| 5 Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List |
| Summer reading is the best. This month, I wanted to share my top 5 book recommendations for this year. These books are all related to movement in someway and either inspired, validated, created action or taught me something new. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! -Rubecca p.s. I read 1-2 books a week and am always sharing these reads on Instagram and am always on the lookout for new books! If you love #pilatesandbooks as much as I do, you’re in the right place! |
 Joseph Pilates was a wild character and it can often be difficult to separate fact from fiction. This is all the harder due to the fact that Joe himself often embellished stories as a way to market his method. Caged Lion is a great read for any Pilates enthusiast looking to learn more about Joseph Pilates and his life. Written by his personal lawyer and Pilates student, this book provides some valuable insight into Joe’s life, his marriage to Clara and how they ran their original NYC Contrology studio. I got to meet John Howard Steel at Momentumfest last summer and was able to enjoy an author talk and Q&A with him about this book. He’s a very sweet guy and even in his 70’s, he’s still a Pilates enthusiast. This book was super interesting and I loved getting John’s take on Joe’s life, especially after having read all of Joe’s books. |
 Let’s Get Physical was probably my favorite audio book of the year. Author Danielle Friedman digs into the history of women and exercise; from being prohibited completely from exercise because of “medical advice” that their uterus would fall out, to sneaking into marathons dressed as men, to the now multi-billion dollar fitness industry powered by women. This book does a great job digging into specific trends through each decade and talks about the big names behind those movements. Unlike other pop culture fitness books which paint fitness gurus and trends in a favorable light, Friedman holds no punches and lays out the dirty laundry for all to view. I honestly had no idea how much societal trends, culture and government policies influenced women’s fitness. This book is a must read for all women or folks who work with women in fitness. *It was super light on the Pilates info. Maybe 2 sentences. Total bummer there, but the rest of the info was fantastic. |
 “how to keep house while drowning” isn’t technically a fitness book. It’s more of a cleaning and organization book for folks with ADD/ADHD. However, this little book packs a wallop and really stood out with some sound advice. Plus, I really liked how the entire book was formatted and easy to read. (I did audio and print book for this one.) One of my favorites from this book was the concept of doing your future self a favor. I have sat with this phrase for a long time and find myself doing little things like going for that extra dog walk instead of having a hyper dog later, cleaning up the studio right now instead of tomorrow, finishing up a small task today instead of saving it for tomorrow. These small things in the now make life a little easier for future me. There’s a current Instagram trend that encourages women to ditch their goals of training for a “summer body” and working out instead for their “old lady body”. This idea of doing my future self a favor really plays well into this idea. Doing Pilates, Strength Training and Running are how I’m training for my old lady body and doing my future self a few favors. |
 Yoga for Bend People is a MUST READ for all of my hypermobile and EDS folks. While hypermobility is nothing new and it’s something fitness trainers have been working with for decades, diagnosis of Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome is fairly new and it’s an extremely difficult and obscure process. Libby Hinsley does a great job of taking this very complex and often misunderstood topic and really making it personable, easy to read and scientific. And she does it all without oversharing her own story, writing a dull/dry scientific paper or adding confusion to an already obscure topic. I really enjoyed this book and learned SO SO much. EDS and Hypermobility are definitely things for all movement instructors and bodyworkers to be familiar with, and this book provides an excellent intro into further research and study of the topic. |
 Last, but not least, we have The Way Out. If you are living with chronic pain, this book will blow your mind. When you’re in the studio with me and we’re working past injuries or old pain patterns, we talk a lot about Mental and Emotional safety. We spend so much time building confidence and awareness around specific movements and muscle patterns, in order to reach functional movement. It turns out, that what I have been teaching totally by instinct, is an actual scientific thing, called Corrective Experiences. Part of the Pain Reduction Therapy (PRT) protocol, Corrective Experiences are the things you do that affirm that you are safe in your body and that doing certain activities are safe. The Way Out details multiple scientific studies and the research done by Alan Gordon and his team around chronic pain. One of the controversial takes from this book, is that the majority of chronic pain is mental. Gordon presents his position that pain without structural cause is caused by our brains misfiring. This book was fascinating and gave me some new tools to use while working with clients, as well as validated some of the work that I’m already doing. If you have chronic pain or work with folks who do, this is an excellent read. |
| That’s all for this month! Have an awesome weekend and hope to see you in the studio soon! Let me know if you read of any these books and what you think! |