Center Stage

As I mentioned in my first post, now that I have some more time on my hands, I've had time to exercise. Because my hubby is still a student at the University, I'm lucky enough to be able to piggyback on his student membership and pay just $120.00 for a Wellness Center membership for the spring semester. This may not sound so great, but it is! They have loads of group exercise classes at all times of the day, so it's easy to find something you want to take at a time that works for your schedule. So I decided to try out two classes when I started my membership a few weeks ago: Body Blast and Pilates. Lo and behold, I loved them both! So I've been going on a consistent basis to each -- MW for one class, TR for the other. And I am loving it!

Monday/Wednesday are my Pilates days. For those who aren't familiar with Pilates, it's very similar to Yoga in that it focuses a lot on breathing and slowish movements. Initially, I had actually wanted to take a Yoga class at the Wellness Center -- not Pilates. Over Christmas break, I went to a Yoga class with my mom and sister and actually really enjoyed it. Actually, to be honest, it totally freaked me out at first. We walked in and people were laying on their mats in the dark. One lady was in this weird position that didn't seem humanly possible. And at the end, we even said "Namaste" and bowed to the teacher. It was totally wild... and creepy. But over the following 24 hours after we did the class, I kept thinking about how relaxed I felt afterward... and I wanted to do it again. Unfortunately, the only Yoga class they offer at the Wellness Center is around Noon, so that wasn't an option since I'm at school. So, I chose Pilates because I had heard it was pretty similar and it fit perfectly into my schedule. And I'm glad I did.

Pilates has a lot of great benefits (from what I hear, anyway... I haven't actually noticed/experienced all of these :))... here are a few I found from the Pilates website:

• It's a refreshing, relaxing body and mind work out -- this is definitely true! I feel so good afterward. No matter how stressful my day was, or if I have something on my mind, the practice of focusing on my breathing and being disciplined in my breathing and movements, making each one deliberate and on purpose, refocuses me. It is awesome.

• Build strength without bulking up - gain long, lean muscles and flexibility -- I've definitely noticed an improvement in my flexibility [read: I can now touch my toes!]. However, the Body Blast class I've been taking uses weights, and I've noticed my muscles getting bigger because of that, so I can't really see the "not" bulking up part (not that I've got these huge muscles or anything).

• Develop a strong core -- I know my core isn't awesome by any means, but I can tell it's getting stronger by how much more stable I am while doing Pilates.

• Create an evenly conditioned body and prevent sports injuries -- not gonna lie, I don't play sports. I guess it might help me prevent sprained ankles used when walking around the mall or strained wrists while carrying shopping bags? Just kidding : )

Anyway, those benefits aside, there's also something else I love about Pilates. When I was a little girl, I did a teensy bit of dance/ballet lessons. But although my dance career ended when I was like, seven, a piece of me is still enamored by ballet. If I could choose any occupation, ballerina would secretly be one of my choices.

Me, in my younger ballet days

So what does ballet have to do with Pilates? Well, we do this one exercise that my instructor calls "scraping the ceiling" (which does not at all sound graceful or beautiful like a ballerina, so I try to ignore her when she says that because it ruins the image for me :)). Here, we lie on our backs and extend our legs toward the ceiling. We point our toes, lightly hold on to the leg we keep extended to the ceiling and lower the other leg down about a foot from the floor, bounce it twice, and then we switch. I could do this exercise all day. I think of myself as a beautiful ballerina the whole time, wearing pearly satin light pink toe shoes, tied up my calves with ribbon. And for the thirty seconds we do this exercise, I forget that I'm in an exercise room with twenty other women, doing Pilates.

I cannot remember the last time that my imagination was able to run so wild. Okay, so it's not that wild... but it feels so real. And I love living in it, if only for a moment. It makes me smile and completely makes my day.