Blog

If you never seem to have enough time to exercise, perhaps hours and minutes aren’t the issue. Instead, examine why you want to work out regularly. If your reasons aren’t truly important to you, then you are unlikely to make the changes in your schedule to allow the time you need.

The key word is passion, says APOGEE life coach Staci Rosenberg. “Lack of passion and uncertainty about what it is you want—those two things combined lead to lack of success.” says Rosenberg.

For example, you might consider that exercise is a route to a shapely body, especially at this time of year when bathing suit season is right around the corner. But if you never put on a suit, then it may be hard to truly care about how you look in this year’s bikini. Likewise, it would be hard to make time to train for a marathon when you don’t have one on your schedule.

by Lesly Levy, APOGEE Director of Pilates and Pilates Programming, Power Pilates Teacher Trainer If you’re standing for a few minutes—in a line at a store or airport or in your own kitchen—use the time as an opportunity to strengthen your core and energize your body and spirit. It’s all too easy to become leaden and lethargic when you’re standing and waiting. Here’s a simple exercise that will create length, lift and openness and boost your vitality.

Align your body. Stand with your heels together and toes slightly apart, then draw your legs together, hugging the midline of your body. Adjust your body so that your heels, sacrum, top of your pelvis, bottom of your ribs and the tips of your shoulder blades are aligned as if you were standing against a wall.

by Deborah Slade, APOGEE Pilates Instructor,
Power Pilates Comprehensive trained instructor.

Joseph Pilates described breathing as “the first act of life.”  In his book Return to Life through Contrology he wrote, “Above all, learn how to breathe.” It sounds simple enough, since breathing is automatic. But as result of our relatively sedentary lifestyles most of us take shallow breaths—often at less than half our lung capacities. The result is low stamina, poor posture and tense, unstable muscles that cannot perform optimally. Breathing correctly oxygenates the blood and nourishes the cells while eliminating toxins, improving circulation, alleviating stress, and rejuvenating the spirit.

In Pilates, breathing is considered the essential link between the mind and body and the foundation for all movement. Coordinating exercises with patterns of inhaling and exhaling not only supports the movement but also aids in concentration, control, and flow—three other fundamental principles of the method.

It’s not easy to breathe while moving. In fact, most of us hold our breath when facing difficult tasks. But breathing properly while keeping your abs “scooped” will allow you to perform your Pilates exercises with greater ease and find your workout even more satisfying.

Hi all, This is Dr. Howard Sichel writing to support the PPBlog that Andrea Dow has been so diligent in keeping up. I received an email from a director of a large well established fitness facility in Westchester yesterday. You can imagine how many certifications she has under her(many) but what followed in her email was quite revealing to me. It follows:

I have been in the health and wellness industry for 25 years, being one of the first "class" to become a certified fitness professional through the American Council of Exercise. Our club saw the value of being a certified instructor way back when the renegades were running around teaching classes with flat backs, locked knees and the philosophy of no pain no gain. I valued every morsel of knowledge I absorbed and was able to share with my class.

I am now the Director of Member and Community Events in the largest health and wellness facility in Westchester County, New York and have been here for 25 years when I started as a dance instructor....moving up through head choreographer, membership director of all Club Fit locations and now events and wellness....and through all of the forward movement in my career, I have always kept classes and personal training which kept me on the pulse of the club.