5 reasons to do Pilates in Winter

It’s getting cold. 

The sun is setting earlier.

The layers are coming out and on in full force.

We seek comforts foods, comfort drinks and comfort activities… hello couching! 

We can all start turning a little bit Cranky Bear in hibernation mode (anyone who has a small child/ren will know exactly who I am referring to in the Jingle Jangle Jungle).

So understandably we start to want to retreat to where it’s warm, dry, familiar and comfortable.

But change doesn’t happen from comfort.  

We could easily go about our business with our head in the sand, day in and day out. 

But if you want growth or expansion or difference in your life, then that doesn’t start with the change of seasons, that starts with you.

Fast forward 6 months. What will you be doing differently? How will you be moving? What will you be excited for? What will your days be filled with?

Will you be grinding, busy, ignoring pain points, tired and grumpy?

Or will you be stronger, energetic, mindful, with less pain and more joy? 

Maybe you’re thinking, holy shit, I just want to get through today, let alone think about what I’m going to be doing half a year from now?

Maybe you’re thinking, I don’t do winters, I. Just. Can’t. Even. Deal. (Especially in Melbourne town amiright?!)….so I’m not going on some mad fitness frenzy when I have zero motivation.

Well, Pilates is not a fitness frenzy, it’s not a quick fix, it’s the long game, it’s the foundational work that sets up a well oiled machine. Just like planting a beautiful lily bulb in winter to flower in summer, Pilates teaches you the basis upon which we can grow and evolve to accomplish more of what we are capable of, sometimes you just have to prove to yourself that it’s within you. 

For example…

Maybe you want to do your first triathlon next summer. You might think it’s too cold to be out in the ocean swimming, but you could be in that Pilates class working on your endurance, your core strength and practicing how you breath through exercises. 

Maybe you love the social tennis games you play with your girlfriends on balmy summer evenings, but you don’t love the debilitating knee pain that pops up for 3 days every time you play. Go get yourself into some Pilates class this winter, so you can work on strengthening and lengthening the muscles that support the knee 

Maybe you love long afternoons on the beach with the kids and family friends, but the thought of all the carrying of toys/towels/snacks, walking through sand, setting up tents, sends dread through your bones and back! Go and learn the Pilates techniques to alleviate tight shoulders and backs, go and build the Pilates strength in your muscles so lifting kids and kids toys and sand walking becomes a breeze, a sea breeze ;-). 

When the physical is hard and tiring and draining, we either end up resenting it or ignoring it and retreating. Either way, that builds the negative feelings and we are less likely to do them. And that can be a joy sucker!

But if triathlons, tennis and beach days aren't your thing, here are 5 other reasons you should get into Pilates this winter: 

1)Beat the Springtime-gym-junkies-challenges. You know the ones… ‘quick, don’t delay, summer is around the corner, get started on your bikini body now!’ Eye roll. I hate that stuff. But I used to do that stuff. When we go on drastic fitness frenzy’s and /or drastic diets, sure it might work to show us some noticeable results in the short term, but there’s a reason it never lasts long term. They are never about you and your body and your needs. No point in mimicking Jo Blow’s Keto-loving, Cross-Fitting goals when she is nothing like you. What works for one person, won’t be the answer for someone else. Start working on your goals, your body and your pain points now, not when the local gym is putting on a Spring special.

2) Get warm! Pilates in renowned for working from the inside out, literally your organs will get a ‘massage’ in a good Pilates class. With all that organ moving, blood pumping, muscle squeezing, you will feel warmer in no time. There is one particular exercise done near the beginning of every class called The 100’s, I promise you if you do this exercise the way it was intended, you will be striping off your jumpers and layers asap! Read more about it here.

3) Get happier :) You’ve heard it before, but exercise gives you a flood of endorphins to the brain ! It’s the feel good drug, it will literally change the chemicals in your brain. It will brighten your mood, change your outlook on what’s hard, you will have a stronger believe in yourself that you can do difficult things. Pilates is exactly this…do hard things in a Pilates class and you will see you can do hard things in life! 

4) Stay strong against flu season. Legend has it, that Joseph Pilates’ soldiers (who all did his exercises) in his internment camp during World War 1, were the only group to ALL avoid the dreaded Spanish Flu  (this flu killed about 50million people around the globe in 1918). It’s a situation that we can all relate to on some level with the global pandemic that has been happening since 2019.  Read more about it here.

5) Improve your breathing. One of the six Pilates principles is breath so it’s a big deal to us teachers! Yes breathing is autonomous- thank goodness. But that doesn’t mean we are all doing it in the best way possible. 

The breath is so powerful. It is a direct pathway to our para-sympathetic nervous system. The system that can makes us calm the F down. Now, I don’t know about you, but calming the F down is a great skill to work on when you have kids, a job, a husband/wife, a house, family, pets, an amygdala.

Couple a calmed nervous system with a boost of endorphins (see point 3 above) from moving your body around and hello kickstart to happiness. 

Breathing also heals. Big, full, proper, expansive breaths will send oxygenated blood all around the body. That blood will fill up and filter through all the little nooks and crannies around the body (technical Pilates term ‘nooks and crannies’) And blood heals. Fresh, oxygenated, clean blood aids in healing muscles tears, dysfunctional joints and maximising performance. And if you can learn to breath properly through exercise, you will learn to get the most out of the exercise, it will give you clarity, the ability to concentrate more, to relieve stress and manage pain.

As an extra breathing bonus, get out of the stale heater air to move some fresh stuff around your lungs. Whether you walk to your studio or take your virtual class to the back yard, (you will warm up pretty soon-see point 2 above!). No one regrets getting some fresh air, even in winter! 

My hope is that you won’t put off what is bothering you in your body now, or you won’t put off starting that goal until Spring or Summer. There is no better time like the present. It might be cold and wet out there but that shouldn’t dampen your spirits.

Building Community - The Pilates Way.

Remember that strange time last year we called lockdown?!

Of course you do, it’ll probably be burnt into your brain for ever.

It definitely had it’s cons:

Like, in Melbourne, no shops were open (other then necessities), we couldn’t go further then 5 kms from your house, no playgrounds or schools open, maximum face to face interaction could only be done outside with one other person for one hour, doing some form of exercise. 

But let’s not forget the perks too:

Like that amount of forced down time (no plans or commitments) was refreshing boring and simple and calm. Lots of bonding time with your immediate family or the person/people in your household. No travel time to get to work or the extra curricula class you were taking. All those house chores and odd jobs got done.

Thankfully, I could still work during COVID’s lockdown. Just on Zoom. Thank goodness for technology hey?! And guess what? I still teach a mat class virtually, I have clients from all over the world. It’s not too late to join in. Replay available too.

We were in a situation where, our control over our daily choices was taken away from us for a long time so we turned our focus to what we could control, and when that comes to your immediate environment,  that included a large focus on what and how much we drank and ate. How many people have you heard talk about COVID kilos or how they should have bought shares in their local bottle shop (my hand is firmly up!!)

All that drinking, eating and down time has made me realise something, that I’m neither an extrovert nor an introvert but actually there is such a thing as an ambivert (yep, a combo of both!). Extroverts get their energy from other people, while introverts get their energy from turning inwards. The direction ambiverts lean toward varies greatly, depending on the situation. Ambiverts have a much easier time adjusting their approach to people based on the situation (Travis Bradberry for Forbes). It’s never really sat well with me to fully classify myself as one or the other, because I can thoroughly enjoy the both, for example:

1. I can perform tasks alone or in a group. I don’t have much preference either way.

2. Social settings don’t make me uncomfortable, but I tire of being around people too much.

3. Being the center of attention is fun for me, but I don’t like it to last.

4. I can get lost in my own thoughts just as easily as I can lose myself in a conversation.

5. Small talk doesn’t make me uncomfortable, but it does get boring.

6. When it comes to trusting other people, sometimes I’m skeptical, and other times, I dive right in.

Travis Bradberry from Forbes said that 2/3rds of people don’t strongly identify with being either an introvert or an extrovert, so maybe you can see yourself in these descriptions too? 

Where on the scale do you land?

With all this in mind, and given the shitshow that was 2020, I found the whole thing internally conflicting, like one part of me was loving lockdown life and the other part of me was not cool with it at all…while my introvert cup was overflowing at the brim, it was very hard to fill up my extrovert cup.

Another part of lockdown life I feel really impacted a huge area of my life, was my role as a parent. Given the schools were shut for almost two terms, homeschooling became a way of life for a while there. And since establishing the struggle  to socialise, there was no access to energising my extrovert self. I often thought the full brunt of that was probably experienced by my family the most (Sorry fam! Sorry for the things I said in lockdown!)

I also had all these unfulfilled dreams about how I would participate in my eldest sons first year of school life. When I was in primary school, I have these wonderful memories of my Mum coming into school to help with readers. She would come in and bring my friends and I treats while we would read books and tell funny stories. I just loved it so much. 

And I felt ripped off that I didn’t get to do that in my son’s first year of schooling.

I felt ripped off from being allowed to go into the school grounds to pick up and drop off my child. 

Ripped off from walking into the first ever classroom my son was going to spend time in, knowing who he would sit next to, where his locker would be, where would he put his lunchbox, his water bottle, his reader.

Ripped off from being allowed to walk through the hallways with a proud little boy by my side showing me his artwork and letters and numbers.

Ripped off from making relationships with other school parents, neighbours, school locals and teachers that will shape and influence my child’s early years.

This gate was as far as I got into the school grounds for most of last year.

And this is where I felt my extrovert self suffering again.

I want to know the community that my kid is going to spend the next 6 + years of his life, I want to know what’s going on with his little mates and his interactions. I’m well aware that there will come a time when he wants nothing to do with me, but while he wants me there, then that’s where I want to be. 

But alas, I can’t be there all the time…I still have to work. I also know I can not be a stay at home mum (hats off to the women that do do that!) The good thing about being in business for yourself, is you have some degree of say in the hours you keep. 

So I want my hours and my output to be at least partially in the community that my kids are apart of. I want to use my skills to build up and unite my community, given how much we couldn’t last year. That’s why, starting today (this blog was published on April 23, 2021), I am taking a Mat class at Moorabbin Primary School! In the school hall, after the morning school bell. It’s not just for parents of the school that can attend either, anyone local to the neighbourhood is welcome.

It’s a win-win in my book, by making connections and having a presence in the community, I feel energised. It gives me purpose and motivates me to know I am having a direct impact on my son’s friends parents. Those parents work on feeling strong, mobile, confident, connected, supported and will take that back to their homes with their kids. And those kids get to play with my son and hopefully the whole effect is catchy!  

I’m also so excited that I can donate a percentage of the profit each week to BayCISS (Bayside Community Information & Support Service Inc), a registered not-for-profit community charity providing an extensive range of services for community members living in Bayside and Kingston. 

The prospect of this class is really giving me life.  Teaching Pilates is a pretty rewarding career. I get to make people feel better in their body every damn day. Now I get to do this with people who I will get to know outside of the session too. I can see the positive impact with my own eyes and I’m so proud to be apart of that. 

If you are local to Moorabbin, Bayside, Victoria, Australia and want to join in on the fun, it’s not too late. New attendees are welcome each week. Check out this flyer for more details or contact me directly here.