Posts Tagged ‘pilates’

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Can Pilates Help with Water Sports? Indeed!

Monday, August 30th, 2010

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.

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Pilates and Los Angeles

Friday, July 30th, 2010

This is Hard!

I think I understand why Pilates is so popular in Los Angeles.  It isn’t because we have the greatest studio in the world, although I am partial to the warmth, cleanliness and space of our studio in Encino, CA. Talk to most good Pilates operators in and around the Los Angeles area and by and large you will hear them say that their business is very good!  We hear that business has been growing in a down economy.  Part of the reason for the growth is the huge number of Baby Boomers that are aging, and retiring. In order to keep their bodies functioning at a high level, they turn to the low impact, huge results of Pilates as part of their fitness regiment.  They also turn to Pilates to help them after they’ve finished their physical therapy for rehabbing injuries.  However, I realized why more and more people are turning to Pilates each day here in Los Angeles while on my daily bike ride home from the studio.  Now mind you, I ride home along Ventura Blvd, which is very very busy…and I do break the rules a bit and ride on the sidewalk for most of it.  BUT…I see everything! I notice everything and I can smell everything, from the stores that you’d never notice while driving, to the plethora of restaurants, to the crazy drivers, and their antics inside the sanctity of their cars.

Since I ride on the sidewalk for most of the route, I’m careful, I ride slowly and I give the right of way to pedestrians. It also gives me time to relax, gather my thoughts for the day. Mostly, however, I get to see the insanity of what drivers go through every single day. I started to think we don’t just live in the city of Angels, but at times we live in the city of something else that kind of rhymes with angels, but also sounds a bit like brass and holes.  Yup…and I bet out of their cars, they are extremely nice people…but man, I saw nearly five nasty accidents on an 8 mile ride home last night.  Oh, and the horns…holy mackerel, the horns!  It was a cacophony of brass – hole instruments emanating from under the hoods of their Toyotas, Nissans and BMW’s.

So it all brings me back to the big exhale that our clients breathe the moment they walk through our doors.  We offer that sanctuary where they can not only exercise, but they can detox and feel good if only for an hour of their day.  And that, is why our businesses our growing.  The more we give our clients and future clients the ability to have a safe haven, the more we’ll help them preserve, lengthen and enjoy their lives.

Until next time!

-Art A.

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Pilates and Gaining Muscle? You Bet!

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Day 1 for Mike on his 30 session journey

Before you get nervous about this photograph, let me assure you this is the DAY 1 photograph!  Mike is more than halfway through his 30 sessions to his new body.  I see Mike around the studio these days and his arms are HUGE!  He has come so far and he’s not at the end of his 30 sessions of Pilates for Men journey yet. During my 10-20-30 Challenge at the studio my goal was to drop weight, lose my flabby belly, tone up and lean out. Mike is trying to do essentially the opposite of that and he’s looking for huge results – pun intended. Mike is eating massive amounts of calories in the form of protein supplements and healthy diet choices combined with eating every two to three hours.  His caloric intake is greater than normal, however he’s not partaking in eating bad foods (i.e. McFatty burgers etc.)

We have to remember that Pilates by itself will help us gain flexibility and strength, but unless we adopt a great eating regiment, or at least a focused eating regiment for what we are trying to do, we are not giving ourself the optimum benefit to the amount of work we are putting in.  I find myself saying that over and over again to some of the clients I see here on a regular basis.  If you are a guy, like I was, who weighed roughly 220 (pre diet) pounds, and you expect that you can consume 3,000 to 4,000 calories per day while you work out 4 days per week, you’ve got a problem on your hands.  You won’t see the results you’re hoping for, and that I can guarantee.  Make an appointment with your doctor, or a nutritionist, or in my case, my Jenny Craig counselor, and find out what diet will work with the amount of work you are doing.  A great tool out there to help you gauge what’s going in your mouth and what you are burning each day is www.myfitnesspal.com.

We will be checking in with Mike here shortly while we wait for those awesome “AFTER” photos representing the completion of his 10-20-30 sessions to a new body taught by Pilates Sports Center’s Master Trainer, Josh Smith.  If you can’t get yourself to a studio near you, we’d like to propose bringing the studio to you so you can do Pilates Sports Center’s “Pilates for Men 10-20-30 Challenge” in the comfort of your home.  You will sweat, you will feel the burn, and most importantly you will love it!

Mike, keep adding on that spring resistance while keeping your form picture perfect.

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