I took my first pilates class last week and I really enjoyed it. For some time now friends have recommended the experience and now I see why. The machine makes proper alignment easy to maintain, and though it doesn’t feel like I’m doing much at first, I felt the difference in my body afterwards.

My muscles were so much more relaxed, especially my shoulders. In fact, if I had to pick a favorite move, the shoulder stand on the machine was definitely it.  Stretching in general felt delicious.

This coming week I’m going to check out mat pilates. I have a feeling the free style version is going to be more challenging. It felt like the springs on the machine were helping me a lot. We’ll see. With or without the machine, pilates definitely compliments the yoga well.

And I totally fell in with the right crowd! After pilates, we had an hour of wine and conversation. That counts as a mental health practice as far as I’m concerned.