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...
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...
When I was a kid, whenever I stayed over at my grandma’s house in Rockville Centre New York, she’s wake up and walk to her neighborhood church, every single morning without fail. I’d scratch my head about it, because six days out of the week, there was no mass or service. She’d go regardless, service or not, and simply sit in a pew all by herself, holding her rosary beads. Church was a non-negotiable for...
There will always be a legitimate excuse NOT to workout. Here are the one’s I’ve heard just this week: “It’s too hot outside.”“I slept horribly last night.” “We lost power during yesterday’s storm & it still hasn’t returned.”“Traffic was bumper-to-bumper.”“I forgot my water bottle.” Sure, they’re all legit. Each one is a perfectly good reason to not workout. However, most excuses are self-sabotage, and you and I need to be mentally on guard and see them as such. Nine times...
I often refer to the front body as the sun and the back body as the moon. By waking up the front body you let the sun shine in and it does three immediate things: To my northern hemisphere folks, Summer Solstice Blessings to you. How about celebrating with front body extension? One caveat – it’s gotta be whole front body extension, not just your heart center. That means stretching the tops of your ankles, your quadriceps, hip flexors, and...
I’ve been on a big “nervous system kick” lately and one of the biggest enemies to a happy, healthy and regulated nervous system is a workout that is too intense. What is too intense? That’s the million dollar question and the answer is: everything and nothing! It’ll be different for each and every one of us, AND it’ll be different from one day to the next. Movement is movement. The way in which we approach movement is what makes or breaks it....
“We made it through another winter.” I’ve been saying that a lot – more than I have in years passed. It wasn’t a particularly “tough” winter. We didn’t have any crazy storms or too many school cancelations. I’d actually say, as far as winters go, it was uneventful. Yet, this year, I feel like I had to dig deep to survive it. I survived the lack of sun. I survived needing extra time to put...
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,...
Remember when fitness studios had classes called High-Impact Aerobics and Low-Impact Aerobics? Also, did you know there was (and is) NIA which stands for Non-Impact Aerobics? I’m bringing the topic of impact up today because “impact” doesn’t get mentioned much anymore. I guess it’s a bit overlooked, but mostly, what has happened I think, is impact level is now getting clumped in under the intensity level umbrella. The problem with this is 99percent of the time, is it assumed that high impact is higher intensity. But is it? ...
There’s what I call “the fire tower trail” in the next town over that I’ve been very much into lately. I park my car and hike a steady incline that’s in a wooded area, for about 10minutes. I then arrive at this tall metal structure that consists of 10 sets of 12 steep stairs, circling up and up. When I get to the top, there’s a panorama view and I can see for miles and...
