Danae has me on the Cadillac—a bench with lots of springs and things on it—and is changing things up on me. Seems there’s a lot of that going on in Pilates.
The Cadillac is interesting for me for the possibilities and limitations it offers. One of the most frustrating, yet compelling, exercises is seemingly simple and begins with my lying on my back (core engaged, of course) with one leg straight in front of me, the other one straight up in the air. Fundamentally, I’m drawing circles in the air, first circling the leg out and around, then reversing directions so my leg passes above the opposite knee first and crosses the body. For the left side this is moderately easy—well, as easy as an exercise should be, I suppose. Then, we switch legs and it’s time for the right side to do the work.
I actually hear myself grunt. Out loud. And not quietly. My goal on this leg is not just to do the exercise, but to be aware of keeping my hip open, of rolling the muscles across my quad and thigh to the outside. It is nearly impossible. And so my leg trembles—no, it shakes—above me as I lie on my back and, yes, grunt, loudly.
Still, as difficult as this may be it tells me something and shows me just how my body has adjusted and compensated, how it has made up new rules for how to perform. Now, it seems, with a little help from Atlas it’s my turn to break those habits. The body was designed to perform efficiently and my body’s revised plan on how it should perform isn’t efficient. It isn’t helpful. Exercises such as this are incredibly difficult, but it seems like I can actually feel the scar tissue giving up a little deep in that hip, and the muscles engaging again.
