How I got started with Pilates
You are only as young as your spine is flexible. ~ Joseph Pilates
This month I thought I’d share with you my introduction to Pilates. I first heard about Pilates, and was introduced to it at my junior high school’s gym class. My gym class offered different sports and even brought in guest teachers to teach various movement activities throughout the school year. Gym class was twice a week, and a particular sport or movement activity was for a set number of weeks. Sports like basketball, volleyball, track, softball, touch football, swimming, and tennis to name a few. Various movement activities like yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, Qigong, calisthenics, and step aerobics are ones that I recall. These offerings were throughout my junior high school and senior high school years.
I went to a top rated, public high school, so I don’t know how other high school’s gyms operate, but when I talk about this with other people, I quickly learn that my high school experience is quite the exception. Ahead of its time not just in gym classes, but in all things. That’s a topic for another time.
Back to my first class on Pilates mat – I wish I could remember the guest teacher’s name, since she taught year after year for a set number of weeks, twice a week. Here’s what I can remember – I remember thinking how does this “old woman” look so great? Keep in mind that I thought anybody over the age of 20 was “old” to my teenage self. And I thought anyone over the age of 50 was “ancient”, so you know what I thought of my parents as a teenager! And now that I’m in my 50s, I don’t think I look or feel ancient. Perspective.
I remember thinking how is it possible this “old woman” can do all these exercises she’s teaching us. Meanwhile, there’s not many of us teenagers in the room who can do a majority of these exercises. I mean, the second exercise on the mat is the Roll Up. There’s the guest teacher doing it. And then there’s the room struggling, moaning, groaning, sighing, giggling, laughing, and looking around like who else is able to do the Roll Up? No one in my gym class.
You know how you can have an important moment in your life when you realize life will never be the same after you know something/someone, or experience something. Watching the guest teacher do the Roll Up probably 5-6 times was an important moment for me. I thought we’re all younger than her, and yet, we can’t do the Roll Up, and this “old woman” can. It left a mark on me for sure.
I know this now, but I didn’t know it then. If you struggle with the Roll Up, then you’re going to struggle with the Neck Pull, and Teaser, maybe the Roll Over. I was a swimmer in high school, and yet, Swan prep, Swan Dive & Catch, the full Swan Dive, Swimming, and Rocking were hard AF! Is it because we’re on land, and not in the water? Glancing again at the guest teacher who made it look so effortless in the front of the class. And did I mention she’s talking and cueing as she’s moving?! How is she doing both without strain in her voice or her face or her body? None of the teenagers in the room were talking, and yet we’re definitely huffing and puffing, and panting, and sweating.
Moving on to college years, I registered for different movement classes to use up my credits. Pilates mat was definitely one of those classes. Some exercises were getting better. Some exercises stayed the same with the same struggles as in high school – the Roll Up – insert womp womp crying meme here!
Fast forward to being a working career professional, and I must admit that I threw myself into work that there wasn’t much time for anything else. I don’t know how many years I went through this phase before I craved something to move my body. So I bought DVDs with Ana Caban and Mari Windsor. Did anybody else do this? Sometimes I was able to follow the “advanced” body, and sometimes I had to follow the “beginner/intermediate” body. Side note: I’ve met and talked with Ana Caban over the years, and she’s just lovely.
Fast forward to moving from the East Coast to the West Coast, and my goodness, the yoga studios are in abundance here! Of course, I had to give it a try. The last time was high school. Omigosh – so many different yoga styles – who knew?
I had a yoga practice for years until Elephant Pharmacy moved into my neighborhood. Back to Pilates mat with a teacher for a set number of weeks. And I was seriously hooked! Followed that teacher to her very own studio with apparatuses! In my head, it was TOYS! It was a playground! So much to play with, so much feedback for your body, and so much fun.
Pilates mat is by far the hardest practice in my opinion because it’s your body on a mat moving through air and space with not a lot of feedback. You may not know where the engagement/connection is in your body, or how to engage/connect it, and keep it throughout your practice. Enter the apparatuses to support you, and challenge you.
I practiced 3-4x/week at that Pilates studio, and stopped practicing yoga. Years later, I took a yoga class, and BAM!, I was able to do arm balances, and a headstand. Yoga poses I could not do for years no matter how much yoga I practiced, I was able to do it now based solely on a steady and consistent Pilates practice. What – have I found the secret sauce?
I may not have been able to articulate my thanks and gratitude to that guest Pilates teacher who visited my high school over 30+ years ago, but I do think of her and my high school for giving me that experience that changed me not only on a cellular level, but also has changed my life for the better with a full mind and body workout that doesn’t make me look or feel ancient. 😉