I attended my first Pilates class last Saturday, and was a bit confused and disappointed by it. To begin with, it wasn't even an open class (meaning a full fledged one). The one I went to was just a beginner class, where everything was reduced to a lower standard for easy understanding.

When I say understanding, I really mean it. I seriously think they should even organise a purely theory class for the beginners first, before they try to get themselves on the mat. There's so many principles and theories to learn and remember! I had actually already went for TWO fundamental Pilates lessons, in the hope that it would make things easier for me when I start on the beginner class. It helped a bit, but not as much as I though it would.

Pilates, if you don't already know, revolves a lot on the tummy area, which, is good cos the tummy is one of those problem spots which is extremely difficult to target, unless you are one of those who possessed those taut tummy genes (which I could die for). Everything you do in Pilates, the core movement has to originate from your tummy. Be it when you move your legs, your hips, your back, etc....it has to be your abs which is doing all the work. And add to that, you still need to remember to breathe the proper way, and most importantly, to maintain your neutral position during the entire class! Throughout the lesson, I was actually perspiring quite a lot from all the movements, but I'm not too sure if its due more to all the multi-tasking I was performing!

But at a certain point of time during the lesson, I was really clueless as to whether what I'm doing was correct or not! It was all so confusing and I must say, a bit intimidating! And certain movements, I really didn't get it at all! Couldn't feel the abs moving and it didn't help that the rest of the class seemed to be doing it right! Scary leh....At the end of the day, I was even contemplating, perhaps its not the exercise for me? I didn't need go through so much to get my aerobics movements, you know. And even better, the instructor was showing this extremely profound movement involving the pelvic muscles, and mentioned if we cannot even do this, then we should not do Pilates at all! Don't you think that's a bit of 'too high expectations'? Its only a beginner class! I don't even want to think of those open classes! Hence, I became slightly de-motivated after the lesson....dunno if I should continue doing it? But I know I shouldn't give up so easily lah.....got money involved one, I sure will persevere....=P (not to mention, I had already bought some very nice Pilates tops to go with the lessons liao...heh heh) I seriously hope I can get more movements right next time I attend.

And one more thing...I haven't quite figure out how one says Pilates in Mandarin? Yoga is 'Yu2 Jia1', so Pilates is????