Friday, March 16, 2007

The Pilates journey


In the year 2000 I had been reading about a crazy, new, mixed up, exercise fad called Pilates that was sweeping the east and west coast. I knew I had to get the buzz on it to share with others in my tiny metropolis of northern Arizona.
I drove two hours to Scottsdale two days a week and began taking lessons. Back then, it was almost like a secret club to be part of the Pilates world...no one had ever really heard of it let alone take lessons for it.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and in the process I bought a Pilates reformer machine. It was a big chunk of change but I thought it would be great so that I could practice on those days off of driving down to what us Arizonians like to call "the valley".

I was learning so much about the exercise that I thought my brain would explode. I was working out more than I have ever done in my life and even had that Pilates toned-body going on. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I would still need to learn so much more to become the kind of Pilates instructor I would want to hire. Fast forward a few years and now I am teaching in another curriculum in which I excel. Life is not a destination...it's a journey.

I sold the reformer on Ebay to another woman just beginning her travels into the Pilates world and who, coincidentally, lived in Scottsdale. The movers she had scheduled to move the 200 pound machine never showed up and my husband and I had to help her haul the beast into her third floor apartment in the middle of July. Did I mention we were in Arizona... where it gets to be 110°or higher on a summer's day? It's a good thing I had been working out.

No comments: