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Four Ways Pilates Can Help You Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

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Can Pilates help you keep your New Year’s resolutions? When a new year comes, we all resolve to eat better, work out more, and lose weight in the new year. Studies show that while half of adults make new year’s resolutions, only about 10% of them actually keep them. The good news? People who make New Year’s resolutions are ten times more likely to achieve them than those who don’t.

We not only have a new year, we have a new decade. A clean slate to drop all those bad habits. But it’s so easy to go back to our old habits. How can we make this year, this decade, different?

If you’re reading this, then you probably have done Pilates, or are thinking about it. You’ve probably tried all sorts of diets and exercise.  You’ve probably even succeeded in getting thinner and stronger. But. Life gets in the way. How can this year be different?

  1. Be realistic: You can’t do everything at once. Going from couch potato to working out 6 days a week is just not going to happen. Start with one Pilates class a week. Do that for six weeks. Don’t be a “tourist” – get on a regular schedule and stick with it. You’ll start to see the benefits, then can add an additional class and really crank up the results.
  2. Accept that you’re not perfect: Really? Really. You’ve learned these bad habits over years and years, accept the fact that no matter how determined you are, you’ll mess up from time to time. That’s OK.
  3. No pain means no pain: Know your body. Is that your transverse abdominal that hasn’t been used in a while feeling some muscular pain? Or did you aggravate that old hip injury? Know the difference. There are a myriad of ways to modify in Pilates, and a good instructor can work with you to get better and stay on track with your workouts and help reduce injury.
  4. Be consistent: Showing up is half the battle. And exercise releases endorphins in the brain which bolster self-esteem, reduce stress and anxiety, and improve sleep. Who doesn’t want that?!

Whatever your goals, your current state of fitness, your financial status – the only thing worse than a quitter is someone who doesn’t even start. Make this your year, your decade, to use Pilates to help achieve your fitness goals.