Starting a weekend with some moves

This morning, I joined a Pilates class at my new gym. It was a long time ago that I did Pilates, the last 2 years I stayed true to my twice-a-week-routine of exercises on gym exercise machines. But I found them so boring! Now that I joined a new gym, I discovered the group classes again. I’ve already tried out Body Balance twice on Tuesday nights. But yesterday night, I decided I would stay in on a Friday night. I subscribed to a class of Pilates on Saturday morning and called it an early night.

Even though I know Pilates, I was still a bit anxious to find out if my body would agree with my choice of the night before. Morning stiffness is always an issue for me, and particularly, the 2 days before I can take Humira again. So this morning, I got up, walked for 3 minutes to the gym. In the room, I saw all these slim and beautifully shaped girls, and felt a little outlandish when I placed my mat, my towel, and took my shoes off. The incredibly good looking instructor asked who was new to this class, and the only finger that went up was mine. Thankfully, the next question whether I was new to Pilates too, I could nod ‘no’ to.

We started with a gentle warming up. ‘Find your base’, the instructor said. I looked into the mirror and saw myself standing with my arms up in the air, a back straight and my shoulders back. Not bad. It even felt nice to throwing my arms down while bending my back. I imagined Pilates would be a lot more difficult, as last time I did it, my hips, back and muscles were years younger and more flexible. 

‘Today’, the instructor told the 6 girls and 1 guy, ‘we’re going to work and exercise our belly away’. Nice. Like that. A couple of exercises followed, during which we were lying on our mats, raising legs and arms, simultaneously, or in opposite directions. I couldn’t stop thinking what this looked like. If someone would come in, either he or she would be very impressed by some very cool and group coordinated choreography, or most probably, would start laughing to the point of tears, watching these people moving into very weird and inflexible positions in their spare time on a Saturday morning.

After half an hour of exercising, I was absolutely impressed by my joints and muscles keeping up with the pace of the instructor and the flexibility. Obviously, there were some exercises, which I couldn’t help but stop halfway, as my hips forbade me to go further. But there were also exercises that actually were amazingly helpful for a girl with a bad pelvic system, a bad back and bad hips. All in all, even though I started off with morning stiffness, and some exercises which ‘weren’t for me’, as the instructor said, I found this hour of Pilates on Saturday morning definitely worthwhile. Only curious to find out what my muscles and joints will tell me the morning after..