Menopausal Symptom Relief & The Six Principles of Pilates: How Do They Relate? Part II
Welcome back! In last week's post I talked about how the first two Pilates principles, Control & Breath related to relieving menopausal symptoms. Today...on to part II with Pilates principles Concentration and Flow!!!! You're going to love this.
Principle 3 – Concentration
You know that symptom of menopause called ‘brain fog’? Before I entered menopause I heard a lot of menopausal women talk about this symptom and for the life of me I couldn’t see what they were talking about. Brain Fog? Who me? Not me! My brain is sharp as a tack! But guess what? You know it! I experienced my first episode of brain fog while in the middle of a conversation with my niece. Suddenly I felt like I just hazed over and couldn’t string a thought together if you paid me to do so. Welcome to ‘Brain Fog’ Deeva! I was no longer present in my moment with my niece. I had gone off to zombie land. I had to really work hard to concentrate on what she was saying to me and I remember shaking my head a few times in an effort to clear my head. It took a few moments but I was finally able to come back to our conversation.
Concentration is a Pilates principle that requires you to build your mind skills to enable you to be completely present during a Pilates session. If you let your mind drift you will lose focus and your alignment and balance will falter during your movement. You have to be completely and totally present in your body and mind. For a menopausal woman this could be a great benefit because if you feel yourself slipping into a fog you can bring yourself back to your moment by consciously tuning in to your body and your movement. (This worked for me on those moments when my posture slipped due to my trip to zombieland). But here's the best part. Because I increased my concentration during my pilates sessions, that concentration effort increased my awareness of my body even when I was not doing pilates. As a result, I experienced fewer episodes of brain fog!
Pilates forces you to focus in such a way that when there is anything out of alignment you will pick up on it and make adjustments as you need to.
Concentration allows you to adjust your breathing to counteract and stop a hot flash before it becomes full- fledged. (Remember, there are signs of an oncoming hot flash, they are not as immediate as we think. It could be a feeling of something crawling up your back, heat rising up your back to your neck, a chill or cold feeling, or even a heart palpitation.) Concentration allows you to be aware of stiffness in your body so you can adjust your movement to accommodate it and give that area extra attention.
Principle 4 – Flow
Because menopause can interrupt our body’s natural balance and flow, this principle in Pilates helps to get it back. Flow in Pilates is addressing the fluidity of constant motion. Nothing static, jerky or fragmented. It’s just one movement flowing into another. Each movement is smooth and graceful, almost like a dance quality. The focus is on flowing during the individual exercise and transitioning seamlessly and fluidly into the next so that the muscles are constantly working from one exercise to the next.
This is how menopause SHOULD be. Our bodies naturally flowing from one state to another. Sort of like going into our “Second Spring” of life. That’s what the Chinese believe a woman is going into when she enters menopause.
A natural flow into our Second Spring of life with a smooth transition.
When menopause takes us out of our natural flow, and we feel stiff, unbalanced or even stagnated in our natural movements, the natural flow of Pilates caters to those issues and actually gives us our graceful natural fluidity back. As the muscles get stronger and stamina increases we can go from one exercise to the next without interruption.
I find that the breathing, concentration, control and focus gives me a natural flow and grace during a pilates session and this is where my feeling of well being comes from. Next thing I know I'm smiling and feeling energized!
Best of all that graceful, flowing movement will carry over into your everyday life as you do what you do naturally on a daily basis such as walking, working, cooking, cleaning, talking, laughing, dancing, etc. That stiff, unbalanced jersky feeling that can sometimes come with menopause is literally elimated! I thought about this the last time I went to bend over to pick something up off of my couch and instead of feeling stiff and awkward, I found myself extending my arm, and reaching my leg out behind me to lean in to pick up the object! Okay! What stiffness????
Next week, Centering & Precision Principles!
Until then,
Stay Blessed and Stay WELL!
