redecorating

The time has come to replace both our living room couch and chair, and I'm wondering if I should just kill two birds and redecorate with pilates equipment: My European husband should appreciate the "Euro style day couch mat" and Wunda chair that converts to, well, a real chair.

wundaful

I'm a huge fan of the Wunda chair and have recently had more opportunities to practice. On Friday night, Madison put us through our pilates paces and after class, I got to try a full pike. This is one of the hardest exercises, as far as I'm concerned, and at first I couldn't do it without guidance -- namely, Madison's arm across my waist as I bent over it, both providing some lift and also a frame of reference for where to bend. That said, once you get into it the full ab experience is pretty intense and it's really an amazing full body stretch. It's like an entire hour long session wrapped into about 20 seconds.

Rael Isacowitz describes it as "you must perform and to understand how profound it is. Viewing from the sidelines simply does not impart full appreciation of its intensity, but those who attempt it will never look back. If one exercise can guide you to discover the sensation of working deep into the abdominal's, this is. The abdominal work is profound and often leads to a sensation of muscle activation never before experienced."

He goes on to compare it to a handstand, but I feel more like it's sort of an inverse teaser (maybe that's just two ways of saying the same thing, though). The positioning is sort of similar and while there is more arm work needed, it's easier to do with even tight hamstrings. The ab experience is similar and the overall stability is greater, perhaps because you're resisting against the chair rather than trying to balance arms, legs and abs all at once.

pilates 1, yoga 0

Friday night classes always ends with a glass of bubbly and conversations about weekend plans. This weekend, we're all off for points north and east (and hopefully, sun).

Conversation last night turned to pilates vs. yoga. Now, we're all a little biased, standing around a pilates studio after class, our scoops still tingling. "Yoga's just to ooommmm la la la" for me," said Madison, my new favorite teacher. Agreed. I'm not a huge fan of the chanting or how culty people get about certain classes or teachers. Or even how I feel afterwards, like a stretched out rubber band.

As one of the teachers pointed out, "Pilates is about form and staying within your joints while yoga's about getting into the pose no matter what, even if it means getting out of your joints."

Maybe I just haven't found the style that works for me, or maybe there are simply too many to choose from. One of my classmates, Ipanema, told us about a naked men's yoga class that one of her teachers takes (tho she's clearly not qualified to attend). Does the world need naked men doing yoga together? The possibility that it's bikram is even worse to think about.

Kathy Smith on iVillage explains the difference like this: "Generally speaking, I think it's fair to say yoga is more about how it makes you feel while Pilates is about how you look -- how you carry yourself and move." On first read, my inclination is to disagree totally. Pilates is not about how I look but how it makes me feel. Then again, there's no difference between how I carry myself and move and how I feel since I started Pilates. I have better posture, feel (and look?) taller, and of course, my RSI is much improved. I look and feel better, and it's clearly coming from the inside.

so-so psoas

Today's one of those rare perfect summer days in Fogville (warm, not too windy), and everyone but me played hooky from class. Score! Good weather AND a private. We spent the hour on teaser issues and I think I have part of the problem figured out. My psoas (psoases? psoaii? psoasim?) are weak. That, combined with tight hamstrings seem to be preventing me from holding my legs up. My abs are strong and when I pull my lower abs back, back, back -- and have my legs even semi-supported -- I'm ok. But when my legs are in the air and I'm just balancing on my sacrum, my legs start shaking and everything goes down.

I also think that I have sort of pixie stick legs that are too light to balance out the weight of my upper body. That's just a theory, and not an excuse for the real work that needs to be done, namely (and in flat back):

- bridges with leg lifts,
- the fives -- especially double leg and hamstrings,
- leg circles, and
- corkscrew

Good times, good times.

pilates video review

Day 2 of the challenge. I attempted 6 separate teasers (3 using my ball, but I was actually able to hold it for more than 4 seconds), thanks to the pilates video stylings of "Power Pilates: Connect to your Body's Core - Intermediate Workout." I can't complain, I feel good and sore in that "my deep abs are smiling" kind of way. Or maybe that's just the 3 glasses of wine I had with dinner.

Anyway, this seems like a good opportunity to introduce a new feature to TeaserMe: the pilates DVD review.

First, the criteria for judging:

- The overall score will - of course - be calculated on a scale of 1 to "the hundreds," with 100 being the peak of pilates perfection
- The overall structure of the class will be taken into account in terms of whether it's a single class or made up of separate modules that can be mixed and matched (pros and cons to both)
- Backdrop, look and feel of the studio and the on-screen class participants will be noted. Points will be deducted for videos that seem like they were shot on a set between takes of "Debbie Does Pompeii" because they feature lots of bed like mats, columns and candles.
-Pace
- Use, content and quality of verbal cues
- Overall tone of the instructor (effective? annoying? menacing?)

Now on to the first workout:

Overall, I liked that this DVD has several sections that can be done according to time available. I did the 45 minute combo and that was perfect given the amount of time I had -- I feel like I got a good work out, and also know that if I had 15, 30, or a full 60 minutes I could do workouts to fit that. Normally I hate when DVDs waste 10 minutes of the total on learning about neutral spine, how to breathe, etc. This one not only didn't have that, but it actually jumped right in with the 100s. I prefer to get to that about 1/4 to half way through my workout. That said, if I had done my normal warm up first, I would have been all set.

Anyway, the 45 minutes started with a good 20 minutes of mat work with all the standards from roll ups and swan to legwork and swimming. The fives are interspersed nicely. I wasn't crazy about the neck pull demo as it was basically just a roll down without that initial upper backbend that feels so good but is so hard to get timingwise without braining yourself. Or maybe that's just me.

After the mat work, I was guided to use my magic circle, a Theraband (which I substituted with a combination of my circle and a yoga strap since I somehow don't have a band), and a ball. Yippee! All the toys were well-used!

My main complaint is the pace. Yes, this is intermediate, but that doesn't mean it's pilates on crack. Maybe I just prefer to focus on form rather than speed, or maybe if I was truly an intermediate my form would be so perfect that I could zip through each exercise. But part of the joy of pilates is the focus and deliberateness of each move as it is timed with breathing. The pace of this class was causing me to hyperventilate.

While the cues were good -- especially for focusing on your abs (yes, I know, but it never hurts to have a reminder) I could have used other cues as well in terms of when to be in neutral or not. Again, I do know, but sometimes it helps to hear it.

The backdrop: Yes. It looked like the set from a douche commercial. Do flowing white curtains really help?

And finally, the instructor. She's blonde, she's perky. And she's sometimes unintentionally hilarious: reminder during double leg kick, to replace our face cheek on the floor. Thanks for the clarification.

Overall score: 82

about those hamstrings

One day into the challenge, and here I am typing, sitting at my desk and yes... not doing any pilates. I still feel sore from yesterday's home workout (excuse) but I did manage to walk for a good 45 minutes around the neighborhood and do an additional 25 minutes on my elliptical trainer. I think that may be causing some lower back issues, or maybe it's that plus sitting plus my already tight hamstrings?

Anyway, 'String theory (don't worry, I can barely handle things physical, so I'm not even going to touch physics) has a great overview of what's going on and how I can fix it. I'm clearly living the 90/90 lifestyle. Or in my case, 90/90/90: 90 degrees of hip flexion with 90 degrees of knee flexion, 90% of my day. Good thing I can stand up while talking to my computer.

the teaser challenge

So my goal for this summer is to be able to nail the teaser. That probably doesn't sound terribly ambitious, but I'm approaching seven years of pilates practice... and it's about time already. Maybe in another seven I'll be working up to the boomerang, but for now this seems like a challenge. Slow but steady... I mean, Joseph Pilates practiced til he was in his eighties so I do need something to look forward to.

The rules are as follows:

- 1-2 pilates classes at my studio per week; more depending on budget and time. At each class when the teacher asks for requests I'll ask for teaser related challenges
- at home pilates practice 1-2 hours per week (including my regular arm/injury stretches on my foam roller) with each session to include some teaser and related activities
- daily hamstring stretches. Or every other day. Ouch. As much as I can take.
- focus on relaxing my shoulders all the time and also during practice
- when rolling like a ball I'll really use my abs and not cheat with momentum (ok, that's not totally teaser related but I'm sure it can't hurt -- and for open leg rocker which is essentially a rolling teaser, it'll certainly help)

by way of background

I first discovered pilates in 2000 when I was first starting to heal from a serious repetitive stress injury. It's a long story, but suffice to say I will keep these blog posts short as I still try to limit the amount of typing I do. I started with weekly mat classes and in January, 2003 I was introduced to the reformer thanks to an amazing MD/acupuncturist who believed that that combination of treatment can fix just about anything.

Since then, I've survived a writing intensive masters degree program (writing my thesis in 4 days using voice recognition software) and continued to study pilates. I try to take a class at least once a week (some combination of reformer/springboard/mat/ball) and then practice at home.

My injury still causes some issues. My wrists can't tolerate a lot of plank work and my upper ab curl could be a little stronger. But I can't blame my injury on the fact that I can't do a teaser for more than 3 seconds without falling over. My hamstrings are too tight? My balance is funky? I'm just plain uncoordinated? All true.

Pilates is supposedly helping me with all of these things, but I feel like I need to focus a little more if I want to take my practice to the next level. The teaser is sort of the quintessential pilates move and if I can achieve that I'll feel like I've made true progress in moving past this stupid injury (which it really is -- injured in the line of... typing? Now that's just ridiculous).

Will it happen?