PILATES WITH SUSAN, GREAT NEWS, and a slightly crazy project involving growing vegetables in the shower
I had an excellent surprise on Monday. Many years ago, I used to go to Pilates classes in the centre of Geneva, to a studio called SwissBody run by an ex-ballet dancer from South Africa called Susan Pepper (now Susan Arena). I started Pilates in my late thirties following a bad accident falling off a sledge at a very low speed (you wouldn’t believe the damage a wooden Davos sledge can do to a leg) that left me with a limp I just couldn’t get rid of, despite weeks and weeks of physiotherapy.
When I fell off the sledge I broke both the tibia and peroneus of my right leg, The break was nasty and twisted and required surgery. I had titanium rods inserted, and was on crutches for months. When I finally was allowed to walk again, my leg was nothing but a skinny little stick. Physio helped, but only to a certain extent. I was beginning to worry that I’d never again walk without a limp.
My youngest sister was once a ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet, where she’d been introduced to Pilates after developing stress fractures, and when she heard that someone had opened a Pilates studio in Geneva she encouraged me to go. I’d never heard of Pilates, and had no idea what to expect. But within two sessions, working on tiny precise foot movements over and over and over, my limp disappeared. Instantly convinced by the method, I continued to go for many years. In the years I went to Pilates, I was the strongest I’ve ever been and could do all sorts of cool exercises on all the funky studio equipment.
But eventually my passion for horses got in the way, and I stopped going to Pilates regularly as the studio was way across town, and then little by little, I stopped going altogether. But the body awareness that I gained during those years stayed with me. I’m not saying that I remained totally pilatified and aligned; when you don’t practise regularly under the supervision of an exceptional Pilates instructor, there’s just no way.
Over the years, I did bouts of Pilates with other good teachers. I dabbled in Yoga and Cross Fit and I enjoyed it all, but I never found the precise, controlled intensity of Susan’s classes that were like medicine for my body.
I really like online yoga classes, particularly Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. Problem is, I’ve always been pretty lax and over flexible, and yoga definitely doesn’t benefit my body the way Pilates did. I do it because I enjoy it, but I know it’s not ideal for me. It just feels really nice.
The few months I did Cross Fit were great fun. The coach was fantastic, and seeing as I’m a pretty extreme person, I got very fit very fast by going to sessions 4 or even 5 times a week. Until I couldn’t go anymore because one day I overdid it and hurt myself, which was my own damn fault because I should have known better. My body has sustained so many injuries over the years that repeated movements that are not executed with perfect control mess up my right ankle, my left shoulder, my left wrist, my left elbow, my adductors, my hips, my lower back (crapalucci, I’m falling apart!!). I loved Cross Fit, it was super fun, but unfortunately my body just couldn’t cope.
Long story short, for the past year or so, apart from relatively regular sessions of Yoga with Adriene, and a couple of crazy-weird other online fitness classes that my friend and I will suddenly catch onto, then get bored with, I’ve not done much other than ride. So last weekend, when my other younger sister, herself a SwissBody regular for decades, told me that Susan Arena was giving online classes both via Zoom and by livestream on Instagram, and that her classes were open to anyone, I got very excited. On Monday afternoon at 17.30 I went upstairs to my office, found the link and did the class.
Honestly, it was amazing. It was like rediscovering interconnecting parts of my body that hadn’t been interconnecting healthily for years. It was deep, it was precise, it was incredibly well planned-out and impeccably explained. If you just sit on a chair and watch the class, you might think it’s super easy. But if you join in and search for all that interconnecting precision and relentless alignment, your body won’t know what’s hit it. But in a good way! In a great way! I promise!
I did two further online sessions this week and already feel more toned. Those three sessions have given me more body awareness, which translates into everything else I do during the day. I’ve also kept it in mind when riding Dominic, or even when simply lunging DeeDee, and it truly makes a difference.
If you’d like to try one of Susan’s classes, she has posted her most recent one on YouTube, which I’m super excited about (I don’t know how to post a link on my blog yet! Here’s the YouTube address though: Swissbody Pilates. )I hope she will post more of them as time goes by. I even sent her a message the other day, telling her how much I’d liked the class, and that she should go global, become a superstar, the Pilates equivalent of Yoga with Adriene! It made her laugh but hey, it could happen.
So, here’s to Pilates with Susan. Fingers crossed!
By far the best news I’ve had this week is that three people I love very much have recovered from Covid19. All three had been seriously unwell with the virus, for quite some time, with symptoms ranging from high fever, an extremely sort throat, tight chest, extreme fatigue, and no sense of smell or taste. So stay safe and vigilant, everyone. I feel that we are entering a different phase after four weeks of confinement, or semi-confinement. We’re becoming accustomed to living in the pandemic, and while we’re still just as careful about social distancing and washing our hands, etc, we’re not as fearful as we were three weeks ago. There’s a sense of acceptance. The ache in my solar plexus isn’t as intense as it was last weekend. The knot in my stomach comes and goes, but it no longer sits there, weighing me down, day in, day out.
In other good news, the heron hasn’t eaten all the fish in our pond! There were a couple of where I was all bummed because I was sure he had, but it turns out they were hiding at the bottom for a few days because it got quite chilly, but now the sun’s come out again and they are back, innocently swimming around, unaware of the beaked predator that has eaten so many of them (I literally saw him gobble up a massive gold and white fish right in front of me). The heron has got really cheeky in the last week or so, and when we scare him off he just flies into the next garden, waits a couple of minutes and comes straight back again. He was here again this afternoon, but clearly had bigger fish to eat further afield as he didn’t stay long. I hope he stays away now. Besides, he’ll be obese if he doesn’t.
In between doing all the household chores, I’m getting more and more creative. I decided to make a body scrub from scratch the other day since I’d run out of my store bought scrub, and asked my Facebook friends whether they knew of a good recipe. The response was impressive – who knew so many of my friends are expert body-scrub makers? – and the result of my scrubby concoction is super nice and super efficient! I made a couple of extra jars and gave them to a few of my girlfriends. I also gave one to my son, but I’m not absolutely certain he’ll use it.
I’ve also started a new crochet project; I’m making a simple summer shawl as I haven’t crocheted in years and wanted something straightforward to keep my hands busy (and stop me from picking at my nails!) while I watch television in the evening (we’re watching the latest season of Ozark and it’s great).
Oh, and I made scones for the first time ever and they turned out pretty good. I also made banana bread, and a lemon cake. Everyone I speak to seems to be baking like mad.
Probably the craziest idea I had this week (and possibly, depending on the outcome, the worst ever) was to turn the shower cabinet at the top of the house into a greenhouse for starting off basil, courgettes and tomatoes! Nobody ever uses the upstairs shower, and we don’t have an outside greenhouse, and I can’t just go to a garden centre and buy plants, so I figured I’d try something different. I ordered seeds online, and then planted the seeds in old plastic trays from previous trips to the garden centre. There’s a window over the shower cabinet up here so there’s plenty of light. I don’t know whether it will work, but I thought it was worth a try. I just have to be extra careful that the drain doesn’t get clogged with soil. Can you imagine? That would suck!!!!
And just for the fun of it, and to take my mind off the possibility that I might accidentally clog the drain, here’s a pretty picture of DeeDee and me among the vineyards and daisies, taken yesterday by someone amazing:)
Stay safe, take care, and eat your vegetables.
Francesca