Pilates

I first learned about pilates about 10 or 11 years ago when one of my mom's friend's daughters was talking about them. She was (and is) a ballet dancer - at the time she was a dance major at Mount Holyoke College in Vikki's favorite state: Massachusetts (which I think I spelled correctly - it seems that once you move away from New England you forget how to spell the states). Anyway, her explanation to me, a 12 year old, was that it was a set of muscle exercises that dancers use. And muscle exercises they are. I never would have thought, by looking at the pictures in the book, that these exercises would challenge me at all. However, I think they can be made to challenge just about anyone, even people who are actually in shape (which I was at one time in my life). I'm not saying you're going to be so sore that you can't move, the way you feel after you do as many situps as you can in one minute (remember those government fitness tests in elementary school? you could be a presidential fitness something or other and you got a little piece of paper that said so). Anyway, you just kind of feel like you worked your stomach a little bit, which, once I figured out that was the cause of my slight stomach discomfort (and not some poorly chosen meal), was rather comforting. I had worked hard enough to remind my muscles to wake up, but not so hard that I couldn't get out of bed in the morning. That's my type of exercise. Unlike Jimmy and Andy, I don't think any amount of sweat is a pleasant experience, and I'm certainly not looking to feel the way I used to feel after the first week of double cross country practices after a long, lazy summer. That's what sweating reminds me of, and it's just not pretty...