Youch!  Guess what I did for the first time in ages today?  Pilates!

I don’t know if it’s because the Big 4-0 is approaching next year or what, but my body feels even more old and creaky lately.  If you were a follower of my old blog you know that I am one of the least flexible people ever.   My body does not stretch.  Touch my toes? Yeah, right.  Touch my ankles?  Nope, not a chance.  Seriously.  When I bend at the waist, legs hip width apart, and reach down, the best I can do is reach my fingers to mid-way down my calf.  I’m that inflexible (unflexible?)!  (And it hurts to do that far even!).   I feel like when I was doing pilates regularly (I  did it about 3 times a week for about 6 months, a couple years ago) my flexibility and strength improved noticeably.  So I’m gonna attempt to do pilates regularly again and see if I get stronger and more flexible. 

This morning I did the Mari Winsor Abs DVD and the Buns & Thighs DVD.  Youch!  I did the Abs first because I thought that would suck more, because I’ve also done virtually no core work this since April.  Surprisingly, it was ok.  Not great, but not horrible.  Next I did the Buns & Thighs, figuring since my legs are strong from running, it wouldn’t be too bad.  WRONG!  It was hard.  Way harder than it used to be when I did it.  My buns and legs burned during most of the exercises.  But in a good way.

It should be fairly easy to keep up with consistently doing pilates (goal is going to be 3 – 4 times a week) since the weather is turning icky and I don’t have a race on my schedule.  I’ll report back periodically on whether my flexibility improves!  Stay tuned.