Susan (one of our instructors at Personal Euphoria).
The exercises are done on a bar and reminded me of dance and Pilates combined, but they are designed to work every muscle in your body to the point of fatigue–an incredible sensation if you like that kind of pain, which I do (sometimes). Certainly that is not a sensation everyone wants to feel and you don’t need to feel agony in order to get a good workout.
No pain, no gain is not actually true. And one thing I have learned in my practice of Pilates is that when you come to understand and feel subtleties in the body (small muscles groups for example) and you work the muscles with awareness, they fatigue much quicker. In fluidity, I felt like I had to stop feeling my body so much, stop being fully aware or I never would have gotten through the class. Six years ago I would have loved it, but I wasn’t as aware of […]
Hanging Upside Down
Last week I tried Anti-Gravity Yoga. I’ve been wanting to try this for what feels like years, but it has actually only been since whenever Sheri Sheppard tried it on the View. (Given the way time has been flying by that could have been three months ago.)
I was a little nervous because I had taken an exhausting fitness class before and was afraid my muscles would be exhausted. I’ve also hung upside down before and while my back loves it, sometimes my head feels like my brain is going to ooze out of my eyes after they have popped out from all the force. (Great image, I know.)
Fears aside, I finally found a mixed-level class in NYC and met my sister so we could take the class together. She’d been wanted to try it too and is a yoga instructor, which for some reason made me feel like her skills might rub off on me. We share genetics, but I don’t seem to be any better at yoga than she is at Pilates.
Feldenkrais
The instructors as Personal Euphoria all enjoy movement and finding new ways to learn about our bodies. Last week we got together to try the Feldenkrais Method of Movement. Margo Henneback came to instruct us.
We had a wonderful time. Feldenkrais, from my understanding, is about body awareness and learning how it feels to move your body in different ways. We spent the majority of the workshop moving our pelvis in different directions (up and down, left and right, and circling).
The more I learn about the body, the more I come to find that there is no wrong or right way to move the body. It can and desires to move in all different ways. Trying different modalities helps you to discover ways your body likes to move. It is important to maintain mobility in whatever method your find that your body enjoys.