I am a Pilates instructor, but I’m also a person with a personal Pilates practice. I have my favorite exercises, the ones that I need to work on, and the ones that are good for me even when I don’t enjoy them.
To avoid settling into too much of a Pilates rut, I try to ensure that I cycle semi-regularly through the entire repertoire. None of the exercises, at this point, will feel totally new to me, but every time I cycle through, I do manage to have little epiphanies.
There are the good kinds of realiziations, like when I notice that I’m stronger, or that something that used to be hard is just a little challenging. There are the moments when I figure out another benefit of an exercise, or how it relates to another exercise, or how to modify something for myself or for my clients.
There are the less-good realizations. Things like noticing that my lumbar spine really doesn’t want to flex and that is that. I see the correlations between days when I sit too much and how my hips feel in motion the next day. I remember that I really really really have to do flexibility work every day lest I become about as malleable as a brick.
What I love is that my attention to the same old exercises teaches me new things, over and over.
Go play.
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