I need my Pilates!

I just had a glorious, and much needed, vacation.  Living in New England, October is a wet, cold and dreary time of year.  The brilliance of the autum leaves has changed to just plain brown, and things are starting to look dead.  So it was with eagerness that I jumped on the plane and headed out to sunny Los Angeles, where I used to live.

While I was there, I had every intention of visiting a few Pilates studios and taking some classes.  I had researched which studios I wanted to go to, which teachers I wanted to work with, and I had a plan.  You know what they say about the best laid plans…?  I was so caught up in visiting with old friends, getting reacquainted with old haunts, and generally being a tourist in this great city that I ditched my daily Pilates practice.  For 5 days.

Now, mind you, two of those days were travel days – running around in various airports, lugging bags around and eating awful food.  But the other 3 days I spent walking around the city (that’s right, I was walking in Los Angeles), so I was able to justify (in my own mind) that I was getting a workout, so it was ok to skip Pilates.

Well, it wasn’t.  By day 3, my body was aching and sore in so many places.  My arms felt heavy, my shoulders and neck felt tight, my back felt wrenched and twisted, my hips felt completely out of whack… it was preposterous!  By the time I went to bed on my last night there, I couldn’t bend over at the waist, my lower back hurt me that much.  Now, granted, I was walking a lot.  And I had carried a heavier-than-usual bag with me.  But to have my body respond that severely, that quickly, to it’s lack of Pilates… I was impressed.

I flew home late Monday night.  Tuesday, I pulled out my mat and theraband and Magic Circle and had a great workout.  Almost instantly, I could feel my bones and joints falling back into place.  It was magical.  My shoulders relaxed and fell back into place.  My hips almost popped back into alignment (not literally, but it felt like it).  The pain that I had in my lower back disappeared before I was finished with my Ab Series.

Our bodies need Pilates.  It’s that simple, and I truly believe it.  Even without the travel and lugging bags and endless walking, we put our bodies through a lot, every single day.  Even if you spend your days sitting at a desk, you’re still asking an awful lot from your body.  Our bodies want to move, to stretch, to twist and reach.   So many people live with compensatory pain, whether it’s from an injury or from a misalignment.  I want to shout “Try Pilates!”, and help them find some relief.

One of my favourite things as an instructor is to see the look on someone’s face when they “get it.”   They feel it in their bodies, whatever “it” is – maybe it’s a subtle movement shift in their hips, or a repositioning of their shoulders, or the tactile feedback of a wall behind them as they do a Roll Up.   But their eyes light up, and I can tell that they’ve discovered something new.

So, I make this promise now, with you all as witnesses.  I will never again allow my Pilates practice to be dispensable.  No matter where I am or what I’m doing, I will be faithful to my Pilates practice.

Now this means that I have to go back to sunny Los Angeles to visit those studios and teachers… maybe in the cold of a New England winter…?

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