One big lesson Iโve learned in my life is the whatever you turn your attention to, the more you focus on it the more you find depth, meaning and enjoyment.ย
In spite of being in the middle of a pandemic where the future can look very bleak to a lot of people and surrounded by people who can do nothing but moan, we can still find a lot of richness in the world around us. All we need to do is to stop focusing on the glass half empty and start concentrating on the glass half full.
I was born into a generation, the baby boomers, that had very little in the way of material things.ย ย I’ll always remember my little trips to the neighbours to watch their TV because we never had one.ย I also remember my parents telling me to turn off the lights to save money. But I never remember wanting for anything.
We are still living in a land of plenty.ย Plenty of choices, plenty of possessions and plenty of freedom. Sometimes I feel that my all too numerous possessions weigh me down and the fact that we still have so many choices I find it hard to choose or make decisions.
I’ve been particularly reminded of this in the past few weeks as I make plans for my classes in 2021.ย
My focus for 2021 is getting women over 60 to be stronger, mentally and physically.
My main focus over the past 10 years has been Pilates, however, I find the amount of strength possible to gain from Joseph Pilatesโ repertoire of exercises is limited. ย In today’s society we are a lot less active and have many machines around us to help us with most repetitious and heavy work.
Pilates is an โas well asโ activity.ย It focuses on core strength and back mobility.ย We still need to do strength training, cardio and stretching (and power, coordination and agility).
A sedentary lifestyle and insufficient use of our muscles is leading to mental and physical problems which weren’t around 100 years ago.ย We see many older adults getting old before their time, losing their mobility, their independence and therefore their quality of life.
Whilst reviewing the latest strength training exercise techniques and exercise equipment I was astounded by the amount of creativity and variety that has developed over the past 10 ten years.ย Trainers are always looking for new ways to strengthen muscles and manufacturers continually looking to innovate in this market with a mind-blowing variety of resistance.
I have been working in this business all my adult life and have been exposed to a lot of ideas on how to exercise the body and what to use.ย
Holy Moses this must be so confusing for consumers.
Over the Christmas period I’ll be taking a badly needed two weeks off teaching and I can’t wait to put together some new programmes to inspire, motivate and get results for my clients.ย I love working with small groups.ย I get to know my client better which means better results, happy clienets and an enormous amount of job satisfaction.
I love the new LIIT choreography.ย This stands for Low Intensity Interval Training, designed especially with older adults in mind and for those with knee , hip and back issues and Iโm also passionate about the new 1m Crossfit resistance bands that I use in my Anchor Point Pilates programme.ย As well as โฆโฆ the list goes on.
What are You Passionate About? Or What Spikes your Interest?ย
Baking?ย Look at the variety of cook books and ingredients available to us today.ย
Gardening?ย And what about all those amazing varieties of plants that never existed in my Motherโs day.
Then there are the amount of movies, documentaries, books available at the click of a button.
Want to be creative or productive?ย You all have a life story, experiences others can benefit from.ย Why not create an online group and help others?
Whatever type of Christmas is on the cards for us, I hope that you all can make the most of it.ย And if you cantโ be with your families in person, think just how lucky you are to be able to communicate with them over Zoom, Skype or Facetime.
Happy December
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