Hello, hello everybody. Welcome and welcome back to Pilates Students' Manual, helping you get the most out of your Pilates classes. I'm Olivia. Remember, you get the latest updates about everything I'm working on by joining the community at BuyMeACoffee.com/OliviaPodcasts and on Instagram at@PilatesStudentsManual.

The Book, is now available. You can purchase the EPUB or PDF from me at shop.oliviabioni.com, and you could convert either the PDF or the EPUB into a Kindle file if you go to amazon.com/sendtoKindle. It is more expensive on Amazon. Amazon takes a wild cut of any books. Happy International Pilates Day. This is the first Saturday in May, and this holiday was established by the Pilates Method Alliance, also called the PMA, to celebrate the legacy and work of Joseph Pilates. The PMA is a professional organization of Pilates teachers that sets national teaching standards for the Pilates profession, offers continuing education opportunities, and unites Pilates teachers of all training backgrounds. I was able to celebrate Pilates Day and take a virtual mat class from the board of directors at the PMA, and they taught from all over the world, which was so fun to see and just fun to experience different teaching styles and how they each explore the work in their own way. Your local Pilates studio may have hosted a similar event or a themed class to celebrate, which is so fun. I love Pilates and I love sharing my love of Pilates with everyone, so Pilates Day is always a really special day in May. Let's dive into today's episode, which is Pilates For All Seasons. I'm gonna look at that prompt in a couple different ways, namely seasons of the year, but also seasons of our life. So for seasons of the year, it's just starting to warm up in Chicago, or at least it's thinking about starting to warm up for spring in Chicago. But no matter what the weather is, it is always a perfect day for Pilates. I used to play soccer growing up in Las Vegas and there were definitely better and worse times of the year to be playing soccer because the heat was so unbearable in the summer, especially playing on AstroTurf, which they converted all of our fields to to save water, but oh my gosh, you would cook when you were out there. And whenever you do an outdoor activity, you're always at the whim of the weather and the season, so you might be able to only do some things in the fall or winter if you live in a place that's super hot or now that I'm in Chicago, you may not be able to do anything in the fall or winter because it's so cold and spring and summer really might be the only time you can do things. But Pilates happens indoors most of the time, so you know it's always a great time for Pilates. There used to be this housewares store called The Great Indoors and that is how I feel about my Pilates practice. Sometimes it's snowy and maybe a little bit more difficult to get to the studio or maybe there's a road closure in the summer months where there's an event or reroutes for a race or something that's happening in the city, or sports games a lot, too. But the studio itself is always ready for Pilates. The temperature is always perfect. It is warm when it needs to be warm. It's cooler when it needs to be cooler and it's just lovely. I love a thermoneutral environment. And if you do love the outdoors and you want to take your Pilates practice on the go outside, when the weather cooperates, you can do that. Grab your mat and get out there. Reformers do not travel as well as a mat, but a mat is really all you need. Spring can be rainy and chilly, at least in Chicago, but I know that my Pilates studio is lovely and dry waiting for me. Spring also has some kind of energy around it. Again, especially if you live in a place that has a brutal winter, as soon as the sun starts coming out a little more, the days get a little bit longer, there's a big burst of energy. You know, it's the spring cleaning energy. It's trying new things, starting new projects. And I feel that the new year energy is stronger in the spring than it is On January 1st, because January is a really rough month in Chicago. But March and April, that's really when I see people coming out when they don't have to wear 18 coats and boots, and then they're making their way into the studio. That's such a fun energy and such a fun thing to be a part of, both as a teacher, because I teach Pilates, but also taking classes. Because these are people who are putting themselves out there and trying this new thing, and It's so wonderful to be able to celebrate Pilates with them and really share Pilates with them and welcome them into the studio, show them where everything goes, and help them get situated. Summer is bright, sunny, and green. So green. I love the green of summer after a very long, dark, and barren landscape that is winter. I love that when I go to the studio, I don't have to put on extra sunscreen in order to go, and I don't need to battle the craziness of the tourists too much, depending on the studio location, that when there's stuff like Lollapalooza at least going on in Chicago, the Pilates studio is kind of the calm of the storm, that, maybe all the stuff is going on outside, but, you've always got your studio waiting for you. And summer is also a time that, you know, people are traveling and kids are out of school. There's just an energy around summer in the studio that's so fun. This can be a time where outdoor activities are competing a little bit with Pilates, so you might see some kind of fluctuations in attendance, which I think I notice more as a teacher than as a student. But your teachers are gonna be there. They're gonna be there to support you. And if you're doing, outdoor activities as well, I know a lot of people run, a lot of people bike, Pilates is such a great complement to all of those exercises. So while you're doing those things that might be outdoors and you only get to do at certain times of the year, Pilates is there to kind of fill in the gaps to help you cross-train and to help you be your best at all of the stuff that you're getting up to. Fall is also so beautiful in Chicago. We've got the leaves changing. The days are starting to get a little shorter. It's getting a little bit colder, but it's so lovely outside still. I love a brisk fall day, so I think that that's quite nice. And the Pilates studio starts to be like a little bit of a coziness, and even if it's getting dark early, you know that the lights are still on in the studio, the classes are still happening, that you can still get some Pilates in with your friends. Fall can also be, I guess, late summer, but fall is also when school is starting, so little kiddos are heading back to school. Parents have a little bit more time. They might be able to get into the studio a little bit more and really take advantage of that time that they have while their kids are at school. Winter can be rough. Winter in Chicago is not my favorite season because it is really dark and it is really cold. The sun's going down at like 3:30 or 4:00. But I've never regretted going outside in the winter to go take a Pilates class. The studio lights are a beacon in what can be a very dark street sometimes, and just like the warmth of the community and like hanging out with your teacher and doing something so good for yourself, it just makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside. And the exercise itself also makes you feel really warm and delightful. So the long and short of it is just that no matter what time of the year it is, you can always do Pilates. The glories of indoor things is you can always celebrate Pilates, regardless of the weather. Pilates is also great for all the seasons of your life, whether you're really young and able-bodied or looking for a serious physical challenge in your youth, or maybe you're later on in your years and you have a very different set of goals that you had from your 20-year-old self. But there is a style and a teacher of Pilates that can help support you meet whatever your goals are. I'm not so far on in my years, I don't think, but what I look for in my Pilates classes has definitely changed over the past decade of my Pilates practice. Different things are important to me. I feel like when I started, there was a really big element of proving myself and showing how strong I was so that everyone knew that I was strong, and now I feel like I have less to prove. I don't think about other people's opinions about if I take a modification or if I'm not pushing myself to my absolute maximum, because first and foremost, people are not thinking about what you personally are doing in class. They're thinking about what they're doing in class and, you know, their own self-conscious stuff. And I don't practice Pilates for other people. I practice it for myself and for my own personal growth and for all of the reasons that are important to me. So it's shifted to a lot more of a mental exercise where maybe I'm taking things a little bit slower and I'm working through things with a bit more intentionality. I don't have this kind of bang for my buck mentality like,"Oh, I gotta get as much in as I can." Instead, I want whatever I'm doing to really matter and really be meaningful. And I think we might see that just as we age in general, that when we're really young. I think if I was really young, Pilates probably wouldn't have appealed to me because the mind-body connection. I did ballet for a year and it was not my jam. I was like, "I wanna run around and kick things," hence playing soccer. So I don't know if Pilates would've really appealed to me when I was little, little. But I did recognize as soon as I had my first injury playing soccer, that there is great value in intentional movement and doing exercise that has not a goal like scoring a goal in soccer or stopping someone from scoring a goal, but kind of an exercise that's bigger than that. It's more about you improving for yourself, that it's not competitive. It's, it's much more of a personal journey. I really appreciate that about Pilates. And if you play team sports or if you're an athlete style person, like, of course, there's tons of value in that. But I found for myself that that's not the only thing that I wanted to do. I think as I get older and older, I know that Pilates will continue to support me throughout my life, that I've worked with clients of all ages, as young as 12, as old as 89, and that there is Pilates exercises, equipment, movements that can benefit you at whatever age and regardless of your goals. So whatever season of your life you're in, when you're growing and pushing boundaries and pushing yourself to your limits or if you're, I don't wanna say slowing down, but maybe it is slowing down. Maybe it is moving with a little bit more intentionality. Maybe it is focusing on more fundamental or foundational movements instead of the showiest, glitziest, fanciest variations. You know, that the function is the priority instead of the aesthetics. I think that that can happen. I think that Pilates is such an incredible form of exercise, and there really isn't something that I've found that checks all the boxes for such a variety of people across such a variety of life experience. I really think that this is something that Pilates does so, so well. So this is, again, an invitation to you, whatever season it is where you are, 'cause I know the Southern Hemisphere is flip-flopped with us, and whatever season you are in your life, that Pilates is there to support you, and I hope that you find the right studio, the right teacher for your needs. Huge thank you to all my supporters on Buy Me a Coffee, especially our newest member, Jessica. Thank you so much for coming to Chicago and hanging out at my classes. Like, how cool was that? I hope you have a great couple weeks and I will talk to you again soon.