Pilates is so boring!

I hear this a lot. And to be honest, I used to think the same.

Pilates is so incredibly boring, why would anyone in their right mind choose to do it?

Today I am a Level 3 Pilates Teacher and ‘boring’ is the very last word I would ever use to describe this incredible training method.

Rewind 15 years to a time before kids when I was rather clueless about health and the human body (but I was also wrinkle free, so you know, you can’t have everything!) I reluctantly signed up to a 12 week beginner’s Pilates course because someone I took the train with to work in London was raving about just how amazing it was. Apparently she felt stronger and her muscles were toned and elongated and I thought to myself why not give it a go. What did I have to lose? Might I just add that I had no idea how to even pronounce the word Pilates. I thought it was pronounced Pie-Lates. Yes, I really did.

I went to a total of 3 classes.

I did not get it at all. I remember laying on a mat in a room full of people and being instructed to do various things like breathe, and lift this and hollow that and engage who knows what. What the hell was a pelvic floor and I had to do what with it? How did I know I was even doing it? I walked out of each of those sessions confused yet relaxed (probably all that lying down and breathing did it!). I decided Pilates (by this point I knew how to pronounce the word) was really boring and I had better ways to spend my Saturday mornings (nursing hangovers) so I stopped going.

My perception of Pilates, I’m sure, was not the fault of the teacher but probably more to do with how completely out of tune I was with my own body. Looking back, I would have been better off having a few 1-2-1 sessions before joining a class. But hindsight, as you know, is blah blah blah.

Fast forward to just after giving birth to baby number 2. Ahhhhh yes…. I know what the pelvic floor is now! I also knew that at this point I didn’t have one. Either that or it was broken. I never imagined that at the age of 31 I’d be peeing in my pants every time I coughed or sneezed. I always thought that was something I wouldn’t have to worry about for many decades. It was embarrassing and needed to fix it. So I did my pelvic floor exercises like a good girl. I made it a habit that every time I got in the car to drive I would do my pelvic floor exercises. Eventually, I stopped peeing myself if I had a cold or if something was funny. I thought, this is amazing. The human body is absolutely amazing. Just a bit of discipline and consistent training fixed me. Pilates fixed me. I still thought it was boring though. I had discovered its magical powers but didn’t know enough about it to become excited. Yet.

As I got fitter and trained harder and my unconditioned body was accumulating various injuries, every time I went to the osteopath or physiotherapist I would come away with homework exercises to do. Pilates based exercises. Instead of being excited by this, it only reinforced my feelings that Pilates is boring. Although I accepted that it had magical powers, I associated the exercises with having to take a step back and slow down because of injury. I never kept up Pilates longer than necessary. Once I thought I was rehabbed, I dropped Pilates like a sack of rotten potatoes and went back to my high intensity training. And guess what? I was soon back seeing my osteopath, who on the one hand was advising me to stop doing what I was doing yet on the other hand he said it was people like me that kept him in business, so carry on. Cheeky, ha!

Now these days, due to most of the discs in my lumbar spine not being in great condition I have mostly given up anything with high intensity. The only time I’ll do anything like that is when I’m teaching a class and I demo the exercise, and then stop. I don’t do much of anything like that anymore because I know what will happen if I do. I lift weights still (love it in fact) but I keep my weights light and repetitions high. No deadlifts or heavy squats, which depressed me greatly when I had to stop doing them, however, my love of Pilates has filled that space and I no longer miss it.

The more I have learned about Pilates, the more I love it. The exercises are not boring and certainly not easy. Not even the most basic level of Pilates is easy. If it feels easy, you’re not doing it correctly.

Nine years on after having baby number 2, I still do my pelvic floor exercises when I’m driving. Old habits…..