I have always imagined myself as a slightly larger person. This was my hangup. During studies, I was constantly looking for some form of exercise. Gym, skiing, fitness. With all these forms of movement, my body didn't feel well. I had the impression that it did whatever it wanted during the exercises and that I had no control over it. So I was constantly looking for the most appropriate form of exercise for me.
I returned to Opole and gave birth to children. I lost a lot of weight after my pregnancies and I really wanted to stay at this weight and with this body in which I finally felt well. And finally I found pilates. In the Salt Cave, guided by Kasia, and I fell in love!!!!
After the first class, I left 10 centimetres taller and 5 centimetres smaller in circumference...

I fell in love with Pilates from the first class also because it is very demanding work with the body. Not because pilates is super-exercional, although it can be that way, but it simply requires a lot of concentration. It requires the person who exercises to be in the here and now.
If you want to do something, you have to concentrate very much on it, you have to want to get to know your body, understand it, accept its limitations, accept the fact that you will not be able to do something at a given moment. As long as you want to do it properly. Sometimes you have to wait until your body shows you that it is ready for a given move.

Body control

While practising pilates, I finally felt that I had control over my body while exercising. It was an absolute discovery for me, a revelation. Moreover, throughout my life I have had problems with my ankles and ankles joints. When I walked, regardless of whether I was wearing flats or high heels, I often twisted my ankle. After 2 years of practising pilates, I realised that this had not happened to me for a long time. This was the moment for me when I realised that my body was starting to "pull itself together" and that we were starting to understand each other. I already knew what was happening to him, I knew what move to make, I knew how to do it safely. And this is a very cool awareness (feeling).

When you stop analysing movement

In my opinion, pilates is a functional training, i.e. one that prepares the body for everyday functioning. For example, during normal daily activities, I find myself reaching for something or squatting to pick something up, as if I were doing a pilates exercise. This is the idea of pilates. Pilates includes flexions, extensions, rotations, and positions that allow us to increase the range of motion in the joints - everything we need on a daily basis. All pilates exercises involve working on deep (postural) muscles, which help keep our skeleton in the correct position, maintain the correct curvature of the spine, and thus provide it with appropriate cushioning, e.g. while walking or running.

“After 10 sessions you will feel the difference, after 20 you will see the difference, and after 30 you will have a new body” Joseph Pilates

If you exercise consciously and with full attention to the exercise and the needs of your own body, this is 100% true.
We live on the run. When people come to training, they still run. Thoughts are somewhere else, not in the here and now, but in plans and tasks.
And pilates requires concentration. When you practise pilates, you quickly notice a difference in your body. Not by changing the size of your clothes or a sculpted figure, but you feel a difference in your body - your head and body begin to become one. You feel the power flowing from your body - you know what is happening to it at a given moment, how you need to move to make this movement most effective for you.

Pilates and body awareness

Pilates is body awareness. Concentration during exercise, control over the body, "centering" it, gathering it inwards. The feeling that you and your body are one. Breathing, precision and flow of movements are some of the most important principles of pilates. Pilates himself said that to perform these exercises you need concentration - to be able to observe your body, understand it, see how it moves, what it needs - you need to be in contact with it (it was not without reason that Pilates called his exercise system contrology). Only later, if you are focused, feel in control, can perform a given movement precisely, you can go further and continue it. You can start doing it e.g. faster, but only then, not earlier. To make sense, movement should be conscious.
I always tell people who come to my classes to slow down. It is better to perform fewer repetitions, and do them with precision and consciously, than to do a dozen or several dozen repetitions that do not engage the muscles appropriate for a given exercise, and therefore have no effect and, what's more, may have the opposite effect in the form of injuries.
This applies to all exercises, including those performed at the gym, fitness, swimming or running.

Losing weight or improving your silhouette?

It is possible to lose weight, but this does not always happen. This is a very individual matter. Losing weight is not the goal of pilates. The aim of Pilates is to strengthen by stretching, i.e. working on the strength and flexibility of muscles (especially deep muscles), as well as lengthening the spine and making space for movement in the joints. This makes the body look and actually feel slimmer and more flexible.

Where to look for classes for yourself?

I recommend paying attention to the fact that in a given place there are mainly pilates classes, possibly pilates and yoga. This gives us greater confidence that teachers are aware and focused on carefully guiding participants in getting to know their bodies, know the principles of the method, understand it, and know how to teach it.
In Opole, I invite you to the studio that I run with my husband, WAVE STUDIO PILATES. In Wrocław, it is worth visiting the SOFA studio, run by Marta Wawszczyk.

Kaja Marchel - cultural anthropologist. Certified Pilates teacher (Comprehensive Pilates Teacher), personal trainer (REPs), Animal Flow instructor. Participant of many courses, workshops and conferences, during which she expands and deepens her knowledge of Pilates and other forms of exercise. Together with her husband, she runs WAVE STUDIO PILATES in Opole.