What started out as a desire to do more girly things and expand my social settings in order to make new friends turned out to be what feels like if I’m fighting for my life for two hours every week. One word, Pilates.
I will admit that I got sucked into doing what currently seems like a trending exercise popularised on Instagram. Currently sold and marketed as the hottest feminine movement and lifestyle change, it was hard not to be drawn to all the matcha drinking, heavily oversimplified exercises and slender bodies gliding through the studios with smiles to match. In my eyes those women who practised Pilates all came across as unicorns and as if they had unlocked a new layer to life by unlocking their bodies on their reformers. I wanted in, more than anything.
Pilates, developed by Joseph Pilates a German physical trainer, involves a system of exercises using a series of special apparatuses, most popularly the reformer, that focuses on breath work, core stability, resistance training, posture, flexibility and muscle control. The series of exercises, which are usually done in small numbers, places huge emphasis on a strong mind and body connection. I was warned by several friends that prior to starting I should familiarise myself with at home mat Pilates exercises just so that I could have a better understanding of what was to come. But honestly, nothing could have prepared me. Nothing too prepares you for how difficult it will continue to be to break into social settings.
Pilates is like no other form of exercise that I have done before; it works the smallest of muscles and forces you to be fully present. It demands absolute concentration for both safety and effective results. So much so that my central goal of wanting to widen my social groups got placed on the back burner.
About three months in it was either exhaustion or sore muscles that I chalked it up to for not really forming any friend bonds. The thing with sports or any hobby for that matter, as clichéd as this may sound, consistency is key and so is discipline. Growing up, I always heard that sportsmen/women were disciplined and I always imagined that discipline meant automatic perfection in every other sphere of their lives. Perfect diet, perfect social lives and a precise sense of direction where things are going for them. But as I worked and continue to work on that reformer, that sense of discipline quickly translated to something else. It means being disciplined when it comes to putting yourself out there. It means being consistent with social efforts even when you don’t get the desired results.
It means understanding your challenges and addressing them with continuous effort.
Maybe I won’t get all my desired results from this new challenge that I’ve embarked on and perhaps it’s easier to be disciplined under physically controlled settings as opposed to applying that same level of practicality where emotions are involved. But just like the exercises, it gets easier with effort, time and experience.
