Hello again everyone!

I realise I made the title sound very Harry Potter, but I promise you, this is less interesting then the tale of a boy wizard.

Post snap lockdown in Melbourne, we are back on the KX40 challenge wagon. I did miss three classes because of the lockdown, but the first class back wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Very minor DOMS and a little post workout discomfort courtesy of my ever so troublesome knee that has been injured on and off throughout the years. The latest diagnosis is that it is a return of the angry patella, as my physio likes to call it and there is still some swelling beneath the surface – the cause is possibly impact from kneeling too much. I’d be inclined to believe that given I cannot for the life of me recall hitting my knee (to that degree) and as I haven’t been drinking, I can’t even hide behind casual inebriation as a shield.

Is it possible to do Pilates with an injury? Absolutely. It’s what brought me here in the first place. The shoulder is still randomly angry and offended after classes, particularly any requiring a side plank or too many overhead movements but it settles down quite quickly. As for the knee? Utilising the foam grip mats as extra cushioning for any unavoidable kneeling moves and sitting on a box instead of kneeling for bicep curls seems to be the key. For the “beginner” classes anyway. I have tried one intermediate class and oh boy are they tough. Boy oh boy are they hard. Especially if you are the sort of person who zones out during classes and mistakenly uses an advanced spring setting instead of intermediate and then wonders why everyone else is happily pushing the carriage away and you are convinced your muscles are close to tearing. So I figured I would ease myself into intermediate classes. One a week is good out of my four classes a week, right? Wrong. Turns out my 6am Thursday classes are now also classed as intermediate and my muscles have written their own obituaries. So I’m now staring down the barrel of 2 intermediate classes a week. However, as they are not back to back classes (I’ve paired an intermediate to a beginner class, but am still pushing through beginner classes on intermediate springs.) emotionally I’m not dreading it as much.

Having hit the halfway mark of 10 out of the 20 classes, I must admit that I don’t see any major physical changes. The scales are still hovering around the horror mark (it’s actually the heaviest I have ever been) but my partner and trainers reassure me that it’s muscle development that is causing the numbers to fly up and that lean muscle will eventually help melt the fat away. Admittedly, I do feel stronger as I don’t tire as easily doing everyday tasks such as running up and down flights of stairs and I’ve noticed my posture is a lot better and being stuck at a desk doesn’t bother me so much, except for the ongoing neck issues I have had since I first started working desk jobs, but that’s easily managed through massage and home treatments. But the most important thing I have noticed from ongoing practice, is that I am feeling a lot better emotionally. I like the escape of being in a small space focusing on self betterment with other people. I love the positive feedback and encouragement that the teachers and fellow students give each other and the fact that it’s helped me look positively on a recent medical diagnosis that is quite disruptive to my everyday life and not only push through it, but to succeed in not letting it get me (too) down, given that there is no cure and quite a few points of danger to watch out for.

I thought Pilates would help me rehabilitate my shoulder whilst getting my body prepared to go back to physical activity such as gym or F45, and it has. But I’ve also discovered a better psychological state as part of the progress as well as some freedom from the thought processes that have shackled me down in past.

Will I still be so optimistic in the second half of the challenge? Hard to say – let’s see how I pull up after levelling up my workouts.

Stay safe everyone

Bx