3 posts tagged “pilates on the pole”

Cause I surely don't look like that in real life. You know what they say, "the camera adds 100 lbs". I'll give myself a photoshop diet later and repost for fun.

This was my 2nd time, ever, on the hoop. Blurry pics are from my phone. Non-blurry are from Nicole's camera

Just what in the hell is going on?!?

I DID THE BODY SPIRAL Correction: I did the FLYING BODY SPIRAL!! (a spin with your back to the pole) Several times even. Started bad but got better each time I tried it. The last one was all-the-way correct. Woot!! Nicole was pissed that she didn't get it on video! I'm soooo happy! For me, the "trick" is to go into it without thinking about it. It helps if I'm talking about something else at the time and do it without warning. Woot - WOOT - W00T!!

Also did better on the "pole crunch" (aka: corkscrew) - though I have a long way to go on that. Not so good on the V spins tonight but that's cause I was mostly trying to do them with the "proper" hand grip (one high, one low), which is not my preferred method.

And I learned some kind of advanced version of a spin that I don't know the name of - so we'll call it the fall forward high leg hook. I couldn't do that move because I had shorts on and my skin was sticking to the pole - so I did the "harder" hold of sticking to the pole on purpose (easy for me because I have so much skin to stick), one leg behind the pole, and doing a partial invert thing. I don't know how to describe it. But I did it... kinda... so that was great.

I think that getting the "flamingo" spin a few weeks ago (on the first try) was a pivotal moment for me. Suddenly everything else became possible too. Cool, huh?

Nicole agreed to try meeting at 8p Tuesdays for awhile to see how that works out for both of us.

When I got to my car, I could hear the waves crashing so I knew that the tide was really high (I park in a beach lot but rarely hear the waves). In a good mood, I took a leisurely drive home. First I stopped at a little gourmet grocery store I've been wanting to check out in Balboa (a couple blocks from the workout studio). I LOVED the place - bought some gourmet salsas, sandwiches, and salads. I plan to go back for fancy mustards, jams, specialty drinks and whatever else they have. It was a bit pricey but reasonable for the quality & uniqueness. Plus the staff (just one guy when I was there) was fantastic. Really friendly and helpful. They have another, larger, store not too far away so I'll be checking that out too.

I drove the long/scenic route home along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). What a great choice! I could see & smell beach bonfires, which I love. I hit a long stretch of highway with no street lights and was mesmerized by the view: The ocean blending into the sky (no moon tonight) - so lights on the water and stars in the sky all looked the same. It was be-ooootiful!

In Sunset Beach, at the place I rented a kayak (a couple months back), the tide was so high that it was flooding part of PCH. I liked that (I like water)... often heard of it but only the 2nd time I've witnessed it.

I drove home thinking about all kinds of things that I like (water - rain, oceans, pools, jacuzzis; gourmet mustards; gourmet jams; stuff made of colored glass - particularly green, blue, or dark red; uber-tacky souvenirs; anything deco, wind chimes... ). All very positive & zen of me.

Seriously, WHO IS THIS PERSON and what have they done with LeendaDLL?

Had my 1:1 pole class, at Pilates on the Pole, tonight. Wasn't quite what I expected but that's not a bad thing. The instructor, Nicole, kicked my ass (I'm already getting sore) but in a way I respect and can handle... hard workout but also respected my limits. I know she thought I was going to be a total bitch of a student, especially when I complained about her poles being uber-slippery (worst I've been on; even my new miracle hand stuff barely helped. I later realized that's cause the poles "sweat" in humid conditions and the studio is 1 block from the beach) but we finally clicked and had a good time after that (well, I did). She asked if one of her new pilates instructors could join us and I said sure. It was fun to be able to do a couple things better than the girl who'd never done them before. It sucked that less than an hour later she was better than me.

But what really sucked was MIRRORS - EVERYWHERE. I don't know what the deal is with mirrors: I swear I'm size 2 (with huge tits - this is SoCal, that's important!) in real life but, put a mirror in the room and all of a sudden I'm a size 20 while everyone else is still a size 2. What's up with that? (and have you noticed that most doctor's scales are 100 lbs out of calibration!?!)

I totally cracked up and lost control in the middle of a pole slide when I got a glimpse of myself and realized I looked like a giant smooched up marshmallow. Seriously!! - White tank (never again!) over a body all scrunched up (because of the pose) so my stomach was bulging out, with big breastessses sitting on top of that, and big fat arms framing a big fat face. Smooshed.Up.Marshmallow! It's gonna be REALLY hard to undo the mental reality check this class is going to embed in my visual memory (I am sooo not sexy - physically!). But it might be just what I need to get motivated to loose some weight. (I'm not holding my breathe on that.)

On the other hand, I kinda liked having visual proof of how my size fucks up a lot of the moves for me. Like when we did a floor move, rolling away from the pole - the instructor was about 1' away while I was about 2.5' away, which made the next move (a pole grab) impossible for me. And there were moves where the instructor pointed out that I'm throwing my head backward - but it's totally sexier (and better for the neck) to tilt the head in & down. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that because my arms don't leave enough room for my face to squeeze through. (how sad is that?!) Thank gawd I have acceptance of what my body really looks like - and a REALLY good sense of humor!!

I appreciate that Nicole is into focusing on positive reinforcement. That's a big deal for me - go ahead and tell me what I fucked up, I want that info so I can improve, but finish with something that I did right. Or, in this case, merely telling me I did "really good" overall (only 1/2 lie).

She wanted to sign me up for a 10-class package but I decided to wait cause we both have schedule issues that could create problems - plus I still have other classes to check out. But I did prepay for another session - tentatively scheduled for next Wed night. She also teaches Pilates machine and I can see that's definitely something I should check out for some serious body reshaping (plus, I think it's cheaper) - if not with her then somewhere else.

While I enjoyed the class and the attention, I missed the familiarity of S (and not being treated as an ultra-beginner). On the drive home, I almost had myself talked into seeing whether I could still enroll in Coco's Sun night class, while still planning to continue the Wed 1:1 classes (2 workouts a week is good!), but reality kicked in and I remembered that I'm not a millionaire.

So... overall, a good experience. But whether or not I'll get hooked on it remains to be seen.