My First Pilates Experience

If you have never been to a Pilates class or don’t even know what Pilates is, well, then you can relate to this. I was in the same boat before meeting Lucie and deciding to take one of her classes. I forced my roommate to come with me to the class because I had no idea what to expect out of it and didn’t want to make a complete fool out of myself alone! When we got there, Lucie greeted us and began going over what Pilates actually was since neither of us really knew. She told us that Pilates is all about working the muscles we may not normally work on a given day. A lot of Pilates is based around small movement, and being able to concentrate on those different movements. During Pilates, you are moving around quite a bit, unlike yoga where you are concentrating on standing still.

Lucie had us working from our toes all the way up to our arms and shoulders and made sure to tell us each of the muscles we were working at that time. We used a reformer the entire class and a reformer is a type of machine that has different sets of springs in it which indicate different weight amounts. We would either be pushing off of the reformer or holding a stance still while we moved another part of our body, whether that be legs, arms, toes, etc.

Before going to my first Pilates class, I thought it was mostly about stretching your body and that is partially true, but Pilates is much more than stretching. The muscles we worked during it are some we may never have known we even had, but trust me… they exist. You will feel all these muscles burn the next morning, but that just means you worked them well!

Don’t be afraid to try Pilates. I think everyone should try it at least once because you learn a lot about your body through it and what you can and cannot handle. Pilates is not about who is the strongest or the most flexible, it’s about knowing your body and being able to control it because it will be effective in other aspects of your life. Don’t be embarrassed if or when you mess up during a class because it’s all a learning experience. I for one messed up several times and lost my balance, but it’s all apart of the process.

I hope you take my advice and go sign up for a class with Lucie. She helped me to understand what each exercise was working in my body and I think that helped out a lot with understanding the overall benefits of Pilates. I can’t wait for my next class!

Thanks for reading my first blog! I’m excited to keep up with it and write more for you all!

xoxo, Savanna