What you don’t like,
you do twice!
- Romana Kryzanowska quoting Joe Pilates
Tackling the exercises we hate to do can be a tough challenge.
Thanks Lesley Logan, for suggesting this topic. Grrr…
My Los Angeles colleague Lesley and I are currently collaborating on a YouTube series. Lesley is the owner of Profitable Pilates.
So far we’ve covered topics ranging from how to care for yourself during your busy workday, to a tutorial on everyone’s favorite exercise (?) the Hundred.
Check out Lesley’s videos on her channel.
Here’s the latest collab on my channel – you guessed it! – all about how to love the exercises you currently HATE.
Oh for sure, there’s lots of reasons to be a hater:
- The Hundred
- The Teaser
- Mountain Climb on the Wunda Chair (Ew…)
Just to name a few of our usual suspects…
What’s to be done?
I’ve included a handful of strategies which I’ve found to be helpful on our Pilates path.
If you’ve got sure-fire methods of your own to tackle our particularly horrible little exercises, I hope you’ll leave me a comment below and share with us here.
You won’t be surprised by my first suggestion I’m sure.
1. Do all of your OTHER exercises.
Every exercise currently in your workout will make even the most HATED exercises much much better. When one exercise gets better they all get better.
How nice.
Keep consistent with your own workouts, and take weekly lessons. First of all make sure you have fun doing the exercises you enjoy!
2. My self-imposed 30-Day challenges
Finding new and creative ways to visit forgotten exercises/apparatus has been amazingly beneficial to my workout and my teaching.
Here on the blog you may remember my 30-Day challenges. The first one was my Small Barrel Project in which I imposed a posture intervention on myself.
The Small Barrel exercises were never amongst my HATED exercises, but clearly I had underestimated their power and place in the method for years…
A Wunda Chair Challenge was my next 30-Day task… sadly even I failed to complete this challenge. Soon I must give it another go…
I did find a few exercises to HATE on the Wunda Chair.
Giving yourself a time frame for consistency as well as a finite number of exercises can reward you tenfold.
Spending quality time on unfamiliar exercises – or exercises you never do – can transform your body and your experience of the exercises. You’ll view them through new eyes and understand them even more deeply in your body.
3. The Power of the Private Lesson
I dearly love my weekly lessons with Karen Frischmann. However I’m such a creature of habit I love to work on the Reformer in every lesson. I LOVE the Reformer, it’s no secret.
I love the Mat too and sometimes we’ll do the Mat in my lessons.
But surely I should visit some of the apparatus which are not my go-to or my favorite.
So lately I’ve changed it up a bit. I have been working on the Cadillac exercises.
#gasp
And the High Chair.
And I’ve found some new ways to be a hater!
Here’s my list of 5 exercises now on top of the HATE list:
- One Arm Swan on the Wunda Chair
- Leg Springs in the Air on the Cadillac
- Side Sit Ups anywhere in the studio
- Standing One Leg Springs on the Cadillac
- Seated Mermaid on the Cadillac
Hmmm… I see a little theme here… one-sided exercises and back extension exercises reign supreme atop my HATE list at the moment.
And that’s the beautiful thing: Once-hated exercises become our most beloved.
These things take time.
4. Thank You for Being a Friend
Years before I took my first Pilates class I longed for a workout buddy to stay accountable. Sadly, working out was not a big priority amongst my friends at the time.
No takers. Frownie Face…
Now it’s easy to find friends all over the world who speak the same language.
#ThePilatesMethod
Grab a Pilates friend and get on the Reformer! Your colleagues surely won’t HATE the same exercises you do so you won’t be able to skip them.
Brilliant!
If you must do an exercise that everyone HATES I hear misery loves company…
4 Responses
True..true, the ones you loathe end up being the ones you need. I’m Mat obsessed lately, and my two right now, Leg Pull Front (OMG will this EVER feel even possible)…and the Crab, why why why how how how, I get about 2 in and decide I feel dizzy and should stop. Ha! Also interesting on the brain side of things…how we subconsciously “skip” the ones we don’t like. Example, I was doing the “let’s do a pushup in 2018” challenge exercises we came up with and I always leave out the Teaser push thru bar one. Not even the Teaser, just the correctly pushing the bar through has become a major challenge for my back, arms, wrists, everything connection… Well, you rocked those Leg Springs in the air, even if you didn’t like them 😉 cu soon! xc
Ha ha ha! Why why why how how how exactly ???? I think I could apply that to life in general lol ???? I’m reformer obsessed lately … I’m still experimenting with new found sensations in my body .. some good and some not so much …. erm…elephant anyone? So am finding that some exercises I loved are now rather more challenging… pull straps, T and elephant to name a few… but then some exercises I used to dread I now actually like????????????… teaser anyone? Yes I just said ‘like’ and ‘teaser’ in the same breath…????.. but then there are some exercises that are not loved on any type of apparatus… shave … OMG ???? so there’s one for me to practice practice practice…. you’re so right about skipping the ones we find a struggle!
Oh and I’m with you on leg pull ????????????… looking forward to seeing you soon????
Oh and Andrea your observation when one exercise gets better, they all get better is sooo right???????? Really shows how everything is connected… great post ???? (as always ????)
See you very soon too xoxo
Hey Andrea,
Great article and great blog. You do a perfect job.
Thanks so much for reading reaching out to connect here. Welcome 🙂 And many MANY thanks for your kind words on the blog. Cheers to you! xo