A total body workout!
Just wrapping up a 4 day trip to Austin Texas, where, if you’ve never been there is literally surrounded by lakes everywhere. If you’re an avid outdoors person, then Austin is a place that will not disappoint you. My brother and his awesome family own a house in the city, but also have a lake house about 40 minutes away on lake LBJ. Now, I haven’t water skied in quite some time, and knee boarding is completely foreign to me, but it was initiation by fire trying to keep up with the young niece and nephew out on the water and before I knew it I had a board strapped to my feet and a rope handle tossed at my head and a V8 monster engine ready to blow gallons of water in my face as I yell the two words that will either spell my demise or see my success, “Hit It!”
Before I let you in on what happens next, I think it fitting that you all know what it was like in my pre-Pilates life when I tried this, mind you carrying around an extra 30 or so pounds around my middle. The last time I tried to ski/wakeboard, etc I yelled, “Hit It” and all that happened was a lot of boat groaning, trunks filling up with water and a handle being ripped out of my hands before I could ever get up. I used to ski when I was a kid, so I had some technique back in the day, but that extra weight was keeping me from getting up. After 6 or so failed attempts, my hands were shot and cramping, and I was relegated to watching others more fit (than me) from inside the boat. Not fun at all, and quite embarrassing to be honest.
This time, and with that image still haunting me, I took a big inhale and yelled, “HIT IT!” The boat roared to life, my heart rate quickened in anticipation and a funny thing happened…I popped right up. Wasting no time, I veered outside the wake, a massive smile showing all 200 of my teeth evident for the passengers inside the boat to see. I zipped from one wake to the next trying to catch air, and make rooster tails of waves behind me. My core was firing as were my obliques, and all of those “hundreds,” “roll ups” and “rollovers” suddenly were worth the countless hours of working out. I was having a blast.
Fo two days I shredded that lake. I was now about ten years older, than when I had my last skiing debacle, but clearly I was much more fit at 40 then I was at 30. This weekend was a direct result of the time I’ve spent in the Pilates studio and at home doing my mat work. I have never doubted that the Pilates for Men 10-20-30 Challenge we created last year was powerful, but MAN…was it impressive to see the direct result of the work. I am so proud to be able to share this story with you, and I hope you find it meaningful enough to share with others.
Until next time!
-Art A.
