Author Archives: Susan

Proprioception and Pilates – Made for Each Other

Staying Healthy Depends on This Essential Sense

Your Pilates Lifestyle studio

Pilates training with YPL is a proven, effective way to maintain and develop your proprioception.

Aging affects all parts of our bodies, including our senses. And proprioception, which many consider our sixth sense, is perfect for maintenance and even improvement.

This article in The Guardian  defines the role proprioception has in our daily quality of life, how it’s managed by our brain, and how we can challenge and improve how it functions.

As a Pilates instructor, I see the benefits of an effective Pilates training schedule in maintaining and developing proprioception for all my clients, from the most challenged to the most advanced. The better we keep up core strength and body balance, the better we’re prepared for the various obstacles life throws at us.

As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The time to make sure your body and brain are in synch and in balance is now, instead of waiting for an incident to occur and then tackling weeks or months of difficult rehab. Whether your practice is equipment based or mat fundamentals like planking and roll-ups, with each exercise you’re maintaining and building the sensory network that defines proprioception.

If you’re already practicing Pilates, either independently or as a student in an accredited Classical studio, touch base with your routines and level of difficulty to keep your proprioception capabilities sharp and focused.

Ready to Start Walking? Lets Go!

Walking Is Living

Walking is hands down one of the best forms of cardio and general exercise we can do for our bodies. It’s super accessible for every age, just about every body type, and is always free.

Pick A Park — Any Park

One of the great things about Pinellas County is our extensive park system that’s perfect for walking. The same goes for the communities that make up the Suncoast and their park and fitness facilities.

Take a minute to watch this video. Then find some comfortable shoes, grab a bottle of water, and lets start walking. If you’re not used to this most human of all exercises or its been awhile, take it easy at first. You’ll quickly find out, though, that progress comes pretty quickly.

Park Or Beach, It’s Tough to Choose

But if parks aren’t for you, the good news is there’s a beach nearby that offers a unique fitness activity of its own — walking in the sand adds extra resistance and if you’re barefoot every joint, ligament, tendon, and muscle in the lower leg, ankle, and foot gets its own mini-workout.

And having an app to help keep track is simple. Map My Run is a favorite, also Training Peaks. Both are free, and record plenty of useful workout information.

Your Pilates Lifestyle March-April 2021 Newsletter

March April 2021 newsletter nameplate

March-April 2021 Do The 100 Fitnews Newsletter

Catch up on the latest Pilates and fitness news with my March-April 2021 newsletter.

Alycea Ungaro’s Pilates trajectory is amazing. Gratz Pilates interviews her about her background, training, and how she’s succeeded at establishing her Real Pilates studio brand around the globe.

Walking is perhaps the simplest built-in human action. We use it to get from A to B, but in the process there are newly discovered benefits that go far beyond just the physical.

This Triathlete was used to succeeding until a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis put her on the sidelines. Dedication, perseverance, and luck combined with grueling workouts have given her a second chance.

Catch up on these and other stories in my March-April 2021 Do The 100 Fitnews newletter.

Your Pilates Lifestyle January-February 2021 Newsletter

January-February 2021 Fitnews Newsletter

Catch up on the latest Pilates and fitness news with my January-February 2021 newsletter.

More background on Joseph Pilate’s Wunda Chair. It’s more than a workout apparatus, he actually designed as living room furniture at a time when few had access to several thousand square feet of living space.

I also take a look at what core strength really means in practical terms. Forget the six-pack abs the ads for supplements and gimmicky devices picture—its what you can’t see that counts.

Low impact has been and always will be a signature characteristic of Pilates. Because of that, Pilates remains effective across all age groups.

Your Pilates Lifestyle July-August 2020 Fitnews

YPL July August newsletter

July-August 2020 Fitnews Newsletter

Catch up on the latest Pilates and fitness news with my July-August 2020 newsletter.

One of my Pilates clients witnessed a sea turtle mama come ashore, dig her nest, and lay her eggs on the beach behind her home before returning to the sea. She shared a few moments with YPL.

Joseph Pilates Wunda Chair seldom gets the respect it deserves. Granted, Pilates apparatus tends to be strange looking, and the Chair is no exception. Why is it called a Chair? What can it do that’s unique? Find out.

If you’re a caffeine consumer, there’s no reason to hang your head — it’s a good thing. And if doing lunges is part of your fitness repertoire, make sure you’re performing the movements correctly.

Labor Day Feels a Little Different This Year

Labor Day 2020

Lets celebrate Labor Day by thanking those essential workers who are keeping us safe during these challenging times.

Celebrating Labor Day By Saluting Essential Workers

Labor Day is when we (figuratively) begin saying goodbye to Summer, having already launched football season on a dozen different channels, and continue keeping our fingers crossed about the storms lining up off Africa’s west coast. This year it’s different.

I’ll still be cooking out, and today did notice a welcome change in the air as the temp was down a few degrees and the breeze felt cooler. But while football is beginning to tip-toe onto the screen, Labor Day this year means saying thank you to all those unrecognized workers whose labor keeps our trash picked up, our power turned on, our grocery stores stocked, and most of all our hospitals functioning.

This year, as we fire up the grills, bbqs, and smokers, lets really celebrate Labor Day, with a gentle thought to all those whose labor keeps us as safe as possible, under conditions that are anything but safe.

Preventing COVID Begins With These Simple Basics

COVID precautions to take

Courtesy PreventEpidemics.org

Take These Three Basic Precautions to Stay Safe

For anyone hoping for a quick end to COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, that’s not going to happen. Dr. Anthony Fauci has a best guesstimate of a year or more before he thinks we can get back to some semblance of normal. That seem very reasonable to me, considering it took over 40 years to develope a polio vaccine.

As of this post, the number of tested infections in the United States is about two million, with a death rate of around 120,000. Using those two statistics, the death rate as a percentage would be alarmingly high. But experts at places like the web site PreventEpidemics.org think the number of people who are actually infected is much higher, more like 14,000,000. If that’s correct, the rate of death would be much lower, but it could also mean a much higher potential for infection.

America, We Can Do This

Staying as safe as possible is pretty simple. Wear a mask. Keep your distance. Wash your hands. This isn’t difficult behavior to follow, and given the alternative of potential infection and the potentially horrific consequences we’re seeing, it seems like an easy path to follow.

A new study uses data from Japan’s very successful efforts to contain spread and prevent infection and applies it to the United States. The simulated computer model shows if 80% of Americans wore masks and practiced distancing, COVID could be successfully contained.

The chart below, from the New England Journal of Medicine, depicts the risk of death based on age group and proximity to the virus. This information is already pretty well known.

SARS risk by age group

Courtesy New England Journal of Medicine

What We Should All Do: Mask, Wash, Distance

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is amazingly effective at attacking and destroying our bodies from the inside out, but in order to carry out that mission it needs our help. A vaccine would be great, and so would therapeutics, but until then it’s up to each of us to help defeat this killer. Please do your part to prevent the spread.

Read about Your Pilates LIfestyle Covid procedures and protocols here.

Your Pilates Lifestyle May-June 2020 Fitnews

May June YPL newsletter

May-June 2020 FitNews Newsletter

Catch up on the latest Pilates and fitness news with my May-June 2020 newsletter.

New protocol and procedures for the studio are explained. A classmate from my original Power Pilates Classical Certification has added Registered Dietician to her impressive list of credentials. A client tackles the task of creating masks for face coverings.

YPL Studio Hygiene and Practices

new studio policies

Studio Policies and Practices

Our enhanced hygienic practices — sanitizing, masking, filtering, and air circulation — are proven effective in minimizing transmission of COVID and other respiratory illnesses, including seasonal flu and the common cold. Frequent and thorough handwashing reduces the spread of both viral and bacterial illnesses, while distancing and masking effectively prevent airborne transmission of viruses. Finally, making sure vaccinations and boosters are up to date is the first line of defense in preventing serious illness. Continue reading →

CDC Handwashing Guidelines – Why, How, What to Use

studio reopens May, 2020

YPL Studio Reopens Monday, May 18

As we prepare to reopen with new client protocols in place and even higher standards of hygiene, it might be helpful to review the most basic, easiest, and most effective method for interrupting the COVID virus — handwashing.

The Center for Disease Control website explains the reasons behind handwashing, how to effectively achieve the intended results, and a note on hand sanitizers. To use a common reference, this isn’t rocket science, yet handwashing is certainly the simplest, and perhaps the most effective method for destroying the COVID virus. Thanks to nature, the way the virus is built leaves it vulnerable to simple soap and water.

Soap And Water Are Ruthless Towards Viruses

It’s important to understand the different results achieved with handwashing using soap and water, and the use of hand sanitizers. Soap and water — the water temperature doesn’t matter — destroys the coronavirus outer envelope, does so quickly, and is broadly effective when simple rules for length of time and method of washing are followed. Handwashing can and will help protect you against acquiring COVID through contact transmission.

Please Call With Questions Regarding Operations

Watch your inbox for my May/June newsletter with details of what to expect. If you’re not on my distribution list and you would like to receive newsletters and updates, please click here.

If you have any questions, please give me a call. I can’t wait to see my clients again! I expect everyone may be a little rusty, but we’ll be back in shape before you know it!