I had my second class last night and I have to say, I don’t know if it’s in my mind or it’s real but I feel great. I am by no means pain free but I do feel so good. It seems like I am walking a bit taller and feeling a bit lighter. After the first class last week I was really hurting for the next two days. Over the weekend I pulled out a Pilate DVD I bought about two years ago but never opened. I started with the stretching and did the workout because I was afraid I’d hurt twice as much as I did last week. I don’t know if it helped but it certainly did not hurt to do it. This week everyone had their bottle of water in arms reach of their mat. There were a few more people so our class is up to twenty-four or twenty-five people ... still the one guy.
My sister didn’t hurt from last week. She was tired but she said she didn’t feel the same kind of pain I described as having. Either I was really out of shape or she worked her core much better than I ever could. I am a member of F.L.U.F.F (Fun Loving Un-Fit Females) so the possibility of keeping my core muscles in limbo—until now—was the thought in my mind of why I hurt so much. My mom asked me how we did and I told her that I hurt but my sister did not and not that my mom ever compares any of us, she commented on that fact every time she asked me how I was feeling.
Well, this week the instructor worked us again. She introduced some more moves but this time she didn’t demonstrate, she walked around the room and talked us through them reminding us to keep a leg straight or flex a foot or relax the shoulders and feel the stretch. We were moving and sweating and praying for the words we all wanted to hear ... ok, last set.
Last week after class we had to walk back to my sister’s house. She only lives three blocks from the school so we added walking to and from as part of our routine. Last week one of the ladies offered us a ride home but I had to graciously decline because I knew that if I sat in her car—the possibility of managing to roll out of it was slim and I needed to keep moving or I’d stiffen up. I did think of calling my brother-in-law as we neared the end of the first block to come get us and said so to my sister ... she laughed.
This week my sister had a whole different look after class. She was a slacker last week and because the instructor was walking around checking on all of us—she couldn’t slack. She woke up her core and as in all cores ... they are not sweet when awakened. They are fighters, fighting to be strong, I picture them getting up and putting on fatigues and working their way through your system ... the core muscles wanting and needing to take control of your body to make you strong and lean and fit.
As we walked home she grabbed my arm and handed me her mat to carry. She felt like I did last week and even suggested we call her husband to come get us. This week it was my turn to laugh as I dragged her along. I talked about the pulling feeling you feel from your chest all they way down the middle of your body. How you feel that pull and stretch and how your core ... she stopped me and said if I mention the core muscles one more time, she would gather whatever strength she had left in her body ... but I interrupted her to remind her that ... Pilates is not for sissies.
