All my lessons today have been about the body, and how to pay attention to our needs in the moment. We are different every day, some days we have energy, other days we are in slow motion. It is all good as long you stay consistent with nutrition and a healthy active lifestyle. I just came back from a run with a friend, I ate a little too much about an hour and a half before, plus for some reason felt tired. For next time she suggested I have fruit before, and then to eat after, I actually just had a couple of hard boiled eggs and feel perfect.
This morning I was talking to my mom, she is an accomplished musician, graduated from Moscow Conservatory, sings, conducts choir, and plays piano, and is also very learned in Judaism, Torah, and Kaballah. She is collaboration with my friend Roland as well, www.rolandhealinghands.com, and was telling me a very powerful thought. In our physically obsessed society everybody wants that hot bod, and sometimes at a price, not focusing on what they are putting or not putting in their body. As well as pushing themselves too hard physically and sometimes ignoring form, alignment, and core which leads to injury. Many doctors separate the body into sections, most alternative medicine looks at the body as a whole. What fails to be addressed is all the spaces in between everything in the body, which are as important, and when someone puts on excessive weight or gets sick, those spaces get squeezed or filled with something harmful. From what I remember of our conversation, she was saying that spaces are as important as muscles, organs, and tissues, and when these spaces get compromised or disappear, the health begins to suffer immensely.
So today while I was teaching my Pilates class, I had all regulars, and I was enjoying getting deeper with them, not only in their workout, but in their understanding of their own body. One thing I say over and over again, not only in class to my students, but also to myself when I am doing any kind of exercise is, are my shoulders down. Shoulders are stabilizers, they are not meant to rise, and usually when they do it is stress, tension, or a super stiff area. Very few exercises specifically have shoulders lifting, and in most it is important to keep them down to focus the workout on specific areas like arms, chest, and back. Also in some dance moves shoulders could move up and down, but it is with total control and with a flow.
A thought occurred to me that especially when doing mind and body exercises such as Pilates and Yoga, where we focus on pushing the world away and giving ourselves our undivided attention. Where being nice to yourself and feeling good actually gives you a better workout and a deeper stretch. So I told the class to keep the bad stress out of the good stress. I found an article that has some good points about good stress, and exercise is a healthy form of good stress.
SHOULDERS DOWN (Please repeat throughout your day) Eventually it feels wrong for them to go up, once your neuromuscular system connects with where they are supposed to be.
Space,
Breath,
Happiness,
Present,
Food For Thought,
Coach Yulia
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