PTM School: Day 3

My third visit to Pilates-Train-Me and I am being let loose in a mat class.

For most people who experience Pilates through a local gym or privately run session this is what they’ll experience first.

A class that includes standing, sitting and lying exercises which, when observed from the side of the room, look easy. But in reality are not and make you curse inwardly and frequently.

The studio part of the Pilates Train Me Studio is laid out with twelve mats that are designed specifically for Pilates classes. They are more padded than a gym mat, have a foot strap at one end and are longer so that you can lie pretty much full length on one. At PTM they are lined up by the windows and doors that open out onto a small balcony and so I chose a mat closest to the open door so I could get the breeze and sun (see I am an outdoor girl at heart!).

There is always a risk that you get a bit of ‘mat-rage’ when you are a newbie in a class. I’ve seen it happen in classes over the years – “that’s my space” — however there were spaces in the class and if I was in someone’s preferred place then no one mentioned it.

Everyone else was gathering pillows and pads so I thought I should do that too and popped them down next to my mat too.

Sarah (one of the co-owners) was taking this class. It flowed from one move to the next very smoothly. I wasn’t smooth, but the delivery was smooth. I found I am still thinking so much about each thing that I am very slow. It’s the bit of me that wants to get it right and do it properly and move on. But that wasn’t to be, we did rolling and curling and lifting and breathing and pointing and flexing and more breathing and I got a sweaty glow on.

I think I have a fair amount of body awareness. I know the body, I am a massage therapist as well as a fitness instructor so know where things are. But the concept of ‘moving my bottom two ribs backwards’ took me way too long to process and I was left not doing much whilst the rest of the class were moving smoothly on at times. It doesn’t matter though as everyone is so busy concentrating on what they are doing that they don’t look at you.

I was going to write here that I could do the moves at this class, but then realised that in all honesty I couldn’t really, so thought I’d change it to I could make the shapes in this class, but then thought that I probably wasn’t doing too good a job of that either. So will content myself with ‘I got into the positions in this class more than the first two’ — I think that would about sum it up 🙂

Oh and Pilates-Train-Me (PTM) really stands for Please-Tan-Me, as I discovered that my hour by the open window left a lovely vest mark when I got home that afternoon (and I didn’t need those cushions and pads either!)