Pilates is really underrated, incredibly underrated. Playing with a ball while lying on a mat is not, by the way, Pilates. That’s playing with a ball while laying on a mat.
There’s a lot of content online about what Pilates is so I wont go into it in detail but one of the main things that is worth highlighting is the extreme effort and focus on improving your body. It’s a lot of mental, emotional and physical hard work, regardless if you use the “torture machines” or just the mat. I love it. So I decided to become a trainer and I am now an apprentice to become a certified instructor.
Here is why Pilates matters so much to me.
I was working and studying at the same time, with this huge workload and amount of stress. When things finally got better, I collapsed on the street and I hit my head pretty hard. The bruises on my face eventually went away (still have a tiny scar to prove it!) but my neck was injured and hurting badly. I went to the doctor and he told me I had hyperextended it too much and that I should get used to the idea that it would always hurt. Still, I could try Pilates or Physiotherapy – “one of those things” – to see if it would improve a little.
I tried Pilates; twice a week for maybe a year. It might seem like a tacky before-and-after commercial but my neck really is back to normal. There’s one exception: sometimes, when I fly and we are about to land, my neck will get really tense and I develop this insane migraine. I’ve heard other people have it too, so maybe it’s not even related.
Anyway, if I can ever bring this benefit to anyone else, I’m happy 🙂 In the meantime, I get to work on my own body and mind – it doesn’t get much better than that.
It’s been a while since I practice Pilates, though, and here they teach it using a different perspective. This means I’m a real beginner and messing up everything… but I´m getting a tiny bit better every time I go to the studio and work on it. And every time I finish the session, I feel great.
