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Thursday 27th May
Now this is more like it – a class with plenty of challenges but not one I limp out of weeping. We’ve come a long way in one month and I’m already noticing subtle changes in what I am capable of. I can keep both hips anchored to the floor during saw, I can roll like a ball not a startled turtle, I can grab at my ankles during scissors and I can stretch my legs nearly straight up in front of me while balancing on my sit bones. The only problem is I’ve now got a two-week holiday. Reggie has written out the key exercises for me but I’m worried I’ll lose the momentum of how far I’ve come. I’ll let you know how I’ve got on in a fortnight.
Wednesday 26th May
A terrible class today. I am so tired at the moment and just felt exhausted for the whole hour. Amy is challenging us more and more and there was no let up. After my usual harrumphing, Amy blissfully got out the barrels for us to work on our lower backs. Bliss. No more putting all the pressure on my back as my stomach is weak. We rolled our backs over the barrel and stretched our legs as far over our head as possible. Amy has warned that the more advanced you get, the less stretches are a part of the class so I’m just going to have to enjoy them for now.
Tuesday 25th May
Today was tough. Amy is working us to our full potential and we used the infamous magic circle several times to intensify exercises. This served mostly to make me forget all about my core and make all the effort come from my lower back. Oucho. Not a great class and I went off to work feeling grumpy and exhausted.
Saturday 22nd May
Gah, pilates is not for the faint hearted or the hungover. I hadn’t really realised how much getting the exercises right is a mental game until my addled brain decided to take a vacation for the entire class. Suddenly my core wasn’t scooped, I forgot to breathe, my arms were in the wrong position and I kept straightening my legs when they should be bent. And vice versa. I make a promise to myself that both brain and body will work together without the fog of last night’s booze next time.
Friday 21st May
Great class today. We used the tower more than we ever have before and even practised Madonna’s favourite exercise – attach leg springs to your feet, lie on your back with your head at the tower end and then extend your legs out like a frog, bringing them out and drawing them back with control. We then rode an imaginary bicycle, bending our legs around imaginary pedals – again with control. It was a great change of pace from the straightforward floor work and we all enjoyed it.
Thursday 20th May
One of the things I find hardest in class is rolling like a ball. You’re supposed to balance on your sitbones, hold your shins, dip your head between your knees, scoop in your powerhouse and then roll back and forward with control. Except that when I roll back, I stay back. It’s been frustrating me so much watching all the other girls in the class rock back and then roll upright again. So I asked Reggie about this and she told me two things that have transformed how I do the exercise: don’t let your head fall back on the roll and when you’re coming back up, push into your shins. I tried both and bingo, I can now roll back upright and stop flailing around like an upended turtle.
Tuesday 18th May
Another breakthrough today – one I didn’t even notice until Amy pointed it out. I can now sit up straight in saw without bending my legs. My back is obviously stronger than it was and the second Amy mentioned it I realised that my back actually feels stronger too. Beaming, I sat up with my head held the highest of any girl in class. Gold star for Bella! For once.
Saturday 15th May
Urgh, a really tough class today. Reggie took us through our paces relentlessly. Heaving myself from one series to another, we powered through scissors, single leg stretch, swan, boom, boom, boom. My muscles were screaming in complaint and a little voice inside me kept saying, “You can’t do this”. Then a revelation – for the first time as I reached forward in saw pose trying to touch my toes, I actually touched them. Not my knee, not my shin, not my ankle but an actual toe. It was the best feeling and Reggie was instantly forgiven for the punishing routine.
Wednesday 12th May
Ouch. Amy is pushing us ever harder and while I’m glad in some ways as it’ll get the results I want, I am knackered by the end of the class! Because I lack strength in my core still I am tensing my shoulders, back and neck in order to perform each move. I have also started forgetting to breathe. I think it’s because I’m scooping so hard and trying to see that stomach go entirely flat or concave so I can’t bear the thought of it ballooning out again on a breath. I’m going to eat a healthy, early dinner on Friday night ahead of Saturday’s class and see if it makes a difference.
Tuesday 11th May
A hard session today as I’m just not engaging my stomach muscles enough and I feel like the strain is going in my back instead. Cue much huffing and puffing throughout the set of stomach exercises. By the time we got to the upper body twists near the end of the class, I was feeling what I think was pain but probably just muscles engaging that are used to sitting with a cuppa and their feet up. Amy, to her credit, didn’t tell me to stop whinging but took in my misery face and lower back grab and tailored the rest of the class to exercises that massage the back. Bless her. We each leaned back over a sort of mini bridge bolster mat and then moved our knees from ear to ear, then put our legs in the air and tried to pull them as much as possible to behind our head and (eventually the floor). This meant my lower back was in contact with the mini mat bridge at all times and it felt AMAZING. If you’re anything like me, you stick your tummy out and curve your spine in so anything that massages that lower back and rolls it out the other way feels like heaven. I had a glimpse of me with good posture at some point in the future and it felt good.
Monday 10th May
It’s amazing but I’ve found something I’m good at – or at least like doing: scissors. You start by lying on your back, then raise both legs in the air. Bringing your chin into your chest to engage your neck, you then let one leg go down to a 45 degree angle while you hold the other leg as high up as possible, ideally at the ankle, and then pull it twice into your chest. It’s the ultimate stretch but as usual there are rules about doing it properly. The most important is to do the exercise with control so no wobbling on the change over of legs and the hips must be anchored – butt cheeks must stay planted to the floor! I’m wavering a bit but the second I focus on a spot on the ceiling and really try to scoop my stomach in, I get almost total control over the movements. Pull, pull. Switch. Pull, pull. Switch. I feel like Jane Fonda. I breathe like a pro. And just for a second I feel swan-likely elegant. Bliss.
A great class today, helped no doubt by the fact that the time is 10.30 not 8am. My friend Candice was there again plus two lovely American women. There was a great spirit of wanting to try hard but not being remotely in competition with each other. I could tell we each felt our moments of accomplishment and pride though – mine came when I knew to hold my right ankle with my right hand and my left ankle with my left hand for the leg stretches. For this exercise you lie on your back and pull one knee into your chest while the other stays straight out in the air at a 45 degree angle. You pull the right knee into your chest with the right hand on the outside at the ankle and the left hand on the inside at the knee. Then you swap over legs without wobbling all over the place or lifting your hips off the mat. As if the legs-off-the-ground engaging of the core isn’t tough enough you then have to fight your instinct to hold each leg with the opposite hand. My first class I got it wrong every time. But now the correct hand goes to each ankle every time. It’s hardly rocket science and I don’t expect a gold star but I felt guiltily smug as Reggie corrected the other girls and I got an “Excellent, Bella”.
Thursday 6th May
My third class in a row and I’m really feeling it today. Wouldn’t you know it’s also the day one of my best friends joins the class and can’t understand why I’m groaning quietly to myself even as we warm up doing what’s called ‘the hundred’. The hundred isn’t like any other warm-up for exercise where you gently ease your body into the idea that it’s going to have to perform at some point soon. It’s a full-on assault and perversely I find it harder than almost all the exercises it’s supposed to be warming me up for. Here’s the drill: lie on your back, bend your legs in the air into a tabletop position, bring your chin forward into your chest and then start pumping your straight arms up and down from floor to ceiling by your sides. Keep breathing in and out while you swoosh those arms up and down and watch that you’re engaging your core at all times. I sound like a woman in labour by the end of this, my breathing is so whooshed out and erratic. I feel a strange burning and pulling sensation down my sides and quiz our instructor Reggie on what I’m feeling. “Those are your obliques,” she tells me. Extraordinary.
Wednesday 5th May
For the second day running, Amy started the class with a hilarious request: stand on your mat, cross your legs at the ankles and then, with control, slowly lower yourself onto the mat. It’s hilarious because both times I get to the point where my knees are slightly bent, realise I’m stuck and can’t get any lower and then just let my butt come crashing to the mat in a heap. It’s like deliberately falling over. It seems impossible to even think of a day when I’ll be able to lower myself inch by inch slowly but I’m a believer so who knows! Never say never. I’m feeling the muscles twinge a bit from their workout in yesterday’s class and although this session flies by and I really enjoy it, I’m aware of my shortcomings as both of the other girls in the class are far more flexible than me. A reminder of my limits and a good reason to redouble my efforts.
Tuesday 4th May
D-Day. Or rather P-Day as I started a month's pilates bootcamp at Pi Chelsea today.
I'm off on holiday to Santorini in just one month and while I could try the crash diet or the gym frenzy to improve my bikini bod, I've heard brilliant things about pilates and want to see what the fuss is about.
I'm aiming for increased flexibility and strength and the posture of an A-lister (my skinniest friend tells me the right posture can shave lbs off you!) All of which means I've got my work cut out for me - I pound away on the crosstrainer from time to time but there are probably more bendy pensioners than me. My hamstrings have the consistency of crispy bacon rather than juicy honey roast.
Plus my posture is rubbish. My back arches and I stick my too-many-Pringles tummy out while my shoulders roll forward if I don't correct them. I want to feel strong, poised, tall and sexy but I really feel more, well, blancmangey at the moment.
As my head hit the pillow on Monday night, I was really nervous - what if I couldn't do any of it? What if I just spent 55 minutes feeling frustrated and useless?
I definitely shouldn't have worried. This is not spinning and you don't get yelled at for not being a pro from the word go.
In fact, my instructor Amy did everything in her power to make me feel relaxed and comfortable from the second I walked in.
The Jubilee Place studio is light and airy with room for up to 10 or 12 people per class but I was lucky enough to share Amy with just one other guy, also a novice.
We each lay on a mat and worked on using our stomach muscles to help slowly sit up and lie down again "peeling" each vertebra off the floor one at a time.
Amy explained that much of the work we'd be doing would involve strengthening these 'core' muscles around the stomach and pelvis in order to tone up and strengthen the rest of the body.
We spent the next 50 minutes or so working on what felt like an extended set of stretches. Bringing my chin to my chest Amy made me watch my stomach as I worked on extending my legs out midair then bringing them back into my chest. "Scoop it in and up, Bella" was something I heard a lot.
The emphasis is on doing as much as you can, which I loved. Extend your legs up to the ceiling and hold them at the ankles? I can't. Never mind, hold them just above or below the knee where it feels comfortable, we'll work on that.
Amy's pace was great too. She pushed me but never to the point where I felt cornered or a failure - the lesson was taught with a 'good for you ... now try just that tiny bit more' attitude which got great results from both me and Mark, my co-pilat.
The most fun part of the class involved using foot loops on springs. Strapping a fabric loop around each foot I had to try to do long-loop bicycles away from the wall, stretching the springs and working my butt and stomach at the same time. Just for fun, we had to work the arms too by pressing as hard as we could against the metal bars of the frame behind us. It shouldn't have felt good after the slo-mo crunches but it did.
And then boom my first class was up. I haven't concentrated that hard on my stomach without planning a meal in a long time. For once, I could feel the muscles there and while I didn't feel tired I felt like I had genuinely done something to condition my body. Core blimey this may work! I'll let you know my progress after tomorrow's session.
Bella x |
She is coming for two days of workshops and two days of workouts. The weekend of March 17th and 18th to cover new workshops and deepen some topics already covered. Shari will also be available to teach sessions on Monday and Tuesday the 19th and 20th of March.
