Why the principles of Pilates will make your life better.

I’ve just spent the first part of this year taking all my clients through the 6 principles of Pilates.

One principle a week for 6 weeks. 

Instead of using a body part or a prop as a point of focus for the class, it was a principle. 

And it was great (yep, I do say so myself!)

When I first started Pilates, the principles were an arbitrary thing for me. Principles, sminciples.

This is what I was concerned with- ‘I’ll go home and do 50 reps of this stomach series thing I learnt in class today’ or  ‘Who cares about how I breathe, as long as I’m working on my 6 pack’.

Oh no, 25 year old me was not vain or shallow at all, haha! 

The 6 principles are:

1) Breath

2) Precision 

3) Centering 

4) Control 

5) Concentration

6) Flow

Why do they matter?

Let me explain:

1) Breath- literally the reason we live and exist. But do you live and exist to your fullest? 

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 make 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, a conscience.

Couple a calmed nervous system with a boost of endorphins that you get from moving your body around, and hello happiness. That’s why exercise is addictive, it makes you happy from the inside out. It keeps you sane. And if you can learn to breath properly through exercise to get the most out of it, it will give you clarity, the ability to concentrate more, to relief stress and manage pain.

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. 

2) Precision- Jospeh Pilates was a bit of a stickler for form. And rightfully so in most cases I think. Ultimately, good form and precision of movement/ body placement has the power to change bad habits! Bad habits with our form and posture that creep in over a lifetime and can end up causing so much alignment problems, that people live with all sorts of pain that they don’t even have to be living with. 

Precision is about learning to initiate movements from the right part of your body and with the appropriate effort.

For example, we don’t walk around on the balls of our feet all day long, it would cause some muscles in the feet and legs to over work and other muscles to under work. As you can imagine this would cause all sorts of muscles imbalances, and then under any load or endurance, this could make things very painful.

Pilates teaches you how to stand correctly on your feet, sit correctly, lie correctly, you will learn about foot placement and foot effort through every exercise, so that the precision you learn in the studio or class can translate into the form you use in the real world.

Once you have precision you have quality movement. That’s why in Pilates you don’t need to do 100 reps of anything. Quality over quantity every time! 

3) Centering- Your centre in Pilates is not just your 6 pack (although 25 year old me sure as hell thought  it was).

In Pilates, your Centre is also referred to as your Powerhouse. Your Powerhouse is all the muscles from your ribs to your hips in the front, in the back and around the sides- think of them like a girdle of muscles that we want to strengthen to help stabilise your spine and pelvis. Then, we definitely can not forget about the booty muscles- they are part of the Powerhouse too. Lesley Logan has famously called this region your Tharse, where your thighs meet your arse! 

In Pilates, the premise is that we work from the centre first, this is where we draw our strength and stability from, then we work our extremities (arms and legs) from a strong and table place.

I love how all the muscles are invited to a Pilates Party! The host of this Pilates party is the Powerhouse, but they are very friendly hosts and invite the whole neighbourhood (body) along, but not before the hosts have a strong and stable environment to invite all those guests in. Nothing worse than inviting people into a house and the the ground falls out from under you! Those guests would not come back! 

4) Control- Before Pilates was called Pilates, it was called Contrology. It was’t until after Joseph Pilates died in 1967 that it was named after his namesake. 

I think once you know this, it’s clear to see just how much importance Joseph put on being able to have control over the body. 

And I think it becomes clearer as we get older, if you live a sedentary life and overall poor health choices, your body starts to be in control of you. Whether that be, illnesses, ailments, injuries, these things start to dictate our life and the choices we make. No longer do we choose to partake in life as much, because sadly, it hurts. 

So when I think of control, I think of putting yourself back in control of your body. You are in the driver’s seat. Wouldn’t it be nice to make decisions based on what brings you joy and happiness and not because you are worried your back will play up or your knee will hurt?

One of Joseph Pilates’ students said ‘Pilates is stretch and strength with control- control is what is most important because it uses your mind’. When you can exercise control over your mind, you can execute exact movement in the body. And it’s that exact movement (hello precision- see principle 2 above) that will change bad habits, poor alignment, build strength and increase mobility.

5) Concentration- There is a fun little imagery exercise that I like to do with my clients when we focus on this principle. It’s called the Lemon Imagery Exercise. I highly recommend you get someone to read it to you while you take a comfy seat or lie down on the floor. It’s a little different but it highlights just how powerful the mind is on the physical body. 

Look, if you have ever done Pilates and you are thinking of how much washing you have to do when you get home or what you’re going to cook for dinner later that day, then you’ll know that basically, you’ve got no chance at it. You need to be focused. You need to be present and in the moment. When you can focus your attention to the exercise at hand or what the teacher is trying to get you to do, you have a better chance at being successful in the movement. 

The benefits of being mindful and participating in mindful movement are huge, not only can we reduce stress (see principle 1 above), but we can also reduce blood pressure and manage pain better. 

When we are concentrating and focusing our attention towards getting the right muscle engagement, then you learn to feel the muscles, you learn what it feels like when a muscle (or a group of muscles) is engaged.  Therefore, your body awareness will increase and you can translate that into more mindful movement in every day life, like how you sit at your desk all day long. You’ll start to be more efficient with your posture and how you hold yourself in everyday tasks, from driving and washing dishes, to cycling and running.

6) Flow- In 1925 Joseph Pilates moved from England to New York. He set up his first American studio under the New York Ballet school, you could say that some of his exercises were executed with the influence of helping an injured ballet dancer recover to full strength, poise and grace. And what a beautiful thing. If you’re a ballet dancer. But most of us are not ballet dancers. So being able to flow like a ballet dancer and being able to flow like a regular human being are two different things. 

To me, getting my clients to move with ease in the class means they have a better chance of being able to move with ease in the real world. How we move into and out of exercises (the transitions) becomes a focus point when we are trying to find more ease and flow in movement.

When you ride a busy tram (or a bus or some other public transport), it’s not just how you stand up in the vehicle eg, standing up with your powerhouse switched on (see principle 3 above) in preparation to withstand any bumpy rides. It’s how you get up off the seat at the tram/bus/train stop- do you need to hold onto something? It’s how you get up the giant steps of the tram/bus/train- do you trip up them or over your own feet? It’s how you hold your backpack or satchel over your shoulder- do you off load the one sided weight through hip hiking? All these other ‘transitional’ movements get you onto the tram, but are they the movements causing you more trouble than the movement of riding the tram itself?! 

I hope I have helped to highlight just how important Pilates Principles are, not just for a good Pilates class, but for everyday life! 

Come and experience how I turn these principles into exercises, reach out to me here to enquire about how we can get Pilates in your life!

Prop-Er Pilates: to prop or not to prop?

Pilates is a vast beast. 

Some people have been doing it for years and have only experienced one of the 20 reformers that they get to lie down on at their local KX. Some people have been doing Mat Pilates for ever and yet still haven’t heard of Reformers, Cadillacs and Electric Chairs and take one look at them and think ‘oh my goodness, what is this sex slavery dungeon I have just walked into’? 

50 Shades of Grey much?

Both Mat and equipment Pilates can be equally challenging, yet equally restorative and they both provide a whole-body workout. They can both help you work on poor muscle patterns, improve posture, reduce pain points and the potential for injury. 

Sometimes, some people, need a little extra guidance on the Mat work. Guidance in this instance could mean a few things…. such as, support, reducing challenge, increasing challenge, awareness of the body in space or creativity to keep things fresh.   

The Pilates chiball (or overball). But am I working hard or hardly working?

This guidance comes in many forms and we call them props, Pilates props. 

Here is a list of a just some that I include in my sessions:

-pillow

-broomstick

-fitball/swissball

-foam roller

-chiball/overball

-theraband 

-handweights

-spinecorrector 

-toecorrector 

-tennisballs

-towels

-the wall

-spikeyballs

…and…

-the kitchen bench (for reals! it feels so good, you can check it out here)

The biggest consideration when deciding what and how to use a prop is… what does the body in front of me need? What can I see in this body that is speaking to me and what does the client tell me they feel like that day/week… Tight? Tired? Overworked? Stressed? Creaky? Stiff? Excitable? Pumped? Sore? In pain? If they are more up beat, then perhaps a challenge is calling there name today, if not, then perhaps the class might need to be more modified and restorative. This is all just information gathering for what prop will illicit the best response in their body.

Next question, am I trying to mimic an exercise from the studio (ie, does the exercise come from the equipment) or is the thing I want them to do an exercise that is unrelated to mimicking anything from the equipment. Sometimes there is a time and place for both. 

Here’s an example: Client A wants to walk further and faster without hip pain? They go walking with a social group on the weekend and have lattes and chats afterwards. So it’s not only important that they can rely on their body to get them through this without stopping and without pain, but it’s also important for a sense of connection and mental wellbeing that they get after this experience with friends on the weekend. Although they don’t mention it, I can see that their desk job is giving them a slightly stooped posture with their shoulders rolling in and down. This is not bothering the client as much as the hip right now, but over time poor muscle patterning will bring about uncomfortable ramifications in the form of tight muscles, painful joints, potential for injury. 

In Pilates we never work the body in seperate parts or in isolation from other parts. Sure you might be lifting one leg up and down a bunch of times, but what are your shoulders doing, what about your toes and fingers? It may seem random to mention your finger in a leg lift, but that finger is connected to your arm and your arm is connected to your shoulder and your shoulder is connected to the powerhouse (your centre in Pilates). And now all of a sudden it’s more obvious how that stooped desk posture that is rolling your shoulders in, is impacting what we’re trying to do with the rest of the body. 

Most clients will say they love staring the class this way!

I might start with the foam roller. There are some great shoulder and upper back release exercises that can be done on the foam roller. Let’s try and minimise the impact those tight shoulders and upper back has on the rest of the body, for the rest of the session. Likely this person will need a thin pillow under their head to alleviate the impact those tight shoulders has on the neck strain and upper back.

Next, let’s get into the Mat work, traditionally it starts with the exercise called The 100’s, which is about warming up the whole body. It’s also about finding and connecting to the centre before introducing other limb work or more challenging shapes from the spine later on in class. Once we know where and how to work from the centre, we can carry that with us throughout the rest of the session. But if client A is not ready for such a challenging start, such as The 100’s, there are plenty of other abdominal variations to explore. 

See how my head is now stacked over my shoulders, this bring the work into the abs without the neck straining.

I particularly love the chi-ball/overball under the spine to leverage clients chest and head up over their breastbone when doing abdominal work. It really takes the whole straining neck thing out of the equation. And man is it a burner on the abs! 

I usually stick more or less to the first 7 exercises of the classical Mat work repertoire, sometimes with props, sometimes without, again it depends on the client and their needs. But those first 7 exercises are a great base to build off. Mastering the basics will always set you up for success.

Because client A is a keen walker, we need to work on their leg /hip/glute strength. When we walk, we need power from our legs to propel forward. So one option is to practice the traditional Leg Spring exercises that usually happens on the Cadillac in a studio with springs attached to the upright poles. However, at home, with props, I use the theraband attached to a door stopper at one end and loops attached at the other end.

Hey presto… Cadillac at home! 

We might finish off at The Wall for a series of hip release exercises/stretches, to give them more space in the hip joint and more length in the surrounding muscles. The client should enjoy this ending, as the wall gives them a surface to push against and it will help the client feel the immediacy of the release in their tight/painful hip, it’s a great way to end the session and give them something juicy they can remember! 

 I might be biased, but Mat work is the best work. I mean Joseph Pilates  invented the Mat repertoire first, these were the exercises that serve as the foundation for his entire method. Yes the apparatus/equipment and accompanying exercises have a place in the system… of course! But when it comes down to it, the equipment serves as stepping stones, with the ultimate goal of getting the body ready for the Mat exercises. Romana Kryzanowska (one of Joseph Pilates original students) said in an interview with Washington Post in 2003 “The apparatus are good, but the mat work is everything. If you can do the mat work perfectly, you don't need the apparatus. But people love toys.”

The props’ ultimate goal is to get you to an unassisted Mat work (no props) one day. It’s a difficult thing to throw your body weight around in space- especially with control and precision and grace. So until that day, use the prop! And if nothing else, it’s fun!

I’ve built a business out of the Pilates Mat work and props. Recently, this is what one client had to say about the use of a prop in my virtual group Mat class: 

“Loved this class Kirsti especially as my back has been sore. The use of the prop, particularly assisting roll up, meant I could access a lot of the moves I couldn’t the week before (due to pain and the accompanying “weakness” of core muscles that go with that)”.

I’ll also be using props throughout my upcoming Embrace the Change program. It starts on the 15th February and runs for 5 weeks. This Pilates and Nutrition program will help women dealing with the physical, mental and emotional change that menopause brings.

Whether you are at the beginning of this hormonal shift or right in the thick of it, the program aims to give you strategies to manage your aches and pains, your weight and your energy levels + sleep. For more information about this program go here.

Pilates through the Ages: Why Pilates for Menopause Works

In my 10 years of experience, there is something I have come to realise, Pilates is adaptive. It evolves WITH a person’s needs and FOR a person’s needs. 

When I started my own practice, I was all about the Control Balance Handstand off the side of the Reformer. And not gone lie, I still love to give these a whirl every now and then. But there was a long while there, that my needs were so far from this and I just physically couldn’t do it, nor did I have any interest.
When was this strange time that you didn’t want to flip off reformers you ask?

Pregnancy and postpartum x 2. 

The hormones that fluctuate to create and sustain life in a human body are immense. Not only is it an emotional, moody, ball-your-eyes-out-at-the-drop-of-a-hat rollercoaster but physically the experience and change to you body, is next level. A woman will produce more estrogen during one pregnancy than throughout her entire life when not pregnant. Progesterone levels also are extraordinarily high during pregnancy. It’s these changes in progesterone, that cause a laxity or loosening of ligaments and joints throughout the body. Loosening ligaments and Advanced Pilates exercises are not always the best of friends. As I found out the painful way. See-ya-Later Control Balance! 

I needed to scale things back, focus on my ever changing body’s needs, a little less upside down work, a little more hip strengthening and low back stretching. Pilates can do this. It can challenge you at your fittest and strongest, it can calm, centre and restore you at times when you need the most support. It’s pretty amazing. 

Pregnancy is a stage where women experience massive amounts of estrogen and progesterone, at the other end of the spectrum, menopause is a stage where there is a rapid decline in these hormones. Just like we scale and modify to meet our changing needs in pregnancy, we need to change and modify to meet our changing needs in menopause.  

Menopause is sometimes called 'the change of life' as it marks the end of a woman's reproductive life. At menopause, ovulation no longer occurs and production of oestrogen and progesterone ceases. The word “menopause” refers to the last or final menstrual period a woman experiences. (menopause.org.au).

Although many women might find relief in saying good bye to periods, tampons, sanitary pads and wearing those hideous period undies, for most women the rapid decrease in hormones, will mean experiencing some or all of the following symptoms: night sweats, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, weight gain,  forgetfulness, insomnia, anxiety, and headaches.

Menopausal women also experience changes such as, loss of muscle strength, loss of flexibility and joint pain.  These impacts can contribute to musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoporosis. 

Pilates can significantly reduce the impact of menopause because it helps to build strength and increase flexibility and mobility which decreases joint pain. Pilates is low-impact, there’s no lifting heavy weights in the gym, so it’s considered a safe option. Pilates works on core control which helps with dynamic postural balance, as we age, balance and proprioception tend to suffer the most. 

Pilates focuses on how we use the breath to get the most out of the movement. when you can use the Pilates breath to it’s full potential during exercises, breath has the ability to calm your nervous system down, this in turn is a powerful tool in helping reduce anxiety. Simultaneously,  with a calm nervous system you can reduce your cortisol levels and thus making it easier to lose weight (Catriona Harvey-Jenner) and improve the quality of sleep. 

I have been teaching women between the ages of 40-70 for many years now. And these women often describe Pilates as gentle on their body but fierce in its benefits. Knee problems? Back problems? Shoulder problems? No worries, Pilates can accomodate, and in most circumstances improve the muscle imbalances causing these problems. 

Here’s what one client, aged 60 had to say about her Pilates practice:

“I started with Kirsti Pilates To You 5 years ago, aged 55.  I was feeling unfit, stiff, lethargic and tired all the time, classic post-menapausal symptoms.  My diet was relatively healthy, but I was putting on weight and too tired to try and get rid of it. I started doing a mat class with Kirsti once a week, and within a few weeks noticed a difference - it was easier to get up off the floor or from kneeling down and my energy was returning.  Whilst I didn't lose any weight, I stopped gaining weight and that was a big plus.  I was feeling happier and more relaxed.  I have noticed when I go away on holidays that it doesn't take long to lose the fitness I work hard to gain, and the feelings of tiredness and lethargy return.  I really look forward to my class each week.  During the lockdown in Melbourne, I started doing two classes a week via Zoom, instead of one and quickly noticed the improvement that brought - particularly to my mental health and motivation.   I wouldn't miss my Pilates classes for anything!  Kirsti's enthusiasm is contagious and makes each class a lot of fun”.

Lastly don’t forget your nutrition has to change with your changing body. You can’t expect to eat like you did in your 30’s when you’re 60 and still see the same results, but what should you eat?! It all comes down to what will fuel you for energy, work with your slowing digestion system and address hormonal imbalances to limit sleeplessness, aches and pains and headaches. Recently, I wrote a blog on moving and eating where my nutritionist friend, Emma Lynas was my guest blogger on this topic. You can check it out here .

If you are reading this thinking, yes, yes, yes this is me. Then Emma and I’s upcoming ‘Embrace the Change’ program is for you.

It’s all about encouraging you to embrace the changes in your body by teaching you how to move & eat for strength & vitality on your menopause journey. 

This program aims to:

-improve your strength & posture 

-move more freely and with less pain 

-help you understand how to manage your weight & energy levels 

-enhance your sleep & energy with nutrition

It commences on February 15th for 5 weeks.

Each week includes:

• 2 live, virtual 45minute Pilates classes (replay available)

• 1 x nutrition lecture with discussion in private FaceBook group

Maybe you’re not 50 and/or don’t think this relates to you, but what about your Mum, what about your Aunty, your friendly neighbour? Check in with them. Sadly, menopause is not a topic that is shared so freely, but a friendly ear to someone who might be struggling with weight gain/sleeplessness/pain, could actually be just what they need. So please mention this program, you don’t know who might be missing out. 

Any questions about this or the ‘Embrace the Change Program’, please get in touch here. 

Moving and Eating: Why Pilates and Nutrition go hand in hand.

I was 19, I’d just started going to the gym for aesthetic reasons (compared to the exercise I did as a kid for sporting achievements). I wanted a 6 pack to look hot in bathers, but had no idea where to begin.

The beginning of the end: The very best jellybeans in the world! I used to eat a packet of these everyday.

I actually remember saying to myself, that sugar just rots your teeth but wouldn’t make me fat, so in my head I excused the full packet of jelly beans I used to buy everyday before gym class. I actually thought I knew stuff and was being clever buying sugary treats to give me ‘energy’ in my gym class!

Well after a year of going to the gym and not loosing a single kilo, I wondered if I actually knew shit about stuff. Turns out no, I knew diddly-squat. 

I liked feeling fit, and energetic, I could see muscle toning, I was encouraged to not let all this hard work plateau, so I dug a little deeper to understand the relationship between what you put in your mouth and the movements you make. 

The first thing I did was stop drinking a huge glass of sugary orange flavoured juice every morning, and the second thing I did was give up my beloved jelly-beans. Nothing else changed. I hadn’t heard of quinoa or kale back then. I just needed to eliminate so much sugar. 

So yes, things started to change. As I got older, I noticed the impact of what I ate on my energy levels, on my weight, on my mood, on the way I recovered, on my endurance throughout exercise… The relationship was becoming much clearer. That then tweaked my interest for cooking and ingredients, seasonal foods, super foods, healthy treats and alternatives. When I was on my maternity leave the first time, I enrolled and completed an online advance diploma of sports and nutrition. I was just so fascinated in the whole fitness/health/nutrition field, and it was so complimentary to my Pilates and not to mention I had just become a first time Mum at that time and needed all the nutrients I could get! My body was now sustaining another life and it was so vital that I put good stuff in it. I had many moments through the fog of sleep deprivation where I noticed, I couldn’t just binge on a packet of biscuits without crashing and usually crying too. Oh the joys of motherhood. It definitely made me notice how my body processes food differently throughout the different stages of life.  

One of the most common questions I hear when it comes to starting a Pilates practice is ‘will I lose weight’? The short answer, no. The long answer, probably yes. Like any wellness plan, a healthy lifestyle will always trump a short sharp drastic diet. It might take longer to see results but it will be sustainable. The thing with Pilates, is that if you are truly committed to it, you will easily complete 30 session, and as Joseph Pilates famously said "In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 sessions you'll see the difference, and in 30 sessions you'll have a whole new body” so if you do 30 session, you will notice a change in your body. Now that might not necessarily be weight loss straight up, but perhaps you feel taller, more toned, stronger, fitter, more flexible. Simply put, your body will change. And then subsequently it is likely to spark further interest or additional motivators to keep the positive changes going. Just like how I changed one thing, stopped drinking orange juice, and it encouraged me to seek out more, understand more and deepen my knowledge. Pilates promotes a practice of paying attention to your body which is a key skill in eating in a healthful way.

Don’t just take my word for it. I’m not a true expert but my long time friend, Emma Lynas, is! Emma is a Nutritionist (BHSc Nutritional Medicine), exercise professional and mindset coach. I wanted Emma to be my guest blogger contributor this month to give you some sound advice around how best to compliment your movement practices with what you put in your mouth, so you have the energy, mindset and mood to tackle life’s many challenges. 

Take it away Emma…..

The Elusive “Perfect” Diet
When it comes to nutrition, many of my clients come to me believing that there is a “right” way to eat and that once they know this coveted secret, they will hit the wellness jackpot. The unfortunate but liberating news is that, in fact, there is no one size fits all way to eat. Each person has unique genetics, likes and dislikes, ethics, life stages, health status and goals that all significantly impact what the right diet may be for them. Hitting the wellness jackpot is about understanding where you find yourself within each of these categories and then using the guidance of a health professional to work through what will most likely be the most beneficial diet for you.

Eating for your Life Stage
Traditional Western nutrition would have us believe that if you are aged 22, you have roughly the same nutritional needs as a 46 year old. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Our nutritional requirements vary with many factors, such as:

Age – as the decades roll on, most people will have noticed a significant slowing down in their bodies compared to their ‘younger years’. You might have slower digestion, more broken sleep, less energy. This is all a totally normal part of ageing, but will impact how much and the types of food that work well for your body and mind.

Activity levels – throughout your life your activity levels will usually vary significantly, from your 20’s where you might run or walk and be very social, to later in life when you have less time for exercise but are running around after little ones, to times when you have been career focused and spent many hours behind a screen. All of these fluxes in activity levels will impacts the types and amount of food you need.

Health conditions – conditions like insulin resistance will change how much carbohydrate you can tolerate before gaining weight and having low energy levels. Heavy periods will affect your iron levels, pernicious anemia will increase your need for vitamin B12. There are thousands of circumstances that will change your individual requirements for nutrients.

Hormonal stage – hormones have a significant part to play in mood, body composition, skin, digestion and much more. For women, our hormones are significantly different with each passing decade even when we don’t account for pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause. Changes in your Oestrogen and Progesterone levels particularly can change the foods you crave and the way your body processes carbohydrates, protein and fat. I find when we can bring a woman’s diet into alignment with what may be happening hormonally, whether that be PCOS or menopause or insulin resistance, we can create a significantly more easeful and effective nutritional plan.

We Plan and then we Observe
Once we have a good understanding of your unique requirements and have made a plan of the foods that are likely to improve your energy, sleep, gut health etc, we then need a final piece to the puzzle – a movement practice that connects you to your body. I love Pilates for this as it offers a wonderful chance to connect inwards and understand how your body is responding to not only movement, but also what you are eating, how you are sleeping and how your mind is feeling. Your body is incredibly wise and constantly trying to communicate to you – too much, not enough, more of that please, and it’s our job to do our best to hear and understand all those subtle little cues. Just like Pilates, where there is a focus on mind to muscle, proper nutrition focuses on the mind to gut connection.

Some of Emma’s delicious recipes:

Emma and I will be working together a lot more next year and I’m so excited. We will be running a 5 week Pilates and Nutrition program, so if you are female, over the age of 50 and have or have started to notice hormonal changes/menopausal or pre-menopausal symptoms, then stay tuned for Emma and I’s 5 week Pilates and Nutrition program coming early 2021. It will be targeted towards women who may feel they are struggling to manage physical and emotional changes in their body.  Come and learn how eating the right foods and moving in the right way, can create joyful experiences in a body that needs to be nourished and fulfilled. Register your early interest here.

Pilates After Surgery

I remember the day I realised I was losing my eyesight. It was 2004, I was 21, living in London, holidaying in Spain, watching a Real Madrid Game when the legendary David Beckham was at his peak in his soccer career. He was the bees knees. I didn’t (and still don’t) give two shits about ball games, but I was beyond excited to sneak a peek at David Beckham. I was sitting fairly far back from the ground, but not ridiculously, everyone around me had no troubles seeing who was who. Me on the  other hand, needed to take pictures of the players on my 3 megapixel Olympus Stylus 300, then zoom in on the them to see who was actually wearing number 23 and who was just some other bloke parading around. By the time I had figured it out, play had well and truly moved on and I was about 3 minutes behind everything and everyone, playing catch up. The penny dropped hard… I was going to need glasses when I returned home to Australia. 

David Beckham - the bees knees

It’s no surprise really, my mother is blind as a bat. If you ever catch her in her glasses (she’s mainly in contacts), you’ll be forgiven for thinking she has two coke cans on her eyes… I’ve never seen a thicker lens in prescription glasses, ever! 

Fast forward 15 years, and I’m over it. Over the glasses, the contacts, the prescriptions, the refilling, the lens solutions, the grubby finger marks on glasses, taking glasses, sunnies and contacts all out in a bag to adapt from an overcast day to a bright sunny day. Not to mention, I’m over the continual drain on the hip pocket.

I had been thinking about laser eye correction surgery for a few years now, but wasn’t sure I would be a candidate. I had heard that you needed your eye sight (however bad) to be stable. For the first ten years, every check up at the optometrist I had, my eyes were slowly getting worse and worse.  The last few years however, that all changed, I started having constantly bad eyes. Hallelujah! A close friend of mine had laser eye correction surgery last year. She briefed me on the experience, the recovery time, the freedom in not having to wear glasses. I was sold. 

Eye tests look something like this

First step, have the (free) assessment to confirm I am a candidate for surgery. This was lengthy, 2+ hours roughly, nothing painful, just a bunch of vision test, one test is done after some pupil dilation drops that make your muscles in your eyes go very lazy, so seeing anything close up after that appointment is a bit dodgy for a couple of hours. But hurrah, success, I’m a candidate for Lasik surgery! Yes, LASIK, which actually stands for  (Laser-Assisted-In-Situ-Keratomileusis). There is another type of laser surgery on offer, one that is better if you fit another set of bad eye credentials or you play professional sport- the recovery time is longer for this one apparently. They run you through all this in the appointment. 

Second step, to get over the guilt of spending a large sum of money on myself. Not the kids, not a family trip, not a business expense, but just something that I will benefit from. Not sure if I fully got over this, but enough to proceed was good enough. Oh and side note- this wasn’t covered on my private health, it might be for you, but from my research, there are a limited number of health insurance companies out there that offer their members a rebate for laser eye surgery. Expect that the surgery, in Australia, can range anywhere from about $2600 to $3700 per eye.

Third step, don’t book in your surgery at the beginning of a global pandemic. I moved the first surgery time I had as I was worried about surgery and immune system and germs (plus cost, I mean, at that stage, who knew what would be happening to my income/job because of the state of the world right now) . Once I got over that and re booked, my new surgery time then got cancelled. That’s what happens when the government shuts down your whole state for a stage 4 restrictions. Third time lucky! Finally, new surgery time scheduled one day after the lift of some restrictions and elective surgery can go ahead again. Yay!!!

D-Day. I didn’t start to get really nervous until about one hour before surgery. I don’t think I truly knew what to expect in terms of pain during and after as a few people that had previously said ‘oh it’s nothing, you’re in and out so quickly, you barely even notice’, I think this led me to set the expectations pretty low, maybe a little too low. 

In my scrubs.

After another round of eye assessments to make sure nothing has changed from the first set of results, the nurse gives you a full brief about what is going to happen during surgery, she lays out your scrubs and offers you a valium (side note: TAKE THE VALIUM). She asks me ‘any questions?’ So I say, ‘will it smell? You know the smell of eye ball flesh burning under the laser beams?’ She gives me a resounding, ‘might do. Some people notice a smell, others don’t’. Great. 

Well, safe to say, I didn’t notice a smell, just an extraordinarily uncomfortable feeling from the moment they clamp your eyelids open with an oversized eyelash curler being used in reverse. A quick squirt of some numbing drops and a reminder to keep looking at the red dot and don’t nod or shake your head, but use your words if you want to speak or answer the surgeons questions/remarks. It reminded me of how I used to tell my boys to ‘use their words’ when they were learning to speak, instead of chucking a wobbly. If only I could chuck a wobbly to make this surreal experience be over faster! You can see in your perhiperhal vision the scraper and vacuum thingy, and peeler looking type thing, but you can’t feel a thing. A hell of a lot of pressure yes, but no real feelings of pain…yet. 

Keeping calm was seriously hard.

I kept trying to tell myself to breath, I was trying to visualise the spots of my body I wanted to send the air to, like my toes or my knee or other weird obscure and irrelevant to eye surgery places, mainly for the distraction but also so I could deepen my breath to help encourage a state of calm in my body. Yeah, well, that’s nice in theory, but even with all my Pilates practice under my belt, I could not shake the tension in my body during surgery. At one stage I was squeezing the living daylight out of the nurses hand, I hardly even realised I was doing it, until I felt her pry my fingers off from around her hand. 

Once they scalpeIed off the epithelium of the eyeball, the actual laser only takes 20-40 seconds, you loose your vision for about 10 seconds of that but they are consistently reminding you not to worry, it will come back. On my left eye, I heard him talking about a contact and for his assistant to get the contact. Turns out the flap they scalpeled was particularly flappy (technical term) and rough along one edge, so they put a clear contact over the top of it to help with the healing over night. They said that otherwise I would have felt the roughness every time I blinked. They also mentioned this was not a rare occurrence and nothing to worry about. Ah ha, yep, ok.

The actual surgery itself takes maybe 15minutes tops. They strap on some sexy see-through eye googles that you have to walk out in and not touch until your follow up appointment the next day. As you sit in the initial recovery room for 15minutes processing what just went down, they give you a take home kit full of antibiotic drops, anti-inflammatory drops and lubricated drops, plus a sleeping pill and a strong pain killer. 

It is amazing that you can walk out of their yourself, a little disorientated and in no way can you drive immediately but I’m still impressed that I could see so quickly.

About an hour after getting home, the pain started kicking in. Oh the pain. Didn’t see that coming. Get it. ‘See’ it coming. Sorry, bad joke. I had already had a strong pain killer, but still, my eye balls felt like they they were exploding in my head and I could only find relieve by closing my eye lids. Thankfully the surgery happened just before 4 in the afternoon, so by the time I got home and had some dinner (which my 4 year old son feed me, cutie-pie), I had a bath in a dark room (light was seriously killing me at this point!). At it’s worst, I remember crying to my partner in the loungeroom, ‘help me get to the couch pleeeeeease’ so I could sit down and hang my head in my hands wondering if actually this was a good idea after all. Before my kids even went to bed, I was crawling into bed myself, with a sleeping pill, which took quick effect. I was out like a light. Thank goodness. 

Thankfully when I woke up, a full 12 hours later) I had absolutely zero pain. Amazing. Still a little disorientated and my eyes were a little mucky from all the liquid they had been excreting over night that has now dried, man the body is an amazing thing when it goes into healing mode! 

Follow up appointment was early that next morning. They undressed my eyes, removed the contact on my left eye that was acting like a bandaid for my flappy eyeball flap. Did some vision tests (20/20 in my right, my left was almost, but not quite, they said it needs a week or so to catch up, because of the whole flappy flap thing apparently and to my relief, every day since then I felt the improvement in vision in that eye.

I had to dress my eyes myself for the next two nights with the see-through googles just to ensure I don’t accidentally knock my eyes at night time, but then after that, it’s just the drops for the next few weeks.

Captured by @neetaphotography

I was able to look at my computer/phone 24 hours later. I was driving and working again in less then 48 hours. I did have to lay off the rolling and legs over head exercises in the Pilates mat work for 5 days, as the risk was  that too much  pressure at the back of my eyes would stretch the healing flaps on my eyeballs! As I already mentioned, I seriously enjoyed my first Roll Over that weekend after surgery. Amazing how that rolling and stretching in Pilates is like a drug to my body now…. I crave it, and sure as hell missed it!

My first selfie post surgery!

A month on and another check up later, my vision is 20/20 (in both eyes!) but I still wake up in the morning reaching for my glasses on the bedside table, I suppose some habits are hard to shake. It’s just so incredible what technology can do today. I can SEE!! 

If you are interested in getting your eyeballs lasered to correct your dodgy vision, then reach out to me, if you go with a recommendation, you will get $ off the cost!. Side note- this is not a sponsored post, I only know that because I got the same discount when I mentioned my friend who referred me.

And then come and do Pilates with me, we can Roll Over together post-surgery, it feels Ah.Mazing!