The Burrow

"I can't wait to see what a Pilate is."

Today was the day that she found out. 
Ten girls from the Sports Conditioning Class and ten girls from regular PE joined Kyria Sabin, Fletcher Pilates Master Disseminator and volunteer extraordinaire, for an adventure on the floor.  And what an adventure it was.

 

After some initial paperwork

to support the program evaluation component,

the girls were introduced to their bellies and their feet.

Rocking forward and back, finding the spots beneath the ball of the big toe and the pinky toe and the center of the heel, challenged balance and got the students up and moving.

 

Curling into a little ball

loosened and stretched the spine.

 

Kyria demonstrated the Pilates way to get to supine on the mat.

and down they went.

They made X's on the floor while Veronica showed them how to st-re-tc-h

and thought about using their abdominal muscles to flatten out the curve in the spine.

It sounds complicated, and it is. 
Those muscles are way down deep in there; sometimes they are hard to find. 
I know this because I have been looking for them for years.

 

90-90 is a classic Pilates position.

There's a tendency to bring the knees too far forward or too far back,
but a correcting pair of hands was never too far away.

 

From there, feet were flexed

and bridges were made

and there were smiles.

 

There were lots and lots of smiles.

 

This is hard work, though it doesn't look like much from the outside.

Sometimes you need to learn from one another, especially when one of your own manages to articulate every vertebra in her spine on her way down.

At the end of the hour the girls were talking about wearing yoga pants next Wednesday because jeans just don't make it when you're trying to bend.  Shirts will be long enough to cover tummies. 
And, there will be socks.  There are always socks.

Thanks, again, to Balanced Body for the equipment, to the administration of Amphitheatre Middle School for their willingness to open their doors to us, and to Body Works Pilates for making it all come together. 

 

Getting shot wasn't all bad if something this wonderful is part of the result.