Ellen Barrett Let's Move!

This Stunned Me!

March 17, 2025 ellen
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This weekend, while watching college basketball with my sports-obsessed family, I spied a horrendous slogan, written front and center in bold, on an entire team’s sweatshirt, that read NOTHING EASY.  Of course, I was like, “How did that get approved?” If I was the coach, I would never allow my players to wear such a low vibe, buzzkill statement across their heart centers. Talk about misdirecting focus and setting an entire team up for a major slog! (And they lost BTW.)  Easy or...

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The Ultimate Status Symbol

February 16, 2025 ellen
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Is it uncomfortable to sit cross-legged? Do you struggle getting down to and up from the ground? Do you feel tension and/or pain in your hips after walking, hiking, jogging or cycling? If you answered yes to one, two or all three, you are not alone and the following info might enlighten you!   Hips are big, weight bearing joints and the most common reason for discomfort in our hips is a lack of mobility, making stretching the missing link. There are three...

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Ellen Barrett This is 53

My Beef With Mental Health Experts

January 8, 2025 ellen
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Did you know that stretching is good for your mental health? It’s true, and it’s probably why so many of us crave Pilates and yoga workouts these days. When you stretch, your body’s parasympathetic nervous system activates. This in turn decreases blood pressure, promotes feelings of relaxation and eases mental anguish. I used to think, “What’s so great about serenity?” That was when I had very little responsibility and was very ignorant to the evils of the world! Now I...

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Ellen Barrett

Chris Evert. Katerina Witt. Martha Stewart. Gal Gadot.

November 7, 2024 ellen
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There is a powerful but secret thing that: 1. never goes out of style, 2. instantly up-levels one’s appearance, 3. helps energy flow, 4. promotes better breathing, 5. is always underestimated, 6. money can’t buy, yet 7. all of the great beauties of the world have it. What is it? Good posture…that’s organic. Good posture is proper body alignment where a nice and clean plumb line runs down from the crown of the head, through the middle...

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Ellen Barrett Calm Cardio

Calm Action

October 7, 2024 ellen
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The British government, during World War II, created a poster that read KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON. It was intended to boost the morale of the British citizens and was widely distributed via newspapers back in the day. We still come across this saying today on throw pillows and memes, and often times, the traditional saying is altered a tad to things like, “Keep Calm and Buy the Bag” or “Keep Calm and Call Your Mother.”  It’s fun...

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Ellen Barrett Let's Move!

A Great Time for a Coup

August 29, 2024 ellen
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In the US, Labor Day weekend is upon us. Monday (Labor Day) is commonly a day off, and it’s known as the summer’s send off, where people barbecue, lounge by the pool or kick back at the beach. Ironically, it’s about not laboring.  It has occurred to me that I’ve never ever had an un-laborous Labor Day weekend. It has always felt unsettled as it is a major cusp, where some things are leaving and new things are coming. There’s a subtle panic of,...

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All Levels All the Time

August 12, 2024 ellen
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I advise not labeling your fitness level, or anybody else’s for that matter. What’s “beginner” anyway? Someone could have been taking Pilates class for years and still call themselves a beginner. And what does “advanced” mean? I had a legit professional cyclist take my class last week. He raced in the Tour de France and had big sponsorship from a bike manufacturer, but he struggled to sit cross-legged at the starting line of yoga.  Fitness...

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Where are your shoulders?

July 25, 2024 ellen
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If you were to imitate Grace Kelly, the late actress and former princess of Monaco, one of the first things you’d do is bring your shoulder back and down.  No one would tell you to bring your shoulders back and down, you’d just take on that alignment quality because it’s a cornerstone of great posture and connotes regality. Grace Kelly was queen of shoulders back and down and famous for her outstanding posture and alignment. “Shoulder back and...

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A New 45Minute Workout

July 22, 2024 ellen
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Pilates Fusion has arrived, and it’s the type of workout I teach regularly. It’s effective, it feels good, and it works for just about every body. The Pilates Method is a series or exercises, but it is also a way of looking at the physical body in both a zoomed out/big picture way, and in a zoomed in/micro-focused way. The goal of Pilates is better-ing the body. That includes better body awareness, better movement control, better balance and...

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Ellen Barrett

Type-A Personality? This one’s for you!

May 23, 2024 ellen
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There’s a lot of talk these days about the nervous system and for good reason. We live in a hectic world and our nervous systems are constantly put to the test.  I think many of us “soldier on” day after day and never care for our nervous systems. Why is this? For one, because our society indirectly rewards the “type-A go-go-go” personality, making a jacked up nervous system seem like a positive thing. And two,...

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