Leaving Lockdown: How to Make Your Best Fitness Habits Stick

Isn’t it weird how after 250 something days in lockdown, all our ‘new’ routines that were just a temporary fix used to try and keep us sane, have now started to become a way of life? 

We get used to being in a lockdown. I’m not saying it’s easy or ideal, but we get used to slower mornings, not rushing off for school and work figuring out ways to fit exercise in mid morning or mid afternoon not just on our lunch breaks or after the kids go to bed. I’m much more successful at multi-tasking the dinner prep around homeschooling and virtual meetings.  Even online shopping feels somewhat fun and a hell of a lot easier then driving to the shops, dealing with shop attendants, traipsing around the whole shopping centre, and then driving back home again. 

Since Melbournians have been in and out of lockdowns a few times over the last 20 months, I would say the hardest part is probably the re-adjusting to ‘normal’ life. 

School goes back, so there’s lunch to make first thing in the morning. Work goes back, so you actually have to put in half an effort to get dressed before you walk out the door. Restaurants reopen, so no longer can you stroll up the main street in your tracksuit and Uggs for a meal you don’t have to cook. Everybody wants to catch up—even your husband’s, cousin’s friend that you met once at a wedding— wants to get the ‘gang’ back together, so weekends get busy. Add in the kids' sports, postponed lunches, dinners, afternoon teas for birthdays, engagements, anniversary celebrations and phew, just the thought of all that socialness is a lot for what has been a pretty quiet 4 months (and longer). Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to see my loved ones and integrate back into society, but our nervous system has been ticking along at a Sunday pace for months and pretty soon, it’ll be bombarded with places to be, people to see, appointments to keep, and life goes on full steam ahead.

But if there is anything I have learnt about managing stress and busy-ness and overwhelm, it’s that we need to pre plan the things for ourselves that help deal with these external stressors.

In other words, make sure our self-care is prioritised not just in a lockdown, but as we come out of it and on the other side. We need to be organised and we need to give ourselves the kindness we would give our closest friend when things don’t go to plan. Go easy on yourself when the country reopens, make exercise and movement a priority and maybe, for a while,  you only make one plan for social outings in the first few weeks out of lockdown. Gradually get your body and mind integrating back into society.

There has long been a useful strategy described when it comes to prioritising. I remember hearing it at university, but most recently through a business mentor. It’s the Rock, Pebbles, Sand analogy. Its basic premise is to imagine that your life is a jar. so much fits in a jar. The rocks are the most important things to you and your wellbeing, the non- negotiables. The pebbles are important also, but there’s some flexibility with where and how they go into the jar, then there’s the sand, the things that are nice to have, but maybe not so important and can slide on in anywhere in the gaps.  If you put the sand in first, you’ll never get all your pebbles, let alone rocks in the jar, it’ll be full too soon with sand.  Here’s a nifty little video demonstration of this.

So we know it’s good for us to move our bodies. But what holds us back from a consistent movement routine? If it’s feeling time poor, not organised enough or feeling sub par at prioritising, then try reframing it from a Rocks, Pebbles, Sand mindset and make it a priority, make it a Rock.

 I often hear ‘I don’t have time’. Well, I call BS on that. If you MAKE it a priority, you will make the time.

Here are 4 tips I use to make my Pilates exercise a Rock priority: 

1. Schedule a private session.

Firstly, targeted movements purely for you and your body’s needs are heaven, and you will quickly feel and see the benefits and won’t want to give that up. Plus, the cost of a private means you don’t want to not show up and throw that money away.

2. Schedule all the classes you want to do the week before.

Set reminders in your phone and your calendar, leave exercise clothes out the night before, and figure out how you will actually get to the class, eg, if it’s through Zoom, download the software before class and not 1 minute beforehand.

3. Be Realistic - and don’t be afraid to talk to your Pilates teacher!

Only got 30 minutes free? Then don’t sign up for a 1 hour class. Did you know some of my clients have specifically requested 45 minute or 30 minute sessions with me? All you have to do is ask your teacher (contact me here!), they might be able to accommodate.

4. Do your movement with others/friends

Firstly, it comes down to accountability, no one wants to let down a mate by cancelling at the last minute, but also, it’s pure magic for the soul to unite in a moment over a shared experience. (and for those of us not quite out of lockdown yet, even a virtual event can give you some of these good vibes, wink wink, nudge nudge #joesgymandgin anyone? )

Yes, life gets busier when lockdown ends., It can be a massive adjustment after a lengthy period at home. But being too busy, too quickly can mean feeling overwhelmed, stressed and run-down.

The key is to plan out your week with your key priorities, the non-negotiables that you know will help you manage the stress load. This weekend, think about what your Rocks, Pebbles and Sand will be. Get your movement in and keep those feel good hormones flowing. 

If you know you need a teacher to guide you through a Pilates session, reach out to secure your next session with me. 

Why Do We Shoulder Stand in Pilates?

You’ve probably seen the fancy pictures (pretty sure I’ve posted them too): some Pilates teacher standing on their upper back, looking like an upside down pencil, and you’re thinking- how? How the hell do you do that! And why? Why the hell do you even do that!

Well, like most things in Pilates, it’s all about that Powerhouse baby! 

What is the Powerhouse? Your Powerhouse surrounds the spine, and is the ‘house’ or the area where all the power should be drawn from.

You can think of it a bit like a cylinder around your trunk/middle, 360 degrees, front to back, side to side, top to bottom. Each part or muscle plays a role in supporting the spine. When you can access and use each component equally and effectively (I have a whole other blog on the muscles that make up the powerhouse and how and what it means to use them equally and effectively), this then creates and improves stability, which allows you to generate power to build strength and improve mobility without pain or injury. 

We have another term in Pilates, it’s your ‘Pilates box’. Think of your Pilates box as referring  to the torso. In this case, the bony landmarks of the hips and shoulders. Keeping these level, as opposed to having one hip or shoulder sitting higher than its counterpart, leads to better alignment. The box also guides our range of motion, keeping us within a safe range and preventing over-stretching of the joints.

If you look like this guy, you are not working your Pilates box!

When we can work from your centre (Pilates Powerhouse) with alignment (Pilates box), you will be doing wonders for building strength and mobility and improving your posture.

So why a shoulder stand to work these muscles? Take a look at this image. The muscles in red are the ones you’re working in a shoulder stand.

You’ll see how so many of the muscles from your Pilates Powerhouse are engaged to keep you upright. Now notice the work of the arms into the upper back and neck. This position engages our postural muscles, the muscles that help us stand up straight and tall, aka, help align our Pilates box. It also mobilises the upper spine and neck, helping to reverse all the computer slouching, sitting too long at our desks, and phone scrolling on the comfy couch that we do.

So is shoulder standing the only way to do this though? 

Absolutely not. 

It’s one way.

It’s an advanced way.

It comes with its risks, and I wouldn’t be suggesting it to beginners, or people with neck issues or severely tight shoulders- you need an incredible amount of shoulder extension to be safe in this, and here’s a way to test if this might be for you. 

1.  Interlace your hands behind your back.  Lift your arms.  

2.  Do your arms end up being parallel to the floor when you lift up?

3.  If you can get your arms parallel to the floor in full extension, do you distort your torso and neck? Eg, no ‘emu’ necks! 

4.  Can you then also lower your neck fully to your chest with arms fully straight and reaching back parallel to the ground? (see image below)

5. If not, then don’t try the full shoulder stand. It will not be comfortable and could potentially do more harm than good.

As teachers, we are always, always taught to teach the body in front of you.

A comprehensive Pilates instructor will know the best ways to build you to a shoulder stand, including but not limited to some of these exercises as a starting point:

Pelvic curls, roll up to roll overs, shoulder bridge, high scissors, high bicycle, short spine on the reformer, shoulder roll down on the caddy/tower.

So yes, shoulder standing improves core powerhouse strength, but there are other benefits of standing on your shoulders: 

1. It improves circulation in the body:

Using gravity to provide the brain with more oxygen and blood, this improves mental function, including memory, concentration and processing abilities.

2. Prevents illness and increases immunity:

The lymphatic system is key to keeping the body healthy. As lymph moves through the body it picks up toxins and bacteria to be eliminated by the lymph nodes. Because lymph moves as a result of muscle contractions and gravity, getting upside-down allows lymph to more easily travel into the respiratory system, where many of the toxins enter the body (Gaiam).

3. Increases feelings of calm:

Shoulder standing works to relax the nervous system, thereby activating the parasympathetic nervous system and producing feelings of balance and calm. It might not feel relaxing while you’re learning it, but once you do, enjoy those zen benefits. 

4. Improves balance:

 Being upside down with that much core strength switched on and not much support from the ground, your body is forced to reorient itself in space, those balance skills will get a chance to shine.

5. Builds confidence (but keeps you humble):

While that first taste of a shoulder stand might be scary as hell, once we “get it,” things like that upcoming speech to the Board don’t seem as daunting. ‘I can shoulder stand, so I can do anything’!

It’s the many attempts in the process to “getting it” that reminds us of all there is to learn, and there is always more to learn in life, it really is about the journey and not the destination.

6. It’s fun! And it gives a new perspective on life:

Getting up on your shoulders, brings our inner child out to play. Although there is skill and strength involved, it’s a playful opportunity to do something childlike, and if all else fails, we can smile at the thought of getting our legs up over our head! It reminds us that when we look at things from a different perspective (an upside down perspective ;-)), we might just learn something new. 

Shoulder stands have many benefits. Building core strength is just one of them.

Remember there are many progressions to practice first. 

Speak to your Pilates teacher if you want to get these in your practice. I won’t teach these to all my clients, but if you want to learn it, all you have to do is holla- click the button below!

9 Pilates Myths Busted

Just because I live and breathe Pilates, I’m fully aware that not everyone else does. From time to time I hear questions or concerns pop up from my newbies that I think, ‘if you’re thinking them, then there must be others thinking the same thing’. Below I have answered the 9 most common Myths about Pilates.

Pilates is just for women....

Pilates is popular with women, but it is absolutely not just for women. The person who started the Pilates movement was a man, Joseph Pilates. He was a solid unit who enjoyed boxing, drinking and smoking (I know, massive contradictions to health but it was the 1930’s- things were different back then), who made some of the earlier small props out of beer keg tops! When you think about its origins, it’s clear to see the intentions of the method very much included men. 

Most men I see in class, NEED to be there, they are tight, sore and misaligned: 3 tops reasons for doing Pilates. I enjoy teaching men as there is so much for them to gain, and progress can be seen and attained each and every week.  

Pilates is easy….

Pilates has some exercises where if you were walking past a studio and looking in the window, you might think ‘what even is that, that can’t be very hard’. But it’s not because it’s easy, in fact, it’s the opposite. Pilates requires coordination of limbs, torso, and breath, and keen concentration for specific muscle engagement. Sometimes a lot of effort and work goes into a seemingly “simple” move, but it’s these “simple” movements that have the most impact. That’s because you are always working your whole body throughout an exercise, and when you slow that movement down, it requires a lot of core control. Because Pilates can be modified or scaled back (which is personally a reason why I love it so much as there really is an option for everyone), some people think that is must be easy. But a good teacher will teach to the body in front of them and what version of an exercise one person does might not be the exact version you do. 

Pilates is just stretching

Pilates has a bit of a reputation for producing long, lean, toned muscles, not a bad thing right- I mean, I’m totally here for it! But I think there is a bit of a misconception out there about how the ‘long’ is achieved…that it must be because of the ‘stretching’ in Pilates. 

Wrong.

The stretching in Pilates happens throughout each and every exercise. Where there is Strength, there is Stretch. Romana , one of Joseph Pilates’ original students famously said ‘Pilates is stretch and strength with control- control is what is most important because it uses your mind’. We don’t passively stretch and ‘hangout’ in the joint pulling a limb as close to us as possible, we actively stretch and resist and reach away through the limb being stretched. In Pilates we are always trying to achieve the ‘two way stretch’ eg, if one part of my body is reaching one way, how can I send more effort and more energy to achieve the other part of my body reaching the other way. Take a look at my example in this blog where I demonstrate the difference between Pilates and stretching using the hamstring stretch. 

Pilates is only for people with injuries….

One of the great things about Pilates is that it really is for everybody. But that does not mean that you have to be injured to start Pilates. When Pilates really took off in it’s popularity in the 1990’s and 2000’s (it has been around since the early 1920’s), it’s because it had been adapted from the original work to suit people with various injuries, a form of rehab to recovery. And that’s not a bad thing, it means more people were experiencing the benefits of Pilates and becoming a healthier version of themselves. What came along with that was an association that you needed to be injured to do it. It’s just simply not the case. Pilates is fantastic for non-injured people too. Some people are looking to go faster or for longer when they run, bike, swim for example, or some people are looking for a mode of fitness that will keep them fit and moving but have never experienced an injury in their life (lucky ducks). For myself, no injury brought me to Pilates in the beginning, just the promise of a 6 pack… which brings me to my next myth.

Pilates is only for the core….

I was 25 years old, fit, loved to go to the gym for a sweat session, was doing triathlons and always looking for the next level of cardio to feel the burn. A couple of different friends were raving about Pilates, one even said ‘it’s the only thing that has given me a 6 pack’, my ears immediately pricked up. My vain, superficial self was thinking, ‘oh maybe I could finally have those bikini abs I’ve been looking for’. So I booked into a class asap. My thoughts were quickly validated, ‘yes, this is a fantastic core workout’ BUT, I also discovered that there is soooooo much more to it than burning your abs. Firstly, Pilates’ main priority with the ‘abdominals’ is to work them ALL. This means, not just the Rectus Abdominals aka, fancy 6 pack abs, but everything else too. Wait, what, there’s more to it? Yep, Pilates aims to engage from the inside out, that is, from the muscles in your deep centre to stabilise the spine. Your core muscles include the diaphragm, all the abdominals (rectus abdominis, transverses abdominis, internal obliques and external obliques), the deep intersegmental spinal muscles, and the pelvic floor. Once we can work from the centre, everything is impacted, from the way we stand and our posture, to the way we breathe and how we utilise breath to get more out of the exercises, to the way we use the rest of our limbs including and very importantly our feet and toes and how they have a direct relationship to our centre. The more Pilates I do, the more layers are revealed, the more I realise just how impactful the method is to every facet of being and the more I love it.

You need equipment to do it…

Somewhere along the way, Reformer Pilates has made its way up as the gold standard of Pilates. It has a bit of a reputation that if you are not laying on a moving bed with springs and pulleys -then it’s not Pilates. And actually, it’s kind of the other way around. You see, Joseph Pilates invented the machines and equipment to support people in building the strength and flexibility with the ultimate goal of getting to the Advanced Mat work unassisted. There’s nothing quite as demanding or challenging as throwing your body weight around in space on the mat. In fact, Romana Kryzanowska, Joseph Pilates infamous protege, once 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.”

Reformer Pilates is harder than mat…

Following on from the point above, the ultimate test in strength is  pushing and pulling your own body weight around unassisted. That’s why the Pilates Mat work was deemed as the ultimate goal when starting a Pilates practice with Joseph Pilates way back in the 1920’s and 30’s. Although the springs and pulleys of the Reformer are supportive to stiff or injured joints and muscle tissues, they also add load to the resistance you are working with and this increases the effort, conversely, having light springs, doesn’t automatically make things easier, with lighter springs, you need to work harder for core control and balance. Basically, there is no slacking off or resting when it comes to using the Reformer and I think this gives the perception of the Reformer being hard! It’s also a strange looking contraption and takes a bit of getting used to, then add in trying to  coordinate your limbs with the springs takes practice too!  

I have to be flexible to do Pilates…

Yes, it might help if you come to Pilates with some flexibility up your sleeve, but it’s not necessary. Gaining flexibility is one of the reasons so many come to Pilates in the first place, it’s not a prerequisite by any means. In fact, while not enough flexibility can feel limiting in a class, too much flexibility or hyper mobility can be a whole other set of limitations to work with. Have a read of my blog, All Flex and No Pecs  to find out more.

Pilates is the same as yoga…

I can see why the unknowing person could think this. Both offer numerous health benefits, both use a mat and body weight, both practice particular movements and poses, both work on strength and flexibility and both place importance of breath in movement. But that’s about where it ends.  Yoga’s main point of difference is in its roots, Yoga is a spiritual philosophy that originated from ancient India. Pilates came from 20th century Germany. Pilates is a physical system that uses very specific targeted exercises to improve strength, flexibility and posture with a particular focus on the core. It is a disciplined practice that needs to be done on a regular basis to provide benefit. Modern Yoga in the West has become largely about movement but the practice has much deeper roots. The physical practice makes up only one of the eight parts of the yoga path. The other parts are ethical standards, self discipline, breath, sensory transcendence, focus, meditation and a bliss state where you transcend the self. The last four parts are involved in meditation (Zoe Bartali, Yoga teacher at The Refinery, London).

I hope this has helped to clear up some common misconceptions about Pilates. What did you think Pilates was before you started? Share your thoughts with me and they might make it to the next blog!