Nicole Trboyevich

What is Pilates?  Pilates is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates in Germany. Pilates focuses on the core muscles, which includes abdominal and most importantly the muscles of the spine.  It helps build flexibility and lengthens the muscles creating a long, lean body.  I am a yoga girl all the way but in my early twenties I dabbled in many Pilates DVDs and books. Last night, I found myself at my first real Pilates class.
I started yoga years ago, but in the last 3.5 years started practicing seriously. I live and breathe yoga, I find myself talking about yoga with all of my friends and family. At times, I think it has to be exhausting to them. My brother, had been practicing Pilates for about a year and had asked me many times to come to class. For one reason or another I never made it, partly because I was a yoga fanatic. I thought to myself, why would I do Pilates when I can easily kick my own ass with the yoga I had been so faithful to. I realized I was being very closed-minded to the idea of Pilates. This is  very un-yogic  and soon I found myself on my way to Pilates class.
As I walk into the studio, I find a busy place. People coming and going, children chippering and adults laughing. I take a peak in the Pilates room to see a woman dressed in black. She is slender yet strong. She is explaining what looks like the proper way to use the body in a specific exercise. I knew, she was my instructor. I walked in and said “Hi, I am new” she said “Hi new, I’m Deb “. We laughed, shook hands and I properly introduced myself. She quickly got me set up and ready to go.
The Pilates room has a very warm setting, dimly lit with real hardwood floors. There is a radio playing christmas music, which at first I thought was out of the ordinary. I envisioned zen music or some other instrumental music that would blend in or create a certain seriousness to the practice. We soon get started. I feel a little unsure of what to expect as we start, looking around at others for guidance. Soon we are full-fledged in exercise and I don’t notice the music anymore until a woman points out the funny holiday rap playing. I find most of the exercises pretty easy until we get to the legs. Oh the pain I felt in the glut medius, cramping became apparent by all. The room is not only filled with funny holiday music, but many laughs and oofs and aahs. I found the amount of laughter and fun had by this small group of people to be really comforting. At one point I looked at my brother next to me as he was saying “owe” he was doing it while laughing. In the center of the room Deb is directing us as she too is completing the exercise. Halfway through the second side she gets up to check on us. She immediately says “Brandon, I knew you would be in a cramp”, Brandon is my brother. Everyone laughs, not at him, but with him. I really find myself enjoying the level of comfort these people have here. The fact that Deb knows how her students will react to an exercise is completely inspiring to me. This is a person who truly enjoys what she does, and is extremely in tune with her students.
After many other sets or combinations of moves we are working on shoulders. Whoa, I’m beginning to feel something. I am learning the difference between Yoga and Pilates, in my eyes anyway. As I am working my shoulders, I notice the intense burning in my anterior deltoid, this is the front side of the delts.  This also makes me very aware of exactly what muscles I am working. I find that with Yoga, I am working the entire body, especially in a standing series. While in a yoga posture you are strong all over, contracted and most important still. At the same time, your antagonist muscle (or the opposite muscle) is stretching. Pilates, you focus on core contraction, while the muscle you are working is moving from contraction to relaxation. The repetition can become painful or cramp. Dont get me wrong, with yoga you get the cramps and the pain it just feels very different. At this point in the class i’m feeling sore, craving an all over stretch. My back and neck hurt, my hips and shoulders hurt but all in very specific locations. I’m feeling unbalanced.
The class ends very abruptly, almost unexpected. A woman says “What? No push ups or planks?”, in a “thank god that’s over” way. Surprised at how fast that the class had gone and feeling pretty tight in certain muscles, I pull myself off the floor. At the same time, Deb stops by and says “great Job”. I think to myself, I am going to the sauna to get these muscles to relax. The next day I am sore and achy in the same specific areas that I worked last night, still feeling unbalance in the body.  Although the actual class and exercise was not difficult for me, I can see the appeal. You can feel your workout, and no doubt get fast results. In my first class of Pilates I find that this type of exercise is very fine tuned. It is a  great exercise routine to tighten up specific areas. I really enjoyed the class and most of all the instructor. She is an inspiration for what kind of teacher I aspire to be.  But for me, I am still a Yoga fanatic. This girl craves the all over body workout that includes the “360 degree stretching” (Bikram Choudhury) that Yoga offers. Does this mean I write off Pilates? Absolutely not.