Jelly Legs from Pilates

Pilates reformer machines help isolate muscles to work on

This morning I went to my first pilates class using a reformer machine. 

These machines were created by Joseph Pilates in an internment camp in World War I. He created it by attaching springs to the bed to help bed-bound patients to do resistance exercises without having to stand up.

The instructor for my class was a young Asian guy, who it later turns out is a dancer. He turned on the music to easy-going jazz, which made me realise the class was not going to be like aerobics classes where we had to move to the beat.

Instead the music put us in a relaxed mood and we were not expected to do a certain number of reps or sets; he just let us repeat the movements, and the key was to do it properly.

When lying in the reformer, your shoulders and neck are kind of boxed in (comfortably), while your arms and legs do the work (separately or together). That way it forces you to isolate your muscles and work on them in a controlled way.

The reformer is also attached to springs to move forward and backward, and these can be adjusted to be harder or easier to move. At first we worked on our leg muscles and at times my legs were shaking from using different muscles or in such a repetitive way. It's all good!

Eventually we graduated to arms moving in circles and it felt good and tiring! When we finally moved to stretching, one of the women shouted hurray! Again I was stretching in different ways which was really interesting.

When we did new exercises, I had to look over to my classmates who had taken these classes before, or the instructor would come by and give me directions on what to do. He seemed impressed I was quite flexible!

Needless to say I had worked up a sweat and my legs were like jelly afterwards!