Weekly Wrap up. Week 32.2024. Dedication's what you need!

'If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest, dedication's what you need'.

I remember Roy Castle singing those words at the end of every episode of The Record Breakers. I loved that program. Some jaw dropping, some defying the realms of possibilities and some just plain bonkers.

This last week, Basketball fans have highlighted comments from Australian Jack McVeigh. Famous for posting motivational quotes, this time he was the focus of criticism after he appeared to take a public swipe via Twitter against his wife. While she posted that he was so talented, he strongly objected and said "It's not talent, it's dedication." While possibly not tactful, I do get his point.

As I (like many of you) continue to watch every second I can of the Olympics, we only see the final performance. We don't get to see the 7 days a week early alarms, the training no matter what the weather, the missing out on family and friends' celebrations, the blood, sweat and tears. We sort of know about that but we don't really think about the boring, every single day, repetitive training that leads to the world stage. The many sacrifices and relentless work. As Usain Bolt said, "I trained for 4 years to run 9 seconds".

The training is so time consuming and that is what causes most lesser mortals to give up. In my own humble experiences of running and walking marathons and a few other bits and bobs, it was the training that took up so much time. Factoring in the actual physical training but also recovery and rest and then being tired and not feeling up to going out to see friends. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to live like that, month after month. Be it sport, music, ballet.... the commitment to train and practise, no matter what.

I have read many, many sporting autobiographies and I am always fascinated by the behind the scenes stories. How they train, the fuelling and nutrition, the kit, managing injury and physical and emotional exhaustion and so on. So many are also holding down full time jobs or are students.

Helen Glover talked about how for her first Olympics training she would go to bed every afternoon for 2 hours sleep between training sessions but with small children that was just not an option for subsequent training. I have read Paula Radcliffe and Roger Federer also talk about the need for 10 hours sleep a night on top of afternoon naps- how do you do that if you are still holding down a job, doing a degree or so on?

These athletes are training 2 and maybe 3 times A DAY. Is it any wonder that so many fall by the wayside because they cannot sustain that pace and why we are now hearing more from world class athletes about the impact on their mental well being.

I read Matthew Pincent's autobiography years ago, about training for the Olympics while doing a degree. Getting up for rowing training often in the dark before going to lectures and then again rowing or in the gym in the evenings, missing weddings of best friends and family and nights in the pub with mates, in order to get that cherished Gold medal. He spoke about being pushed in training so that when they finished the time trial or whatever, falling off the indoor rowing machines and being physically sick. Frequently. Can you imagine pushing yourself to that state? I saw a post on social media about a prima ballerina who looked so absolutely perfect, immaculate and beautiful on stage. Then she shows you her bruised legs when she takes her tights off, her battered, taped and misshapen feet, the surgical tape across her shoulders under her leotard. That is the reality.

Andy Murray talked about the reality of being on the tour and away from home for over 40 weeks a year. Every year of his career. That is quite an extreme way of life.

I do find it fascinating however, to learn the different ways athletes, in particular, fine tune their performance. Michael Phelps trained 800m Butterfly once a week without goggles for the preparation of a goggles failure and in the 2008 Olympics, when his goggles did indeed fill with water, thanks to his training, he continued on his way to a new medal and a new world record despite no vision. Watchign the marathon open water swimming, the commentator was explaining how most of the competitors will train with blacked out goggles so that they learn to swim in dead straight lines for when vision is so limited.

During lockdown and with limited resources, Scott Lincoln, the nine times shot put British champion was seen pushing a truck up and down his street, over and over to keep up his strength and moving sideways into music, I read that in order to fully prepare her fitness for her global Era's tour, Taylor Swift sang through her entire set of songs while running on a treadmill daily.

Simone Biles trains for 32 hours a week with one day off. Dedication - that extra 1% that only a few possess. How many things in our life do we fob ourselves off by saying "Oh I could never do that" and yet, if we practised over and over daily... what on earth could we achieve! I'm not saying we give 32 hours a week or twice a day, but imagine if you committed to "that thing" and practised several times a week - but then you would need to really love "that thing" and really want the result too.

I copy a post here that I saw this week that I feel really sums it up- "Nothing derails people's fitness goals like their need for instant gratification. Our lifestyles and technology have us so conditioned that we want everything NOW - and our bodies do not work that way. Our phones do. Amazon Prime does. But our bodies? not so much. Our physiology does not care how quickly we want things. It works on it's own schedule but if we stay consistent (and patient) there is almost nothing our bodies cannot do" - Danny Matranga.

Mind you, it can also go very wrong. A hundred years ago, back in my very early days of show jumping, the international rider Caroline Bradley was local to our yard and was well known for her unbelievable drive. I saw myself as she regularly arrived at events in one lorry followed by a groom in a second. She competed all day on 10 horses or so and it was not unusual for her to drive back home, arriving late in the evening, to step out of one lorry, climb straight into another already prepped and ready and drive off across country for the next day's event. She tragically died of a heart attack at 37 years old while at the top of her game, paying the ultimate price. So determined to succeed and giving 100% every day and that is just not possible. A massive and tragic loss for someone so determined to be the best.

If you want to talk determination and what the body can acheive and never giving up and dedication then PLEASE do yourself a favour and watch NYAD (available on Netflix). One of the most inspiring true stories I have seen in a very long time not least because this isn't some twenty something athlete. Also note that to take part in this role, a 64 year old Annette Benning trained for a whole YEAR with an Olympic swimmer and her body certainly shows it. By the time of filming, she was conditioned sufficiently to swim up to 6 hours at a time! Again... if you want something enough.....

Slightly more light hearted but rather staggering - Did you read the post this week about GB athlete Jacob Fincham - Dukes who had to ask his boss for time off work - he says his boss asked why and he said "err - I need to take part in the long jump at the Olympics" and having made the final, says he needs to be back at work on Friday (today!)

HOW ON EARTH do you live like that? How do you come back down after that?!

I think us mere mortals tend to want the easy and quick option. Taking a pill rather than doing the rehab? I love the stories in the papers that scream out "I PROVED MY DOCTORS AND THE EXPERTS WRONG".... and while a recovery is of course absolutely wonderful, how many times can it be linked to a life overhaul such as changing diet, cutting out the toxic processed food and alcohol, losing weight, committing to the rehabilitation and so on. If we all actually DID what we were advised for improving that dodgy knee or malfunctioning shoulder, how much better would we be but often do we not do a few days, get bored and sort of rely on hoping things will get better. Over the years, I have often prescribed specific exercises and stretches to help with issues and I just love it when someone says "You know that exercise you advised I do? It actually worked!" - really? well, how about that!!

I always find it fascinating that as a generalisation, we prefer to pay someone else to knead and pull and push us better than to do our own rehab daily to prevent the need for that visit in the first place.

I shared on social media, a post from Novak Djokovic who in answer to a question about how athletes manage stress, talked about the importance of proper breath and being present. Simone Biles talks about her daily meditation and after well publicised mental health problems, Adam Peaty has become deeply religious. Dear Andrea Spendolini Sirieix became so emotional in her interview after her finals but she is just 19 years old. I could not believe that one of the "women" skateboarders is 11. ELEVEN! That just doesn't feel right to me.

Listen, if someone had stuck a microphone under my nose when I crawled over the finish line at last year's Moonwalk, I would have just sobbed probably. I most certainly would not have been able to give an interview! I was too busy looking for a cup of tea and some chocolate.

What about all the thousands of other athletes who are training and competing but just didn't make the team. You have to be so mentally strong to accept that and get up in the morning and keep pushing for the next challenge.

I wonder. I am not for a single moment taking away from these athletes incredible abilities but I do honestly think that it is the endless daily grind that sets them apart. Let's face it - I have been trying my best to keep us motivated and ticking over for a 6 week holiday season!! I have even offered exercise snacks of 10 mins and we all know that sense of "Ill start on Monday/after Christmas/next week/when the kids are back at school"... maybe that is why we are here and not in Paris!!

For me, that is what is so fascinating. The phycology and the mental stamina that sets them apart and enables them to just keep going.

Got to be honest though - just watching that race walking makes my hips hurt and I still don't get the BMX or the skateboarding! Bring in netball I say!

I find it so interesting, the different shapes and sizes of the athletes. Doesn't it go to show that with training, how we can change and fine tune our bodies? I mean, all the divers are a similar shape, the cyclists are so alike and so on. You can almost guess at some of the disciplines by the physiques of the participants. Give or take, it shows that if you train enough, you can really adapt your physical shape. (Not so sure about the teeeeeny, weeeeeeny little pants though... I think no matter what my shape was, I would be Bridget Jones pants all the way - got to say it's quite brave to run the 400m final in little more than dental floss)

I am a lifelong sports addict so this summer has been an absolute joy for me with the Euros, Wimbledon and now the Olympics but I always want to learn more. I have so enjoyed the commentary - how fabulous were the combo of Becky, Mark and Clare on the swimming? I really enjoy learning about the different sports and disciplines. I have also learned a few other things though, such as apparently a 51 year old man can be taken seriously while competing against children on a skateboard, and having a large penis can spoil your pole vault success. Who knew?

Of course it isn't just sport though. I remember the story about legendary violinist Isaac Stern. A keen fan accosted him after a concert and gushed "Oh my goodness, I would give my whole LIFE to be able to play like that".. "Madam" he spat out "That is exactly what I did"....

Going back to The Record Breakers though - My parents always used to throw a party around Christmas time and one year, my sister, my best friend and I stayed up all night making mince pies. For some reason I forget, my parents were friends with one of the McWhirter twins (the experts on every subject on The Record Breakers) and we were determined to make a record breaking amount of mince pies as he was coming. He was terribly kind but said that we had not achieved a record. To this day, I feel that was a little unfair as he didn't even count them. I do know it was many years before I could look at a mince pie again and I seem to remember bags of them in the freezer for ever.

Clearly we did not have the necessary dedication.

I did take part in a world record breaking synchronised swimming event 2 years ago in the sea baths in Penzance. It was a fund raiser for people of Ukraine. I can tell you 2 things about this. There is absolutley nothing fun about getting back into the water multiple times in a wet swimsuit for all the rehearsals and synchronised swimming is unbelivably hard! Never again will I undersestimate the strength of those immaculatley turned out swimmers. Did you SEE the USA team. doing the Moonwalk to Michael Jakson's Smooth Criminal?

Incidentally, my late bother Adrian Nicholas did however, make the Guinness book of World Records for sky diving but that is another story.

A little thought -

The information on the front of the food packaging is designed to sell the product.

The information on the back is designed to tell you the truth.

The unhealthiest people read the front of the packaging first.

The healthiest people read the back of the packet first.

And finally -

We don't stop moving because we grow old. We grow old because we stop moving.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes. That includes yourself.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 18. 2025.

By juliet • May 1, 2025

USE IT OR LOSE IT! I saw a post on instagram that I shared today. It is a video of a large family posing for a group photo, with many of them sat on the floor. Once the photo has been taken, they try to get up and that is where chaos happens (along with a lot of laughter) as they are clinging onto eachother, trying to get to their feet and getting into a total heap. Very funny... but also not... I was involved in a workshop today at Limewood and the phrase "Use it or Lose it" came up in the presentation. We all know the saying and can use it quite flippantly but how about acknowledging that if we no longer perform that particular activity, our body thinks it is no longer required and we find we CAN'T perform that movement. We need to condition our body and therefor when we first try a new exercise for example, we can feel quite unstable or uncoordinated and lacking in proprioception but as we repeat and practise, the move becomes more familiar and we grow in confidence and ability. Think of some of the sequences we do in Pilates or some of the more complex moves in our weights work - not for the faint of heart and performed only once we have built up the skills and have the coordination and understanding of what needs to go where. However as we stop doing those (or any other)moves they quickly become harder to reach. If you haven't seen it, do please watch "Secrets of The Blue Zones" on Netflix - about communities where people not only live beyond 100 but do so with good physical and mental health. It is a superb watch but the factors are the same in each community and one of them is of course, exercise, be it walking up a practically vertical hill to church or getting onto hands and knees to tend the garden daily. Whatever you do or don't do, please don't be the one rolling around because you cant get up from the floor!! Using it beyond all reason this weekend however are Lou and Clare - please join me in wishing them the very best of luck as they set off together at 6.45am on Saturday to run 100km around the Isle of Wight. If you recall, they did 50km last year and that achievement set them up for going the full distance this year. It also did something else as I went over to watch them and had a bad case of missing out, as I can no longer run and realised how much I missed the training and camaraderie of an endurance event and it was off the back of this experience that I came home and bought a new bike. So a year (and lots of cycling and joining a club) later, I am also off to the island on Sunday to cycle 100km on the IOW Randonnee. I respect that my challenge is nowhere near the scale of what Lou and Clare are undertaking but there are some big old hills over there... good job we have a Bank Holiday Monday to recover!!

Weekly Wrap up. Week 17. 2025.

By juliet • April 24, 2025

Blink and you miss it. There went Easter. I hope you all had a lovely time doing whatever you got up to and we now enter the summer term. I mean we don't really have terms but if we did, this is it... exams, summer uniform, netball and cricket and dusting off the bbq's. Personally, none of that really applies to me... well perhaps the summer uniform as I drag my shorts blinking and yawning from the back of the drawer. As for netball - I used to absolutely love it. I was always in the school team, playing Centre or Goal defence and did briefly join Lymington as an adult. When my girls were at prep. school, they reinstated a teachers v parents netball match and we won by a country mile -none of us really knew how but me being me, I went full out to start a mum's netball club one evening a week. Before we knew it, "friends" had mentioned us to the Bournemouth and Southampton leagues. This was very, very scary as we were just running up and down shouting "is that allowed? what are we supposed to do here? did that count?" so clearly in our infancy and anyway, we didn't have any matching kit but we did have a lot of fun - well, until someone went over on her ankle which promptly broke and that was the end of that. I have been spared life as a cricket mum or widow but sitting in a deckchair for hours in the sunshine pretending to watch sounds wonderful to me. As I watch my nephews revving up for the start of GCSE's, I thank my lucky stars those hideous days are behind me. I have a vivid memory of sitting at the kitchen table trying to revise while my mother sat outside in the garden listening to Wimbledon on the radio and the two are forever linked for me. Wimbledon with exams not my mother. Apparantly we have wonderful weather next week so dig out your sunscreen and if you can make it, I will be teaching on the beach for Monday and Tuesday's classes. We went through the 34 Moves recently and the upside down/inversion moves are usually the ones that need the most practise. You can really get a deep dive into these moves on the studio equipment if you ever go to a studio but we have several in our mat work - Roll over, Rolling moves, High bridge, Control balance, High Scissors and Bicycle. Remember that Joseph Pilates' philosophy was to perfect on the studio equipment and practise on the mat, hence we use all sorts of equipment and creativity to recreate as close to the studio work as we can for the vast majority of us who do not have access to a fully equipped studio. Why inversion? Gravity can lead to compression of the spine and their little shock absorbers known as discs that can become dehydrated. When we tip our body upside down, we can reverse the gravitational pull. This can help to create more space between the verterbrae and studies suggest that this allows for the discs' soft tissue to absorb moisture and rehydrate and plump up. Exercises like Roll over or the rolling moves can provide a massage for the spine and fascia as well as improving spinal mobility and of course, abdominal strength. (please note in photo above, my right arm is not perfect - my wrist should be flat and my arms could be stronger and better connected to the floor but it was the best pic I could find for now and I wasn't sharing that space with anyone else so it was a mediocre me or nothing!!!) Want more? Well, it is widely believed that being upside down can stimulate the lymphatic system and help with lymph drainage. Also the action of being upside down can increase blood flow to the stomach and therefor help with digestion and digestive issues. You don't need to be performing an advanced Control Balance move - some of the rolling moves and spinal extension we have been working on do the job in a modified way and anyhow, high blood pressure, glaucoma and spinal issues are some of the reasons why full, advanced inversion is not ideal - there are always ways to adapt, modify and practise safely. What we established in our 8am class yesterday was how many ways we can break down, build up and practise. For example, consider the Roll up, Roll down and Roll over as exactly the same exercise but variations come from the position you start from, how you work against gravity and whether it is your upper or lower body that moves. Thinking about Roll over, and going into the inverted positions (where your hands support you from under your hips), we worked on how to open up the chest, the need for strength through the traps, lats and triceps, length in the hamstrings, strength in the core and so much more. So for example, to improve High Scissors, you could consider side lying chest opener, Roll down with arms behind you, Saw and upper body only double leg kick - all moves to open up the chest and strengthen the upper body. In addition, hamstring and hip flexor stretches. Focus on pelvic floor and deep core connection so lots of abdominal and core strengthening- we could (and do) a whole class on moves to prepare us for one single and seemingly evasive exercise. What we do know is that to get better, we need to practise - a few daily exercises relevant to what you need to build on will make ALL the difference so.... with that in mind, I am going to start planning some workshop style classes again as we haven't done this for a while so your input would be welcomed. What moves really challenge you and what would you like to work on? I will get my creative hat on and build a class around the strength, stretch and mobility we need to focus on. What I continue to hear from you (and feel for myself) is the benefit of building strength from lifting weights and how that really helps with your Pilates progess. Isn't it great!!

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 9. 2025. It's nearly our 5th Birthday!

By juliet • February 27, 2025

I very nearly missed it. I was thinking about an April challenge or similar when I suddenly realised that WE ARE 5! In March, we will have been online for a whopping 5 years and as we grow ever stronger, this needs to be celebrated! Friday 17th March 2020. I was in a totally empty Beaulieu Village hall as everyone was staying home and with legs shaking and heart racing, I leant my phone up against a speaker on the stage and started my first ever Facebook LIve class. A lot has happened in 5 years and we are all far more tech savvy now but this was ground breaking for me at least and I was terrified. Seeing little hearts and smiley faces floating up the screen as more and more people logged on was the biggest support I could have imagined. That week before what we all knew was coming, I was facing the “what’s next” along with millions of others. For me, “what next” was a 3 day non stop run of no sleep (adrenaline has many uses) and a huge learning curve. Along with fellow fitness professionals, I was learning how to use Zoom, membership platforms, booking programs, how to manage my website, multi screening, recording and editing. There were a lot of tears and coffee and I did not see my bed for 3 nights straight. BUT…. (indulge me here please) scrolling back through my old blog posts (still there for you to see!) I saw my first post about Live, free Facebook Pilates on March 20th and my first calendar of classes the same week as we went into lockdown. I went live, online for free every day, one way or another for 6 weeks right at the start. It nearly killed me and how Joe Wicks kept going, I do not know but I am so proud of that and what we achieved together. I was reaching into countries all over the world as at that time, not as many people were offering this and as everyone was at home, time zones were not as relevant. Friends and family were sharing the links so that they could do classes together and see eachother from wherever they were. To be honest, it is all a bit of a blur (as I am sure it is for many, many people) as I just fought hard to save my business and my sanity. I do vividly remember one class where we had zooms from Australia, America, Qatar, Dubai and Mallorca. I wrote it down on my office whiteboard where it stayed for years. It was just surreal and I honestly could not believe this was me! I was doing all this on my laptop mirrored to my TV, in my lounge! You saved me! I was on my own and horribly lonely and isolated and slowly going a bit mad and “having” to log on daily and be positve and upbeat and full of energy to motivate and inspire you genuinely saved me. I have removed most of the old lockdown content and anything that still triggers me into a shivver of how awful it was, but one thing that I hold in my heart with enormous pride is my online community. I am more proud of this than I can begin to descibe. You are my family. I created this, built and nurtured it and continue to be indescribably proud of what we have all acheived together. Our Christmas lunches, when I sit back and see so many friends, the care and what we share - please know that it means the world to me. We have got up to SO MUCH online over 5 years. I am not going to go back over it because a) it is all there in old blogs and social media posts and b) full disclosure, I am only truly, this last year, coming out of what the lockdown era took out of me and I do not wish to revisit it but…. True friendships have grown and we all know we really are “SO MUCH MORE THAN PILATES”. Only last week when a group of us met for a walk, I took so much from hearing you talking about how much YOU get from it - not just the exercise but the daily morning chats and check in’s, the community and support - that you cannot believe how you used to do one class a week, whizz in, whizz out and that was that until the following week whereas now you are doing multiple classes a week and what’s apping fellow members, logging in to see friends and sharing so much. I have been able to teach from Cornwall, Botswana, Croatia ,Pembrokeshire, the local beach…. and as my feet get ever more itchy, the wonders of online means have van, have wifi - you can come with me! I have never wanted to go down the commerical studio route. That was never for me. Far too restrictive - and as online works, the world awaits! So here we are. This last week we have beamed into MELBOURNE (furthest reach so far!), Singapore, Tanzania, Germany, France, Spain, Greece and never forgetting the Isle of Wight… we have more members than ever, a wonderful variety of classes and the library has had another update with more to come. Teatime talks are shaping up (new page on the website under construction), we have 2 socials in the diary and it’s still only February. This year is my 20th anniversary as a Pilates teacher and 22 years since I started out as a Personal trainer. As the wonderful Master Teacher Michael King (who I am going to for a week of Pilates in Crete in May) says - “Old Pilates teachers never retire. We just roll down one day and never roll back up” For our fifth anniversary, it seems only right to go back to where it started so bear with me and watch this space as I plan a collection of extra FREE classes available to EVERYONE, some on Zoom, some on instagram live. This will be week commencing March 24 March and PLEASE put Saturday March 29th in your diary and come to Beaulieu village hall for old time’s sake for a FREE class open to ALL starting at 9am - and coffee and pastries up the road afterwards at Steffs. I will sort the times and days and post next week and in our members’ calendar but everyone is included. Do also keep March 11th in your diary for the first of our Teatime talks - again, open to all. The wonders of being online.