Technically, I don't have to post today, because it's a "rest day". I like rest days. We should have more of them. Wednesdays generally should be "rest days". This may become law once I am voted in as dictator. (Don't start again with with "dictators don't get voted in" pedantry. I already had it from a thread I posted on Facebook, the one about the special carriage for sick people on trains. Once people realise that they like being told what to do, they'll vote me in). Well, that was until I realised that actually, Wednesday lunchtime is my pilates class. Now, I love pilates. I've been doing it, on and off, (subject to finding a class) for going on 10 years. I especially love my current class. I'm not just saying that because I sent the URL of my blog to Anita, our teacher. You know I wouldn't just be nice about someone because I thought they might be reading this, right? Anyway, I suddenly thought, I haven't cleared this with Sal. She told me to have a rest day. But it's pilates... fortunately I was able to ask her in the office, and she said it should be fine, as long as it wasn't too energetic.
Laughably, Anita agreed with this sentiment. She says (and I usually believe her, because she, like Sal, gives an air of talking knowledgeably about this stuff) that you can do pilates every day, like that breathy exercise moustachioed-Chris does (he runs a session at 8:45 on Mondays. I'm usually still in bed then). Now, I actually don't doubt that there are lots of pilates exercises you can do every day. I just don't think those were the ones we did. There was the plank, which is agony, and then then the thing where you do the plank but also raise your diagonally opposite arm and leg (this caused me to collapse - my hip flexor still hurt from yesterday); then there was those exercises with both legs off the floor on your side, and the single and double leg lifts. And at one point, she totally tricked us into moving from a reverse curl to a jack-knife and then into a teaser. Let me tell you about teasers. Like practical jokes, there is nothing funny about them when they happen to you. I'd already explained about it being a rest day, so by now, Anna and I were just muttering "rest day" at each other and laughing sardonically.
One lovely thing about pilates is that Anita is at pains to point out that we should breathe. "Don't forget to breathe" she reminds us. It's one of the things the body does that is autonomic - it's independent of the conscious mind. I suppose that's why I find it funny. However, of course, the bottom line is, people do hold their breaths when they are concentrating on something tricky. But I think I also find it funny because it reminds me of Dave Barry, an American columnist and comedian, when he's talking about the birth of his first son. He describes how him and his wife went to ante-natal classes for weeks, but during the birth, as he puts it "I'm not naming names, but I kept up my side of the deal. 'You should breathe.' I told her, or 'Don't forget to breathe!' - She, on the other hand, was unusually cranky....". So maybe its the echo of that which makes me laugh. I usually lose concentration entirely and collapse giggling when Anita comes out with it.
Anita showed me a step exercise to do to help my shins. But then she also told me to get some proper running shoes. I think she'd get on well with Sal actually. I love my pilates classes - it's such a good break from work, it's like a complete unwind. But then you have to go back...
"And breathe".
No comments:
Post a Comment