Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a new friend to our studio. She had visited us three times for Pilates and been working at a level 1 in class so that we could take care of some physical conditions. (It’s a little journey to figure out what works and what might not work for our visitors. I feel teaching is a bit like dating – it takes time to figure out if your new friend prefers peas of cauliflower). Anyway, she wondered why the classes weren’t painful and indeed, whether she would get the benefits if she wasn’t feeling pain the next day.

I asked her how she felt after class. She smiled and checked in with herself and said: taller, more mobile, and better connected. My heart soared.

Because she was feeling the fluidity which is a fast route to feeling pleasure in your body.  And because I know the key is connection. And it was what is so often missing in our often frantic day-to-day.  If you are not connected, you won’t relate to yourself with kindness. Or others. When we lack connection, we block intimacy and we can fall into bad habits. It means we can numb appreciation, joy and gratitude for life that sustains us and that we’ll find it harder to connect with our purpose and meaning for this whole journey. Now, on the physical front, while our new guest and I both agreed she could do with a bit of strength building, I consider that if she feels good during the class hour and after, I know how the benefits of Pilates sneak up on you. And I believe in now time at all, her strength will grow and grow and in just a few weeks she will really be noticing the difference in her body, both on and off the mat.

I remember early in my barre teaching journey, checking out the online barre forums from the States, being dismayed by how so many of the students judge a teacher by how bad they hurt the next day. As in hurting bad is good. Yes I see so many of our people have moved away from the ‘no pain no gain’ approach. For yoga, I personally prefer ‘no pain, no pain’ and try to go by that. But I do also understand that it is great to feel the burn and what I love about Barre class  is that you do feel the burn but in a clever and manageable way. Then you stretch and turn around and the do the other side. And then your move the focus to another part of the body, say from thighs, to butt to obliques. So you spread that workout lovin’ around your body.

But please people, the workout burn should feel hedonistically good, not all self-punishing hair-shirt hurt!

We have had a great launch with Cardio Pilates – read the testimonials below. This is a neat 45 minute package of exercises that works its way around your body to cover all the bases. If you want to feel the burn, and know you need to get your heart rate up, do come and try!

So thank you dear client for reminding me that we are changing lives.

Helping people move from pain to pleasure. That any exercise will help move the mind from squashedness to spaciousness. That it all helps melt away anxiety and increasing gratitude. Our hearts move from more closed to open and that through the temple of our bodies we can appreciate and love life and it’s gifts.

-Christina