Ahhh... I ❤ Pilates

After an exhausting run yesterday morning (it was only 3.5 miles, but left me feeling dead ALL. DAY. LONG.), this morning I wanted to do something a little more low key, or less cardio if you will.  Several years ago I started attending Pilates classes at my local gym and I absolutely loved it.  You get such a great full body workout without all the huffing and puffing, and since it is all done on the ground, it can be rather relaxing at times.  Don't get me wrong - it is hard!  It does get your heart rate up and gets you breathing, but in a different way.  It is just a nice change of pace from a full on cardio workout.  And anyone can do it!  There are no weights involved and many Pilates workouts require no equipment (although some do require the big rubber balls and few a other things).  Whether you've done it before or not, people of all skill levels can benefit and feel some serious burn every time you do it.

What I love the most about Pilates (it's similar to Yoga in this way) is all the stretching and breathing involved.  What other workout makes you feel relaxed but working your tail off at the same time?  If you know of one, do tell!

This morning when I woke up, I decided to search YouTube.com for a Pilates video.  We recently canceled our cable and hooked up our computer to our TV so that we could stream shows and movies from online.  SO. AWESOME.  YouTube rocks.  There were SO MANY options for Pilates.  I chose the Pop Pilates Channel.  This cute girl named Cassey has an entire channel FULL of Pilates videos and some videos on nutrition as well.

You'll notice that Cassey's videos are somewhat short.  I didn't look through them all, but the longest I found was 25 minutes.  Here's what's awesome about that - you can choose your own videos to target the areas of your body that you want to work on to build your own workout!  Her videos range from full body to more concentrated areas, like all abs, butt, thighs, lower abdominal pooch, muffin top/love handles (yes please!).  I chose her Butt Blaster video today, which was 25 minutes.  Since her videos go straight into the workout and don't do pre or post workout stretching (not enough anyways), I added in her 10 minute stretching video before and after the Butt Blaster.  The pre-workout stretching is SO IMPORTANT to loosen up our bodies and allow us to get all we can from our muscles without pulling them.  And the post workout stretching, equally important, just feels so stinkin' good!  It felt like a reward to me today for completing Cassey's Butt Blaster video.

I'm supposed to run again tomorrow.  Hope I can.  My legs feel like jello right now.  But I LOVED Cassey's videos, and I can't wait to try more on Thursday.  I'm thinking I'll try the Muffin Top Exterminator.