I am a short person in a tall person's body. When I was younger the great majority of individuals simply judging by my body type assumed that I would grow a few inches over six feet. In actuality, I've clocked in at five feet and approximately six inches, give or take a few inches (about .5) to be exact.
(While envied by some, I'd love to have a more curvaceous figure...It's that old adage of we want what we cant have).
My long monkey arms and legs have meant that when it comes to physical exercise...Well I've always felt a bit awkward, when running (Imagine a green bean or an asparagus flaying around haphazardly), or participating in any great feats of strength, at best has always felt out of place and awkward. For the majority of my adult life, I have actively avoided exercise. Mostly because I wanted to save myself the awkward embarrassment of feeling and/or believing I look ridiculous. The one type of physical movement which I've always found beautiful is, ballet.
The finale scene from Center Stage is a great example of how exciting ballet can be. An art form which I never had the opportunity to master. I've always appreciated how a good ballet dancer can make the precision, hard work and sacrifice of this art form appear effortless.
For years, I've admired this art form, and the immense amount of damage done in the name of art, especially where a ballerina's feet are concerned, as shown in 'En Pointe!' by The Australian Ballet. For as long as I can remember, I felt that I could never truly be physically active or to 'hone' my body to become a modern day female Adonis.
I had become comfortable in the knowledge, that my body would deteriorate, and that there was nothing I could or should do about it, with my clumsy uncoordinated like ways. Then out of nowhere, I kept hearing about this new craze called Pilates. Not being one to follow the fads of the cool kids (celebrity culture), l did my best not to get caught up into the hype of yet another 'thing' that was happening. I honestly don't remember what truly peaked my curiosity, but I did some research on Pilates. Joseph Pilates was the inventor of an approach he called Contrology. If you're not so much into the reading thing, or if you just love cute Infobytes video's, take a look at An Animated History of Pilates.
Researching, further into the topic of what is in the modern sense known as Pilates, I immediately recognized that I did not know how to move with or within my body. The deeper I became engrossed in the topic of Pilates, I realized that like my first love, ballet, Pilates in its own way is a made up of a series of unique and precise movements.
Where ballet was an art form which I knew I missed out in childhood (training starts quite early), I didn't want to allow myself to miss out on this 'fad' of Pilates. I took my well trained brain, and my untrained body and found a studio which specialized in the art of Contrology (Pilates) in my area. I was determined that If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right. These classes were the gateway into allowing me to discover how to exercise my body without feeling completely awkward, uncoordinated, and simply not fast enough or strong enough like other 'traditional' exercise methods had in the past. I was beyond excited that I had finally found, something that works for me, with zero to minimum green bean like awkwardness!
For many different reasons (work schedule changes, other obligations etc), I am not able to attend the classes of at the studio (I loved attending those classes). While, I strongly encourage anyone starting Pilates (If you can continue to go to classes with instructors in a studio, they teach proper alignment), I have found Pilates Anytime has helped me to maintain and continue on with the art of Contrology, where I can truly say that,
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| 'Pilates' via Pinterest |
MWiktoria
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