I have always found that the best way to start something is at the beginning and the best way to begin is to start.  It sounds too simple, I know.  But the more life I live, the more people I meet, the more I know this isn’t a common way to approach life.  Too often people become obsessed with tiny details:  details that wouldn’t even matter until step 3 or step 10, and they haven’t even started.  The best way to start is at the beginning.  Becoming over analytical about Step 1 keeps people stuck at Step 0 and then they haven’t even begun.

So let’s start.

Pilates is methodical.  You cannot start with Step 3.  Everyone who walks through the doors every single day is on Step 0.  Even after you’ve started, you must begin again.  As with most beginnings, expect to be clumsy.  Expect to be somewhat overwhelmed and possibly even underwhelmed at the same time.  Expect the unexpected…(sometimes even gas).

Joseph Pilates believed not only in his exercises, but also the order in which they are performed.  Every Classical Pilates Mat class will follow the same exercises in the same order as Joseph Pilates originally and very intentionally designed.  Most people have a better time beginning when they know where they are going to start:

The Hundred: turns a fire of a thousand suns on inside your abdominal wall.  Every Classical Pilates Mat Series starts with the Hundred.  There are modifications depending on your skill and strength.  You will focus on your breath and how your breath helps you to engage the deeper muscles of the core including your inner thighs, gluteal muscles, abdominals and back.  You will breathe in for a five-count and out for a five-count while vigorously pumping your arms.  You will develop a love-hate relationship with this exercise, although I have found the relationship has become a love-love one over time.

Knowing where you start will help you to begin.  The only way to begin is to start.

-See you on the mat