Pilates Please!

This morning I woke up a little too late to go out for a run before Justin and Chris had to leave for Tee-Ball (I don't have a jogging stroller, and I've tried running with our regular one... not a good idea).  So I decided I was going to try out one of the new Pilates videos I bought over the last couple months.

I fell in love with Pilates when I was going to school for Massage Therapy (don't ask me to massage you, I did not complete my certification, haha).  My teacher used to begin each Massage lab with 30-40 minutes of Pilates to improve posture and core strength and reduce the chance of injury while massaging.  So 3-4 times a week I was doing Pilates.  I'd never done it before so it was really hard at first.  But after a few weeks I started feeling so much better afterward.  My mom asked me one day if I had had a growth spurt, which I hadn't, and we realized that my posture had improved so much that I actually looked an inch or so taller.  Not only did I look thinner, too (because of better posture), but my stomach was flatter than I'd ever been able to get it at that point in my life.  I felt strong and powerful and centered, it was great.  I continued it on my own even after I quit school.

When Justin was little little, an instructor was offering discount Pilates classes to Xerox employees and their families.  Since Chris was working there, I took advantage of the discount and joined the class.  It was six weeks 2 times a week.  My instructor was close to 70 years old.  He had been in the Marines, then came home and became a personal trainer.  Then 12 years before then had decided to become a certified Pilates instructor.  It amazed me watching this man bend and stretch and stand up tall the way he did, I'd never seen anything like it!  It was motivating and he was a great teacher.  I would be in the middle of a move and want to give up, but looking at him and then looking around the room at the people around me not giving up, I would push through the muscle fatigue and surprise myself by finishing the set.  It was great!  My muscle memory kicked in quickly, my posture and flexibility improved, and it was a great way to relieve the stress of my workday.

Since then, I have been searching for a good Pilates video to do at home.  The ones I have found are either more instructional so they don't run it like a full Pilates session, or they're trying to update and modernize and they lose the breathing and stretching that makes it so great!  Or, like one that I have, they go so mind-dumbingly slow that I don't feel I'm accomplishing anything and I feel like I'm spending more time waiting between moves than actually doing them.  And the problem is you can't really test-drive these videos before you buy them, so I have about 5 videos that are really not worth anything to me except the money I wasted to buy them.

What I would really love to do is get back into a class.  But between timing with the kids and work and price, I haven't found one that works for me yet.  I'm still looking.

Needless to say, I didn't do much Pilates this morning.  I took Lucy in our big, clunky stroller out for a long walk.  It is amazing, though, how much resistance a big clunky stroller and a 2 year old will add your walk!  However, I am still in search of a great Pilates workout video.  One that's not so easy that I feel nothing but not so hard that only dancers in the American Ballet Company could do it!

If anyone knows of such a video, please let me know!  Meanwhile, I'm going to do what I remember on my own with my yoga ball and Pilates ring... at least it's something.