Category Archives: News

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.

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.

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!

Studio Closes to Help Stop Community Spread

YPL ordered closed

Winning Means Staying At Home

Hi everyone. Here’s a quick update to let you know where I’m at — we’re all in this together. On Monday, March 23, Your Pilates Lifestyle closed the studio at the direction of the State of Florida’s guidelines regulating gyms and fitness centers, and in accordance with the opinion of health care professionals across the country.

Although I’m really missing our workouts together and looking forward to the day we can resume our regular Pilates fitness instruction, like millions of others I understand the critical nature of what’s needed to prevent community spread. Needless to say, I’m anxious to reopen, but not before it’s safe for my Pilates family.

Meanwhile, it’s important that we don’t forget the important role exercise and fitness play in maintaining an optimal immune system. Keep your Pilates muscle memory active by making mat basics part of your regular stay-at-home routine. Take a few minutes every day to stretch, bend, and lift.

Keeping Your Distance

Chips and dip while binging on Netflix may tempt us, but balancing that with a walk outside is a definite mental and physical boost, according to this article in Self magazine. If you do head out, remember the correct intervals for physical distancing. Sad to say, it seems that there’s a fair percentage of people new to our park pathways who seem bent on disobeying that much repeated six-foot barrier that helps wall off the invisible invader.

My job, and yours, is to ignore their rude, inconsiderate, and I might add illegal behavior and step way aside to avoid possible infection. Are you a jogger? It’s even more critical to maintain maximum separation. There’s plenty of research emerging on how far our exhalations spread, both passively and during peak cardio activity like running or cycling.

Better Safe Than – Just Better Safe

Guidelines for runners (and I should think anyone who’s actively working their cardiovascular system) means 25 feet or so, based on the cloud we all create when we exhale to full capacity. This means while approaching as well as passing. If that’s a problem where you’re exercising, maybe consider changing locations.

Please stay engaged, stay in touch, and for my clients who are also my friends, I’m eagerly looking forward to resuming our Pilates journey together, again. Stay safe, home, well.

YPL Operations Update

Novel Coronavirus Precautions

We’re now bombarded with a constant stream of breaking news and medical advice about what we should and shouldn’t do as COVID-19 plants its foothold in the United States and businesses have to react. But the best continuing, constant advice? Avoid crowds, sanitize, and wash our hands.

Every 24 hours there’s a new round of insight into the disease. Sometimes it’s bad news, but increasingly there’s reason for optimism. Researchers are focusing the enormous might of the world’s scientific community towards developing an understanding of, and a solution to, COVID-19, and its sure to follow successors. Today, our best knowledge is based on information that’s only a few months old. This will change as data continues to accumulate.

From the day I first opened the door, my studio has been a small, custom boutique, designed to deliver high quality instruction to at most two individuals at a time: privates (1:1), and duets (1:2, usually couples). By contrast, the typical fitness environment serves groups from a dozen or more at a time to hundreds of members throughout the day.

And unlike most (for instance) yoga studios, our equipment is sanitized after each use. If you have any doubts, please feel free to add an additional layer of protection by wiping down your equipment before using.

Force gym wipesAt YPL, we’ve always followed a “better safe than sorry” approach to keeping the studio hygienic. The gym wipes every client is required to use after every session are effective against both viruses and bacteria. We also encourage hand washing after your practice, ensure isopropyl based hand sanitizer is at hand, and make anti-viral tissues that kill 99.9% of cold and flu viruses available for use.

We’re sanitizing door handles throughout the day, filling out the check-in sheet autonomously, and encouraging extra attention to hand washing after using the bathroom.

And its always been policy to instruct every client, if there’s any indication of flu or cold symptoms, to stay home rather than risk spreading an illness.

Florida ranks among the least immunized when it comes to getting our vaccinations, including flu, pneumonia, and measles shots. While there currently is no treatment for the novel coronavirus and its named infection, COVID-19, we can and will practice proper hygiene with a renewed dedication to inhibit transmission, while hoping that not taking advantage of proven vaccines (flu, pneumonia, measles) doesn’t handicap those who may become infected.

COVID-19 demands special attention, and we’ve redoubled our efforts to keep our space safe. Your cooperation both in the studio and throughout your daily life will help. Thank you for your support.

Your Pilates Lifestyle 2019 American Express Card Member Favorite

Your Pilates Lifestyle A 2019 AmEx Card Member Favorite

Very pleased to announce that Your Pilates Lifestyle was voted a 2019 American Express Card Member Favorite by my wonderful students. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to deliver Classical Power Pilates certified training to residents of and visitors to Florida’s West Coast since 2010.

The support and loyalty of my students continues to drive my dedication to teaching Pilates in the spirit of Joseph Pilates. Thank you again for confidence in training at Your Pilates LIfestyle.

How to Protect Your Skin From Winter

Keep Your Hands Healthy All Winter Long

hands need moisturizing

Mayo Clinic Has Good Advice On Winter Skin Care

Long winter months of dehydrating indoor heat and dry outdoor extremes will take their toll on our skin, especially the parts exposed to the elements. Our hands seem to bear the brunt of winter’s punishment, and the cracking and drying can lead to painful conditions that may lead to serious complications.

Take a minute to learn why it’s important to protect your skin from winter’s harsh environment. Dry skin and the painful chapping, cracking, splitting, and possibly infections that are difficult to heal can be prevented by using common sense and taking appropriate precautions.

 

Burt's Bees hand salveAmong many available products, Burt’s Bees Hand Salve is very effective for protecting against the harsh effects of dry, cold winter. Whether you choose a salve, lotion, or ointment, make sure your exposed skin is protected from damage and injury.

Professional Performance From Balanced Body

About Our Balanced Body Pilates Equipment

When Your Pilates Lifestyle was still in the planning stage, I’d already decided I wanted Balanced Body Reformers to train my future students on. Their story of success continues to inspire and motivate.

Balanced Body founder Ken Endelman kept saying no to custom equipment requests right up until he became the world’s largest supplier of Pilates equipment to studios and for private use. The story about the California native, who grew up just outside of Los Angeles and now lives in Sacramento, credits a life-long interest in working with his hands for the company’s current success.

From Waterbeds to Reformers

Endelman was building frames for a waterbed company in the mid-‘70s that was on its way down when a customer first asked him to create a Pilates reformer for her personal practice. He agreed, without giving it much thought.

After finally taking a look at the apparatus he’d agreed to reproduce, which he’d put off as long as he could, he saw plenty of room for improvement, and the enterprise that began as a series of one-at-a-time orders for custom equipment today sits leads the pack of manufacturers of professional Pilates machines.

Built to Last A Lifetime

Balanced Body equipment reflects the founder’s reputation as a builder of fine furniture, from the doweled joinery of the reformer to the rock maple, one of the hardest woods available, used for the frame. The glued dowel joinery keeps the frames perfectly aligned for a lifetime of hard, everyday use.

Watch How Balanced Body Reformers Come To Life

Attention to detail and nearly indestructible construction are the hallmarks of Balanced Body’s professional line of Pilates apparatus.

In the nearly five decades the company’s been in business, Engelman has accumulated 28 separate patents for Balanced Body Pilates equipment, including the Revo Springbar reformer adjuster that maintains constant spring tension for the carriage in various seating configurations. This is why when you work out at Your Pilates Lifestyle, you’re working out on the best equipment available.