In search of a waistline.....

This is Betty, my Pilates instructor at LA Fitness. I started taking Pilates classes from Betty after my friend Renee suggested we try it together. Renee was not keen on going back, not her thing, but I really liked it. Pilates is not something I knew much about. I thought it was a new-fangled sort of exercise developed over the past couple decades for the Hollywood celebrity types, like Jennifer Aniston. I have learned it actually goes back 100 years or so. Joseph Pilates developed a system of exercises which he used to rehabilitate soldiers returning home from WW1.

Pilates is certainly helping me rehabilitate after many years of neglecting my physical well being. It works on your core strength, toning your muscles, and improving your sense of balance, and seems to be a nice compliment to the workouts we have with Joe and to the aerobic conditioning I do in the Spin class or on the elliptical machine. (Yes, you are right, exercise has become my full time job.) God help me if I decide to go back to work. I won't have time for all this rehabilitation!

Betty is the consummate professional. In every class she teaches I learn something new from her vast reservoir of knowledge about Pilates. She is amazing to watch, so strong and graceful. Pilates is not something you get good at easily or quickly, but in Betty's class I never feel embarrassed by my incompetence. I just keep trying and as she keeps the encouragement flowing. The movements in Pilates are small and precise, but strenuous. Focus on breathing properly and concentration on form are key elements. I find something about Pilates appeals to me. I had tried a yoga class and did not feel the same sort of connection.

I found myself walking out half-way through a Pilates class last week. The class was at the Uptown LAFitness, not my regular club. The instructor was extremely nice, age 23 and she told us she has been doing Pilates since she was 16. HELP!!!! This teacher geared her class for the clientele at the Uptown club: the young fit and trims, as I like to call them. I felt completely overwhelmed and certainly not young, fit or trim. I quietly rolled up my mat after a few minutes of complete humiliation and headed for the door.

The clientele in Betty's Pilate classes at the St. Louis Park LAFITNESS, my neighborhood, is more of a mixed bag. (Sometimes I feel like an old bag as I try to do the routines.) There certainly are the young fit and trims in Betty's classes, but there are also women my age who struggle to do the Pilate sit up or push up. There are also women my age in the class who successfully do those excruciatingly painful sit ups and push ups without a wince. As I said, a mixed bag.

Betty is somehow able to make her class challenging and appropriate for everyone. Not easily done, but she does it. I think this is because she is so knowledgeable and skilled and, though young, not twenty-three type young. She has the experience and expertise to ensure everyone feels challenged but not overwhelmed.

I went on line and ordered a couple of books on Pilates for the "older set" and I bought a beginner Pilate video at Target to use at home. (And Harry calls me compulsive!) Betty says that after 30 Pilates sessions you will have a whole new body. I am nearing the 10-session mark now and my body is not dramatically different, although I probably could now buy large exercise pants and not extra large. So, I remain an exercise junkie, still in search of a waistline.

PS. Harry is overreacting. He claims to be in fear for his life since Joe now has me doing the same weights as him most of the time and I did more reps in Monday's upper-body work!