Pilates Manitoba Pilates.Connective Tissue. Fascia.Nervous System Health

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Pilates & You

Looking for safe and natural solutions to stay fit and healthy well into your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond? Think Pilates! Pilates is the perfect individual or group activity. After taking a 10 week course, we can customize your own program, and you may find yourself wanting to engage in additional practices with greater diversity, depth, and challenge, such as yoga or go to a gym. We have in-person group classes, and online classes, and private personal training as well.

Pilates is a 100 year old practice that you can use to ease pain, lower blood pressure, boost immunity, reduce anxiety, and protect against the stresses of life.

 We can show you the simple steps to start your Pilates practice and reap its incredible health benefits from improved strength, balance, and mobility, to lower stress, better sleep, and sharper focus and memory.

It’s no surprise that 25% of office-based physicians are prescribing Reformer Pilates to their patients. That’s welcome news because recent studies show this mind-body practice can ease arthritis pain, lower high blood pressure, boost immunity, and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Chair Pilates is a perfect place to start if you have balance issues or difficulty getting down on the floor. We have special raised mats. It’s also a good supplementary practice for anyone who is stuck sitting for long periods of time at work, in a car, or on a plane. Even practicing a few of the moves will help to get your blood flowing and stretch your muscles so you feel better.

Standing Pilates can help you get stronger, balance better, and become more flexible. Practice it solo for a quick session, or combine it with the floor routine for a longer Pilates workout.

Floor Pilates exercises will really stretch you out, improving flexibility and helping you to relax. You’ll also get nervous system and muscle-strengthening benefits, by re-patterning faulty stability and alignment habits.

Reformer and any apparatus Pilates (Cadillac and Stability Chair) support the limbs so you can focus only on your core and never use your back or neck again… so you stay pain-free.

Pilates will fight aging, boost your health and vitality, and keep you looking and feeling years younger!

Be a YES to your life

Lead with Love
in your life
Be a YES to your life
Live your best life with Pilates
Happy Month of LOVE
Will you be our Valentine?

Overcoming Anxiety…your “movement pharmacy” is here at our studio

Not only is Pilates one of the best mindfulness practices paired with core and breath, Dr Wendy Suzuki is an intenSati instructor. and we offer intenSati. The whole video Overcoming Anxiety is awesome but watch minutes 15:11 to 17:40 for the intenSati part. intenSati pairs cardio moves with positive affirmations. Join us for small group fitness classes in a supportive, inclusive community based studio.

Click here to watch Dr Wendy Suzuki Overcoming Anxiety You Tube Video

Don’t be the Fall Guy

Falls are the greatest health risk for most older adults. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Every second, someone age 65 or older suffers a fall, making it the No. 1 cause of injury-related death in this age group. According to the CDC, about 20% of falls in adults lead to life-altering changes, primarily from broken bones or head injury.

“The best way to protect yourself is to address the three main physical conditions that contribute to falls: weak stabilizer muscles, poor core strength, and balance issues,” says Carina O’Neill, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Stabilizer muscles. The stabilizer muscles keep you upright and allow you to easily change directions. Two essential stabilizers for fall prevention are the gluteus medius (located on the side of the hip) and the gluteus maximus (the largest buttock muscle). “These work both together and independently to allow us to stand upright and stabilize the back and pelvis as we move during activities,” says O’Neill.

Core strength. Core strength is vital for fall prevention, as your body’s core is the epicenter from which every movement revolves. “As we walk, our bodies constantly have to adapt to ever-changing ground levels,” says O’Neill. “Adequate core stability and strength help you better react to these sudden changes and prevent potential falls.” The core consists of several muscle groups: the rectus abdominis (the “six-pack” or “abs”); the obliques, located on the sides and front of your abdomen; and the transverse abdominis muscles, which lie under the obliques and attach to your spine.

Stabilizer and core muscles weaken over time as men naturally lose muscle mass, a condition called sarcopenia. “These muscles further weaken from a sedentary lifestyle or when people follow a regular exercise program that neglects these areas,” says O’Neill.

Balance. Sense of balance naturally wanes over time, as do reflexes and coordination. This makes it easier to topple and harder to catch yourself if you do have a misstep. Another cause of poor balance is deterioration of the inner ear’s vestibular system. It feeds information to the brain about motion, head position, and spatial orientation, and it, too, becomes less effective as we age.

Defense is the best offense when it comes to fall prevention. “Take steps now to address areas that place you at a higher risk for falls,” O’Neill advises. Here are some strategies for shoring up your stabilizer muscles, core strength, and balance.

One of the best ways to improve balance is practicing Reformer Pilates. While all Pilates consists of slow controlled movements focusing on weight distribution and proper rotation, Reformer Pilates supports the limbs, allowing stress-free focus on the core. Numerous studies have supported its use to improve balance and coordination and reduce fall risk among older adults and others at high risk for falls, like stroke survivors.

By first understanding what balance is, you can take the appropriate steps to improve your balance. Balance is largely an automatic reflex. And as you move into your 50s and 60s, you may notice yourself becoming less stable.

Loss of muscle mass, slower reflexes, and worsening eyesight can affect your sense of balance. Certain health problems — such as inner ear disorders, hearing loss, heart rhythm disturbances, and neuropathy (nerve damage that causes weakness, numbness, and pain) — may upset balance, too. And shaky balance can lead to a downward spiral.

Pilates is for anyone who has experienced the fear of falling and craves more stability.

MELT Mornings with Mindfulness and Meditation

MELT MORNINGS Tues and Thurs morns 7:45-8:45 am at the Corydon Studio with Annabel

Great for beginners to use the props
10 class/5 week BEGINNER LEVEL MELT Method BOOT CAMP Program

STARTS Jan 10 & 12, 2023
ONLY $139 plus tax for 10 classes/5 weeks

Learn FAST and EASY WAYS to release fascia and accelerate healing! The health of every cell in your body depends upon its ability to receive nutrients and eliminate waste through the connective tissue fluid surrounding them. Discover how fascial release can enhance energy, boost mood, eliminate pain, and unravel deeply held tensions, fear and repressed emotions held in the body. You will also learn and keep joint stability and regulation.

If this immersive class is not for you, try our 30 min ZOOM classes Wed and Fri morns 30 min $11 per class

OR

Fridays on ZOOM 60 min $16 per class

MELT Beginner In-Person Hybrid Classes
Mon  8 pm mixed with Pilates
Thurs 5:15 mixed with Pilates and ELDOA

Happy New Year 2023

The year ends and we begin a new circuit around our own beautiful sun star, twirling amidst the galaxies.
Take a breath, quiet your heart and listen deeply.
There is so much coming and going, and yet…
feel how underneath it all is a vast silence and a spaciousness that holds everything in its balance.
Living in these seasons of change, I feel deep gratitude for the teachings of the dharma and for being connected to a loving community.
In the long run, I am hopeful.Yes, in human incarnation there are inevitable periods of difficulty, personal and collective. Yet with wisdom and a good heart, our personal sufferings can temper us and help us live with dignity and find an indestructible spirit in ourselves. And in the same way, we can learn to bear the difficulties of the world with compassion and courageously do what we can to mend the broken places.
Yet difficulties are never the end of the story. There is always a return of the light.
Solstice, Christmas, New Year’s, Kwanzaa and Chanukah are outer celebrations of an unstoppable renewal that is life itself. There is always grass that pushes itself through the cracks in the sidewalk. You are this life force constantly being reborn every morning at breakfast.
And while the news often features the worst of humanity, there are a billion acts of human kindness every hour of every day! Take another breath and sense this truth.
Recognize that even our big problems are part of a long march demanding us to honour our human connection, our interdependence with all life.
Our fears and terrors can be activated by the news, but they are not who we are.We are consciousness itself, loving awareness, born into this body and having a wild human ride. What will you do with this human dance?
A most trustworthy and blessed project is to align yourself with compassion,to plant seeds of goodness, to use the creative force of your life to bring understanding, awakening and love to all. Foster trust in life’s renewal power.
Martin Luther King, Jr. describes our collective journey with hope:
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
And Pablo Neruda explains further,“You can pick all the flowers, but you can’t stop the spring.”
Renewal is happening.
Take quiet time to listen to your heart, to meditate and to rest amidst the great turnings.
Feel the renewal of spring that can be born in you.
Align yourself with goodness.
Let yourself blossom like a lotus or whatever unique flower you are, shining in the world, spreading your seeds of love amidst it all.

Reprinted from Jack Kornfield “Opening to Love ” @ jackornfiled.com

Thank you for being our students, co-creators, and supporters of our wonderful teachers.

Positive Fitness with Annabel and intenSati

Discover mixing the simple techniques of Positive Psychology with your exercise routine…to help experience deeper joy, cheerful contentment, and long-term happiness…

It’s often said that happiness is a choice: You can either choose to be happy or choose to be sad, stressed, or anxious.

But simply choosing happiness doesn’t always make it so. Many times, you can’t simply force a smile and make believe that everything is coming up roses.

Thankfully, there are much more effective ways, based squarely on research-proven Positive Psychology strategies and concrete techniques that can help you deal effectively with life’s challenges and attain long-term happiness now mixed with mood-lifting cardio movements, positive spoken affirmations and lots of smiles… exclusive interactive resource that helps you apply the same tools that are widely used by mental health professionals to help treat a variety of condition, from stress, anxiety and anger to coping with grief and loss while aligning your joints and body and breath.. to build a happier, more positive lifestyle. 

  • Get into the happiness “flow” — that happy zone where you’re super engaged and absorbed and the movements and affirmations match this mindset.
  • Keep the burden of “too many choices” from robbing you of pleasure. Discover the powerful impact of a stress-relieving “choice diet.”
  • Let go of resentment, envy and grudges — emotions that hurt you more than they hurt people who may have wronged you.
  • Develop the resilience to handle difficulties more easily and bounce back more rapidly after dramatic or unpleasant events.
  • Stop procrastination or beating yourself up when things go wrong with powerful “self-compassion” techniques.
  • Develop an unshakable attitude of gratitude with movement techniques that help lead to more positive emotions, stronger relationships and a greater ability to deal with adversity. Neurons that fire together, wire together.
  • Increase your focus and alertness with these simple stress-relieving “mindfulness” techniques you can use today.
  • Savor more pleasure in your life with specific “enjoy the moment” activities — and why multitasking is the enemy of savoring.
  • Experience the “warm glow” of happiness by re-discovering a universal trait of a life well-lived.
  • Enjoy happier, more resilient relationships with the help of surprisingly simple activities.

Put the power of Positive Psychology and exercise together…to work for you now. Enroll in intenSati  now and see how you can gain a happier, more contented outlook on life!

Click here to sign up for intenSati