Weird Pilates

This morning I woke up to rain, which is never a good motivator. On top of that, Drew was really sleepy and wasn't motivated to get up and go to the gym, so we both slept in. I really wasn't looking forward to going to the gym after work either. Something about the rain just makes me want to stop working out.

When I got to work today, Nicole asked if I would be willing to come to pilates with her after work and be her "beginner body". For her next test, she has to teach the beginner and intermediate systems to two different people at the same time. She had another apprentice who was going to be the intermediate. I agreed as it would erase some of my guilt about sleeping in and it would be a workout for the day - perfect thing for a rainy day.

Of course I didn't have workout clothes at work, but it worked out that I just happened to be wearing leggings and Drew had a t-shirt in his office, so I was all set for pilates (good thing it doesn't require any special shoes or anything).

We got to the studio and changed clothes, Nicole introduced me to Mikhal (the other apprentice), and we got straight to work. We did the first few leg exercises together but from there on out, Mikhal and I did different exercises at different times. I'm so used to going with a second person when we both do the same exercises at the same time, that it was just really weird for Nicole to be giving each of us different instructions and to do totally different exercises.

I think Nicole did a really good job teaching the two of us, but it was just a little disconserting. She said our names a lot while she was teaching so that we would know who she was talking to, but there were just a couple of times where I wasn't 100% clear on who the instruction was for (although those were likely to be more general instructions and I always needs to keep my shoulders down).

I actually did the full beginner system today of reformer, mat and chair exercises while Mikhal did all the intermediate. What's really interesting to me is that there were actually one or two beginner exercises I don't ever remember doing before. I also was super jealous of Mikhal because she got to do side-splits and I thought that was by far one of the best exercises the one time I did the intermediate system.

When it was all over I asked Nicole if she really imagined teaching like that a lot in the future. She said that she didn't really think so for two reasons: (1) even if one person was more advanced than the other, she could still do a lot more intermediate exercises for both people at the same time and (2) other than the testing environment, she would never be required to teach the whole system in one setting. In fact, that's one thing I like about pilates. That although we may do some of the same exercises each time, we always mix it up and try something new or maybe do things in a different order. I understand why Nicole has to learn it the way she does, but it doesn't seem to have a complete practical application.

All in all I think it was a really good session and I'm so glad that I did something today because I really didn't feel like going to the gym. The bummer is that it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow too so I definitely will be logging some time at the gym this weekend whether I like it or not. I'm pretty bummed about that as I was really hoping to make it back to New Jersey for a ride this weekend, but since I can't control the weather, I'll just deal with it.