Week 1, Session 2 - The work begins

For the first 20 minutes of my second session with Faye, I was skating through the exercises. I laid on my back and lengthened and stretched. Not a whole lot of core work. And then, like a spaceship kicking into hyperdrive, the intensity skyrocketed.

Joseph Pilates at 14. I read he worked as a Greek statue in the circus. For real.

We were working in my office instead of Faye's Bayside Pilates studio and we were doing mat exercises this time instead of using the large equipment. Being on the mat seemed benign when we started. When we finished up, again I was dripping sweat. There was one exercise where all I did was sit on a folder chair and try to lengthen my spine with my arms stretched in front of me. We held that position for about 1 minute and by the end I was shaking. All I was doing was sitting there!

I read a bit about the history of Pilates last night and I learned that the originator, Joseph Pilates, fused the mental with the physical while he worked out and trained people. We haven't yet gone there with sessions, but one of my goals is to treat my sessions like meditation: a time for me to let go of my stress and take care of myself.