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a beginners guide to pilates

🎀 what is pilates?

pilates is a form of strength training exercise that focuses on low to medium impact movements to improve muscle tone, stability, endurance, and mobility. pilates also focuses more on the smaller muscles of the body compared to traditional strength or weight training.

🎀 benefits of pilates

including the benefits that exercise generally brings, pilates:

improves mind-body connection and body control

improves active flexibility and mobility

works the core, improving stability

improves coordination and balance

reduces mental and physical stress

works muscles that can be neglected in our daily lives

treats and prevents body pain, including menstrual pain

teaches you how to pair your breath with your body

keeps the joints healthy without putting pressure on them

🎀 where to start

while you can absolutely start with studio or reformer classes, you can also do pilates routines on youtube! i recommend move with nicole and dansique fitness. if you want to get your cardio in as well, i absolutely recommend eleni fit. her workouts are some of the best i’ve ever tried!

🎀 personal tips

keep your core in mind. core strength is a major benefit of pilates because each movement requires at least a mild amount of core work to keep your body stable, so do your best to keep the engagement throughout.

start slow. pilates movements can take a while to fully understand and it can take a while to build the mind-body connection, so don’t push yourself too far in the beginning. your coordination will improve over time!

don’t underestimate it! while the movements are generally slower than other types of exercise, you will work your muscles just as much and in a way they may not have been worked before. sometimes i even find pilates more difficult than hiit or weights!

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Finished watching Luckiest Girl Alive. I enjoyed it, l loved it even. But the fairy ending was not real. The woman on 5th Avenue was right. The 15 minutes of recognition will be swallowed quickly. It will be spat up occasionally, like hiccups, until our heads are turned by another man being just another man, and we will swallow again. The world already knows what men do, and what they are, so one story or a million stories won't make people see; they have been staring the issue dead in the eyes since men grew muscle and women grew to fear them. The fear of women is all around the world. All of us can see what is ahead and choose to see the blurring lines as a picket white fence instead of the cable cords wrapped around our throats. But I understand them. Swallowing a hiccup is easier than swallowing reality.

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Yes, yes I am

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7/12/23

It’s a Thursday morning, 10:30, a bit late, but I’m basically unemployed, so who’s counting? I roll around in bed and vape for a bit. I stop when my cat jumps up, a needy little kitty who always demands his morning stroke. I finally get up and go pee. I feel the muscles in my thighs as I sit down.

Finishing, I move to feel my back. It’s tense and tight, regular. I touch the mole on my back. It’s a little bumpy, but I like the detail it adds to my skin. My spot patches have come off in the night (usual). I have two spots with a white head, but I resist the urge to pick them. Moving my eyes to my entire face, I see the straw that is my hair, tried into two plaits, and my bangs hang oddly.

Returning to bed again, I hear the birds scattered about on the flat part of the roof, probably from the obscene amount of bird food I put there (oops). I’m not allowed to do that. Mum says it will cause an infestation. It hasn’t so far.

I briefly think of the history of pigeons when I see a partially large one fly down to nibble at the feed. I shake the thought. I’ll go down a rabbit hole filled with tears. I don’t want to drown so early in the morning.

I move to put on some clothes; my current naked body isn’t appropriate to go downstairs into my large, windowed, scattered house. I was wearing the white long-sleeved shirt yesterday and the same joggers. I’m not wearing any undergarments. My nipples are an eyesore for some. They are my main accessory.

My vision zones in on my mother’s office door. Hugging my chest, I knock. She lets out an exhausted yes. I say good morning and tell her that the cat got out the window, a lie (I just wanted something to say to her). She doesn’t respond. A thought that she doesn’t respond because she knows I’m lying crosses my mind, but I shake it off. She’s working hard to provide for me; I can’t take offence to that. I pause a moment, still hiding my nipples beneath my crossed arms. She still hasn’t turned around yet.

I picked up the cat that managed to get in during our minute-long, one-sided conversation and close the door gently.

I head downstairs, plopping the cat down on the last steps.

Seeing the litter tray, I think I’ll do it after a drink. My throat is sore. I fill a clear mug-like glass with six ice cubes, frozen blueberries and strawberries. I add the filtered water and stick my decade-old straw into it. I make my way to the sofa in the kitchen, drap my pink blanket over my legs, sip on my drink and start writing.

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yh

made by me

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Me after I've spoke about my feelings