About
In my early 20’s I took my first Pilates class. I bought 16 sessions up front after hearing this was how Hollywood stars keep in shape. When I showed up for the first session, I was shocked to find that I was the youngest in the room. Most everyone else looked to be 60-year-old.
I remember the first class vividly. The instructor explained that she recently returned from Canada where she had been for the past few months getting her teaching certification in STOTT Pilates.
She began by having us lay on a mat. She starting talking about anatomy and muscles I’d never heard of like the transversus abdominis and pelvic floor…huh? Confused with the movements she described, I kept wondering if I’d be able to get my money back, but every now and again she would come by and gently touch my shoulder or my ribs and I would feel my body engage deeper or relax depending on her intention. I wondered how she could do that so instantly.
When the hour was up, I had moved slower than any workout I’d ever done and somehow I was sweating. Each session I began to feel more comfortable with the movements and a lot stronger. I was even making friends with my fellow classmates, we were in it together! By the end of 16-sessions I was hooked! I felt taller, stronger, leaner, and more flexible than ever, but more importantly I felt like I learned how to work my body smarter, not harder.
While my original intention for attending was to do the hot new Hollywood workout, I learned that others were seeking relief from back pain, balance issues or just a safer way to strength train. No matter our reason for going, everyone agreed we were leaving with our lives changed for the better.
Years later my mom was in her 50’s struggling with accumulating effects from years worth of cancer treatments. Multiple surgeries plus radiation and chemotherapy served to rid her of cancer, but left her struggling to balance, hard of hearing and no confidence for doing the fast-paced workouts she had always done. Not knowing a safe way to exercise, she became more sedentary and her quality of life began to suffer. I wanted to see if Pilates could help her.
We found an instructor near her and she began learning. I saw the confidence that it brought her and I felt compelled to take a deeper dive into learning the concepts. I followed my heart and signed up for STOTT Pilates Instructor Training.
Pilates could only do so much, eventually the ill-effects of cancer treatments began to snowball and my mom no longer had the ability to live alone and care for herself. At 59-years-old, she had to move into an assisted care facility. This was devastating to us all, but to her most of all. She eventually suffered a fall, which left her unable to communicate with us. She clung to life in hospice care for several weeks with my sister and I by her side until she took her last breath on July 31st 2013.
She gave me so much in this life, but perhaps the greatest gift were those contemplative weeks by her side in hospice care. It revealed to me that our time in this life is short and we should do something meaningful with it. I began to cut out the things in life that I was doing because I thought I was “supposed to” do them and I began focusing on the things I felt compelled to do because they brought me joy. The more I acted in line with my own desires, the more I felt that I was presenting my best self to the world.
I want this for you too! I can no longer help my mother, but I’m passionate about the skills and knowledge I gained while helping her.
Anything is possible if we can first ask for what we want, then visualize how we might get there, and then take the first step. My motto has become “align, lengthen, tone” to highlight these steps.
It might be difficult to know what we truly want versus what we think we should want. We must get quiet and search within to begin the process that will allow us to align our actions with our desire. So often we sell ourselves short regarding the possibilities that this life can offer us, so we need to dare to see beyond our self-inflicted limitations to lengthen our reach and believe anything is possible. Then we need to repeatedly do the actions that will tone our habits and keep us on course.
The name of my practice and way of life became, ALT Vitality and through this work my mom, Antonia Lee Thierolf, lives.