Currently listening to:Hungry like the wolf by Steve Aoki vs Duran Duran
Status:sleepy.
Hi Guys,
So as mentioned in the previous post, Stooffi and I went back to The Moving Body last friday for our sponsored pilates class.
Getting there was a drama in itself. Last week, frustrated by my lack of geographical sense (I LOST THE GOOGLEMAPS AVATAR MAN WHO DOES THAT???), i cabbed. This week, i decided to tackle the roads myself, thinking oh, my sense of direction can’t be all that bad..
The next time i insinuate that my sense of direction is anything but hopeless someone needs to slap the hell out of me.
Anyway, i basically fell down, walked around in circles, got completely lost, managed to terrorize some passerby’s into pointing me in the right direction, came to this wide road with no perceivable traffic light in the vicinity, risked my life dashing across (the highway opened up into this road so you can imagine the traffic flow), and when i finally got to the other end of the wide road, i realized that there was a huge metal barrier erected between the road and the pavement.
It was at this point that i went screw this shit, I’m half an hour late, and there are like taxis and cars all driving so close to my ass they are literally grazing my butt NEXT TIME IM CABBING. I reached down, yanked off my heels, and scrambled over the barrier in a miniskirt. Afterwhich i was so pissed off i stalked over to the studio barefoot with bleeding knees and growling at anyone who so much as threw a sideway glance at me. Very attractive, i know.
Right so now that i’ve given you the low down on my geographical drama..
Michelle (our pilates personal trainer) was slightly concerned at first about all the blood and how it would affect the session, but fortunately she managed to quickly adapt most of the exercises that involved getting on my knees. The first thing i noticed about Michelle is that she’s very excitable. Michelle regularly says things like perfect! Beautiful! which makes you feel like a goddess until you look into the mirror and go oh.
Pilates is all about mind over body is one of the first things she told us, which was good news to me because, hello, have you seen me? I look like a dumpling. The idea of doing all sorts of bendy things is not an image confluent with my personal being.
She made us do all sorts of breathing exercises first- who would have thought even breathing could be tiring right? Turns out i’ve been breathing wrong all my life. It’s difficult to explain, but you’re supposed to draw your abs nearer to yourself when you exhale. Afterwhich, we started on the bendy stuff with this machine called the Reformer.
does this look like some scary shit or what.
To be completely honest it looked like one of those torture machines that forced you to grow taller by stretching you out to me. Thank God in reality it’s meant to make Pilates easier, rather than.. the other thing it looks like. My impression of pilates have always been somewhat similar to yoga- done on a mat with a red face and no machines. Well, you can do that, but the reformer makes it a whole lot easier for you to adjust your center and measure your own posture.
Here are some of the things we did:
Steph really looks like a poster girl for Pilates.
Somethings that kept being mentioned were concentration, centering yourself, and breathing. If there were only one word left in the entire world left to use i would spend it on deliberate. Everything in pilates is calculated to be absolutely precise and smooth, there are no jerky movements and it’s all very elegant and flowy.
Much to my delight i stood up much straighter after the entire session, which obviously made me look taller, i like. You also feel a bit of an ache after the whole thing, and if you’re like me and have a shitty tight spine because of office work/sitting at your desk/ typing all the time, you might feel dizzy after the whole thing. I literally had to shake my head a few times because i felt so dizzy- though surely this is a good sign because my spinal discs are straightening out.
Remember how i said in my Gyrotonics post that i highly recommended Gyro for older folk? Well, while older people are most welcome to try pilates, i’d actually be more keen on the working crowd or those on internship to give it a try, because of the amazing effect it has on your posture! It actually straightened me out so much i was wobbling around in my heels afterwards. That’s a new one.
Call them for your free trial now!
The Moving Body
11 Unity Street, Robertson Walk, #01-23/24
Singapore, Singapore 237995
9am-10pm
6235 1051
There is also a video, but because I’m a little shite at iMovie, that has to wait. Sorry guys, meanwhile, here’s another form of girl on girl for you- the most amazing old school mix by DJs The Jane Doze.
x
♥jem