April 17, 2006
You gotta do pilates
My parents have always been exercise fanatics. When I was in high school, my parents would often decide to do aerobics together and take up the family room TV with Jane Fonda tapes. Sometimes my little sister would join in. I thought it was ridiculous and would usually go upstairs and talk on the phone. Sometimes, for fun, I’d grab the bag of lard fried potato chips and a Pepsi and sit down and watch. It was quite entertaining.
Recently, my husband has been on a fitness kick. I thought it was a passing phase, but he has stuck with it for months now and lemme tell you, he’s looking good. I’ve had a bit of a motivation problem when it comes to exercise. I figure that carrying around a 17.5 lb. baby is good enough. Granted, I play tennis once a week and go to karate, but I could do more. I used to like doing pilates and I have a nice little work out DVD that only takes a half hour, ten minutes if you break up the parts and only decide to do abs.
So, I told my husband I would start doing pilates again, but he had to go along for the ride. Whenever we do workout things together, two things inevitably happen. One, is that we, o.k. I, end up yelling obscenities at the TV screen. Work out tape women are WAY too happy. They enjoy pain a bit too much for my liking. I mean, seriously, WHO SMILES when doing pilates? Who smiles when they feel like their gut is being ripped into shreds? Not anyone normal, that’s for sure.
The second thing that ends up happening, is that my husband and I end up so hysterical that we can barely continue. My pilates DVD features a woman named "Betsy." Betsy is put there for the weak. Betsy does everything the rest of the gals do, but she is what my husband and I refer to as "the lazy one." Betsy doesn’t hold her legs up in the air when doing her crunches. She sets her feet firmly on the floor. Betsy takes breaks when she needs to. Betsy. . . is my idol.
I never had a problem following the main girl before, but only being six months out from giving birth, the abs are just not there like they used to be. Tonight, Betsy and I were good buds. My husband and I ended up spending the 10 minute ab work out talking to Betsy. I have to admit, we weren’t being very nice.
I’d love to be one of those women who enjoys exercise. Sure, I know that it would incite violence towards me from other women; but still it would be sort of cool. Exercise is not something I enjoy, unless I’m in a team sports setting and then I’m all for it. I need something to distract me from the pain. I think part of my problem is that (and I know I’m risking absolute hatred here) I’ve never really needed to exercise. I always had a high metabolism and didn’t really put on weight until I went to college and discovered pizza 24/7 and beer. After I had my babies, the extra weight was gone within a month. I’m lucky in that way. I know I am and I don’t take it for granted. But, I’m not exactly toned either.
I want to get in better shape. I think that it will help my karate tremendously, tennis too. I just don’t know exactly what to do to get in better shape. I despise going to the gym, and working out at home just doesn’t seem to happen. Right now, I am hoping that my husband just sort of forces me to do the pilates every night. Tonight, I was finished after the abs portion. My husband continued with the butt section. I. . . ate some Tostito’s and had a diet rite. Old habits die hard.
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Ugh, I’m in the same boat but I’m not one of the lucky ones with a high metabolism and skinny without working at it. I’ve got fat pockets in my gut and thighs that I’ve hated since the birth of my first, almost 9 years ago. I don’t know when or how I’ll get the motivation but I really, really want to get and be in shape. It just sucks!
I tried pilates for the first time about two months ago with a friend-that is a serious workout! I thought it would be easy…i was so wrong!
i am nearly three years out from the last baby i had and my abs STILL ain’t what they once were. it is the bane of my existence.
dan and i have done yoga toether in the past but only during my first pregnancy when he was still johnny trying to impress the pregnant girl guy. never since. we do go for walks though. which used to be great but now the kids come and we all end up fighting. when we get home? cocktails and chips! not good.
I do too and for the last three weeks I’ve gotten up 15 minutes early and I do sit ups one morning and then legs lifts and butt crunches the next. It’s working, slowly but surely. I don’t really notice the abs, but I do notice in my buttocks 🙂 I cannot bring myself to do one of those pilates workouts though. I have a dvd and it goes too slow for me. I have one of those exercise balls and I like that a lot better, but we need to get a new dvd player before I can do more of that. And Keenan really likes to sit on my lap and bounce so that’s a workout in itself.
Well, I found a training regimen a while ago. It’s good for fitness and for karate at the same time. Actually, it’s pretty hard.
warm up, like 5 minutes of little jumps, or running, or cycling or whatever works for you.
Strech a bit.
Then, the fun starts.
Do a kata, or a kihon, in whatever order you learned them.
Then, 10 pushups.
Another kata
Then, 10 situps
Another kata
Then, 10 squats
Another kata
20 pushups
etc etc etc etc.
After 30 minutes, I swear you’ll have had enough of these. Instead of squats, you can also do kicks. Like drop low, rise, kick. Always raising the repetitions. I start with ten and usually, I get to 50. By then, I’m exausted.
I cool down with the bike. It really is hard. But you work on your karate, train the right muscles and you need nothing to make it work except your 4 members.
The hardest part is always deciding to do it…
good luck!
Whatever works. 🙂