The road to results

It's been great to see the excellent progress made by my regular students over the three years that I have been teaching Pilates. These folk are a testimony to the value of regular practice and the benefits of perseverance.

With any activity, the best results are achieved over time and with regular practice. However, I am very well aware of how the pressures of daily life can sometimes interfere with regular exercise regimes.

Research by James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente in the late 1970s into the behaviours surrounding making a lifestyle change identified seven stages of change.

1: Pre-contemplation:

Complete inertia, no intention to make a change. Usually resulting from a lack of role models, adverse experiences, no encouragement or incentivisation or a lack of information.

2: Contemplation:

Entertaining the thought of making a change. No decision yet taken. Starting to gather information.

3: Preparation:

Decision to commit made. Goals identified. Equipment acquired etc.

4: Action:

New behaviours now adopted.

5: Maintenance:

Still motivated, either through internal or external referencing.

6: Termination:

Possible reasons: Goal attained. Insurmountable impediment encountered. Interest irrevocably lost.

7: Relapse:

Change of circumstances. Boredom. Dissatisfaction with results. Injury.

My thoughts:

Pilates is a lifestyle choice, it can be used to simply make day to day tasks easier and more enjoyable or to be used as an enabler for competitive sports. Once a regular routine of attendance has been adopted the returns will be incremental but very noticeable.

Simple activities such as rising from a chair, lifting shopping into the back of a car or tying shoelaces will become appreciably easier. However, to coin a well used phrase, Rome wasn't built in a day so don't be disheartened if results are not immediately felt, but rest assured that they will surely come.

The great thing about Pilates is that it is not overly demanding so sessions tend not to induce a feeling of dread or foreboding.

If you're at "contemplation" stage, please feel free to contact me either by telephone on 07825 833107 or email on rob@handsflat.com. I will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.