Ladies' Guild Meeting - September 2011
Our September Guild meeting introduced us to the art of Pilates. Pilates is a form of exercise developed by Joseph Pilates, which emphasizes the balanced development of the body through core strength, flexibility and awareness in order to support efficient graceful movement. The six Pilates principles are Centring, Control, Flow, Breath, Precision and Concentration.
Jo Taylor, who runs a group in the village hall on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, came along to introduce us to this gentle exercise. There were flickering candles and a background of light music playing. Cushions were handed out to some ladies to put at their backs. The curtains were drawn, so that we were not distracted and we were told the importance of sitting correctly on our chairs, feet together and definitely no crossed legs for fear of getting a DVT. Shoulders down and heads facing straight ahead; all to be in line. She warned us of the danger of carrying our handbag on just one shoulder (something I am very guilty of). Modern chairs are not as good and supportive as the old fashioned ones used by our parents and grandparents.
As we get older, everything drops south and, if we are not careful, we will end up looking like Mrs Overall; slouching along with real flat feet. Yes, even our feet drop!
We began our exercises by putting our thumbs on our navel and pointing our hands downwards, then pulling up our stomach muscles (as if doing up a zip on our trousers) at all times keeping our head straight and mouth and jaw relaxed. This is a good exercise for bowel and bladder control. It is important to pull up on the pelvic floor. We exercised our fingers by touching each finger with the thumb to help keep the tendons moving. Then we concentrated on neck, head and breathing exercises. We also flexed our toes and did a number of exercises with our feet to help avoid fallen arches. Ladies were advised to do this exercise with their feet whilst watching the TV adverts. Many exercises were done with closed eyes and all exercises we did were sitting down.
Normally, Jo has her ladies lying on the floor on mats and 3 of our ladies will be able to experience this as Jo kindly donated 3 raffle prizes of 6 weeks ‘free’ membership.