Ow. Yesterday, after about a year off, I decided to start pilates again. I’ve been meaning to start back for months now—I seem to recall telling my doctor in January that I was starting a class “next week.” Somehow January turned into June, but I finally got started again. I expected the typical soreness: inner thighs, shoulders, triceps, and all sorts of abdominal muscles, and sure enough, it hurts to laugh or sneeze, but in a good way. However, there is a somewhat more unexpected “ow” that hurts the most. There’s no way to sugar-coat this people: my butt hurts. But this isn’t the good “oh yes, I worked my glutes!” kind of butt hurt. No, in fact it’s more of the last bone in my spine before it’s actually my butt that is killing me. It’s both a muscle soreness and a crunched bone kind of sorenes that comes with doing “the rollup” repeatedly.
The instructor is new—well, new to me. But he was a good instructor, doing less of the routine with us at the front of the class and more running around torturing us, er, making sure we were doing the poses correctly. This was actually quite helpful, if not a bit painful for both my body and ego. For a sense of his intensity, he used the phrase,”I’m going to bird-dog you on that” multiple times. As in, I’m going to continue to make you do that pose, and do it right, until you cry or stop coming to class. Or maybe at least get better at it. Sigh.
Now the Wow. It is fantastic out. It is one of the most beautiful days I can remember—sunny and clear, warm and 80 degrees. There’s a slight breeze and no humidity thanks to some crazy, cleansing rain last night. We took Leela for a walk to the library and got some videos. It’s just one of those days you could sit out in the grass with a book for hours.