Spring is here! The sun is out, the flowers are doing their best, the days are now longer and hopefully we are all feeling motivated and ready for doing a bit more!

How are you going to start your Spring?  How about some reconditioning?

I am no stranger to psychotherapy and I find this work absolutely fascinating . Of course it takes many forms and is a constantly growing and evolving science but I find it staggering how, in the right hands and with appropriate work (and it is hard work) we can learn to recondition our way of thinking, our emotional  responses and how we deal with triggers and challenges. We do not need to accept that "this is just how I am".... we can change how things affect us. There is a saying that I use a lot - "while we cannot control situations around us, we can control how they impact us".

I see this as so very closely related to our physical well being too. Those who are regulars in my classes know that I feel really strongly about how I want you to learn about your body. I am often asking you to "check in" or I ask you to work with your eyes closed to  feel the movement or if you feel resistance or pain, where is it coming from - can you see a wider picture and so on. I want you to better understand how you move, where your weaknesses are and what areas need attention or development. Just as with psychotherapy, this is no overnight fix and it takes a huge amount of work, attention and discipline but we can learn to recondition our bodies and Pilates is so very much about that.

When we practise Pilates, we do so for many reasons. I talk a lot about how you don't need to love Pilates but what you will gain will be a stronger, better balanced, more coordinated and responsive body to then enable you to enjoy better what you DO love, be it to run faster, cycle further, hit a ball harder and so on or just simply to go about your daily life with less aches and pains.

A body we love and a body we hate are made exactly the same way. A decision at a time.

When we do a standing move taking our arms to the ceiling for example, we consider how efficiently we are moving because if we cannot perform this move as it is, how can we safely lift heavy dumbbells to the ceiling without risking damage to our shoulders and spine?

If we cannot squat in a balanced and coordinated way then this can directly impact our running, cycling and so many other functions so this is the type of thing I talk about in our classes - it may seem slow and tedious sometimes but these are the foundations from where we build towards higher impact, power and range if those are our goals.

If you do not practise slow, controlled and coordinated movement, you may not even be aware of imbalance and weakness as other areas are making up the shortfall but as I am always nagging on, if something is compensating, it leads to imbalance which leads to injury.

While physios and osteos work their magic and put us back together, what we need to do is recondition our movement so that we move more effectively. It takes a huge amount of time, discipline and practise but it works.

12 months ago, I chose to make some changes to my exercise and lifestyle. I needed to lose weight, I wanted to get fitter and stronger as well as preserve a problem knee and hip and in order to do that, I was looking at a long term plan. I had to surrender to the reality that this was indeed a long term approach as to fully recondition my body, I had to make fundamental changes.

I hate being in the kitchen. I loathe it. I literally loathe it. This continues to be my weakness and a work  in progress.( I nearly typo'd wok in progress - how ironic).  If I can cut a corner or take a short cut around my nutrition, please DEAR GOD, I will.

I know that my discipline is far stronger in the gym -  or in my case, my spare room that is fully functioning with spin bike, weights rack and all my Pilates small equipment. I can drag myself in there on a weekday night or a Sunday morning and put myself through a full on session of weights or spinning that leaves me in bits but I will do anything to avoid "wasting" precious time standing in my kitchen preparing healthy food, so for me, this has been a massive challenge. I am still working on reconditioning my thinking in this area but physically, I am winning.

I am 57 next week and I am slimmer than I have been in a decade and stronger than I think I have ever been. I have just bought some heavier dumbbells (hilarious watching the delivery driver get THOSE out of the van) and am keeping up on my "board of accountability " by writing up every workout.

It is an ongoing project but my attitude is much more about (my own) training being part of my weekly life like the weekly shop, cleaning the house, keeping on top of the bookwork etc, rather than having to train for something specific.

How are you going to attack April? Can you make some lifestyle choices that you have been putting off? Can you squeeze in a couple of extra workouts just because? Reconditioning is slow and steady and takes time and discipline so baby steps but keep taking them.

Just keep turning up....get on that mat, lace up those trainers... it may not be your hardest session or your fastest time but turn up and do something to keep the show on the road and stay consistent - that is how we can recondition our approach. There is the discipline right there - ignore that naggy voice saying you are too tired or too busy... just get on your mat at the time you had set aside and do what you can do. It is a powerful message to your whole system. Keep the consistency - drop one session and before you know it, it's become a week which slides into a month.. and then you have to start all over again. How many starting from the beginnings do you want?

As for my food prep however... still an uphill challenge. I read the books, I listen to the podcasts and I buy the ingredients and I am getting better at batch prepping... so dull cooking for 1... I continue to work at this and have a lot more work on my reconditioning to change my thinking but I will not give up and isn't it a good job then that we have an excellent nutritionist for our upcoming talk!