I feel like in the fitness world, you have to be a either a weights person or a runner or a yogi or a Pilates girl etc but why can’t we be all of them. Fitness isn’t my everything, I danced and moved my body from the age of 4 and then at 16 when my friends started going to the gym and using the cross trainer, I found it a bit odd that you’d have to go and dedicate time out of your day to “workout” because I just did something I love which was dance but I never saw that as fitness.
I loved running at school and was really good at cross country but I still never wanted to join a gym. I wasn’t that sporty or outdoorsy simply because my lifestyle didn’t allow me to and dance was my everything so I put myself in a little box that I was a ballet Pilates girl, I wasn’t strong or adventurous.
But I am!
You can be whatever you want to be. You can move your body in any way you want. Don’t put yourself in a box. Saying “I’m just a gym person” or “I could never go to yoga” or “Swimming is just not for me.”
How do you know that unless you believe in yourself, step outside your box and try! But you can’t try with the mindset you’re going to hate it and be crap it! Because then yes maybe you will because it really is all in the mind. As corny as it may sound, attitude is everything.
I even found this last week in Kefalonia. The F Zeen Resort has the most beautiful outdoors gym with weights and a TRX and monkey bars and Pilates equipment and it’s set overlooking the sea in the middle of the forest and I was so so excited to go and use it and make up my own workouts and I’ve NEVER been like that in a gym setting. I’m a class girl- but there’s be going again putting myself in a “class girl” box. I stepped outside my little box and just played with everything, moving my body, using different pieces of equipment and having fun. We also kayaked and hiked and swam in the ocean during the trip which I’ve only really started to believe I can do again.
I used to swim open water on family holidays, jump off cliffs and boulder around the Algarve. I love being adventurous and I love the outdoors but London life and the need to niche yourself and be successful kind of made me forget that. Of course as a Pilates instructor I am so passionate about the discipline and teaching people body awareness and it will always be my bread and butter, my medicine and I WANT to teach it to as many people as I can but it’s not my LIFE. There’s a whole world at there so why can’t we do it all!
I’m not afraid to say I love yoga and find it incredibly beneficial, I love going to a class and experiment with lifting weights, I love running and last week I found I was actually pretty good at kayaking. The first time I went I was with a boyfriend and I felt like I was crap at it and kind of let him take over because I was the “ballet Pilates girl” in my head and surely I wasn’t strong enough or adventurous enough to kayak but this week I felt invincible on that water and can’t wait to get out there again this Summer.
My mum has always struggled with finding something she loves to do to keep fit and she always thought she just HATED working out because she’d go to work in an office everyday and the only exercise she’d do was walking to and from the station so she just decided that that was all she could do, for years! Now my mum has a little more time and is trying everything under the sun from rock climbing to tap dancing and most recently tennis which she LOVED! My mum playing tennis is something even I would have laughed at a couple of years ago.
So firstly don’t put yourself in a box but also don’t put the people around you in a box. Encourage yourself and those around you to try something new and support them. Tell them they blooming well can because who are you to tell them they can’t.
As you may know I’m getting my first bike as an adult and doing the 45 mile Palace to Palace bike ride in October which is something I NEVER thought I’d do but already I’m like right I want to do a triathlon next and also have a new book I’m going to work my way through which is 50 Hikes Before You Die and will 100% climb some mountains!
I promise you I didn’t see myself as someone that would do these things or even want to until I found myself back to me. I feel so free knowing that I can move my body in any way I want and it doesn’t make me any less passionate or good at my job at a Pilates instructor.
So like I said Pilates is my medicine/my home and maybe for you that’s running or in the weights section or punching a boxing bag but next time the opportunity arises to step outside that home or you’re even having a conversation with someone about what you do, be open to the fact that’s there’s probably more in you. We are whole human beings with no limits.
Here’s a little Pilates inspired routine that I did before my workouts in Greece:
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