| The Power of Practice, Patience & Consistency |
| This week, I had the immense pleasure to watch three separate clients perform incredibly advanced Pilates moves without even breaking a sweat. The first, lifted beautifully, seemingly effortlessly into a graceful and strong teaser. The lack of gripping and tension in the muscles and face was notable. The move was organic, natural and the culmination of years of work. The second folded back into a thigh stretch and noted how easy it was. The strength of the posture, the noticeably long neutral spine and ease of movement was apparent. The move again was organic, natural and the culmination of nearly a year of practice. The third, in a powerful exhale, performed the most beautiful pushup that I have ever seen. The move was so powerful, so strong and yet so effortless, it looked like they had levitated from the floor to the plank position. The strength, the organization of the spine, the control of the entire body, the focus…all were equally demonstrated in a way that was organic, natural and the culmination of months and months of work. The exercises performed by all three clients were new to them. And yet, they nailed it on their first try. How is it even possible to perform such advanced moves, so flawlessly, when we’ve never done it before? Practice. Consistency. Patience. Each of these clients has spent months and even years working with me. We have spent hours and hours working on foundational basics: stability, proprioception, balance, control, focus. We have spent hours working on strength, range of motion, coordination and mastering their biomechanics. We have taken countless “detours” in their Pilates practice to work on something that caught my eye in their patterns. Seeing them nail these poses yesterday was exciting! It was like watching hours of work align into one beautiful perfect moment. In November, I started taking private ballroom dance lessons. Every Thursday at noon, I am put through the paces of stability, proprioception, balance, control, focus, strength, range of motion, biomechanics and coordination, as it applies to dance. In the last twelve weeks, I have yet to make it through a full dance without the instructor stopping to correct something, introduce something, connect something. It’s quite similar to how I teach Pilates. Piece by piece. At times, it can be maddening. I want to GO! To dance, to just keep moving. But Todd, my hilarious and good natured instructor, pumps the brakes and we spend 45 minutes working on foot placement, or hand holds, or trying to get one hip to move in a way it most stubbornly does not want to go. Very frequently, we spend a lot of time unlearning a lifetime of bad habits. (more on that later) Being on this side of the instructor/client relationship is always a powerful experience and a great reminder of the client journey. On Friday night, we joined the group party at the dance studio. In this laid back setting, I found myself able to dance through an entire song, following cues without even thinking about it. I also was able to follow a new dance partner in a dance style that I have never heard of. Like magic, all of the pieces we’ve been working on for 12 weeks, just clicked. Practice, patience, consistency. It takes the human body 6-8 weeks to start adapting to something new. It takes 7 repetitions of something to turn it into a noticeable habit. It takes 6-12 weeks to recover from the physical act of childbirth, and sometimes years to recover from the body changes caused by pregnancy and the birthing process. It can take months, sometimes years, to heal the body after a traumatic injury/event. It takes months, sometimes years to lose the weight, to gain the muscle, to train and compete at the level we want to perform at. And yet, most of us quit after 2 weeks without results. We do one round of classes and give up because our life long patterns have not been resolved. We discount or discredit the instructor encouraging us to commit to the process and allow our minds and bodies time to grow, change and develop. As a general rule, society expects immediate gratification and scoffs at anything that requires commitment, consistency and delayed gratification. While technology and the rest of the world moves at light speed and two day turnarounds, the body is not wired that way. Humans, after all, are still just cave-men. Our systems are still bound by the laws of evolution. And evolution moves slowly. If you’ve quit your movement practice for lack of results or feel like your progress is too slow, I’d encourage you to keep going, but embrace the slow. Allow yourself time to unwind years of patterns and muscle habits. Embrace the foundational basics. Allow yourself time to build a strong foundation. Allow yourself time for practice, patience and consistency. Doing so may find you doing things you never thought possible…in a way that is natural, organic and injury-free. |