Week 46 - “Heart: the physical experience”

"You make my cardiac muscle pump blood through my vascular system really quickly."

- Valentine's Day card (for body nerds)

Hello Pilates People!!!!

Couldn't help putting that quote up there - it made me giggle on the inside a little too much.

Welcome to February, friends! We've got SO MUCH to tell you! Ready?

We have a new website! It's almost ready to go so PLEASE stay tuned and be on the lookout for our bright, shiny new home! We can't wait to show you!

And our LIVE classes are getting an upgrade!! We created 4 different class types for you to choose from and they will be up and running as of today - so check it out when you sign up and look out for:

• Work It LIVE- strength focused, rigorous, constant movement, sweaty

• Feel It LIVE - technique focused, a combination of strength and length, flow, mindbody connection

• Stretch It LIVE- a full body treat, all the stretching all the time

• Pre/Postnatal LIVE (babies welcome) - exactly what it sounds like and also safe for anyone with spinal injuries

All of our classes live in the same "choose your own adventure" open level environment you've built with us since day one, we're just getting a tiny bit more specific about how we choose our adventures :)

And as we mentioned last week, beginning this week we will be creating weekly calendars for our Aligned Video Members! These calendars will serve as a roadmap to our Video Library so you have our thoughts on which classes to do on what days! AND we've given you a cute little box on the side to set yourself a weekly goal too! Please click here for this week's calendar!

AND next week’s Sunday morning class is being taken over by our friend Renata who will teach a special Floor Barre Dynamic movement class! To check that out and sign up, please click here.

And now...for the month of February, we want to focus on our hearts. Yes, they're that important. They get an entire month.

This week, we want to explore the physiology of our hearts and how we can physically support them with our movement practice.

Yes. It's exactly what you think it is.
Cardio.

And if you just had this flash through your head...
Things I hate:
1) Cardio
2) 1
...we get it. It's going to be okay.

Because we did some research for you and, according to a Harvard Health study, "even as little as one hour of walking or gardening per week - was linked to lower rates of heart attack, stroke, and death from all causes," and another found that, "people who did moderate exercise just 15 minutes a day tended to live an average of three years longer than their inactive peers."

That's not so bad, right? And pretty encouraging.

So what kind of exercise are they talking about? They're referring to moderate exercise and they provided this chart, which we found super helpful:
15 minutes a day of a moderate walk (or its equivalent). We can do that.

And they make a point of saying that it doesn't all have to happen at the same time. You can do 10 minutes here, 5 there, 45 tomorrow...as long as you hit that hour and 45 minutes each week, it's all good!

But let's get back to it. What is cardio and why would you do it?

Cardiovascular (or aerobic) exercise can be defined as activity in which you're repeatedly moving your body's larger muscles, increasing both your heart and breath rates - but not so much that you feel you need to rest (that's an important one - you always want to be able to speak two sentences while you're working. If you can't, you're pushing too hard and are actually out of the cardio zone).

Think running, cycling, speed walking, stair climbing, swimming, pickle ball...you get the picture.

So why?

Your heart is a muscle, and just like any other muscle it needs to be worked to strengthen it, but unlike other muscles, it needs the rest of your body to step up in order to work it. They have to move you to trigger your heart into pumping harder to push the blood supply harder to keep you moving...make sense?

And, unlike any other muscle, without this one, your other muscles can't keep working. Not only because:
1) you need this muscle in order to stay alive but also
2) this one's a major player in your cardiovascular system, which is responsible for supplying your muscles with both blood and oxygen - both are necessary to keep you moving!

It's a circle. Round and round we go.

And just like Harvard Health says, it doesn't take all that much to keep you healthy - great news!

But just like anything else, your body can get used to things. So while that's an awesome base to keep in mind, it's also not a bad thing to keep exploring where we can go - staying curious and opening ourselves up to the possibilities.

So where does Pilates come into this? I'm not sitting here writing this thinking, "I teach the most kick ass cardio class almost every day!"

I don't.
That's just a fact.

In general, Pilates is not cardio. Not at its core.

But Pilates IS GREAT at prepping you for your cardio work - strengthening all the muscles that need to be ready to support you (and your heart) when you bump things up a little. It's such an important part of your cardio journey, so please don't count it out. Check out our "Feel It" and "Stretch It" classes this week for a look into what we're talking about here.

And we can also definitely sneak that cardio in here and there from a Pilates point of view - check out our "Work It" classes this week for a little peek into what that could look like - it's just not the main focus of what we do here most of the time.

And in all of this, keep in mind that these are GUIDELINES. That is SO IMPORTANT to remember. Your body is not my body, is not their body. Everyone is different and movement is just as much about your mental and emotional well being as it is your physical (more on that later this month).

This is just one piece to the "Why I move" puzzle. Let it fall where it does.

All our love, always,
Cassandra + Pilates People

P.S. - wanna check out that article? Here you go!