pilates

on july 15th, under entry "to shop or not to shop," i made a promise. and by-golly, i'm going to keep it!

i said that i would tell more about Pilates at some point. so here it goes.

Pilates is not a airplane pilate. sorry. Its not pronounced as that either. its more like "puh-lah-tees." the guy who started it all was joseph pilates.

i wasnt gonna try it, cuz i thought it was like yoga. i'm not a fan of yoga-- seems to new-agey for me. i dont comprehend how to align my seven spheres, or whatever it is they say.

its a bit similar in that it is a series of different stretch/strength moves that you do a few times and then move to the next one. so, you're not doing fifty situps or pushups or whatever. (after baby was born, my hubby decided to get me in shape. he sat me down and made me do 20 situps. first of all, thats tiring. second of all-- after having a baby, you have NO ABS left! it takes a while to get them back in shape. and pilates did that for me.)

anywho. i'm gonna give the history in brief. i may be a bit wrong here or there-- i researched it once, but dont feel like looking up specifics now, so i'm going by memory. Pilates was born sometime a while ago. he was a weak little guy, scrawny and short. he decided he wanted to get in shape. so, he studied all kinds of other exercise regimines, and took from them this, that, and the other to form his own routine. they are movements basically done on a mat, so its low impact and won't hurt joints. (which is good for me-- my knees are very easily hurt.) well, his whole body became very lean and strong. he even seemed to become taller from the improved posture. he then began teaching this to others. he used it to help injured war troops to bring them back into shape. i think he helped polio survivors (or some other illness) to strengthen their spines.

pilates basically strengthens your "core." that is, the abs, back, and posterior. and i must say, my abs got much stronger. AND, all of my backache from the pregnancy and early baby-care just vanished after a few sessions. i lost all of the baby weight and then some.

if you're interested, you can check out The Beginners Mat Workout by Gaiam, with Ana Caban. the instructor lady is great. i have 4 workout videos, all but one are with Ana Caban. The other is Susan Deason. I do not like her at all. She's also a yoga person, so she's just a bit odd. but Ana Caban is just a Pilates person, and she's very energetic and fun.

well, i'm not gonna take time to make silly links. though it is fun, i feel the need to go and do some pilates!