Easy Ways to Fit Daily Pilates Exercises
Ever feel like there’s just too much to fit into the day to even consider your Pilates practice? Well, I feel you. I hear you, and I’m super excited to talk about some easy tips for you to use to include Pilates into your normal daily life. Let’s dig into it.
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Hi, I’m Lesley Logan, co-founder of onlinepilatesclasses.com. I’ve been doing Pilates since 2005 and teaching Pilates in since 2008. And here is the deal, I’m one of those weirdos who fell in love with Pilates and changed the entire schedule of everyone at her job so she could go every single day. And of course, I was 22 and so it was really easy to do that. And then I became a Pilates instructor, and I was working a part time job, also teaching Pilates. And I started to realize that I was even struggling to fit Pilates into my own life, and I taught it. And so I had to figure out, how do I make sure that Pilates is a consistent practice? And something I want to tell you is that Pilates isn’t just about going to an hour long class several days a week. In fact, that’s not even accessible for so many people, right? And Pilates isn’t just about making sure you have an hour on your Mat at home, because that might even be too much. So I want to talk about easy ways to have Pilates be part of your daily life, whether it’s having a few minutes to do Pilates at your home or having the amount of time it would take to take a full class.
Why Integrate Pilates into Daily Life
So why should you be incorporating Pilates into your daily life? Well, something that is ingrained to me from my teacher, who studied with Joseph Pilates, he always said, “we don’t do Pilates. We do Pilates better”. We do Pilates so we can do life better, so that you can reach to the top shelf and grab something that you need to get on your tippy toes without straining something, right or reach in the back seat and touch your kiddo and make sure they’re comforted at a red light without straining something. That’s why you have to incorporate daily pilates exercises into your life. Also, mental health benefits are amazing. There’s so many studies that show that when we move our bodies we feel better, and because a Pilates is a mind body exercise, having those moments to connect with our mind and our body is so key to having days that don’t feel like they’re going crazy, that we’re like, have all these demands and we got nothing done, having these little mini moments of movement.
Pilates Fits Your Life and Schedule
And here’s the thing about everyday Pilates exercises: Pilates can meet you where you are, not just that it can. It does. It meets you wherever you are, no matter your level of practice, no matter what you have access to, including the amount of time that you have, you can do exercises that take one minute, and that’s your Pilates for the day. You can do 15 exercises in less than 10 minutes, and that’s what makes Pilates so much more accessible and more fun to getting into your daily life than going to the gym and doing sets and reps. Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t do those things. Absolutely you should. But Pilates can fit into a smaller amount of time, if that’s all that you have. And if you want to know more about why you should be doing Pilates, check out our video about why you should be doing Pilates. It’s got lots of amazing information on the benefits of Pilates and how to have more of it in your life.
Align Your Goals With Your Schedule
So how do you fit Pilates into your daily life? Well, first of all, it’s important to have an evaluation around your schedule and your goals. So we’ve all heard it, show me your priorities and then show me your schedule. I can tell your priorities are it’s really true, though. So when you take a look at your weekly schedule and you take a look at the goals you have for your life, it’s important that we see them integrate, and one of the best ways you can do this is to look at what you do in the morning. Would you look at what you do around lunchtime and what you do around the evening? We have certain things that we do as a habit, without even scheduling it, without even thinking about it in the morning, around lunch and around the evening. And then I want you to look and see like, where in those areas could you add moving your body. And I’m not saying for an hour that might be too much for us to ask of you right now. I’m saying for five minutes, where can you lay down and do some Pilates? Right? So I want you to look and see. Oh, actually, right after I get out of bed, I probably could lay down do five minutes of Pilates.
Great. We can try there, right? If we fail at that, we try multiple times it’s not working, then we can try it. Oh, actually, before I go to lunch, I don’t need a full hour. I could do it in my office, in the back of the office, right before I leave and have a shorter lunch break to eat. Great. We could try that out. And if that works, we nailed it, right?. And then over time, as you start to have more energy, more stamina, you might even find that you can have more time to do Pilates elsewhere, at a studio or at home. If lunchtime isn’t working, maybe it’s as soon as you get home from work before you start anything else. You have your Mat already laid out. You did it on your way to work that day, so you can show up, lay down, and do your Pilates practice. But do you see we’re always trying out and testing the waters to see what is possible, and we’re doing it with a short amount of time. That is very, very key. If you force yourself to try to find 30 minutes and you only have time to do 15, you’re going to feel like you failed. So you want to make sure the time is short.
Celebrate what you DID do
That’s going to be key for making this a habit. All right, it’s very, very important that if you think about doing Pilates, that you celebrate that you did that. But if you only have time to do one minute of Pilates, you celebrate you did that too. The next thing I want you to actually look at is, what can you get rid of in your life? What can you delegate out what doesn’t need to be on your schedule? And this is hard, especially for my type a perfectionist, my people who love to feel needed, but truly, there are things on your plate that you probably could automate through a subscription service, or you could ask someone else to do. If you’re married, can you tell your partner “Hey on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 30 minutes, I want to make sure I’m doing my Pilates practice. Can you make sure everyone leaves me alone?”
Ask for Help, Delegate With Purpose
Asking for help and delegating things out. Might be the next thing you have to do to get Pilates in your life. And then the other thing I want you to consider is that it does not have to be a full hour of Pilates to get the benefits of Pilates. So many places offer fitness classes that are 45 minutes and 55 minutes long, but that’s not always sustainable or just even at all attemptable to do when a busy life, right? We don’t have the time to drive somewhere, take the class, drive home, change our clothes, and so I want you to know that those are done, because that’s how it’s always been done. Fitness classes are always an hour. We pay people by the hour around here. So what I want you to know is that there are excellent benefits in doing Pilates for 20 minutes a day, 10 minutes a day. There’s so many you can do the Hundred, the Pilates Hundred can be done in one minute. So if you only have one minute to do Pilates, you can do the 100, and you have worked your whole body out. It’s kind of amazing.
Prioritize Sleep to Fit Pilates Daily
Also, if you’re wanting to fit Pilates into your daily life, I need you to look at some other things. Are you sleeping? Well, it’s really hard to get up in the morning if you’re staying up too late. And I know about sleep procrastination. My husband has it. He loves to stay up a little later than he said he would, just to be like, “I can do this!” And then he misses his yoga practice because of it. I don’t want that for you. So set alarms that tell you it’s time to go to bed so that you can get a good night’s sleep and make Pilates part of your regular practice. My thing here is that sleep is really a priority. It has to be a priority to moving your body, because if you don’t sleep well, lots of bad things happen. Okay? There’s lot of research on this. We gotta sleep. We gotta make our bodies sleep. And then I can’t say it enough. Please, please, please, make sure that you give yourself permission to do less, and that you celebrate what you did do, and you ask for help in doing that.
Easy Steps for Daily Integration
And finally, let’s get into those easy steps for integrating daily Pilates exercises into your routine. Put your Mat out the night before, pick your clothes out the night before, pull up the class you want to take online so it’s already open on your tab, and you see it all day, so you know you have to do it. You don’t have that decision fatigue looking for the video. And listen to your body. If your body is telling you could do more, maybe you go a little faster, maybe you work more muscles. If your body’s telling you need to go slower, maybe you actually stretch a little bit before, maybe you don’t finish the class that you chose. Listen to your body. It’s going to make it so much easier to show up for you each and every day, if you’re not punishing yourself to move.
Make Pilates a Daily Habit Easily
And also at OPC, we actually help with the accountability. We actually help make it so much easier do Pilates every single day, because we send you the notification that there’s a new class up every single Tuesday, and you have that class up for two weeks where you can take it over and over again to compare yourself to yourself, making it so much easier to get Pilates into your body and understand where you are in your practice and also at OPC, you will never hear us say, no pain, no gain. We’ll never hear us say, you must finish this class. In fact, you will hear us always remind you that finishing is optional, that doing what is possible in your body is brave and courageous. And check out Online Pilates Classes Youtube to get help and making Pilates part of your daily Pilates workout.
Progress, Not Perfection: Daily Pilates Support
Thank you so much for watching this video today. I truly hope this gave you some ideas on how to incorporate Pilates into your daily routine and make sure that Pilates is part of your daily life. And remember, it’s okay if you’re not perfect, it’s okay if you’re still learning, it’s okay to not do a full class ever. The most important thing is that you are giving your body time to move. You’re giving your time for your mind and body get connected, and that you’re getting some Pilates into your body. Some Pilates is always better than no Pilates. If you have any questions, go put them in the comments below. I go live every single Sunday at 9am pacific time answering your questions. If you’d like feedback on your form, OPC members get that, so go to OPC YouTube. Thank you so much and have an amazing day.