What I'm thankful for in Pilates

Here are the top ten things in Pilates that I'm giving thanks for this year. What are you thankful for?

Pilates for Pregnancy iPhone App on Sale!

The amazing Pilates for Pregnancy iPhone app is on sale thru Monday. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to review the app along with Sarah Picot's other Pilates for Pregnancy products and interview Sarah herself. Sarah's system is far and away the best I have seen on the market, taking you all the way from pre-conception to post-natal recovery. Click here to read my reviews of all of her products, and here for a link to each of the available apps.

Note: while there isn't currently an app for the postnatal system, there is a DVD, and Sarah says the app is on the way. By the way, it is far and away the best postnatal video I have seen- it truly incorporates your baby in ways that none of the others do. Check out the review here, the exercises are also detailed in the Pilates for Pregnancy Book.

Sarah Picot's Pilates for Pregnancy System: Reviews

Wow. When I received the review copies of Pilates and Pregnancy: A Workbook for Before, During and After Pregnancy W/DVD Sarah Picot - PRENATAL PILATES (DVD MOVIE)and Post-natal Pilates I was blown away. After going through 2 pregnancies as a Pilates instructor, I've modified my heart out, both for myself and the deluge of pregnant clients who come to me because they know I have experience. I hadn't even scratched the surface. Some of the modifications made me slap my forehead and say "Why didn't I think of that?!?!" Others, like the kneeling single leg stretch, are a testiment to creater Sarah Picot's creativity and dedication to keeping the pregnant body moving in safe, healthy ways. The post-natal program is encouraging to me, it makes me feel like there is actually a possibility of me getting in a workout with my 12 week old my son is rather than having to wait for my husband to be able to watch him. Read more about all of the products and an interview with Sarah here.

The Great Pilates Debate

Hopefully most Pilates practicitioners don't know how much arguing goes on behind the scenes over what can be called Pilates and what can't. My lastest examiner.com post introduces the Pilates debate, and I'll continue to discuss it in detail in the next few days. Click here to read the full article on examiner, and here to read the summary of the trademark lawsuit that allows us all to practice today. We would not have pre or post natal Pilates had this lawsuit not opened up the use of the Pilates name.

Pilates Class Guide

Thinking about taking Pilates but not sure where to start? Check out the Pilates class guide! You can learn how to choose your class, and all about Mat, Reformer, Jumpboard, and Private Pilates classes.

Pilates Equipment Guide

Click here to see the ultimate guide to Pilates equipment.

Pilates for Mommies...or...Exercise for the Exhausted

Congratulations! Your new bundle of joy is home from the hospital and you are a mommy! You will get amazing love and snuggles, and this little baby will look at you like the sun rises and sets with you, because, in his eyes, it does. Bu, you will not get a good night's sleep again for the forseeable future, nor will you sit down to a meal without being inturrupted by a child that wants to eat (it doesn't matter when you fed them, they just seem to sense these things.) And if you have to go back to work anytime soon, you will likely experience the worst guilty feeling for leaving your child in the care of someone else, or, if you are lucky enough to be able to take him to work with you, guilt for not paying enough attention to him or your job.

Health time is going to be hard to fit in for the next little while, but it's very neccissary. First of all, your self-esteem needs to know how powerful your body is. The delivery high is gone, and you are left with a body with extra skin in places where it isn't flattering and extra fat stores that your body stocked away in some caveman-esque way so that you could produce breast milk for your new child. These fat stores would be useful if we didn't have ready access to food in our society, but we do, and just because you have the fat stored doesn't shut off your hunger triggers. So you have to learn a new balance of getting enough calories so your body produces enough milk for your child and doesn't go into starvation mode without overeating and adding to the bulk.

As for exerice, you need to be kind to yourself. I highly recommend walking, keeping the Pilates principals in mind. Concentrate on pulling your shoulders back and your arm pits down to open up you chest whenever you have the opportunity- you are spending a lot of time with your shoulders rounded looking down over your new little one. If you still have a diastasis, refer to my previous posts by Jennifer Gianni for safe Pilates exercises to do. If your diastasis has closed, start slowly, but begin doing work to tone you core- I recommend this series: Assisted Roll up, Single Leg Stretch, Double Leg Strech, Criss-Cross (aka Jane Fonda's Bicycle), Swan, Pilates Push-up. Do 3-5 reps of each, working up to 7-10.