The Pilates Workout Journal announcing itself an exercise diary
and conditioning guide, opens with a motivational introduction. This introduction
explains the history and basic principles of Pilates. Here in the introduction,
the journal’s author, Mari Winsor, describes how the journal can be used
and why it is particularly useful as a compliment to the Pilates exercise
method.

Pilates, Winsor, explains is a personal endeavor. Unlike in team sports
where encouragement and a sense progress can be attained through group
interaction, the Pilates practionner has to rely on his/her self. This
is where the journal comes in. The Pilates Workout Journal is organized
in terms of several categories –strength & flexibility, endurance,
coordination & balance, challenges– which are designed to help the
Pilates practioner gauge his/her progress. In addition the ‘mind &
spirit’ category, encourages the Pilates practioner to tap into the spiritual
possibilities –a sense of calm, groundedness, relaxation, etc– of Pilates.

New books often stand at the entrance to new projects. As a child and
in college, each new school year was announced with new workbooks and new
textbooks. New journals marked new stages in life, a new year or a new
mind-space. And new projects often required new books: ‘I will start my
novel in this new book’, or ‘I will record my child’s growth in this new
journal’ etc. The cracking of the new-book-spine can declare a new horizon
of possibilities. The Pilates Workout Journal is just this kind
of book. With its structured yet blank write-on-me spaces, it is a book
that motivates a new project and opens-up new possibilities.

© 2001 Kathryn Walker

 

Kathryn Walker is
a doctoral student in York University’s Social and Political Thought program.
Her work is focused on the relationship between moods, rationality and
politics. Kathryn is also part of the j_spot
editorial collective.

Related book: Portable
Pilates – Book and CD Set, by Alycea Ungaro

Categories: SelfHelp

Tags: Wellness and Health Psychology