82 days of Pilates

Day 82 – somewhere along the line life got in the way and I am now over 30 days behind on blogging about my daily Pilates. However I am trying to take the mindful approach and not be too hard on myself, particularly when my goal wasn’t to blog every day but to do Pilates every day. And with that goal I am still going strong. Here’s an overview of my journey so far:

 

 

82 days of consecutive Pilates

24 different instructors

6 different studios plus the wonderful online Pilates Anytime which has allowed me to do Pilates at the beach, at home in my lounge room, the floor of a hostel dorm, and my friend’s living room amongst others

Countless new exercises, variations, and cues as well as completely new styles such as Rhythm Pilates

Over 40 hours of Pilates

I have learnt that the most important thing is just to keep the consistency going. Even a short session is better than nothing, and that practice makes perfect.

In the last 2 weeks I have just begun studying again with a Masters of Pain Management through Sydney University and next week start my mentor training for Polestar Pilates. The rest of the year looks busy but I’m confident I keep up my daily Pilates

Days 47-50 – Melissa Connolly on Pilates Anytime and more mat practice

Days 47, 48, 49 and 50 – Day 47 I again returned to Pilates Anytime for inspiration from another new teacher and found it in Melissa Connolly. I opted for Melissa’s 40 minute stretch class and certainly felt very limber and mobile afterwards.

 

Days 48, 49 and 50 I spent doing my own self mastery on the mat, as well as using the foam roller and theraband. I’m finding it’s good to balance the new with the old, spending time reviewing and practising exercises I have known for a long time on my own as well as being exposed to the new through different instructors and classes.

Day 45 and 46 – group reformer classes

Day 45 and 46 – group reformer is my favourite class of 2012. I hadn’t had the opportunity to do many of them in Sydney and am certainly getting my fill while I can here in Perth.

Day 45 was a 45 minute power Pilates class that sure packed a punch with Renee of Performance Pilates and Physiotherapy in West Perth.

 

Day 46 was a one hour group reformer class with Zoe at LIVe Pilates in Applecross.

  

I love the challenge of the springs and moving platform the reformer offers, but also find it more achievable to maintain good form than on the mat. Of course you can’t beat the convenience of mat work but right now I’m hooked on reformer!

Day 44 – Alisa Wyatt mat class on Pilates Anytime

Day 44 – today being back in Perth again and having my own space to exercise in I returned to Pilates Anytime for a 30 minute mat class instructed by Alisa Wyatt. To see the class click here.

It was great to have time to do a longer workout at home again and as always nice to try another excellent instructor.

  

Day 41, 42, 43 – self practice

Day 41, 42, 43 – yes I am still here and yes I am still doing my daily Pilates. As you may have noticed I have however let this blog fall by the wayside a little. So in the interest of keeping it alive despite life getting a lot busier I have decided to no longer do daily posts. Instead I will combine a few days together, especially if I did similar Pilates sessions.

Days 41, 42 and 43 saw me still in Sydney and squeezing in daily self guided Pilates sessions of 20-30 minutes each. One day I was interrupted at the 10 minute mark and had to return to my session later, doing another 10 minutes. I thought whether or not this should ‘count’ so to speak, as each individual session was only 10 minutes. I decided however that seeing as the research demonstrates the benefits of physical activity can be accumulated, it was ok for my Pilates to be accumulated too.

Day 40 – Studio session with Dav Cohen at Powernouse

Day 40 – I have been looking forward to today’s session for quite a few months. Powernouse Pilates in Balgowlah is the training facility for Polestar Pilates in Australia and where I learnt to be a Pilates Instructor (although it was located in Manly back then). Dav Cohen is the director for curriculum for Polestar Pilates worldwide, a principal educator and also a physiotherapist. He delivered the Polestar Pilates Rehabilitation series course I attended back in 2009 and had been my Pilates Instructor ever since, until I moved to Perth at the end of last year.

    

It was great to be back in my Pilates home, however brief. I had great session finishing up with hanging, one of my favourite exercises that I realised I had somehow neglected all these months in Perth.

Day 39 – pain, Pilates, dinner, repeat.

Day 39 – more pain education, more self directed short Pilates sessions, more dinners with friends.

Did you know that approximately 20% of the community suffers from chronic pain?

That it costs us over $33 billion a year.

It costs the US more than the wars in Irag and Afghanistan combined.

The most effective treatment for chronic pain is usually a combination of education and exercise. For more severe cases this may need to be as part of a multidisciplinary team intensive pain management course. For others it may simply mean learning about pain and how it works and then gradually pacing up their exercise.

Curative monotherapies such as surgery and injections typically don’t work for chronic pain.

This is just another reason why I love Pilates. While it is certainly not the be all end all in chronic pain treatment, when carried out by an excellent instructor Pilates can be used to educate and pace up exercise.

Today I did another short 20 minute Pilates session on my own just before bed.

If you want to learn more about chronic pain, one of the best books around is called Explain Pain by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley.