The Biggest Lie About Pilates Is On Instagram
It was happening. At the ripe old age of 42, Phoebe found herself telling the doctor at her physical all about her lower back achiness and neck pain. For the past 2 years Phoebe, like much of the rest of the world, had been trying to juggle working from home, kids and extracurricular activities. She had not, however, been taking care of her OWN body, and she was really starting to feel it.
When her doctor casually suggested, “Why don’t you try Pilates?” Phoebe internally rolled her eyes in a “sure, one more thing to add to the list” kind of way.
Phoebe Considers Beginner Pilates
She’d heard about Pilates; mostly from her very active, very single friend Ashley who, no matter what, seemed to have all the extra time in the world. She had even seen some Instagram posts of Ashley doing funny-looking things on funny-looking machines.
Just the thought of getting in the car, driving 15 minutes to take a 50-minute class, and getting back in the car overwhelmed her. How was she going to add an extra 80 minutes into her schedule for exercise? And when she got there, how would she know what to do on those funny-looking machines? She didn’t want to be the only new person in the room. She pushed the thought of Pilates out of her mind.
One afternoon, she was sitting in the frustratingly long line to pick up her kids from school and she hopped on Instagram to give the idea of Pilates another try. She scrolled through image after image of skinny women in sports bras doing ridiculous-looking exercises on machines that looked like torture devices.
Pilates Mat
Beginner To Advanced In 30 Classes
She was just about to put her phone down when one post in particular jumped out at her. Or, more specifically, one WORD jumped out at her: Beginner. Phoebe clicked on the post for the “Beginner to Advanced in 30” series from Fitstreams.
Finding Beginner Pilates
She went to the Fitstreams site and saw that the first class in the series was free, and she didn’t see any of those intimidating machines. She watched the first couple of minutes and was pleasantly surprised! There was nothing fancy going on- she identified with the instructor who looked to be about the same age.
And, better yet, she realized she could do this workout from home, in the comfort of her own living room at her own pace. No sports bras or machines required. Phoebe decided to give it a shot.
That night, she started with class 1. It felt good and was super easy, so the next day she did class 2 which was just a tad harder, and she continued each day doing one class. When she got to class 6 she finally thought, “Wow, that was a workout”!
The brilliance in the series is that at the end of every class, the teacher said, “If this class was easy then move on, but if this class was a challenge, repeat it again tomorrow.” Phoebe knew tomorrow she would repeat class 6. Tomorrow she would practice at a level that was challenging but not impossible.
And just like that, her Pilates practice had begun.