![]() Old Man Starts Exercising, Writes Blog: Part 10 It's Just Gravity and Me In my youth (not the misspent one, the other, more youthful youth) I anticipated the start of soccer season year after year. The getting fit first, then testing oneself against another. Then performing as a team. By the time we were in week seven I had kicked enough grass around, I was ready for the season. I didn’t like the first 5 or 6 weeks out on the pitch, but once I got good, I played with enthusiasm and never made any excuse for loving the taste of victory. Likewise, the theatre is a place where one gets fit for a role, practice with others and when one gets good, they slay the audience. I thrill to taking a curtain call. It has been 20 years since I hung up my cleats, six years since I played my last game and four years since my last curtain call. After my seventh class with Diane (Compassionate Body Pilates) I felt I was starting to strengthen and balance, then I went and injured myself. Now its week nine and I am on the upswing. I got my posture back; and I got my gait back; and I got my height back too. Knowing the body’s position in space is an important skill for the theatre actor and since it is a non-contact sport, the soccer player as well. The Pilates sessions I am getting are fantastic in helping me control my movements. I am not surprised how much I am improving (I am), I am surprised about HOW MUCH I MISSED MOVING PROPERLY. I missed my posture, I missed having a gait, I missed standing tall. What I don’t miss now is my body slipping into a slippery slope of decay. I don’t miss the defeatist attitude I was carrying around and I don’t miss fearing the stairs. Now it’s just gravity and me. It’s a solo performance not a ensemble piece. There is no opponent but the craftiest one of them all, me. I have to remember that: “How much I missed having a gait.” By Dan Willis www.publicita.ca
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AuthorDiane Archer, Pilates Instructor from the UK now living back in Canada. Blog of tips, thoughts, home challenges. Archives
July 2019
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