Welcome to the Surprise Pilates Blog! Together we will explore topics related to Pilates, Life, and all things Health, and Wellness. Subscribe to our blog so you will receive new posts emailed directly to you. Feel free to pass this along to friends and family or suggest a topic you would like to see featured here. Thanks so much for reading.
As we round out another year - it’s a great time to reflect on the past year and plan for the future year. Whether you make resolutions or not, with some time off for the holidays it’s conducive to contemplating!
Resolutions for me are often smaller and more of a to-do list and to finish list. The new year is like a fresh page in a new notebook - ready to be filled out. Not every page needs to be brilliant but the combined contents makes it all worthwhile.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a Pilates Suspension Method Retreat. Overf the course of 3 days we laarned more than 200 Pilates Suspension moves on the suspension apparatus with Rebecca Beckler. She is wonderful and a wealth of knowledge.I highly recommend you follow her and train with her if you get the chance. We spent about 8 hours a day moving our bodies, challenging our minds. laughing, learning and growing. I loved every minute of it! This was actually my Christmas present to myself attending this retreat.
In the early days of my Pilates teaching, if you had told me I needed to teach a reformer or mat class without c-curve I would have started to nervously sweat a little and certainly would have had a moment of “What I’m going to do to fill an hour without c-curve??” Now, after teaching Pilates for many years, I have more training and more tricks in my Pilates bag! I’ve pursued education in Pilates for rehab and chronic conditions, and I feel comfortable in these areas. I’ve also questioned the benefits of c-curve and when it may actually create more issue.
Thanksgiving was last week and I have so much to be thankful for! I moved to Arizona about 8 months ago and the time has really flown by! It dawned on me that I was in Arizona last Thanksiving for a solo trip and get away … when I decide it was time to get serious about moving here. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine one year later I would be an Arizona resident and business owner.
This weekend I did a 3 mile race at the World Wilderness Zoo. I used to race several times a year. Thanks to Covid and races being canceled, it’s been almost 2 years since I have competed. I have been competing in races since I was in the 7th grade and it is something I enjoy. Even so the day before the race, the little voice in my head started coming up with reasons I should just skip it!
I left a fairly long and successful career in advertising and marketing to open my first studio. I was teaching Pilates and Spinning on the side but I knew I wanted to do more Pilates and less Advertising. It’s been over a decade since I made that leap and my reason why continues to grow.
The other day I was dealing with something stressful that was weighing heavy on my mind. What it is is not relevant and it’s been resolved but we all can have mood affecting, stressful times in our lives. Whether it’s a relationship issue, health issue or work issue, It’s hard to shut that off and focus on what you are doing.
If you have been to Shine Pilates, you have probably noticed the large clock on the wall. You may have also noticed that it doesn’t work. It’s set to 5 o’clock because one of my students felt it should be “5 o’clock somewhere!”.
This is one of the most common questions I get asked in a Pilates session - what spring should I be on. While we have guidelines for movements - the answer really is “It depends!”