Flywheel Observations
I was at Flywheel last week for a great class with Ashley. It is always a fun place to look at postures and peoples’ movement patterns. I couldn’t help but notice a gentleman on a bike in front of me as we pumped away to the beat of the music. He was furiously pedaling and his pelvis and whole body were violently shifting side to side. The way he rode the bike looked 1)painful 2)his cycling movements screamed tight hips 3)I thought he was someone who would definitely end up with back pain. I wondered what he was doing to address his hip tightness or if he even noticed it?
I tell people all the time “you have to do the maintenance work on your body so you can do what you love”. This gentleman clearly needed an aggressive plan to address his extreme hip tightness so he could participate in Flywheel without doing damage to his spine and hips.
Conversely, I see many people (primarily women) who are very flexible and love to do yoga. Yoga has many wonderful benefits for mind and body. For someone very flexible it is an exercise form they would feel highly successful at and would probably enjoy doing more than someone who is extremely tight. For these flexible people yoga practiced alone without any work to stabilize joints and bring awareness to neutral alignment throughout the body could be detrimental to their bodies over time.
For many of our clients at Inspire, pilates based exercise fills that “body maintenance” requirement. Their passion may be long distance running, horseback riding, soccer, or dance. They do pilates so they can be conditioned, work on their “weaknesses” and find balance in their bodies to tolerate and excel in the exercise form or sport that makes their hearts sing.
I certainly know playing to your strengths in life is a way to find success. I also know weaknesses ignored can ultimately limit the success you can achieve. I challenge you to take on your weakness, your tightness, the imbalance in your body and incorporate exercise/activities that will improve it. Your heart will sing longer and louder if you do!
Remember, first class is always free! It’s so easy to try STOTT PILATES as the maintenance work for your body.