I didn't know what to expect from Pilates. For some reason, I thought it involved some kind of weird pulleys or levers and I was a little afraid that I was about to be drawn and quartered. So I was relieved when I entered nu mvmnt for Pilates with Gina and there weren't any strange torture devices or even any horses in the room. Actually, it looked more like an art gallery. There was one painting of a parrot that I really liked (upon closer inspection, the piece was titled Bird Woman, so maybe it wasn't supposed to be a parrot. But that's what it looked like to me). There was also a pretty sweet couch in the front of the room, which was very misleading considering we didn't get to sit much at all.
Before the class started, Gina told me that Joseph Pilates developed the practice as physical therapy for veterans in WWI and it was designed to be done in a hospital bed. Interesting stuff.
Pilates turned out to be sort of like yoga, only with more focus on dynamic movements than static stretching. And with much better music. Don't get me wrong. It was tough. My legs were shaking a lot of the time. But I think one benefit of running so many races with muscle cramps is that I've sort of become inured to pain and, in comparison, muscle fatigue feels mildly uncomfortable but not unbearably so. And afterwards I felt surprisingly loose and open. Tomorrow I'll probably feel like I got hit by bus. A bus of awesomeness, but a bus nonetheless.
I would definitely go to this class again. Good exercise, good people and good music? What's not to like?
Lyric of the moment: "Heart on my sleeve. Not where it should be...Take it slow, take it easy on me. And shed some light, shed some light on me please..."
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